Download French Court versus Papal Court

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University of Dublin
Trinity College
Department of French
Senior Sophister — Guide to Courses 2012/13
Two-Subject Moderatorship
Please Retain for Reference
This booklet should be read in conjunction with relevant entries in the University
Calendar. In case of any conflict between the Handbook and the Calendar, the
provisions of the Calendar shall apply.
Lecturing staff
Individual telephones can be accessed from outside College by pre-fixing (01) 896;
email addresses are followed by <@tcd.ie>.
Dr Sarah Alyn-Stacey, room 4105, tel. 2686, email <salynsta>
Dr Edward Arnold, room 4106, tel. 1836, email <ejarnold>
Professor Johnnie Gratton, room 4090, tel. 2278, email <grattonj>
Dr James Hanrahan, room 4107, tel. 1841, email <hanrahaj>
Dr Rachel Hoare, room 4103, tel. 1842, email <rmhoare> (on sabbatical Hilary Term
2013)
Dr Claire Laudet, room 4108, tel. 2313, email <claudet>
Dr Hannes Opelz, room 4111, tel. 1077. Email <opelzh>
Dr Paule Salerno-O'Shea, room 4113, tel. 1472, email <psalerno>
Professor David Scott (Head of Department), room 3136, tel. 1374, email <dscott>
Departmental Offices
(Sinead Doran/Mary Kelly), Room 4109, tel. 1553, email, <french>
(Tracy Corbett) Room 4089, tel. 1333, email, <tcorbett>
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Please read carefully the regulations and course-descriptions which follow, and
complete this form in the following manner.
1. Name four Topics in order of preference.
2. Obtain the signature of a member of staff for your choice of special subject.
3. Return this page to the Departmental Office, Room 4111, by 12.00 hrs on Monday
20 February 2012
N.B. As far as possible the French Department will try and accommodate
students in the courses of their choice, however, the department is not in a
position to guarantee that all courses offered will take place. The number of
students opting for a particular course, timetable constraints and availability of
staff has to be taken into account.
Students intending to go 'off books' in 2012/13 should still complete the form, but
indicate their intention below. They should note that completion of this form does not in
itself constitute a request for permission, which should be sought from the Senior
Lecturer via their tutor at as early a stage as possible. Students who obtain permission,
and then change their mind, should notify the department immediately.
Name: (in block capitals):
Student Number:
_______
SS Topics: (state 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th choices in order of preference):
1.
2.
3.
4.
Special Subject Dissertation:
Subject area:
Signature of intended supervisor:
Year Off Books:
I intend/do not intend to spend next year off books. (Delete as applicable.)
I confirm that I have received a copy of the departmental statement concerning courses
and assessment for the Senior Sophister year 2012/13
Signature _____________________________ Date: _______________________
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Senior Sophister Requirements and Assessment Procedures
The requirements for Senior Sophister students in TSM French in 2012/13 are as follows:
1. Language: All students are required to attend language classes, and submit regular
written work.
2. Topics: Students select two Topics from the range offered. All choices are subject to
availability, to timetable constraints and to the approval of the Head of Department. An
assessment essay (2,500 words) is to be submitted in respect of each topic. One of the two
assessment essays is to be written in French. The first essay is to be submitted by 12.00
hrs on Monday 14 January 2013, the second by 12.00 hrs on Friday 22 March 2013 to the
Departmental Office, Room 4109. Titles for essays will be published in the SS Handbook
which will be available on the French Department website http://www.tcd.ie/French/ at the
beginning of the academic year. For details of courses, see list below.
3. Special Subject: Each student selects a special subject of his or her own choice, in
consultation with an appropriate member of staff (for details of staff interests, see below).
Please note that members of staff are instructed not to accept more than their quota of
supervisees, and the fact that a student wishes to be supervised by a member of staff does
not guarantee that the member of staff will be able or willing to act. It would obviously be
prudent to consult with the supervisor of your choice at an early stage. The candidate's
work on this special subject is to be embodied in a dissertation of 9,000 to 12,000 words, to
be written in English or French, or in an alternative piece of submitted work of a different
nature but of comparable substance, to be submitted in either case by 12.00 hrs on
Monday 4 March 2013 to Room 4109. A computer-generated word-count must be included
on the title page of your submitted dissertation. Please note that, if you exceed the set
word-limit, your dissertation will be returned with an instruction to reduce the length
appropriately. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure (s)he maintains adequate contact
with her/his supervisor, who will provide guidance on how to improve content.
