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| Unit name |
Nature and Landscape in Eighteenth-Century France
|
| Unit code |
FREN30101 |
| Credit points |
20 |
| Level of study |
H/6
|
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
|
| Unit director |
Dr. Calder |
| Open unit status |
Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department |
Department of French |
| Faculty |
Faculty of Arts |
Description including Unit Aims
A final year unit designed to introduce students to eighteenth-century debates and ideas concerning the relationship between writing and the built environment, focusing in particular on the topos of nature; exploring the role of the individual in relation to the social sphere and the natural world.
The content will cover literature; social, cultural and political history; visual arts; landscape architecture. Students will study eighteenth-century ideas about the individual and nature in the context of Enlightenment debates over the interplay of reason and sensibility and explore the intertextual relations between written media and constructed spaces. The unit will facilitate students' engagement with texts and ideas, as a basis for their own analysis and development. Most of these sources will be in French and will enhance linguistic skills. Students will develop skills of independent research, building on the skills acquired in units at earlier levels.
Aims:
- To introduce students to a significant body of knowledge of a complexity appropriate to final year level. The content matter will normally include one or more of the following: literature; social, cultural or political history; linguistics; cultural studies; film, television or other media.
- To facilitate students engagement with a body of literature, including secondary literature, texts, including in non-print media, primary sources and ideas as a basis for their own analysis and development. Normally many or most of these sources will be in a language other than English and will enhance the development of their linguistic skills.
- To develop further skills of synthesis, analysis and independent research, building on the skills acquired in units at level I.
- To equip students with the skills to undertake postgraduate study in a relevant field.
Intended Learning Outcomes
Successful students will:
- be knowledgable about a significant cultural, historical or linguistic subject related to the language they are studying;
- will have advanced skills in the selection and synthesis of relevant material;
- be able to evaluate and analyse relevant material from a significant body of source materials, usually in a foreign language, at an advanced level;
- be able to respond to questions or problems by presenting their independent judgements in an appropriate style and at an advanced level of complexity;
- be able to transfer these skills to other working environments, including postgraduate study.
Teaching Information
Two seminar hours per week across one teaching block (22 contact hours).
Assessment Information
One of the following:
a) A written assignment of 3000 words and a two hour exam (50% each)
or
b) One written assignment of 6000 words
Reading and References
Required reading:
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, R�veries du promeneur solitaire, Flammarion
- Vivant Denon, Point de lendemain, Flammarion
- Ren� de Girardin, De la Composition des paysages, Champ Vallon
- Dossier of material, including visual material, to be supplied.
Further reading:
- Claude-Henri Watelet, Essay sur les jardins
- Vernon Hyde Minor, Baroque and Rococo: Art and Culture
- Kalnein and Levey, Art and Architecture of the Eighteenth Century in France
- Edmund Burke, Philosophical Enquiry
- Michel Racine, Cr�ateurs de jardins
