The seventeenth century is a highly significant period in the cultural, social and literary history of France. This module will examine how identity, gender and power are represented and intersect in a wide range of seventeenth-century French writing. This includes canonical texts by well-known authors such as Molière, non-canonical fiction and more ephemeral documents such as police reports, letters and conduct literature. Students will understand the intersecting demands and tensions operating upon prominent and less prominent members of 17th-Century society. They will analyse how different modes of writing privilege certain groups and individuals and construct others as marginal or transgressive. They will investigate how representations of certain categories of people – for example criminals, cross-dressers and cuckolds – both resist and help to define social norms.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
demonstrate a sophisticated knowledge and understanding of a variety of texts and genres written mainly in the period 1640-1715 as well as the social context in which they were produced;
recognise and critically analyse the main textual strategies writers use to construct and represent key facets of identity in this writing;
synthesize and evaluate critically secondary material relevant to the key themes and texts;
write critically in English about representations of gender, identity and power in this period.
Assessment
34926-01 : Essay in English (4,000 words) : Coursework (100%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions
Assessment: One essay in English (4000 words) (100%).
Reassessment: No resits are permitted in final year. If students miss the assessed task owing to extenuating circumstances, the failed task would be rescheduled at a later date.