LLANG4146: French Connections: French and Francophone Cultures in London Course Descriptor

Course Overview

This course explores the presence of French-speaking cultures in London and the presence of London in French and Francophone cultural productions from the end of the nineteenth century to the present day. It examines a number of artworks across visual arts, literature, music, films in their socio-economic, historical, cultural, and political contexts. Students will analyse this cultural production through the themes of identity and place in order to interrogate the relationship between French-speaking cultures and the UK as well as between France and the Francophone world. They will have the opportunity to develop their own creative products to demonstrate their understanding of the main themes explored in class.

No knowledge of French is required to take this course as it will be taught and assessed in English, but students with a knowledge of the French language will be able to access materials in the original language.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Professional Skills

Teaching and Learning

Teaching and learning strategies for this course will include: 

A minimum of 36 contact hours, typically to include interactive group teaching, co-curriculars, individual meetings, in-class presentations and exams.

Course information and supplementary materials are available on the University’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

Students will receive individualised developmental feedback on their work for this course.

Students are required to attend and participate in all the formal and timetabled sessions for this course. Students are also expected to manage their directed learning and independent study in support of the course.

Assessment

Formative

Students will be formatively assessed in class through class activities, and during office hours. Formative assessments are ones that do not count towards the final grade but will provide students with developmental feedback.

Summative

Further information on the structure of summative assessment elements can be found in the Summative Assessment Briefs.

Feedback

Students will receive feedback in a variety of ways: written (including via email correspondence); oral (within office hours or on an ad hoc basis) and indirectly through class discussion.

Feedback on examinations is provided through generic internal examiners’ reports and are made available to the student on the VLE. For all other summative assessment methods, feedback is made available to the student either via email, the VLE or another appropriate method.

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is used as part of the approval/modification process only.

Books

• Corbeau-Parson, Caroline, Impressionists in London: French Artists Exile 1870-1904 (London: Tate, 2017).
• Hargreaves, Alec, Charles Forsdick, and David Murphy, Transnational French Studies: Postcolonialism and Littérature-Monde (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2010).
• Huc-Hepher, Saskia. French London: A Blended Ethnography of a Migrant City, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2021).
• Hutcheon, Linda, A Theory of Adaptation , 2nd edition (Abindgon: Routledge, 2013).
• Kelly, Debra and Cornick, Martyn A History of the French in London (London: University of London Press, 2013).
• Said, Edward, Orientalism (New York: Vintage, 1979).
• Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty, An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2013).

Journals

• Brahic, Benedicte and Maxime Lallement, ‘From “Expats” to “Migrants”: Strategies of Resilience amongst French Movers in Post-Brexit Manchester’, Migration and Development, 2018, 9:1, pp.1-17.
• Ryan, Louise and Mulholland, Jon, ‘French Connections: The Networking Strategies of French Highly Skilled Migrants in London’, Global Networks, 2013, 14:2, pp. 148–66.
• Vigouroux, Cecile, ‘Francophonie’, Annual Review of Anthropology, 42, 2013, pp.379-397.

Electronic Resources

Huc-Hepher, Saskia. London French Special Collection. UK Web Archive, British Library: https://www.webarchive.org.uk/en/ukwa/collection/309

Stephenson, Wesley, ‘Is London really France’s “Sixth biggest city”’, BBC News, 1 April 2014. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26823489

Indicative Topics

Students will typically study the following topics:

• Francophone communities in London
• Transnational spaces
• Language, Culture, and Identity
• Artistic representations of London (visual arts, literature, film, music)
• Adaptation Studies