The Blackboard website for this module includes:
By the end of this course students will be able to:
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the role of the “other” in early nineteenth-century French culture.
• Show an understanding of the social, historical and political contexts for cultural production, from the Napoleonic Empire to the Second Republic.
- Show an understanding of the key notions of couleur locale, exoticism and orientalism, and of their place in the conceptual frameworks of modern cultural and postcolonial theory.
By the end of this course students will be able to:
- Draw original comparisons between various materials studied as part of this course.
By the end of this course students will be able to:
- Use the library, electronic and online resources.
- Use reporting skills during student-led in-class activities.
- Read in French to a near-native proficiency.
- critically read and critique existing literature;
Transferable skills and personal qualities
By the end of this course students will be able to:
- Undertake critical analyses of cultural objects and their contexts
- Retrieve information, by independently gathering, synthesizing, sifting and organizing material from various sources.
- Manage time and work to deadlines
- Present complex findings in oral and written form with due regard to the target audience.
- Make effective use of word processing and the Internet.
- Engage in independent reflection and enquiry.
Employability skills
- Analytical skills
- Students taking this unit will be able to analyse and evaluate both existing literature on the texts and painting studied and the primary set materials themselves. Above all, committed students will emerge from this course unit with an advanced capacity to think critically, i.e. knowledgeably, rigorously, confidently and independently.
- Innovation/creativity
- On this unit students are encouraged to respond imaginatively and independently to the questions and ideas raised by existing literature on the topic and the primary corpus of texts and images studied.
- Project management
- Students taking this unit will be able to work towards deadlines and to manage their time effectively.
- Research
- Students on this unit will be required to digest, summarise and present large amounts of information. They are encouraged to enrich their responses and arguments with a wide range of further reading.
- Written communication
- Students on this unit will develop their ability to write in a way that is lucid, precise and compelling.
Assessment methods
| Method |
Weight |
| Written assignment (inc essay) |
100% |
Feedback methods
| Feedback Methods | Formative or Summative |
| Written feedback on the essay plan in week 12 | Formative |
| Written feedback on essay | Summative |
| Additional one-to-one feedback (during the consultation hour or by making an appointment) | Formative |
Recommended reading
Set Texts :
Chateaubriand, François-René de, Atala (Paris: Le Livre de Poche, 2007).
Hugo, Victor, Les Orientales – Les Feuilles d’Automne (Paris: Le Livre de Poche, 2000).
Mérimée, Prosper, Colomba (Paris: Le Livre de Poche, 1995).
These texts will be supplemented by a selection of Orientalist paintings including those by Delacroix, Horace Vernet and Prosper Marilhat.
Suggested further readings
Edward Said, Orientalism [1978] – any edition
Peltre, Christine, Les Orientalistes (Paris: Hazan, 1997)
Thornton, Lynne, The Orientalists. Painter-Travellers 1828-1908 (Paris: ACR Edition, 1983)
Study hours
| Scheduled activity hours |
| Lectures |
11 |
| Seminars |
22 |
| Independent study hours |
| Independent study |
160 |
Teaching staff
| Staff member |
Role |
| Vladimir Kapor |
Unit coordinator |
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