| Unit name | France at War |
|---|---|
| Unit code | FREN20076 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Professor. Hurcombe |
| 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?
This unit encourages you to engage critically with key concepts and issues in the political, military, social and cultural history of the First and Second World Wars for global France. It considers the diversity and complexity of French experiences in the metropole, the colonies and beyond. It enables you to select, think about, and assess primary sources, in addition to reflecting on how to engage public audiences with complex historical moments. The unit helps to further refine your research skills and to develop confidence in formulating, articulating and communicating historical arguments both orally and in written form through individual and collaborative work. This is a unit that encourages you to use varied skills and approaches to study a fascinating and complicated period of French history.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
This unit engages with important debates in French history, culture and society, some of which you will have already encountered in your first year. Building on this knowledge and adding to your skills as students of French culture, it will encourage you to think about how to articulate complex concepts. At the same time, you should feel confident engaging in discussion with other scholars and learning to make productive, ethical use of critical literature. This prepares you well for final-year units that are grounded in historical contexts and blend sources of different natures including the press, essays by intellectuals, and governmental archives
Overview of content
This unit introduces you to the history of France during the two World Wars and examines the political, military, social and cultural context in which French citizens, and French colonial subjects, lived in the métropole, the Empire and beyond at this turbulent time. We will examine the historic tensions between France and Germany that contributed to the outbreak of the world wars. We may also examine the impact of total war and the policy of ‘jusqu’auboutisme’ (the pursuit of outright victory) for French society in 1914-1918. We study, for example, the implications of mass conscription for French men and colonial subjects at the front as well as the war’s effects on women and children on the home front. We will consider the consequences and divisions that followed the defeat of 1940. Here we examine the broad divisions between collaboration and resistance, but also the internal divisions within these movements and their ideological diversity. Throughout we will think about the memory of the world wars and examine how and why debates about the conflicts still matter today when we think about the French nation, including with its relations to the Empire.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit?
The debates considered on this unit are of wide relevance in European and worldwide culture. The analytical and research skills acquired during the unit will help you for the remainder of your degree and beyond, including in the final-year optional dissertation. The unit encourages you to think about transferable concepts and knowledge (between academic research and broader public audiences) which will enable you to engage critically with related debates in academic and non-academic contexts. The unit will help you gain employability and engage with curation practices, as well as thinking about different audiences – this might prove particularly relevant for careers in the arts, marketing, communication and journalism. You will be able to showcase your independent research orally and in writing, and also through collaborative projects, enhancing your team-working skills as well as your ability to demonstrate the relevance of your studies in professional contexts. These are among the core skills of the Bristol Skills Profile.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
The unit will be taught through a weekly plenary workshop and a weekly student-centred seminar. Workshops and seminars will be based on one or more primary sources linked to a mini-lecture delivered in the workshop by the tutor. They will offer the opportunities for students to engage in inquiry-based and reflective activities. Here you will be able to further develop ideas presented by the tutor in the mini-lecture through, for example, close reading of a document or analysis of images.
You will learn by engaging in workshops, seminar discussions, and reading of primary and secondary sources. Group discussion and team projects will allow you to further refine your understanding of the unit’s key topics. We will work regularly on primary source analysis and essay plans to prepare you for the summative tasks. Oral feedback will be given during seminar discussions. We will also dedicate in-class time to developing your collaborative group projects. There will also be dedicated time to work on key essay writing skills and we will work on formative essays in small groups during the seminars. Students are also welcome to discuss ideas for assessment during office hours.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
Group analysis of a single artefact of primary source (0%, not required for credit)
In preparation for the first summative assessment below, students will contribute to the analysis of a single artefact of primary source selected by the tutor as part of a group analysis. Students will have a choice of format: each group can select the most appropriate means of presenting their analysis of the object, image or text. This might be orally (e.g. via a recorded group presentation) or textually (e.g. as a blog piece), but in both cases they must justify their choice of medium and its relevance to the source material discussed.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Digital group exhibition, 1,500 words or 10 minutes (50%) [ILOs 1-4]
Essay, 2,000 words (50%) [ILOs 1-3, 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. FREN20076).
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.
