| Unit name | Les Miserables: Readings and Receptions |
|---|---|
| Unit code | FREN30030 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Professor. Stephens |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | Department of French |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Why is this unit important?
Why do some stories repeatedly get adapted throughout history? What qualities lend those stories their universal appeal? And how does this practice of retelling stories complicate traditional notions of originality and ownership? This unit answers these questions by studying the fortunes of one of world literature’s most adapted titles, Victor Hugo’s epic Les Misérables. Hugo’s story is a major work of social commentary and artistic imagination. The unit explores its importance by considering both the novel itself and the rich legacy of adaptations that it has inspired across the world through its thrilling portrait of revolution and redemption. Using the field of adaptation studies to investigate the novel’s afterlives, you will also learn how Les Misérables helps us to understand adaptation not in the clichéd terms of an unoriginal copy, but as a diverse multimedia process that is at once cultural and sociological.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
This unit complements and extends your understanding of the culture of the French-speaking world and its international reach by examining how Les Misérables has become embedded in the global popular consciousness. It builds on the approaches and concepts you will have already developed for formal and contextual analysis, as well as for comparative study and intercultural understanding. It also diversifies your media literacy by enabling you to examine a wide range of media, from literature and film to often less-studied forms like radio, fan-created content, animation, and musical theatre. In so doing, the unit enhances your critical skills and self-confidence.
An overview of content
Les Misérables was an instant global bestseller when it was published in 1862. Victor Hugo’s novel captivated readers with its condemnation of inequality and its conviction that humanity could rise above its differences towards a fairer and more inclusive future. It has since been widely adapted across the world: from French silent film and Soviet cinema to Hollywood and Bollywood; from Depression-era American radio to twenty-first-century Mexican telenovelas and Japanese manga; and from BBC television to the hugely popular London stage musical that has been performed in over 50 countries. By studying the novel alongside its adaptations, and by encouraging you to make your own choices to look at from that ever-growing network of different retellings, this unit highlights how Hugo’s literary ‘original’ is itself intertextual in its own origins, and how its supposed ‘copies’ are innovative rather than simply imitative. The unit thereby draws out the similarities (and differences) between Hugo’s artistry and morality on the one hand, and the imagination and motivations of his novel’s adaptations on the other.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit?
Les 'Misérables invites its readers to accept a collective responsibility for social injustice and to deepen our compassion for others. Whether at the disenfranchised margins of society or at the digressive edges of the story itself, Hugo obliges us to decentre our perspectives and to open up a more inclusive moral outlook. His novel can therefore have a profound effect on how we look at ourselves and at one another, hence its enduring appeal to adapters and audiences. Taking this unit, you will not be expected to read the whole book. You will instead follow a selective and thematic approach that will strengthen your research abilities while allowing for effective comparisons with the adaptations and sharpening your media-specific interpretive skills.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
Teaching will be delivered through weekly seminars which will be structured by tutor-led presentations. This input, both in class and online, will help you to acquire the relevant subject knowledge and to develop your skills in critical analysis, evidence-gathering, and strategic reading. It will model how to interpret the materials you will be studying and how to contextualise that understanding through wider research, as well as through independent inquiry.
Student-centred discussion in the seminars will then address and expand upon key questions about the unit content that arise from this research. Formative activities (both in small-group work and through individual reflections) will enable you to build, illustrate, share, and evaluate your own arguments – and to manage your time effectively – as you prepare for your assessments. That preparation will be consolidated in the closing week’s session, in which you will workshop different approaches to incorporating feedback from the tutor and from your peers into your final summative assessment.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
When assessment does not go to plan
When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the form or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are normally confirmed by the School shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the academic year.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. FREN30030).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
