University of Dublin

Trinity College

Department of French

Senior Sophister — Guide to Courses 2016-17

Two-Subject Moderatorship

Please Retain for Reference

This booklet should be read in conjunction with relevant entries in the University

Calendar. In case of any conflict between the Handbook and the Calendar, the

provisions of the Calendar shall apply.

Lecturing staff

Individual telephones can be accessed from outside College by pre-fixing (01) 896;

email addresses are followed by <@tcd.ie>.

Dr Sarah Alyn-Stacey, room 4105, tel. 2686, email <salynsta> (on sabbatical MT 2016)

Dr Edward Arnold, room 4106, tel. 1836, email <ejarnold>

Dr James Hanrahan, room 4107, tel. 1841, email <hanrahaj>

Dr Rachel Hoare, room 4103, tel. 1842, email <rmhoare> (on sabbatical HT2017)

Dr Claire Laudet, room 4108, tel. 2313, email <laudetc>

Dr Alexandra Lukes, room 4104, tel. 1977, email <lukesa>

Dr Hannes Opelz, room 4111, tel. 1077. email <opelzh>

Dr Paule Salerno-O'Shea, room 4113, tel. 1472, email <psalerno> (on sabbatical MT2 2016)

Departmental Offices

(Sinead Doran/Mary Kelly), Room 4109, tel. 1553, email, <french>

(Tracy Corbett) Room 4089, tel. 1333, email, <tcorbett

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Please read carefully the regulations and course-descriptions which follow, and

complete the form (on the next page) in the following manner. Please ensure you are

happy with your choices as once made these May Not Be Changed due to timetable

constraints etc.

1. Name four Topics in order of preference.

2. Obtain the signature of a member of staff for your choice of special subject.

3. Return the form to the Departmental Office, Room 4109, by 12.00 noon on Friday 8th April 2016.

N.B. As far as possible the French Department will try and accommodate students in the courses of their choice, however, the department is not in a position to guarantee that all courses offered will take place. The number of students opting for a particular course, timetable constraints and availability of staff has to be taken into account.

Students intending to go 'off books' in 2016/17 should still complete the form, but

indicate their intention at the appropriate point below. They should note that completion

of this form does not in itself constitute a request for permission, which should be

sought from the Senior Lecturer via their tutor at as early a stage as possible. Students

who obtain permission, and then change their mind, should notify the department

immediately.

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Department of French SS Topics

Please Complete and Return this form to the Department Office, Room 4109, by 12 noon on Friday 8 April 2016.

Name: (in block capitals): ________________________________________________

Student Number: _______

Student e-mail: _______________________________________________________

SS Topics: (state 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th choices in order of preference):

1.

2.

3.

4.

Special Subject Dissertation:

Subject area:

Signature of intended supervisor:

Year Off-Books: I intend/do not intend to spend next year off books.

(Delete as applicable.)

I confirm that I have received a copy of the departmental statement concerning courses

and assessment for the Senior Sophister year 2016/17

Signature _____________________________ Date: _______________________

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Senior Sophister Requirements and Assessment Procedures

The requirements for Senior Sophister students in TSM French in 2015/16 are as follows:

1. Language: All students are required to attend language classes, and submit regular

written work.

2. Topics: Students select two Topics from the range offered. All choices are subject to

availability, to timetable constraints and to the approval of the Head of Department. An

assessment essay (2,500 words) is to be submitted in respect of each topic. One of the two

assessment essays is to be written in French. The first essay is to be submitted by 12.00

hrs on Monday 12 December 2016, the second by 12.00 hrs on Friday 24 March 2017 to

the Departmental Office, Room 4109. Titles for essays will be published in the SS

Handbook which will be available on the French Department website

http://www.tcd.ie/French/ at the beginning of the academic year. For details of courses,

see list below.

3. Special Subject: Each student selects a special subject of his or her own choice, in

consultation with an appropriate member of staff (for details of staff interests, see below).

Please note that members of staff are instructed not to accept more than their quota of

supervisees, and the fact that a student wishes to be supervised by a member of staff does

not guarantee that the member of staff will be able or willing to act. It would obviously be

prudent to consult with the supervisor of your choice at an early stage. The candidate's

work on this special subject is to be embodied in a dissertation of 9,000 to 12,000 words, to

be written in English or French, or in an alternative piece of submitted work of a different

nature but of comparable substance, to be submitted in either case by 12.00 hrs on

Monday 6 March 2017 to Room 4109. A computer-generated word-count must be included

on the title page of your submitted dissertation. Please note that, if you exceed the set

word-limit, your dissertation will be returned with an instruction to reduce the length

appropriately. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure (s)he maintains adequate contact

with her/his supervisor, who will provide guidance on how to improve content.

