FREN2091: Revolutionary Works in French Politics

• French Language 1 (FREN1011) OR French Language 1 B (FREN1012) OR an equivalent qualification to the satisfaction of the Chairman/Chairwoman of the Board of Studies in MLAC or or his/her representative.

• Modern European Languages, Combined Honours and all Joint and 'with' programmes: French Language 2 (FREN2051) OR French Language 2B (FREN2111). Other: see Chairman/Chairwoman of the Board of Studies in MLAC or his/her representative.

• None

• The political history of France is famously unstable, punctuated by civil wars, revolutions and other moments of near-collapse. The history of these events has been dramatically shaped by a long tradition of political contestation that cuts to the heart of the ways in which French and Francophone thinkers have thought about the central questions of politics: How should we be governed? Why should we be governed? What do we mean by liberte, egalite, fraternite? Who is included in the body politic?
• The aim of this module is to engage with turning points in French political history through the writings on political thought that informed them as well as broader contributions to political thought emerging from the Francophone world. Students will study the foundational ideas of French and Francophone politics in context, and also consider the ways in which fundamental political ideas like anarchism, socialism and democracy, tolerance and freedom, transcend the circumstances that occasioned them.
• Analysing their enduring ability to transform our understanding of contemporary political debates will both broaden and deepen students grasp of what politics consists in.

• Although prescribed texts will very over time, and depending on teaching availability, the module will incorporate works relating to a range of events right across Frances political history, including, for instance, the 16th-century wars of religion, the revolutions of 1789 and 1848, the Algerian War (1954-62) and the uprisings of 1871 and May 68 and their aftermath. Recurrent themes will include the legitimacy of political authority, the status of individual rights, ideology and the exercise of power.
• The following gives an indicative range of possible texts for inclusion. Individual texts could be replaced from time to time by other works by the same authors, or by works from authors of a similar style or period as well as works addressing urgent and/or emerging issues.
• 1. A dossier of medieval materials, incorporating sections on ethics and political organization in medieval encyclopedias (e.g. Brunetto Latini), Christine de Pizan on the body politic, and crusading ideology and ideas about domestic governance in Joinville's Vie de Saint Louis.
• 2. Etienne de la Boetie (1574) Discours de la servitude volontaire.
• 3. J-J Rousseau (1755) Discours sur lorigine de linegalite or Voltaire (1763) Traite sur la tolerance.
• 4. Louise Michel (1887) L'Ere nouvelle, Karl Marx (1871) The Civil War in France, Peter Kropotkin (1892) La Conquete du pain.
• 5. Simone de Beauvoir (1949) Le Deuxieme Sexe
• 6. Frantz Fanon (1961) Les Damnes de la terre
• 7. Michel Foucault (1975) Punir et surveiller or (1976) LHistoire de la sexualite, 1: La Volonte de savoir.
• 8. A contemporary work such as Jacques Rancieres Aux bords de la politique (1990), Mehdi Belhaj Kacems La Psychose francaise (2005), Achille Mbembes work on necropolitics, or Bernard Stieglers Telecratie contre la dmocratie (2005).

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Student will develop:
• Knowledge of major events in the history of French politics;
• Specific and critical knowledge of key texts and ideas across the history of French politics;
• Understanding of how political events are informed by thought, and how thought is informed by its historical and material contexts;
• Understanding of how historical ideas continue to inform contemporary political debates;
• Knowledge of key concepts and methodological approaches (Marxism, feminism, discourse analysis) to political, literary and cultural studies.

Subject-specific Skills:

• By the end of this module, students should have improved:
• Critical analysis and close readings of political-philosophical texts;
• Ability to draw links between different periods in French history;
• Ability to situate textual studies in relation to broader political debates including contemporary issues.

Key Skills:

• By the end of this module, students should have improved:
• Critical and analytical thinking;
• Essay-writing and oral communication skills;
• Structuring of arguments;
• Independent learning and research;
• The ability to discuss topical or general issues with fluency;
• The ability to seek out and identify appropriate sources of evidence and information.

• Teaching will take the form of 20 weekly lectures across terms 1 and 2 plus a fortnightly seminar.
• Teaching will focus on a range of set texts grouped into blocks generally of four lectures with two accompanying seminars.
• Students will complete two summative essay assignments and, to assess students' ability to put studied texts into dialogue with one another, there will also be an end-of-year comparative exam, comprising 50% of the final mark
• Teaching will be in a combination of English with primary materials predominantly in French and secondary literature in French and English

Formative work will include peer/question-driven discussions during seminars. Oral feedback and comments from both peers and tutors are provided regularly in the course of the seminar discussion.

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