FR3001 French Language 1

The module aims to give a fundamental training at Honours level in written and aural comprehension skills, objective resume writing, oral and written fluency, and in translation from French to English... It is intended as the basic practical language unit for all categories of student.

FR3002 French Language 2

Building on FR3001, the module aims to complete foundational training at Honours level, taking in written and aural comprehension skills, analytical résumé writing, oral and written fluency, and translation from English to French. It is intended as the basic practical language unit for all categories of student and may be a specific prerequisite for FR4105. It may be taken independently of FR3001 subject to Head of Department's approval. This module may be replaced by Junior Honours second semester abroad at a partner institution. It may also be replaced by a 30-credit module in one of the non-ML triple degree subjects. It may not be omitted for any other reason.

FR3021 An Introduction to the French Classical Period

This module aims to give a general introduction to the broader concerns of the literature of seventeenth-century France, looking at elements of development in the literary genres, while relating them to fundamental changes in the society of the time. Prescribed texts will be drawn from authors such as Corneille, Racine, Moliere, Madame de la Fayette and La Fontaine.

FR3025 From the Sublime to the Ridiculous: Nineteenth-Century French Theatre

This module will investigate the development of theatre in nineteenth-century France through the study of important texts by major authors, taking in the most important trends of the genre's development: Romantic period, historical drama, farce, realism and symbolism. The plays will be studied within the socio-historical context of nineteenth-century France, as well as aesthetic objects in their own right.

FR3047 Literature of Ideas from Descartes to Rousseau 1

This module studies the literature and history of ideas in seventeenth-century France. It will focus on such issues as the threat to religious orthodoxy, optimism and pessimism, amour-propre and the beginnings of opposition to the political regime of Louis XIV. Three or four texts will be studied chosen from a range of authors including Descartes, Saint-Evremond, Pascal, La Rochefoucauld and La Bruyere. This module complements others available in the Department dealing with the literature and theatre of seventeenth-century France.

FR3053 History of the French Language

The module explores the development of French from its parent-language Latin. No prior knowledge of Latin will be required. It will look first at the social history of the language, before examining short extracts illustrating the different stages through which the language has passed. The module concludes with an examination of how the sounds of Latin have changed to give rise to the Modern French sound-system.

FR3076 Writing the Nineteenth Century 1: French Literature, History and Politics 1848 - 1871

This module explores the relationship between literature, politics and society during a crucial period of modern French history, from the Second Republic to the Paris Commune of 1871. Students will read literary texts by three major authors of the period. Discussion and analysis of these texts will allow us to consider issues such as urbanisation, women's place and aspirations, war and insurrection and the poetics of visionary idealism. Students will thus achieve an informed understanding of essential elements in the cultural and political foundations of contemporary France.

FR3077 Twenty-First-Century French Fiction

The aim of this module is to introduce students to representative works of contemporary French fiction, where 'contemporary' indicates a period of time no greater than fifteen years from the present day. At least two texts will be published in the 21st century. Set texts will be selected with a view to revealing emerging thematic and stylistic trends in French literature, which might currently include: literature post 9/11; representations of 'the Far East' (China and Japan); new perspectives on WWII; faith(s) today; influence of the visual (e.g. film) on the written text.

FR3078 Writing the Self in Twentieth-Century French Literature

This module explores theories relating to autobiography and écriture de soi as well as a variety of autobiographical practices reflecting significant trends in twentieth-century French literature. Students will read texts by major authors (for example Sartre, Perec, Sarraute and Ernaux) and will reflect on their thematic and stylistic features, with an emphasis on notions such as childhood, memory, (life)-writing, language, education and identity. Students will be encouraged to adopt a comarative approach in order to study the use of photography, myths, fiction and imagination in autobiography and autofiction and to conceptualise potential links between genre and gender.

FR3080 Intellectuals in Modern France

This module explores the role of intellectuals in modern France (from the end of the 19th century until today). We will examine the 'birth' of the intellectual during the Dreyfus Affair and evaluate the impact that intellectuals have had in the political and socio-cultural history of twentieth-century France. The following aspects will be covered: the definition and role of the intellectual, conflicts which have emerged between intellectuals in the twentieth century, the involvement of intellectual figures in the political sphere, the structures of the cultural and intellectual life in France, the role played and to be played by intellectuals in contemporary France.

FR3081 The Court of Louis XIV

An interdisciplinary introduction to and overview of the court of Louis XIV drawing on a variety of different sources, including theatre, memoirs, history books, film, music and art. Particular attention will be paid to the tension between Louis the (great) king and Louis the (weak) man, to his official image and the reality behind it. Topics studied will include the notion of absolutism, Louis's mistresses, Louis the "most Christian king", the construction of the chateau at Versailles, the Tartuffe controversy and the Affair of the Poisons.

