| Unit name | Identity and Conflict: The Poetics and Politics of French Renaissance Writing |
|---|---|
| Unit code | FREN30012 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| 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 |
Our aim in this unit will be to consider how, in the period from 1548 to 1616, writing is used to explore questions of cultural and religious identity. The Renaissance is a time of contrasts, upheavals and extremes. Authors negotiate with voices from the past as they imitate or resist the legacy of classical antiquity. But they also use – and expand – the vernacular in a wealth of literary forms as they respond to contemporary inventions, discoveries, culture, and politics. This creativity is driven in part by the desire to define and assert a specifically French culture in the face of rival nations, New Worlds, and the domestic turmoil of the Wars of Religion. The writing that results is remarkable for its passionate commitment, its linguistic exuberance, and its generic innovation.
Our set texts will cover prose and poetry and will include a variety of genres.
We will begin by examining the darkly comic polemical prose of Rabelais, which uses fantastical fiction to explore controversial cultural and political issues. We will next consider Ronsard's polemical poetry, whose passion and engagement turns literature into a political weapon. Our third prescribed text will be the Calvinist Jean de Léry's account of the French expedition to Brazil and the attempt to set up a colony there: his writing will allow us to explore issues of religious, cultural, and national identity, as well as perceptions of otherness. We will then consider the attitude to selfhood and community in Montaigne's generically innovative Essais. Finally, we shall turn our attention to the Huguenot D'Aubigné's dramatic poetic account of the suffering of Protestants at the hands of Catholics during the ferociously violent Wars of Religion that tore France apart from the mid-sixteenth century onwards. Throughout, we will reflect on how writers use an array of genres, forms, and devices to explore and assert particular cultural and religious identities.
N.B. It is not a condition of acceptance for this unit to have successfully completed the second year unit on Renaissance culture (Introduction to French Renaissance Culture).
The unit aims:
Successful students will:
Two seminar hours per week across one teaching block (22 contact hours)
One of the following:
a) A written assignment of 3000 words and a two hour exam (50% each)
b) A written assignment of 3000 words (25%) and a three hour exam (75%)
c) One written assignment of 6000 words (or equivalent)
d) Two written assignments of 3000 words (50% each)
e) One oral presentation (25%) plus one written assignment of 1500 words (25%) plus one written assignment of 3000 words (50%)
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.
