| Unit name | Les Miserables: Readings and Receptions |
|---|---|
| Unit code | FREN30030 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Professor. Stephens |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of French |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences |
Students choosing this unit should: (a) develop a sound knowledge of a canonical French novel and its place within French cultural history, including its socio-historical relevance. (b) gain an understanding of the creative process that is initiated when literature is adapted into a different medium or appropriated for new writing. (c) learn how to analyse the language and form of both the French novel and a selection of its various adaptations (e.g. film). (d) examine the unit’s primary reading and viewing through the appropriate critical frameworks of intertextuality and transmediality.
By the end of the unit, students will be able to: (a) demonstrate their knowledge of Les Misérables and its adaptations in a variety of ways: orally, for seminar presentations and discussion; and in writing, both through extended research for the coursework essay, and under timed conditions for the examination. (b) understand how and why literature is adapted across different media, and express the relevance of Les Misérables as a test case for that transmedial relationship. (c) sophisticate their understanding of the French language in Les Misérables, in addition to different forms of media (literary, cinematic, televisual, etc), by engaging in both close reading and thematic analyses of the key texts. (d) make effective use of theoretical perspectives when analysing literary and visual material and addressing contemporary critical debates in adaptation theory.
The unit will be taught through a combination of tutor- and student-led seminars (1 x 2hr slot weekly across 11 weeks). Les Misérables will be studied alongside a minimum of four adaptations in any one academic session, taken from a broad range of works (e.g. the 1985 stage musical and its 2012 film by Tom Hooper; films by Claude Lelouch, 1995 and Bille August, 1998; a TV miniseries directed by Josée Dayan, 2000; François Cérésa’s literary sequel to the novel, 2001; a Japanese video game by Takase, 1998, etc). Key seminar reading material, including URL links to reading and viewing where possible, will be made available via Blackboard.
2-hour written exam (67%); 3000 word essay (33%); formative student presentation.
[The set adaptations may vary from year to year.]
Carroll, Rachel (ed.), Adaptation in Contemporary Culture: Textual Infidelities (London: Continuum,
2009)
Cartmell, Deborah, and Imelda Whelehan, Screen Adaptation: Impure Cinema (Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)
Grossman, Kathryn, Figuring Transcendence in ‘Les Misérables’: Hugo’s Romantic Sublime.
(Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1994)
Hugo, Victor, Les Misérables (either the 1998 Livre de Poche or 1999 Gallimard Folio editions; 3
vols, each)
Hutcheon, Linda, A Theory of Adaptation, 2nd edition (New York; London: Routledge, 2012) Sanders, Julie, Adaptation and Appropriation (New York; London: Routledge, 2006)
