| Unit name | Burning Books: Radicalism Before the Revolution |
|---|---|
| Unit code | FREN20065 |
| 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 |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | Department of French |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Why is this unit important?
Our understanding of radical thought in France tends to be dominated by the drama and violence of the French Revolution of 1789. But there is a rich history of radicalism and utopian thinking to be explored well before these iconic events, a story of clashes between censorship and freedom of speech that sees daring writers – both male and female – clash with authorities as they put their pens above the parapet to claim rights and intellectual freedoms long before the mantra of égalité, liberté, and fraternité.
Writing encountered on this unit will take us to the heart of disputes over freedom of expression, gender exploitation, sexual orientation, political tyranny, inequality, and religious control. You will learn about the burning questions that drove thinkers and writers to risk their reputations, and their lives, by publishing boldly irreverent works and will then use the questions raised to reflect on the liberties and restrictions of our own times.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
The unit builds on approaches to cultural and literary analysis that you will have begun developing in your first year of study. It helps you develop critical understanding of how authors in societies that impose controls on cultural production have worked creatively to write against and beyond the limitations they faced. In so doing, the unit will enhance your ability and confidence to work both independently and collaboratively while developing your sense of empathy, your judgement as readers, and your voice as a writer. The unit encourages you to think across centuries and to compare and contrast attitudes in the past and in contemporary society, thus enhancing your transhistorical understanding.
An overview of content
You will study a selection of primary works – such as satirical fiction, short stories, and political treatises – that creatively defied censorship in the sixteenth century. Issues covered include obscenity and misogyny, political and sexual violence, revolution, and political utopianism.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit?
The debates considered on this unit resonate far beyond the early modern period and beyond France. By the end of the unit, you will have gained agility in working collaboratively on a creative project and have honed your skills in presenting independent research orally and in writing. You will have demonstrated empathy in imagining yourselves into a far-removed culture and practised intellectual flexibility and sensitivity in voicing positions that might not tally with your personal stance or experience.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit students will be able to:
1) demonstrate a nuanced understanding of how writers responded to the cultures of control, censure, and censorship in the early modern period in relation to France;
2) work in small groups to research, devise, and record a court trial that places one of the prescribed authors in the dock;
3) identify, examine, synthesize, and evaluate appropriate scholarship on early modern cultures of censure and censorship;
4) generate, construct, express with clarity, and justify through use of evidence from primary and secondary texts nuanced arguments in the form of an essay, as appropriate to level H;
5) compare and contrast early modern and modern cultures of censure and censorship, applying the implications of the knowledge acquired of unfamiliar cultures to known contexts.
The unit takes a student-centred approach to learning and maximizes interaction. Across the course of the unit there will be formative work including in-class peer review and self-evaluation activities, e.g., a 400-word reflective account of your role in and experience of the collaborative summative assessment, as well as a formative video presentation of ‘work in progress’ ahead of the submission of your essay.
Each week, you will have two hours of classes that will include, broadly, two types of learning: lecture or mini lecture and discussion.
Lectures: Lectures equip you with foundational subject knowledge. Far from being a passive mode of learning, lectures help you build critical analysis and evidence-gathering skills by modelling textual interpretation and posing key questions related to the discipline. We will often have a mini-lecture followed by plenary or small-group activities. Input from the Unit Director will help you acquire the relevant subject knowledge and develop your skills in critical analysis and evidence-gathering by modelling how to interpret the unit’s primary materials and how to contextualise that understanding.
Discussion: Discussions or seminars are a student-centred mode of learning. In pairs or small groups, you will discuss key questions about the texts, developing, sharing and defending your own arguments.
You will be given preparation for each week’s seminar. All primary sources and some of the secondary ones will be assigned, but you will be expected to navigate the unit’s set reading and the library database yourself to supplement these. Guidance from the Unit Director will support you to manage your time effectively and to engage with reading as an active process to expand your knowledge and understanding.
Beyond the classroom, you will devote much time to primary and secondary reading, essential in the humanities. You should anticipate reading in a number of different media: primary works, scholarly articles, and book chapters. Reading is sometimes misunderstood as a ‘passive’ activity, but engaged reading is an active process, as you will not only be expanding your subject knowledge, but also developing your empathy, imagination and critical judgment. The authors you will study themselves invite active interpretation of their polyphonic works and so embody the unit’s approach to reading.
In total, you will have 22 hours of class teaching and 178 hours of independent learning.
How you will be assessed
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
Individual 400-word reflective account (0%, not required for credit)
In pairs, a 7-minute ‘work-in-progress' video presentation of essay plans, followed by in-class Q and A (0%, not required for credit)
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Group presentation, 20 minutes (40%) [ILOs 1-3]. You will research, write, perform, and record (with audio or video) a 20-minute court trial of one of the works or authors studied.
Essay, 2000 words (60%) [ILOs 1, 3, 4, and 5]
When assessment does not go to plan
When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the form or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are normally confirmed by the School shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the academic year.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. FREN20065).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
