| Unit name | Race, Gender, and Intersectionality in Twenty-First Century France: Cultural Production, Politics, and Identity |
|---|---|
| Unit code | FREN20072 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. McQueen |
| 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?
This unit encourages you to critically engage with how debates around social justice, and particularly race, gender, and sexuality, are unfolding in contemporary France. Focusing on literary and filmic narratives, it considers how multiple forms of social exclusion overlap in France, and the difficulties the French republican model has in conceptualising an increasingly diverse society. Its focus on literature and film also enables it to explore the intersection between politics and cultural production. You will build teamwork skills through a group project culminating in an oral presentation. You will also choose between writing a final essay and an 'unessay': your own project in which you choose how to demonstrate your command of course material. The former will enable you to develop academic writing skills; the latter will help you cultivate independent research and project management skills that will be invaluable both in your final year of study and later employment.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
The unit engages with questions that are critically important in France and beyond. You will develop key skills as students of French and global citizens. The unit will also encourage you to consider how to articulate complex concepts orally, in writing, or potentially in other forms via the unessay. It will introduce you to cutting-edge research on social justice and intersectionality. Independently and in groups, you will cultivate research and presentation skills while gaining important insights into how writers and filmmakers respond to and shape pressing debates around social justice. By building your understanding of contemporary France, the unit will prepare you for your year abroad.
An overview of content
The French republican model of citizenship claims to be 'colour-blind', recognising only abstract citizens, divested of any traces of group belonging. In practice, social justice activists argue that, by refusing to name the forms of oppression from which they suffer, the Republic excludes those who do not resemble its original founders: white, heterosexual, cisgender men. This unit considers, through a literary and filmic methodology, how debates around multiple, overlapping forms of exclusion, and particularly race and gender, have played out in modern and contemporary France. It will enable you to consider how cultural production and politics interact; how to conceptualise the experiences of those who are excluded on multiple grounds; and how the legacies of colonialism are playing out not only in France's former colonies, but within the metropole. The unit therefore highlights key aspects both of French literature and film and of contemporary French politics and society, helping you develop the tools to form their own nuanced opinions.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit
While the debates considered on this unit are, in certain respects, particularly French, they are also critically important in a transnational context. The analytical and research skills developed during the unit will be of use to you for the remainder of your degree and beyond, including in the final-year optional dissertation. The unit will encourage you to think about concepts and competencies that are highly transferrable between academic contexts and everyday lived experience. Mastering these concepts will sharpen your ability to engage critically with related debates in academic and non-academic contexts, and in geographical areas beyond France. You will be able to showcase your independent research orally and in writing or, alternatively, via another medium of your choosing (in consultation with the unit director). You will enhance their teamwork skills through collaborative projects, enabling you to demonstrate the relevance of your skills to a range of audiences.
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
1) Demonstrate a nuanced understanding of how republican France has sought to manage various forms of diversity and of how activists have responded to the latter;
2) Describe and explain the complex ways in which cultural products interact with political debates;
3) Respond critically and analytically to the issues and debates in question;
4) Develop the ability to work collaboratively in groups ;
5) Deploy key terms such as race, gender, sexuality, postcolonialism, intersectionality in a critical manner.
You will learn through fortnightly lectures and weekly seminars, with the latter being based on your engagement with primary and secondary sources. Working on a group project will enable you to collaborate with your fellow students; this, and potentially the unessay or an essay question you develop with the help of your tutor, will help you to develop your own interests and lines of enquiry. Group discussion and team projects will also enable you to refine your understanding of the unit's key topics, building on any pre-existing knowledge of debates around social justice to make independent comparisons.
To support your learning, sessions in the classroom will provide you with knowledge and solid theoretical grounding in the topic. This will be complemented by set texts and secondary reading. The unit will be taught through lectures and seminars, including small-group and plenary discussions of set texts, and online research activities. Particularly during the first half of the unit, we will dedicate time to developing your collaborative group projects. You will also have opportunities to lead discussions, exploring your own research questions and ideas about the primary works and issues covered in preparation for your written assessment.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (formative):
We will work regularly on textual/filmic analysis and essay plans to prepare you for the summative tasks. Oral feedback will be given during seminar discussions and formal feedback will also be provided to each group ahead of the presentation. Additional one-to-one feedback will be provided to all students during consultation hours or by making an appointment with the unit tutor.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Group presentation of 10 to 15 minutes (25%) [ILOs 1-5]
Essay or ‘unessay’, 2,500 words (75%) [ILOs 1, 2, 3, 5]
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. FREN20072).
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.
