FR2HTF-How to Think in French

Module Provider: Languages and Cultures
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:5
Terms in which taught: Autumn / Spring term module
Pre-requisites: FR1L3 Advanced French Language I
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2021/2

Module Convenor: Dr John McKeane
Email: j.mckeane@reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

It is sometimes said that as well as being a place, France represents a set of values and philosophies. Just some of these are secularism, the Republic, human rights, equality, freedom of debate, clarity of thought, universalism – but also hierarchy, rigidity, bureaucracy. 

This module provides an overview of how these ideas have developed since the 18th century, and how they affect culture and society in France today. It introduces students to the symbiotic relationship between these ideas and the French language. This will be studied in a range of landmark writers both traditional and contemporary, but also in broadly-varying modes of cultural production.

Aims:

• To explore Frenchness as a value and a philosophy


• To develop students’ ability to closely analyse French texts and the French language


• To engage with broader ideas of inter-cultural translation


• To study how, in France and elsewhere, education systems shape rhetorical and philosophical practices

Assessable learning outcomes:

• To demonstrate a working grammatical knowledge of French


• To translate both within French and between French and English


• To undertake close textual analysis


• To produce extended discursive prose writing

Additional outcomes:

The ability to construct and defend critical arguments in a seminar setting

Outline content:

The module draws on a wide range of primary materials taken from the historical and contemporary French education system (exercises, guides, manuals, assessments) as well as secondary materials discussing both this and other education systems, and relevant issues of language, rhetoric, and philosophy.

Content studied on the course may contain some of the following:

• Plato, ‘L’allégorie de la caverne’ (375 BC)


• Alain Badiou, La vraie vie (2016)


• Raphael Enthoven and Coco, Le Banquet d’après l’œuvre de Platon (bande dessinée, 2019)


• Voltaire, Candide ou de l’optimisme (1759)

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:
There will be a strong focus on close textual work, developing students£ language skills. We will use the full range of exercises, including grammatical analysis, £translation£ between registers of French, translation into English, close reading and commentary, and discursive prose writing.

Summative assessment- Examinations:
N/A

Summative assessment- Coursework and in-class tests:

For the written assignment you have an essay in French (2,000 words) or a features analysis exercise (3 pages of questions). For the class test you will write a reflective essay.

One piece of coursework worth no more than 50% of the module mark can be replaced by a report produced after an academic placement. The placement must be agreed in advance by the module convenor; the length of the report is to be equivalent to standard departmental practice for coursework. 

Formative assessment methods:

The skills required for the summative assignment will be developed through a series of formative exercises.

Penalties for late submission:

Assessment requirements for a pass:

40% overall

Reassessment arrangements:
Re-examination in August in case of failure in this module and in Part 2 as a whole. Coursework must be resubmitted by 1PM on the third Friday of August or, if the University is closed on the third Friday of August, at 1PM on the next working day thereafter.

Additional Costs (specified where applicable):

1. Required text books: None


2. Specialist equipment or materials: None


3. Specialist clothing, footwear or headgear: None


4. Printing and binding: None


5. Computers and devices with a particular specification: None


6. Travel, accommodation and subsistence: None

Last updated: 21 July 2021