The assessment for Moderatorship Part II for 2013 is as follows:
1. Language paper I (Translation into French and résumé)
2. Language paper II (Translation from French and essay)
3. Topic I (submitted work and examination)
4. Topic II (submitted work and examination)
5. Special subject (dissertation) or equivalent to be submitted in English or French
6. Viva voce examination
The oral examination takes place in the presence of an extern examiner. As part of this
examination, candidates will be required to deliver an oral exposé on one of two subjects
chosen by the candidate, and approved in advance. The examination is followed
immediately by discussion of the candidate’s dissertation, which may result in a
modification of the provisional mark given.
Candidates should note that, following comments from extern examiners concerning an
unduly narrow focus of study in some instances, all ‘Topic’ papers will carry the rubric that
candidates should avoid excessive overlap with dissertation subjects.
More detailed information relating to exam requirements and marking will be published in
the Senior Sophister Handbook which will be posted, in due course, on the Department
Website.
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Senior Sophister Courses 2012/13
NB Where a course is undersubscribed, the course may not be offered.
1.
Court and Conflict in 16th and 17th – Century France FR4024 (Dr Alyn Stacey)
______________________________________________________________________
Aims: The aim of this course is to provide students with an insight into the importance of
the Court in 16th and 17th-century France and the extent to which it was often at the
centre of social conflict. It aims also to look at some of the key socio-philosophical and
literary changes which made themselves felt at every level of society during the 16 th and
17th centuries. Through close textual analysis of some of the major writings of the
period, the course aims to examine the representation of the Court, the writings of major
Court writers and notions of ideal kingship. The course will also analyse modern
cinematic representations of the court.
Objectives: By the end of the course, students will be acquainted with the works of
some of the major writers of the 16th and 17th centuries. They will be familiar with a
considerable range of ideas and genres which reflect the preoccupations of the time.
They will be familiar with the aims of ‘heritage’ cinema. They will have developed their
abilities to closely analyse texts and film.
Course Structure: Teaching will be by lecture, student papers and discussion. Students
are also encouraged to attend the seminars organised by the Centre for Medieval and
Renaissance Studies based in Trinity (details from Sarah Alyn Stacey, Coordinator of the
Centre). The course is structured as follows:
Michaelmas Term
Introduction
Filming the Renaissance Court
La Reine Margot (Patrice Chéreau, 1994)
French Court versus Papal Court
Joachim Du Bellay, Les Regrets (Larousse)
Ideal Kingship
François Rabelais, Gargantua (Garnier Flammarion)
Cleopatra in the Renaissance
Etienne Jodelle, Cléopâtre captive (edition provided)
Hilary Term
Kings, Politics and Honour
Pierre Corneille, Cinna (Paris, Garnier Flammarion)
Passions and the Court
Racine, Phèdre (Paris, Bordas)
A libertin view of the world
Saint-Amant, Anthology (edition provided)
The Spiritual versus the Earthly Order
Blaise Pascal, Trois discours des grands (Departmental edition to be
provided)
Filming the 17th-Century Court
Tous les matins du monde (Alain Corneau, 1992)
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2. Counter-Revolution Extreme Right(s) and Fascism in French Culture and
Politics 1870-1945 FR4016 (Dr. Arnold)
____________________________________________________________________
The objectives of this course are to give students an insight into one of the main
varieties of European fascism and a grounding in the intellectual, political, social and
historical background of France during the Third Republic. This approach will focus
upon literary, political and cultural manifestations of French fascism and extreme rightwing thought which originated in the intellectual climate of the Belle Epoque and its
"fin-de-siècle” mood, were developed during the interwar years and were forcibly
expressed during the Occupation years. The interest of studying the precursors of
French fascism resides in the fact that many of the themes developed in France in the
Belle Epoque fed the ideology of Italian fascism and Nazism. This has led many
scholars to consider France as being the country which "invented" fascism.
To this effect, the first part of the course will evaluate the importance of the intellectual
and historical precursors of French counter-revolutionary thought and fascism. This
will include the study of the individuals (Drumont, Barrès, Maurras) and movements
(Action Française, Ligue de la Patrie Française, Ligue des Patriotes) involved in
events such as Boulangism and the Dreyfus Affair, and the concomitant antisemitism,
racialism and nationalism. The writings of Communist, Marxist and Marxist revisionist
theorists (Guesde, Jaurès, Blum) will also be briefly studied to give a contextual
perspective to these emerging anti-enlightenment themes.