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The assessment for Moderatorship Part II for 2016/17 is as follows:

1. Language 1 – two exam papers x 2 hrs each (Translation into French and résumé)

2. Language paper II – one exam paper x 3 hrs (Translation from French and essay)

3. Topic I (submitted work and examination)

4. Topic II (submitted work and examination)

5. Special subject (dissertation) or equivalent to be submitted in English or French

6. Viva voce examination

The oral examination takes place in the presence of an extern examiner. As part of this

examination, candidates will be required to deliver an oral exposé on one of two subjects

chosen by the candidate, and approved in advance. The examination is followed

immediately by discussion of the candidate’s dissertation, which may result in a

modification of the provisional mark given.

Candidates should note that, following comments from extern examiners concerning an

unduly narrow focus of study in some instances, all ‘Topic’ papers will carry the rubric that

candidates should avoid excessive overlap with dissertation subjects.

More detailed information relating to exam requirements and marking will be published in

the Senior Sophister Handbook which will be posted, in due course, on the Department

Website.

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Senior Sophister Courses 2016/17

NB Where a course is undersubscribed, the course may not be offered.

1. Counter-Revolution Extreme Right(s) and Fascism in French Culture and Politics 1870-1945 FR4037 (Dr. Arnold)____________________________________________________________________The objectives of this course are to give students an insight into one of the main

varieties of European fascism and a good understanding of the intellectual, political,

social and historical climate of France during the Third Republic. This approach will

focus upon literary, political and cultural manifestations of French fascism and extreme

right-wing thought which originated in the intellectual climate of the Belle Epoque and

its "fin-de-siècle” mood of cultural crisis, were developed during the interwar years and

were forcibly expressed during the Occupation years. The interest of studying the

precursors of French fascism(s) resides in the fact that many of the themes developed

in France in the Belle Epoque fed the ideology of Italian Fascism and Nazism. This has

led many (mainly non-French) scholars to consider France as being the country which

"invented" fascism. Other historians, notably from France, champion the thèse

immunitaire school of historiography, and refuse to accept that fascism ever existed in

France.

The first part of the course will evaluate the importance of the intellectual and historical

precursors of French counter-revolutionary thought and fascism. This will include the

study of the individuals (Drumont, Barrès, Maurras) and movements (Action Française,

Ligue de la Patrie Française, Ligue des Patriotes) involved in events such as

Boulangism and the Dreyfus Affair, and the concomitant antisemitism, racialism and

nationalism. The succession of guerres franco-françaises is a recurring theme which

helps to understand the dynamics of confrontation in French politics, this “vieille

propension gauloise aux divisions et aux querelles” in the words of de Gaulle. The

writings of Communist, Marxist and Marxist revisionist theorists (Guesde, Jaurès, Blum)

will also be briefly studied to give a contextual perspective to these emerging anti-

enlightenment themes.

The second part of the course will investigate the profound catalytic influence of the

Great War on the emergence of fascist doctrines, intellectuals and movements. A clear

distinction can be made between literary, intellectual fascism (Drieu la Rochelle,

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Brasillach, Céline, Rebatet) and fascist or conservative-reactionary movements (le

Faisceau, les Croix de Feu, le PSF, les Jeunesses Patriotes, le Francisme, la Cagoule,

le PPF). The period of the Occupation and Vichy France −the third section of the

course− is considered by some scholars to be the culminating point of the fascist

temptation in France. Others see it as a return to conservative, reactionary values of

pre-revolutionary France and not necessarily as a pure expression of French fascism.

Particular emphasis will be placed on the importance of the French Revolution in the

development of modern right-wing ideologies, on defining the conundrum of fascism, on

the dynamics of memorialisation of the Occupation (the gaullist myth/Résistancialisme),

on the fragmented nature of collective memory/amnesia, and on the official policy of

concealment of this period in successive post-war governments.

The final section of the course will analyse the ideology and political myths of the Front

National in France, and ask the question whether the movement of le Pen père et fille

has reactivated many of the aspects of this ideological tradition in France, or indeed

whether the FN is a direct continuation of this tradition.

This course will be based on the study of primary sources of a varying nature (novels,

autobiographies, political and economic programmes, visual and spoken propaganda,

newspaper articles, films).

Recommended reading:

ARNOLD, Edward J. (ed.), The Development of the Radical Right in France. From

Boulanger to Le Pen London, Macmillan, 2000, 285p (ISBN n° 0-333-79037.5).

CHEBEL D'APPOLLONIA, Ariane, L'Extrême-droite en France. De Maurras à Le Pen,

Bruxelles, Ed.Complexe (coll. "Questions au XXème siècle"), 447p.

DAVIES, Peter, The Extreme Right in France, 1789 to the Present, London,

Routeledge, 2002, 209p.

GIRARDET, Raoul, Mythes et mythologies politiques, Paris, éditions du Seuil (coll.

“Points-Histoire” H129), 1986, 216p.

GOODLIFFE, Gabriel, The Resurgence of the Radical Right in France: From

Boulangisme to the Front National, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2012,

376p.

JENKINS, Brian, France in the Era of Fascism. Essays on the French Authoritarian

Right, New York, Oxford, Berghan Books, 2005, viii + 232p.

