| Unit name | French Humour |
|---|---|
| Unit code | FREN30084 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Emeritus Professor. Parkin |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
Specific study undertaken in France during the third year. |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of French |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Aims and objectives: To introduce students to the study of French narrative humour in a variety of periods. Rabelais' s stories combine crude comic effects with important philosophical lessons. Scarron and Fureti�re mock the literary conventions of their day by creating their own anti-novels. Diderot and Voltaire draw on the philosophy of the Enlightenment to enhance their political and social satires. Vall�s's L'enfant reflects comically on the author's own education in 19th century France while Flauberts Bouvard et P�cuchet describes the (failed?) attempts at self-education undertaken in the same period by two retired copy clerks. Travelingue is an engaging satire of middle-class Parisian life between the wars, written in full knowledge of the d�b�cle to follow in 1940; Beckett's Watt, also written during World War II, is an example of Beckett's nihilistic anti-fiction. An extended joke on all humanity, including the protagonist and the reader, it can be read as a supreme expression of black humour.
