Unit information: Arts in Contemporary France in 2015/16

Unit name	Arts in Contemporary France
Unit code	FREN10028
Credit points	20
Level of study	C/4
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Professor. Shilton
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of French
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

Using slide presentations, tape presentations, film showings and dossier material, the unit will introduce students to recent and contemporary French artistic and cultural developments. Coverage will include the visual arts including architecture, major developments in museum and library provision, serious and popular music, film and aspects of popular culture. These surveys will both transmit information and give rise to discussion sessions on the politics of cultural provision, the images and traditions of the French cultural heritage, elitism and popular culture and other related topics. All presentations, discussions and assessment exercises will be in French.

Aims:

This unit is followed ONLY BY SINGLE HONOURS FRENCH STUDENTS, and will take place in the first Teaching block. Using slide presentations, film showings and dossier material, it will introduce students to recent and contemporary French artistic and cultural developments in a wide range of fields, including the visual arts and architecture, serious and popular music, film, bande dessinée. Specialist knowledge will not be required, but an intelligent and cultured interest in all aspects of French creativity will be taken for granted! Presentations will give students the essential facts and aim to generate discussion about cultural issues, which will be followed up in seminars which will be structured around exposés in French by students.

Intended Learning Outcomes

As a result of the course, students will have improved their ability to:

• analyse and make comparisons between a range of works of art with regard to their themes, visual language and style;
• understand the artistic movements and cultural contexts from which the prescribed works emerged;
• complete coherent, focused and structured assignments on topics related to the set works;
• communicate orally, by presenting a topic related to the prescribed works in a seminar context.

Teaching Information

The course will be taught through one lecture and one (student-led) seminar per week. The course will be taught in French. Student presentations will be delivered in French, while the examination will be written in English.

Assessment Information

oral presentation 25% and 2 hour exam 75%

Reading and References

Full reading lists, and instructions about the assessment and delivery of the unit, will be distributed at the first class.