FRENCH

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS - YEAR 1

FR1004:Pratique du français: du texte à l'oral

Course description:The course will be based on written material, selected from the
French press, first by your course-tutor and later by you in consultation with your
lecturer. While in the early weeks the tutor leads the group, students are expected to
take a very active role. By the end of the year, each member of the group will have
presented one seminar. Your course assessment will be based on your seminar
presentation and a portfolio which you will hand in after the end of the course.

Key Bibliography:
You are advised to read a range of articles from the following:

• Le Monde
• Le Figaro
• Libération
• Le Nouvel Observateur
• Le Point

FR1105 The Visual Image in French Culture & Society

Course description: This course takes the visual image as its object of study. It
uses an extensive range of images across different media and contexts (painting,
photography, advertising and film clips), as well as across the centuries, introducing
students to different aspects of French culture and society. Designed as an
introduction to reading images, it aims to equip students with appropriate tools and
terminology to describe, interpret and analyse visual images. Its objectives are to
enhance students’ awareness and appreciation of visual culture, as well as their
understanding of the ways in which the image functions at aesthetic and ideological
levels. At the end of the course, students should be able to write about visual
material in a structured and analytical way, and will have established a firm
foundation for studying and enjoying and visual material.

Key bibliography:
Essential Reading (to be bought by students of French)

• Fozza, Jean-Claude, Garat, Anne-Marie, Parfait, Françoise, Petite Fabrique de

l’image (Paris: Magnard, 2003). [ISBN 2-210-42274-4].

Essential Reading for Comparative Literature & Culture students (to be

bought by CLC students)

• Acton, Mary, Learning to Look at Paintings (London and New York: Routledge,
1997, 2005). [ISBN 0-415-14890-1].

• Jean, Georges, Signs, Symbols and Ciphers: Decoding the Message (London:
Thames & Hudson, 1999). [ISBN 9-780-50030087-9].

Recommended Further Reading

• Berger, John, Ways of Seeing (London: Penguin, 1972). [ISBN 0-14-021631-6].
• Harrison, Charles and Wood, Paul (eds.), Art in Theory 1900-2000: An Anthology of
Changing Ideas (Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 2003). [ISBN 0-631-16575-
4].
• Jean, Georges, Langage de signes, l’écriture et son double (Paris: Gallimard, 1989.
Collection Découvertes, number 67. [ISBN 2-07-0530841] [Original French version;
English title given above]
• Joly, Martine, Introduction à l’analyse de l’image (Paris: Nathan, 1993. Collection
Image 128, number 44). [ISBN 2-09-190634-8].

FR1107 Language, communication and society

Course description: Questions answered by the course will include: What is

communication? How do
various forms of language relate to their social context? Where do new words come
from? Who creates them? How do the principles and characteristics of
communication apply to oral French, French chanson or new vocabulary?
Following an introductory block on communication as a system, students will learn to
apply general principles and more specific ones to three of the following areas of
study:

• The language of poetry

• La chanson française
• Language and gender
• Reducing speech to writing.
• The phonetics of speech

Key Bibliography: (all available on or via Moodle)

Extracts from Saussure and Barthes

Poetry anthology
Video clips
Notes on phonetics