Department of French

Paper Fr1

Introduction to French literature, linguistics, film and thought

Reading list
Download the specimen exam paper

The course presupposes no prior knowledge or previous experience of literary texts, film or linguistics. Students who have not worked at school on French (or indeed English) literature, film or linguistics will not be at a disadvantage. The course is designed to give you a thorough introduction to these three areas, and additionally to French thought, in preparation for the papers that you will choose in your second and fourth years.

Aims

The aims of this course are to enable you to acquire and develop

a range of critical and analytical skills applicable to all four areas (literature, linguistics, film and thought)
an understanding of critical concepts and terminology in film and literary study
a basic understanding of some fundamental concepts involved in the study of linguistics
a basic awareness of the inter-relation between visual culture and literature
an historical awareness of different historical periods and the thought and writings by which periods are recognisable.

Syllabus

Works from six different periods are studied over the year. The works prescribed for 2013/2014 are:

Renaud de Beaujeu, Le Bel Inconnu (Paris: Champion, 2003).
Pierre Ronsard, Les Amours (1552-1584), ed. Marc Bensimon and James L. Martin (Paris: GF Flammarion, 1981)
Sonets pour Hélène, Books I and II (pp. 261-314)
Racine, Phèdre, ed. Christian Delmas and Georges Forestier, Collection Folio Théâtre no. 23 (Paris: Gallimard, 1995)
Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses (precise edition to be confirmed)
Emile Zola, Thérèse Raquin, ed. Henri Mitterand (Garnier Flammarion, 2008)
Agnès Varda (director), Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962)

The works will be studied in their own right, not as representatives of their period or genre. It is not the aim of this course to give you a detailed grasp of the broader intellectual, historical, social and literary contexts of these works, as would be the case in Parts IB and II period papers.

Additional readings in linguistics may be assigned during the year.

Before you come up

As preparation for the linguistics section of the paper you will find it helpful to have read an introductory work such as A. Battye, M.A. Hintze and P. Rowlett, The French Language Today (Routledge) or H. Walter, Le Français dans tous les sens (Laffont).

You will also find it helpful to have familiarized yourself with the International Phonetic Alphabet; see, for example, G. Price, An Introduction to French Pronunciation (Blackwell).

As for the six works listed above, it is expected that you will have familiarized yourself with them through a first reading/viewing. Your College Director of Studies will normally be in touch with you before your arrival in Cambridge to advise more specifically on preparation. Please also feel free to contact the Head of Department Dr Bill Burgwinkle (web25@cam.ac.uk) with questions.

Teaching

Teaching will take the form of:

lectures (in the Department)
seminars and/or supervisions (in colleges).

Written work will be set and handed back in the college-based seminars and/or supervisions. The Departmental list of suggested secondary, critical reading may be supplemented by further suggestions provided by college supervisors.

Lectures

There will be 24 lectures over the course of the first two terms, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3.00 - 4.00. The literature, film and thought lectures will be given by a wide range of lecturers, in order to introduce you to different personnel, different styles of lecturing and a variety of approaches to the works themselves. The Linguistics lectures will be given by a single specialist in the field, Dr Mari Jones.

The lectures should introduce you to some of the following concepts in literary and film theory:

Irony, metaphor, metonymy, imagery, symbolism, narration, diegesis, rhetoric, genre, versification, performance, identity, subjectivity, gender, realism, ethics, postcolonial theory, embedded narrative, mise-en-abyme, framed narratives, feminism, dramatic irony, monologue, soliloquy, mimetic desire, epistolary novel, naturalism, queer theory, psychoanalysis, film theory, deconstruction, visual culture.

The linguistics lectures will equally introduce the basic terminology for discussing language in a scientific way.

Supervisions

All supervisions will take place in your colleges and you will be hearing more about them in good time from your Director of Studies.

Examination

You will be assessed by a 3-hour written examination, which is divided into 5 sections.

Section A will offer you a choice of two passages taken from any of the prescribed works. You will be asked to write a commentary on how the passage works to make its point. You will be looking closely at the rhetoric used (vocabulary, register, repetitions, figures of speech), the type of passage (dialogue, exposition, description, monologue), the genre (tragedy, comedy, satire), the poetic elements (figures of speech, vocabulary, repetition and imagery) and finally the place of the passage in the work as a whole. This is the only element of the examination which is obligatory; everyone must answer on one or the other of the passages in this section.

Section B will offer three questions on the texts from the earlier periods in French literature and thought (Le Bel Inconnu, Amours, Phèdre.

Section C will offer three questions on the later periods of French literature (Les Liaisons dangereuses, Thérèse Raquin, Cléo de 5 à 7)

Section D will offer three questions on comparative topics which you are invited to answer using at least two of the six works you have studied.

Section E will offer two questions covering the linguistics lectures and supervisions.

You'll be asked to answer 3 questions in all, one from each of the three sections that you have chosen (A, plus two questions from B, C, D or E). You will not be allowed to answer more than one question from any section, nor to use substantially the same material in more than one answer Any of the works that you choose to discuss can only be used in one single question. In your exam, you will therefore be answering on EITHER:

two of the six works plus a linguistics question if, in addition to the compulsory commentary question from Section A, you choose a Section B or C question PLUS a Section E question.

three of the works if, in addition to the compulsory commentary question from Section A, you choose the linguistics question PLUS a Section D (comparative) question.

three of the works if, in addition to the compulsory commentary question from Section A, you choose one question from Section B and another from Section C

four of the works if, in addition to the compulsory commentary question from Section A, you choose a question from either Section B or Section C PLUS a Section D question.

Fr1 commentary guidelines are available on the web and will be discussed during supervisions.