Fragmented France: Cultures and Identities in Transition

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• select, synthetise and critically discuss key political and sociological terminology
• develop critical skills focusing on both the Republican ideology and French socio-cultural practices
• Constructively criticise the Republican ideological discourse in the light of the ethnographic concrete practices of 'Vivre ensemble'
• define, present, discuss and exemplify concepts related to the French republican ideology

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Read, evaluate, summarise and synthesise texts in French and English.

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Key elements of French cultural identity taking into account students' own experience of France and its diversity.
• the similarities and dissimilarities between the political ideologies, cultures and societies of the Francophone world and your own culture
• historical identities of different social/ethnic groups and their expression within the economic, social, political and cultural contexts of contemporary France and the Francophone world.
• various dimensions of the debates on Republicanism and French identity at times of social and political change (Europeanisation and globalisation)

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Plan and organise your learning journey exercising independence and initiative
• Make use of library resources, archives, online materials
• Adhere to guidelines and deadlines
• Communicate your ideas in a coherent and cogent fashion through oral presentations and written work.
• Participate in group discussions.

This option will examine the relationship between French identity and culture since 1981 with the elections of François Mitterrand by exploring the ways in which identities of different social groups are expressed within the economic, political and cultural contexts of contemporary France.

The beginning of the 1980s witnessed the emergence of a cultural debate about what it means to be French. Indeed much of the period was characterised by the ‘crisis of French identity’ as intellectuals and the political classes attempted to make sense of French identity in the light of challenges posed by broader global forces such as immigration, feminism, European integration and globalisation. France entered the new millennium with a reframing of the cultural identity debate in nationalistic and political terms.

The course proposes to examine the construction of Frenchness through the debates redefining traditional key cultural markers of French identity in the context of increased fragmentation and recomposition.

The introductory lectures will familiarize students with various theoretical approaches to the study of both culture and identity. Students will then examine the economic, political, social and cultural frameworks for thinking about the question of what it means to be French today. Seminars and case studies will explore themes such as language, education, sport, popular culture, heritage and museums, memory and the past, food and wine, family and ethnicity.

You will be encouraged to think critically and independently about how French cultural identity is conceptualised and how its future has been debated in response to both Europeanisation and globalisation.

Teaching methods include

• Weekly lectures and seminars.
• A set of weekly questions to guide you in your reading.
• Discussions arising from student-led seminars with the convenor acting as a guide and learning facilitator.
• Informal feedback from the convenor and students on oral presentations.

Learning activities include

• Directed and undirected reading in both English and French.
• Preparation of cogent and well-founded arguments for oral presentations and group discussions.
• Reviewing other students’ presentations.
• The research and completion of written assignments.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

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.