FR3082 Writing Algeria in French, 1830 - 1962. Regards croisés

This module explores France's relationship to one of its most important colonies, Algeria, through French and Francophone literary works that represent the period spanning 1830 to 1962. We will identify some of the key moments and political, ideological, and aesthetic trends that marked this colonial era: the conquest of Algeria (1830), the way in which it was appropriated as a plastic and ethnological object, the rise and implications of orientalism, the simultaneous 'mythification' of the land and resistance to its exploration, the denunciation of the evils of colonization, and the Algerian war of independence (1954 - 1962). We will investigate a variety of perspectives by reading Algerian, French-Algerian, and French authors, reflecting on major pieces of post-colonial criticism, and studying diverse media (paintings, films, speeches, diaries) in addition to fictional literature.

FR3083 Crime and Punishment from the Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Century

This module will investigate the ways in which misdeeds, violence, and their retribution shape the arts, the popular imagination, the history, and the politics of France from the Revolution until the mid-twentieth century. To that end, we will consider a wide array of crimes - bloody crimes, political crimes, crimes of passion, gloomy faits divers, and gratuitous crimes - the emerging 'scientific' theories and disciplines that took crime as their object of study, new penal conceptions, and the institutions that were to punish criminals, from the iconic guillotine to the jail and the bagne. We will also examine interior forms of punishment, such as self-torture, remorse, and regret. What ultimately constitutes a crime will be at issue, too, in works that conceive of the same realities (eg. political assassination) as heroic and legal or, conversely, as abject and unlawful.

FR3101 French Integrated Year Abroad

The objective of the module is language learning and cultural familiarisation through a work placement in a French-speaking country. Placements will be as Language Assistants in Schools or on other assignments approved by the department. Formal learning and assessment will be through a supervised project chosen in consultation with the module co-ordinator who will provide more detailed guidelines. The Project Essay will be 5000 words in French to be received in the department by a specified date in May.

FR3103 Self-Access Residence Project in France

This module is designed to recognise and reward, on the basis of an approved project dissertation of 5,000-6,000 words, the benefit derived from an academically focussed period of six weeks' residence in the country of degree study. The residence project takes place in the summer vacation; the dissertation is written in French during the following semester. It is open to all students of single, dual, joint,triple language or three subject degrees who have neither taken FR3101 nor undertaken recognised study abroad such as a Erasmus year. Enrolment is subject to the Chairman's discretion: the project for residence and the project dissertation topic must be agreed in advance. (Guidelines for printing and binding dissertations can be found at: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/printanddesign/dissertation/)

FR4078 Music in Nineteenth-Century French Poetry

In this module we will study the crucial role played by notions of music and musicality in the development of French poetry during an intense period of innovation. We will consider why, and how, throughout the nineteenth century, from the Romantic period (Lamartine, Hugo) to the Symbolists (Verlaine, Mallarme), as the definition of poetry evolves rapidly, it nevertheless remains closely bound to musical concepts such as melody, harmony and rhythm. Focusing primarily on important poetic texts by major authors, we will also consider the parallels between formal and theoretical developments in both poetry and music, and the ways in which both arts evolve through comparison with each other. No prior expertise in the practice or study is required for this module, which focuses on how poetry defines itself through musical ideas.

FR4103 Translation Methodology 1

The module gives a progressive, intensive training in the method and practice of translating from French into English. Topics covered include: translation as process and product; cultural issues in translation; translation and the formal properties of texts. A wide range of material is used, from technical texts, through consumer-oriented texts to poetry and song.

FR4104 Translation Methodology 2

The module gives a progressive, intensive training in the method and practice of translating from French into English. Topics covered include: translation and language variety, translation and textual genres, technical translation, editing, aspects of contrastive linguistics. A wide range of material is used, from technical texts, through consumer-oriented texts to literary texts.

FR4105 Communication Skills in French 1

The module aims to develop communicative skills, both written and spoken. It follows a text- and video-based method designed by the department which enables students to present ideas and opinions clearly and persuasively, in appropriate registers of French.

FR4106 Communication Skills in French 2

Building on FR4105, this module aims to further develop communicative skills, both written and spoken. Pursuing the text- and video-based method it enhances the ability of students to present ideas and opinions clearly and persuasively, in appropriate registers of French.

