Course Catalogue

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The French novel has undergone a renaissance in recent years and appears to have regained the popularity and artistic importance it enjoyed in the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century. This course will study in detail a selection of novels written since 2000 by a representative range of the best contemporary writers.

One hour weekly across both semesters as scheduled on MyCampus

This is one of the honours options in SMLC and may not run every year. The options which are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into French, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes.

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The standard assessments for this course are:

■ Semester 1: 1500 word essay (35%) 

■ Semester 2: 2500 word essay (65%) 

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available:

■ There is no alternative to the Essay, but extensions to the deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustment (students should follow the usual process for extensions). 

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.

It is the default expectation that all courses will offer opportunities for reassessment or deferred assessment. Where it is not possible to offer this in some assessment components, the grade achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade, and any exceptions for this course are described below.

[No exceptions]

This course will provide the opportunity to:

■ increase students' understanding of the twenty-first century novel in French.

■ enhance students' knowledge of the historical context of recent developments in the novel in French.

■ enable students to interrelate and analyse critically different theoretical approaches to the study of the contemporary novel in French.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ demonstrate an ability to situate a prescribed text in the target language within a social and historical context and to undertake a critical assessment of its underlying themes

■ discuss the development of the novel in French, and place novels written since 2000 within that broader historical context

■ produce sustained arguments in both written and verbal form on a variety of textual sources relating to the contemporary French novel