The second part of the course will investigate the influence of the Great War on the
emergence of fascist doctrines, intellectuals and movements. A clear distinction can
be made between literary, intellectual fascism (Drieu la Rochelle, Brasillach, Céline,
Rebatet) and fascist or conservative-reactionary movements (le Faisceau, les Croix de
Feu, le PSF, les Jeunesses Patriotes, le Francisme, la Cagoule, le PPF). The period
of the Occupation and Vichy France -the third section of the course- is considered by
some scholars to be the culminating point of the fascist temptation in France. Others
see it as a return to conservative, reactionary values of pre-revolutionary France and
not necessarily as a pure expression of French fascism.
The final section of the course will analyse the ideology and political myths of the
Front National in France, and ask the question whether the movement of notably
Jean-Marie le Pen has reactivated some aspects of this ideological tradition in France.
This course will be based on the study of primary sources of a varying nature (novels,
autobiographies, political and economic programmes, visual and spoken propaganda,
newspaper articles).
3.
Writing the Other: Biography, Autobiography and Photography in
Contemporary French Writing. FR4011 (Prof. Gratton)
_____________________________________________________________________________
Aims: This course begins by examining examples of biographical writing (where the
‘other’ is the biographical subject) with a view to broadening the notion of the ‘other’ in a
more speculative manner to include lines of inquiry such as:
(a) the mixing of autobiographical and fictional elements into the biographical project;
(b) the photographic image as the ‘other’ of written text;
(c) the instance or experience of the self as ‘other’;
(d) the ‘otherness’ of memory itself.
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Students will be encouraged to develop their own interests and insights by comparing
and contrasting works by different authors among the prescribed texts. While several of
the prescribed texts are relatively short, students should note that they will also be
required to engage with a selection of the critical and theoretical works recommended in
the secondary reading list (to be distributed at the start of the course).
Objectives: Through exposure to a variety of texts that mix the biographical, the
autobiographical and the photographic, students will become familiar with the key issue
of generic hybridity in contemporary French writing and will become acquainted with a
number of important theoretical preoccupations in contemporary critical thought, such
as the theory of the subject, self/other relations, and issues in textual/visual studies.
Students will have developed their close reading skills, their ability to compare and
contrast works by different authors, and their capacity to exercise initiative in the way
they go about defining and pursuing their own areas of interest within the course
Structure: Weekly two-hour seminars throughout the academic year.
Prescribed Texts (in taught order)
Semester 1
Ernaux, Annie, La Place (1983, Folio p/b edition),
Ernaux, Annie, Une Femme (1987, Folio p/b edition)
Modiano, Patrick, Dora Bruder (1997, Folio p/b edition)
Carrère, Emmanuel, L’Adversaire (2000, Folio p/b edition)
Semester 2
Barthes, Roland, La Chambre claire (Seuil/Gallimard, 1980)
Duperey, Annie, Le Voile noir (1992, Seuil ‘Points’ p/b edition)
Depardon, Raymond, Errance (2000, Seuil ‘Points’ p/b edition)
Calle, Sophie, Des Histoires vraies (Actes Sud, 2006)
Calle, Sophie, L’EROUV de Jérusalem (Actes Sud, 1996)
Ernaux, Annie, Marie, Marc, L’Usage de la photo (2005, Folio p/b edition)
(NB Dates above refer to year of original publication not that of subsequent paperback
(p/b) reprints)
Seminar Programme
Semester 1 (week 7 = Study Week)
1-1
Contact Session/Introduction
2-2
Ernaux, La Place
3-3
Ernaux, Une Femme
4-6
Modiano, Dora Bruder
8-10 Carrère, L’Adversaire
11-12 Barthes, La Chambre Claire
Semester 2 (Week 7 = Study Week)
1-3
Duperey, Le Voile noir
4-5
Depardon, Errance
6-8
Calle, Des histories vraies
9-9
Calle, L’Erouv
10-12 Ernaux / Marie, L’Usage de la photo
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4. Visions and Revisions of Enlightenment FR4029 (Dr. Hanrahan)
___________________________________________________________________
Lumières, Illuminismo, Aufklärung, Enlightenment: the ‘Age of Reason’ saw a Europewide movement of intense intellectual activity during the eighteenth century that led to
dramatic social change across the continent. In France, it created the possibility for
revolutionary upheaval and it has left us an intellectual heritage in the form of
categories of understanding that still dominate Western thought: science, progress,
equality, justice, toleration and individualism have lost none of their importance as
concepts in social and political life. Indeed, examining the intellectual and socio-cultural
origins of these concepts gives us a better understanding of contemporary debates,
provided we do so critically. What is Enlightenment and how was its nature and
