Department of French
Paper Fr5
Revolutions in Writing, 1700-1900
This paper will be offered at Part IB from 2012/2013
This new paper combines a focus on particular key texts from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with a broad chronological scope and thematic focus. The concept of Revolution will be interpreted with reference to the socio-political transformations of 1789, 1848 and 1870-81 respectively, to innovations in the figure and role of the writer, to literature of revolt and reform, and to new stylistic and aesthetic models.
Teaching Methods
The paper will be taught by lecture and supervision, and will cover important canonical works from the two centuries, the Enlightenment, the Revolutions, and representations of the Commune of 1870-71. It will span major genres (such as the novel, theatre, thought, poetry).
Learning Outcomes
On completion of the course, students will have been able to develop their skills of critical reading and commentary, essay-writing; their understanding of some major texts of the period; and will have been given opportunities to consider these in a range of historical and critical contexts.
The paper enables students to focus on four topics in each century. By topics we mean either one core text; a collection of texts taught as a unit, e.g. Voltaire's Contes; or a focus on the cultural history of a particular event or period, e.g. the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune.
Prescribed texts and topics for 2013-14
Nineteenth Century
- George Sand, Indiana
- Gustave Flaubert, L'Education sentimentale
- Charles Baudelaire: Les Fleurs du mal; Le spleen de Paris
- Representations of 1870-81: a range of material including Zola, Part III of La Débâcle; Vallès, L'Insurgé
Eighteenth century reading list
Nineteenth century reading list
Eighteenth Century
- Prévost, Manon Lescaut
- Voltaire, Contes (Zadig, Candide, L'Ingénu, Micromégas)
- Diderot, Le supplément au voyage de Bougainville, Le neveu de Rameau
- Beaumarchais, Le Barbier de Séville, Le Mariage de Figaro, La Mère coupable
Examination
Please see the specimen exam paper for an example of the current format of the paper.
Section A of the exam paper will offer general questions which students will answer with reference to a range of material from within one century; section B questions deal with individual texts/topics; and section C with commentary passages. Students answering on the eighteenth century for section A would answer on the nineteenth for section B, and vice versa. In all, students will answer three questions, one from each section.
Portfolio and note on teaching arrangements
The paper will be examined by final examination only. The regulations for portfolio were felt to be too restrictive for this paper, given the sharing of supervisions across two centuries either side of the French Revolution (4 per century by Easter), and the pedagogical desirability of section A-style general questions (which could not reasonably be prepared before Easter by portfolio candidates). Students would normally have two supervisors for this paper, one for each century, following either supervision pattern A or B in the document linked below.
Structure of lecture/supervision programme
Note: this is for illustrative purposes only; the finalised lecture list will be on the website by the start of Michaelmas Term 2012.
Further information
Please contact Dr John Leigh jdl1001@cam.ac.uk or Dr Nick White njw16@cam.ac.uk to discuss the paper further.
