Module overview
How do filmakers grapple with the difficulties of remembering events that many would rather forget? How are we haunted by the past? How do they seek to represent events that seem to defy representation? In tackling these questions, this module provides you with a fascinating opportunity to explore Francophone postwar films and texts through the lens of memory, trauma and ghosts.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Take notes and keep records
- Produce writing in appropriate genres and to required conventions, including referencing and identification
- Plan and organise your learning through self-management
- Adhere to guidelines and deadlines
- Explore a variety of learning resources, including the library.
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- - the representation of memory and identity in twentieth and twenty-first century French and Francophone films and literature - the similarities and dissimilarities between these cultures and societies and your own.
- - the relationships between trauma and the cultural and historical contexts of contemporary France and the French-speaking world.
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Engage with subject matter and opinion in both breadth and depth
- Apply knowledge, understanding and analysis critically to different topics.
- Analyse and discuss questions; evaluate different critical perspectives and use them to inform your approach to literary or cinematic works.
- Define, present and exemplify concepts.
Syllabus
In this module you will explore how film makers and writers have set out to remember both national and personal traumas and the accompanying effects on collective and individual identities. In this way, you will reflect on how seismic events such as the Second World War or the Algerian scarred both the national psyche and individual lives in the French and Francophone contexts. Some of the issues that you will consider might include: whether film and writing can contribute to the healing of psychic wounds; or the ethical issues about who has the right to display the suffering of others and who should be able to see it. The lectures will set out the socio-political and cultural contexts of the films and texts. Students will then prepare for the seminar with guided reading.
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods include
- twice-weekly seminars (with occasional lectures); seminars will normally consist of a presentation by a student or students, followed by class discussion.
- one-to-one consultations with the tutor (in person or by email) for those wishing to discuss their progress or to raise specific issues.
- film screenings
Learning activities include
- preparation of seminar presentations, individually or in pairs
- class discussion
- independent study
- essay writing
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Teaching | 24 |
| Independent Study | 126 |
| Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
General Resources
General Resource. Film
Caché. Film
General Resource. Film
Textbooks
Ernaux, Annie, and Marc Marie (2006). L’Usage de la photo.
Roland Barthes (1980). La Chambre claire.
Marguerite Duras (1960). Hiroshima mon amour.
Assessment
Assessment strategy
Assessments designed to provide informal, on-module feedback feed-back on presentations undertaken individually or as a small-group activity; email contact or meetings with tutor to deal with your queries and concerns.Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Commentary | 40% |
| Essay | 60% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Essay | 60% |
| Commentary | 40% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Essay | 60% |
| Commentary | 40% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External