influence measured by the major thinkers of the eighteenth century? How have
subsequent periods viewed this heritage? This course will examine the intellectual and
social practices of the Enlightenment through the study of a series of important
eighteenth-century works. It will then consider the legacy of the Enlightenment through
the study of extracts from key critical texts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Enlightenment texts:
Condorcet, Esquisse d’un tableau historique des progrès de l’esprit humain (1795)
Diderot, Le Neveu de Rameau (1761)
Diderot and D’Alembert, Encyclopédie: articles, ‘Discours prélimiaire’, ‘Encyclopédie’,
‘Philosophe’
Kant, ‘Qu’est-ce que les lumières?’ (1784)
Montesquieu, De l’esprit des lois, (extracts) (1748)
Rousseau, Discours sur les sciences et les arts (1750)
---, Du contrat social (1762)
---, Les Confessions, (extracts) (1782)
Voltaire, Traité sur la tolérance (1763)
Critiques of Enlightenment :
M. Foucault, Les mots et les choses (1966)
---, Surveiller et punir (1975)
J. Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1961)
M. Horkheimer and T.W. Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947)
J. de Maistre, Considérations sur la France (1797)
H. Taine, L’Ancien régime (1875)
A. de Tocqueville, L’Ancien Régime et la Révolution (1856)
5. Writing and Deconstruction FR???? (Dr Opelz)
_____________________________________________________________
Ever since Plato sought to divorce writing from speech and thus relegate the
former to little more than a defective, if not an altogether unreliable form of
the latter, the question of writing lay dormant, century after century, as
Western philosophy unfolded and spread its sway. Heedless of its own
potentially problematic status as a mode of written discourse, philosophy set
course for the great questions that captivated and troubled humankind.
Although the problems posed by writing – what is the relationship between
writing and language? between writing and thought? between the written
word and the spoken word? between philosophy and other discursive forms
(for example, literature)? – were never simply ignored by philosophers, it was
not until French thinker Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) began to investigate
them in the second half of the twentieth century that writing, as a serious
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philosophical inquiry, took centre stage. More precisely, with Derrida, the
scene of writing, as it is played and replayed in the work of a number of
exemplary writers and thinkers across the centuries, does not only become a
decisive question for philosophy but exposes also that which displaces
philosophical discourse itself. Through this displacement, Derrida argues, all
our inherited assumptions are thrown into question, including those on which
thought, writing, language occur at all. The purpose of this course will be to
explore the process, practice, or event – known today the world over as
‘deconstruction’ – through which these assumptions are radically called into
question. Four key French figures will guide us through the pressing issues
that Derrida’s writings compel us to confront: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (17121788), Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898), Antonin Artaud (1896-1948), and
Maurice Blanchot (1907-2003). The focus of this course will be twofold: first,
we shall examine a select number of texts by the four authors under
discussion and see how these texts raise theoretical questions about writing;
second, we shall look at the way Derrida problematizes these questions by
focusing on some of his best-known and ground-breaking essays. As such,
the course will offer students an opportunity to address the issues at stake
from a variety of perspectives (philosophy, poetry, drama, literary criticism)
and is designed to assist them in expanding both their analytical skills and
their conceptual language. This course will be especially useful for those with
an interest not just in literary theory but also, more generally, in the age-old
conversation between literature and philosophy.
Course texts:
Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Essai sur l’origine des langues (1781) (Paris: Flammarion
(coll. GF), 1993)
Jacques Derrida, selection from De la grammatologie (Paris: Minuit (coll. Critique),
1967)
Mallarmé
Stéphane Mallarmé, selection from Igitur, Divagations, Un coup de dés (Paris:
Gallimard (coll. Poésie), 2003)
Jacques Derrida, ‘La Double séance’ (1970), in La Dissémination (Paris: Le Seuil
(coll. Points Essais), 1972).
Artaud
Antonin Artaud, selection from L’Ombilic des limbes, suivi de Le Pèse-nerfs et autres
textes (Paris: Gallimard (coll. Poésie), 1978)
, Le Théâtre et son double (1938) (Paris: Gallimard (coll. Folio
Essais), 1973)
Maurice Blanchot, ‘Artaud’ (1956), in Le Livre à venir, op. cit.
, ‘La Cruelle raison poétique’ (1958), in L’Entretien infini, op. cit.
Jacques Derrida, ‘La Parole soufflée’ (1965), in L’Écriture et la différence (Paris: Le
Seuil (coll. Points Essais), 1967)
, ‘Le Théâtre de la cruauté et la clôture de la représentation’ (1966),
in L’Écriture et la différence, op. cit.
