BA Film Studies and French

Year of entry: 2024

Course unit details:
Media, Performance, & Digital Culture in Contemporary France

Course unit fact file
Unit code FREN21212
Credit rating 20
Unit level Level 2
Teaching period(s) Semester 2
Available as a free choice unit? Yes

Overview

This unit examines how contemporary French artists, playwrights and authors have experimented with various media (radio, tape recorders, films, the Internet and YouTube) and platforms (festivals, museums, conferences, happenings), to invent new and sometimes destabilizing and daring art forms, art objects and creative practices. For instance, we will study how texts incorporate filmic or pictorial fragments. We will see how digital platforms invite artists and authors to reconsider the nature of writing. More importantly, we will ask ourselves how we respond to new forms of artistic expressions. Introductory lectures and seminars will examine key concepts such as ‘media’, ‘digital practice’, ‘artistic consumption’ and ‘performance’.  In the course of the semester, we will watch and analyze short video clips, theatrical performances and digital art.

Pre/co-requisites

All Ba (Hons) programmes with French 

Aims

  • To familiarise students with key developments in French culture from a formal, social and political perspective. 
  • To introduce students to the study of Media in order to enable the analysis of literary, visual and audio-visual artwork from modernity to the present day. 
  • To provide an overview of the different issues of cultural representation;  
  • To encourage and enable students to verbalise and intellectualise their emotional response to a wide range of practices. 

Syllabus

Week 1: Introduction to the study of Media

Weeks 2-3-4: New creative practices

Weeks 5-7-8: Contemporary theatre and performance

Weeks 9-10-11: New digital cultures

Week 12: revision sessions in preparation for exam

Teaching and learning methods

3 introductory lectures on media and performance analysis

3 x 1-hour lectures and 3 x 2-hour seminars on contemporary creative practices

3 x 1-hour lectures and 3 x 2-hour seminars on contemporary performance

3 x 1-hour lectures and 3 x 2-hour seminars on digital cultures

3 x 1-hour methodology workshops, one for each block

Knowledge and understanding

  • Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of some of the major aspects of Contemporary related to media 

  • Understanding digital culture in France today 

  • Understanding the differences between genres and medias 

Intellectual skills

  • Contextualise, analyze and discuss literary, visual and audio-visual material in a structured fashion.
  • Apply critically terminology and conceptual frameworks derived from media studies.

Practical skills

  • Demonstrate the ability to carry out individual research for coursework essays, and express ideas and arguments coherently and convincingly in time-limited constraints.
  • Using an appropriate level of academic writing and exemplification.

Transferable skills and personal qualities

  • Demonstrate powers of analysis;
  • manage word-count effectively when writing coursework;
  • manage time effectively when writing in exam conditions; participate in seminars;
  • work as part of a group;
  • assess the relevance of existing literature through independent research;
  • seek advice and feedback and develop confidence.

Employability skills

Other
- Time management - Responding to instructions - Independent research; initiative - Intercultural awareness - Coherent expression (orally and in writing)

Assessment methods

Assessment task  

Formative or Summative 

Weighting within unit (if summative) 

Draft commentary plan

Formative 

 

Commentary 

Summative 

40% 

Draft essay plan 

Formative 

 

Essay 

Summative 

60% 

Resit Assessment:

Essay

Feedback methods

Feedback method

Formative or Summative

Individual written feedback on formative tasks

Formative

Individual written feedback on ACW and exam

Summative

Recommended reading

Set texts

A selection of short texts

One play by either Jan Fabre or Romeo Castellucci

A selection of digital art pieces  

  
Secondary Readings:

Debray, Régis, Cours de médiologie générale (Paris : Gallimard, 1991).

Grafton, Anthony, La Page de l’Antiquité à l’ère Numérique (Paris : Hazan, 2015).

Lebel, Jean-Jacques, Poésie directe des Happenings à Polyphonix. Entretiens avec Arnaud Labelle-Rojoux et quelques documents (Paris Opus International, 1994)  

Bolter, Jay David and Richard Grusin, Remediation: Understanding the New Media (London, MIT Press, 2000)

Ruffel, Lionel and Olivia Rosenthal (eds), La littérature exposée. Les écritures contemporaines hors du livre, in Littérature, 2010, 4 (160).

Ruffel, Lionel and Olivia Rosenthal (eds), La littérature exposée 2, La littérature exposée 2, in Littérature, 2018, 4 (192).

Lehmann, Hans-Thies, Le théâtre postdramatique (Paris : L’Arche, 2002) 

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Lectures 11
Seminars 22
Independent study hours
Independent study 167

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Jeff Barda Unit coordinator

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