Course Catalogue

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The course will examine representations of Haitian dictatorship across a range of texts and films. Issues of dictatorship and violence in Haiti will be examined through the prism of the zombie, a Haitian mythological figure.

20x1hr sessions over both semesters as scheduled in MyCampus.

This is one of the honours options in SMLC and may not run every year. The options that 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 who qualify under the University's 25% regulation.

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The standard assessments for this course are:

■ Essay (2000 words) - 50%

■ Essay (2000 words) - 50%

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 essays, but an extension to the deadline 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 aims to:

■ engage with Haitian dictatorship novels, and to put these in context from a research-led perspective;

■ analyse a range of textual and cultural materials across a range of periods and genres, allowing students to build up specialist knowledge; 

■ encourage students to reflect upon and analyse the texts in terms of their ideas, formal features and broader significance within the context of Haitian political history and literature;

■ encourage students to engage with particularly complex moral, social and political ideas and movements that may be unfamiliar/inimical to their own to enable them better to nuance, critique and assess multi-cultural perspectives represented in text and film with greater critical openness and tolerance to other views.

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

■ assess the relationship between the films/texts and their social, historical and political contexts;

■ identify and discuss the major questions and features regarding the prescribed material, including developments across a range of representations of Haitian dictatorship that raise complex and potentially problematic moral and political issues;

■ compare and contrast set material by the authors/filmmakers and contexts studied;

■ contribute to seminar discussion, analysing material with regard to its broad themes, significant detail, and socio-cultural, historical and ideological contexts;

■ complete coherent, structured and focused written work on topics related to the set texts;

■ make competent use of secondary material and successfully integrate such material into an original argument.