Unit information: Introduction to French Renaissance Culture in 2012/13

Unit name	Introduction to French Renaissance Culture
Unit code	FREN20014
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Tomlinson
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of French
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

The aim of this unit is to introduce students to the literary culture of sixteenth-century France through encounters with a range of texts and genres from across the period. We will begin with Rabelais's comic fiction, in which the mock epic adventures of the giant Gargantua are used to comment on controversial political, religious and cultural issues of the time. We will then study the short stories of Marguerite de Navarre, which imitate but depart from their Italian model (Boccaccio's Decameron) in exploring religious hypocrisy, sexual mores, and the status of women, as well as, by means of their narrative structure, raising issues of hermeneutics. We will next move from prose to poetry and will compare two authors of love cycles, considering the way that Ronsard and Labé each appropriate and adapt textual models and contemporary philosophies to their own ends. We will finish by studying the extraordinary Essais of Michel de Montaigne, a writer who works with the legacy of a Renaissance education to create a new mode of writing which he uses to reflect on the world and his place in it. Although the texts we will study are largely considered literary, the interdisciplinary nature of much writing in this period means that our close analyses of the prescribed works will necessarily be enriched by and take us into other domains (religion, philosophy, politics).

The unit aims:

• To introduce students to a significant body of knowledge of a complexity appropriate to second 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 C.
• Some options may prepare students for the experience of the Year Abroad.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Successful students will:

• be knowledgeable about a significant cultural, historical or linguistic subject related to the language they are studying;
• be skilled 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 a high level;
• be able to respond to questions or problems by presenting their independent judgements in an appropriate style and at an high level of complexity;
• be able to transfer these skills to other working environments, including study at a foreign university and on work placements during the year abroad.

Teaching Information

Normally one lecture hour and one seminar hour per week across one teaching block (22 contact hours), often with student presentations. In units with a smaller number of students the lecture hour may be replaced by a second seminar or a workshop. Units involving film may require students to view films outside the timetabled contact hours.

Assessment Information

One of the following:

a) A written assignment of 2000 words and a two hour exam (50% each)
b) A written assignment of 2000 words (25%) and a three hour exam (75%)
c) Two written assignments of 2000 words (50% each)
d) One written assignment of 4000 words
e) One oral presentation (25%) and one written assignment of 2500 words (75%)

Reading and References

• Rabelais - Gargantua (Garnier-Flammarion)
• Marguerite de Navarre - Heptaméron (Garnier-Flammarion)
• Ronsard, Amours (Garnier-Flammarion) and Louise Labé, Oeuvres poétiques (Gallimard)
• Michel de Montaigne - Essais, vol. 1 (Garnier-Flammarion)

A very useful introductory guide to the period is Neil Kenny, An Introduction to Sixteenth-Century French Literature and Thought: Other Times and Places (Duckworth, 2008). Further bibliographical material will be provided during the teaching of the unit.