FR4111 Discovering the Renaissance: Imitation, Interpretation and Imagination

The sixteenth century is a time of invention and discovery: it is a time of broadening horizons, both literally - following Columbus's discovery of the New World - and metaphorically, as the wide-scale dissemination of knowledge becomes possible through the new medium of print. Yet it is also a time of instability and conflict, marked by the "invention" of gunpowder and by the growing schism between Catholics and Protestants, culminating in the horrors of the French religious wars. This module introduces students to a range of French Renaissance writers - from the seminal to the quirky - and examines how they respond to these shifting perspectives, which offer exciting intellectual and imaginative possibilities while casting serious doubt on ancient sources of knowledge and belief. The radical shift in literary authority that ensues encapsulates the humanism, scepticism and questions of identity that define the Renaissance.

FR4122 Literature of the French Enlightenment

This module provides an introduction to the literature of eighteenth-century France. Texts are studied within the context of the literary and intellectual preoccupations of the period. Prescribed authors may include writers such as Marivaux, Diderot, Voltaire and Beaumarchais.

FR4149 Aspects of Gender in Seventeenth Century Theatre

This module presents an exploration of key issues relating to sex and gender as they feature in seventeenth-century theatre. Topics will include male-female relations, marriage and widowhood, female education, homoeroticism, cross-dressing, cross-casting, gender stereotypes and female authorship. Our corpus will include a variety of theatrical genres, including comedy, tragedy, tragic-comedy and sacred drama by Benserade, Pierre Corneille, Thomas Corneille, Moliére, Villedieu and Racine. The reading list will include some critical articles and some short theoretical readings, notably excerpts from Foucault's Histoire de la sexualité.

FR4164 De Gaulle and Since: Topics in the Politics,Culture and Society of the Fifth Republic (2)

Taught entirely in French, this module continues to explore through literary texts, but also films, press extracts and video documents, the politics, culture and society of the Fifth Republic instituted by Charles de Gaulle. Major themes include: May 1968; the New Wave cinema; Mitterrand and the inheritance of the Left; the National Front and the politics of the Right.

FR4181 Contemporary French Crime Fiction

This module introduces students to contemporary (post-1985) French crime fiction. Via the analysis of texts by key contemporary crime writers (e.g. Pennac, Dantec, Aubert, Izzo) students will learn about: the historical background of the genre; how and where crime fiction is situated in the fields of 'popular culture' and literature in general; what different sub-genres of crime fiction exists. The module will focus on both the modalities of social / historical / political engagement of the set texts and the narrative and linguistic strategies deployed in the writing of crime fiction.

FR4198 Dissertation on a French Topic

The dissertation offers students the possibility of personal advanced study on a topic on which they already have adequate basic knowledge and for which a suitable Supervisor can be found. Guidance will be offered on research methods and on presentation. The dissertation can be either a) a study of a given body of primary material in a given perspective, or b) a critical review of a range of secondary material on a given subject. It should be 5,000 - 6,000 words in length, be submitted in accordance with guidelines and deadlines, and normally be written in English. The topic must be agreed in advance by the Chairman of Department following a favourable report from the Supervisor, whom students should contact in the first instance.(Guidelines for printing and binding dissertations can be found at: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/printanddesign/dissertation/)

FR4199 Long Dissertation on a French Topic

The dissertation offers students the possibility of personal advanced study on a topic in French on which they already have adequate basic knowledge and for which a suitable Supervisor can be found. Guidance will be offered on research methods and on presentation. The dissertation will, as a rule, consist of a study of a given body of primary material in a given perspective. Its length should be 10,000 words maximum. It should be submitted in accordance with guidelines and deadlines, and normally be written in English. The topic must be agreed in advance by the Chairman of Department following a favourable report from the Supervisor, whom students should contact in the first instance.(Guidelines for printing and binding dissertations can be found at: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/printanddesign/dissertation/)

FR4807 Honours French 3 (Science)

This module extends the skills of oral and written production of French into the final Honours year. It continues the communication skills programme using video and textual material. It forms part of the relevant B.Sc. and M.Chem. degrees with French.

FR4808 Honours French 4 (Science)

This module completes the communication skills training in written and spoken French for the B.Sc. or M.Chem. student in the final year. Using video and textual material, it also requires the student to prepare, for the oral examination in French, the Science project required by the relevant Science department (or some equivalent topic).

FR4809 Science French Dissertation

This is a self-access module designed for Senior Honours students spending study periods or work placements away from St Andrews in connection with their Honours course in Science, when it will replace either FR4807 or FR4808. It will be assessed by a dissertation in French (3,500 - 4,000 words) on an approved topic. For students in their final semester, the Oral Examination will also determine the award of Distinction in Spoken French.(Guidelines for printing and binding dissertations can be found at: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/printanddesign/dissertation/)