| Unit name | Surrealism: Pleasure and Provocation in 1920s Textual and Visual Culture |
|---|---|
| Unit code | FREN30040 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Professor. Harrow |
| 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?
How do the textual and visual cultures of Surrealism provoke us, stimulate us, challenge us, and bring us pleasure? What is the Surrealist worldview and why does it matter today? What lessons about power, language, sexuality, politics, freedom, and creativity do they offer? What is the importance of Surrealist textual and visual cultures for our understanding of what it is to be human? And how might novels and poetry, art works and cultural history, and theatre and film shed light on questions of desire, transgression, the everyday, solitude, urban mysteries, colonialism, pleasure, family, social difference, both in the historical context of Surrealism, and in our own pressured age? Working collaboratively and comparatively, we will explore diverse critical approaches to our materials, alert to issues of de-centring and decolonising, and practising an inclusive approach to our critical methods. The integrated group work that is the basis of both the weekly student-led workshop and of the assessed curation of a digital mini-exhibition will provide stimulating opportunities to explore works of your own choice with engaged interaction from class members and the Unit Director, and to collaborate on a project that you will design and develop in your group.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
This unit complements and extends your understanding of the culture of Surrealism and its transnational intersections (Britain, Belgium, Spain, Latin America) by studying textual and visual cultures of the earlier twentieth century and beyond. It builds on the concepts you will have developed in cultural and linguistic analysis and extends these across the study of novels, paintings, poetry, and cultural history. It develops your thinking beyond the French hexagone, exploring intercultural exchanges across borders. The unit will enhance your ability and confidence to work both independently and collaboratively (through the digital mini-exhibition that you will curate) while developing both your critical judgement as analysts of visual and textual culture and your time management as learners (through your research-led essay writing).
An overview of content
This unit explores works by some of Surrealism’s most compelling writers and artists, and theorists. We examine how literature and other texts (narrative, theatre, manifesto, and poetry) represented social, cultural, political, and aesthetic values in Surrealist latitudes. In particular, the works studied often represent the pressures and constraints of the modern age; they often put up forms of resistance to authority and orthodoxies that may have to do with social class, sexuality, race, religion, power, taste, and language. The unit focuses on the way in which Surrealism seem to stir our curiosity, solicit dazzling new forms of representation, and invite us on unprecedented journeys of the unbound imagination.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit?
You will have gained in-depth knowledge of key works of textual and visual culture and will be able to work fluently across the borders between literature, visual cultures, and cultural history, with a significant gain in intellectual and personal confidence. You will be able to engage individually and collaboratively through research undertaken for the weekly student-led workshop (formative) and through the group digital mini-exhibition (summative). You will gain in personal effectiveness through this collaborative work, developing skills of co-design, liaising, negotiating, and problem-solving.
Learning Outcomes
On the successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
Weekly seminars and student-led workshops are the basis of our formative work. Seminar discussion, usually based around a worksheet and a specific task, will identify key questions about the unit content and enable you to build, illustrate, share, and reflect on your own arguments. The student-led workshops will enable you to explore ideas and to connect concepts and visual/textual practice as you work collaboratively on the topic of your workshop. This will prepare you for the digital mini-exhibition curation group work (summative assessment, just after the mid-point of the unit). Input from the Unit Director will help you develop the relevant subject knowledge and refine your skills in critical analysis and evidence-gathering by testing diverse critical approaches to the Unit’s primary materials and developing ways of contextualising that understanding. This will help prepare you for the Timed Assessment (summative assessment, at the end of the unit), which will allow you to explore areas with greater intellectual independence, honing your critical skills.
Digital resources will help you prepare you for each week’s seminar and workshop. All primary sources and some of the secondary ones will be indicated, but you will be expected to navigate the unit’s Resource List 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.
Tasks which count towards your Unit mark (summative):
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. FREN30040).
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.