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Blanchot
Maurice Blanchot, ‘La Pensée et l’exigence de la discontinuité’ (1963), in L’Entretien
infini, op. cit.
, ‘Parler, ce n’est pas voir’ (1960), in L’Entretien infini, op. cit.
, ‘Héraclite’ (1960), in L’Entretien infini, op. cit.
, selection from Le Pas au-delà (Paris: Gallimard (coll. Blanche),
1973)
Jacques Derrida, Positions (Paris: Minuit (coll. Critique), 1972)
, ‘La Différance’ (1972), in Marges – de la philosophie (Paris: Minuit
(coll. Critique), 1972)
, selection from Parages (1986), new ed. (Paris: Galilée, 2003)
6.
French Travel Writing 1850-2000 FR4013 (Prof. Scott)
_____________________________________________________________________
Dating back many centuries, French travel writing had, by the 1800s, established itself as a major
genre in France, and has been practised since by many authors. The aim of this course will be,
while confronting the generical problems it raises, to explore the motivations — political,
historical, literary, æsthetic — of its exponents and to investigate the myths and fantasies that
form an inseparable part of it. Examples will be drawn from the work of poets, novelists,
painters, semiologists and political scientists working over the last 150 years, and will cover
voyages to Spain, North Africa, the Congo, the Near East, China, Japan, the Pacific, North
America and Russia.
Barthes, Roland
Baudrillard, Jean
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Fromentin, Eugène
Gauguin, Paul
Gautier, Théophile
Gide, André
Gide, André
Michaux, Henri
Michaux, Henri
Segalen, Victor
L’Empire des signes (Flammarion)
Amérique (Livre de Poche)
Tristes Tropiques (Plon ‘Pocket’)
Un été dans le Sahara (Le Sycomore)
Oviri. Ecrits d’un sauvage (Gallimard: Idées)
Voyage en Espagne (GF)
Voyage au Congo (Gallimard: Idées)
Retour de l’URSS (Gallimard: Idées)
Un Barbara en Asie (Gallimard)
Ecuador (Gallimard)
Essai sur l’exotisme
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Special Subject 2012/13
The choice of a Special Subject is left to the individual student. However, this choice
must be agreed with a member of the teaching staff of the Department of French,
who will act as supervisor. By special arrangement with the head of department,
supervision may be sought from a member of staff in a cognate department. You
should therefore consult members of staff about a dissertation subject at the earliest
opportunity and obtain his or her signature showing agreement in principle. The
following list is intended to give students an idea of each member of staff’s academic
interests. The subject of your dissertation should be indicated on the form supplied,
but it is recognized that this subject may be modified or defined more closely in due
course. The number of students to be supervised by any member of staff will be
limited: you are advised to take action without delay.
Sarah ALYN-STACEY French Renaissance poetry. French Renaissance literature,
with particular reference to Marc-Claude de Buttet and the court circle of Marguerite
de France, duchesse de Savoie. Classical and Italian influences on French
Renaissance literature. Comparative Renaissance literature (French, English,
Italian). Critical theory, notably its application to Renaissance texts and also the
related concerns of intertextuality and literary hermeneutics. Contemporary cinema.
Edward J. ARNOLD Twentieth-century French intellectual, political and social
history: history of ideas in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Europe; right
and left-wing, counter-revolutionary, fascist and national-populist thought in France,
1880s to the present.
Johnnie GRATTON Twentieth-century/contemporary fiction, short fiction, biography
and autobiography (especially since 1975). Text/Image studies (especially
autobiography and photography). French critical thought since structuralism
(especially the theory of the subject).
James HANRAHAN Literature, history, culture of the Early Modern period.
Literature of the Enlightenment, particularly Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot.
Historiography of Enlightenment and ancien régime. History of ideas and
histoire des mentalitiés. History of intellectuals and public opinion.
Rachel HOARE Linguistics. Second language acquisition. Socioloinguistics of
French, especially attitudes towards regional languages and varieties in France.
Language variation. (On sabbatical in Hilary Term 2013)
Claire LAUDET Second language acquisition. French for specific purposes. Course
design, teaching materials development, programme evaluation.
Hannes OPELZ 20th century French literature and thought; relations between
literature, philosophy, politics, and affect; deconstruction; Mauric Blanchot; Geogres
Bataille; Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe.
Paule SALERNO-O'SHEA Business French, Direct Marketing.
David SCOTT Nineteenth and twentieth-century writing, especially poetry, art
criticism, Orientalism and travel writing. Textual and visual studies. Semiotics
(Baudrillard and Peirce). Nineteenth and twentieth-century art and aesthetic theory.