MILZA, Pierre, Fascisme français : Passé et Présent, Paris, Flammarion, 1987, 465p.

(Réédition Flammarion, collection "Champs", 1987, 469p).

REMOND, René, Les Droites en France, Paris, Aubier, (Coll.historique), 1982, 544p.Page 7 of 15

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Les Droites aujourd'hui, Paris, Louis Audibert Editions, 2005, 269p.

SHIELDS, J. G., The Extreme Right in France: From Petain to Le Pen, London,

Routledge, 2007, xx + 412p.

WEBSTER, Paul, Pétain's crime. The Full Story of French Collaboration in the

Holocaust, Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1990, 330p.

WINOCK, Michel, Nationalisme, antisémitisme et fascisme en France, Paris, Ed du

Seuil (coll. "Points-Histoire"; H131), 1990, 444p.

La Fièvre Hexagonale. Les grandes crises politiques, 1871-1968, Paris, Ed. du

Seuil (coll. "Points-Histoire", n°97), 1990, 467p.

Histoire de l'extrême droite en France (sous la direction de M. WINOCK), Paris,

Éd. du Seuil (coll. "XXe siècle"), 1993, 329p.

2. Visions and Revisions of Enlightenment FR4029 (Dr. Hanrahan)_____________________________________________________________

Lumières, Illuminismo, Aufklärung, Enlightenment: the ‘Age of Reason’ saw a

Europe-wide movement of intense intellectual activity during the eighteenth

century that led to dramatic social change across the continent. In France, it

created the possibility for revolutionary upheaval and it has left us an intellectual

heritage in the form of categories of understanding that still dominate Western

thought: science, progress, equality, justice, toleration and individualism have lost

none of their importance as concepts in social and political life. Indeed, examining

the intellectual and socio-cultural origins of these concepts gives us a better

understanding of contemporary debates, provided we do so critically. What is

Enlightenment and how was its nature and influence measured by the major

thinkers of the eighteenth century? How have subsequent periods viewed this

heritage? This course will examine the intellectual and social practices of the

Enlightenment through the study of a series of important eighteenth-century texts.

It will then consider the legacy of the Enlightenment through the study of extracts

from key critical texts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Enlightenment texts:Condorcet, Esquisse d’un tableau historique des progrès de l’esprit humain (1795)

Diderot and D’Alembert, Encyclopédie

Diderot, Pensées sur l'interprétation de la nature (1754)

Kant, ‘Qu’est-ce que les lumières?’ (1784)Page 8 of 15

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Rousseau, Discours sur les sciences et les arts (1750)

---, Discours sur l’origine de l’inégalité (1755)

---, Du contrat social (1762)

Voltaire, L'Essai sur les moeurs (1750)

Critiques of Enlightenment :M. Foucault, 'Qu'est-ce que les Lumières' (1980)

J. Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1961)

M. Horkheimer and T.W. Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947)

G. de Staël, De la littérature (1800)

H. Taine, L’Ancien régime (1875)

A. de Tocqueville, L’Ancien Régime et la Révolution (1856)

3. Language and Society in the French-speaking world: status, diversity and function. FR4043 (Dr Hoare MT/ Dr Lyons HT)_____________________________________________________________

This course comprises a sociolinguistic exploration of the French language, and its

varieties throughout La Francophonie. The focus is on the relationship between

language and society, covering such topics as language variation and innovation,

bilingualism, diglossia, ethnolinguistics and code-switching, with specific reference

to the French language. The Topic will comprise two main parts:

Part one The position of French in the world. (Dr. Hoare)We will examine the diversity of the French-speaking world and the function

of French in specific countries and regions:

Is French a ‘world language’?

French as a first language in Europe and North America

o Case studies: language related rivalries

o Switzerland, Belgium, Canada

o Multilingualism and language policy

French as a second language: the colonial heritage in Africa and the

Dom Tom territories.

o Multilingualism and language policy

o Linguistic and non-linguistic factors

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Part two Exploring Sociolinguistic Variation in Francophonie (Dr Lyons)

sociolinguistic surveys of variation in Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Africa, Haiti etc. (and, I don't know if you include it, the Pacific);

the extent to which variation exists at the levels of phonology, grammar, lexis and discourse, and why it does; and

the extent to which linguistic changes currently in progress suggest convergence or divergence of varieties within France and the Francophonie.

Teaching will be by lecture, seminar and student presentation. The material

studied will come from a variety of sources, including linguistic journals (these

will be made available to students on Blackboard), audio materials and

electronic sources. In addition, students should consult the materials on the

website of La délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France. http://www.dglf.culture.gouv.fr/

Recommended reading:Ager, D. (1995) Francophonie in the 1990’s: Problems and opportunities,

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ager D. (1990) Sociolinguistics and Contemporary French, Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press

Ball, R. The French-speaking World: A practical introduction to sociolinguistic

issues. London: Routledge.

Kline, M. and Mellerski, N. (2004) Issues in the French-Speaking World. CT:

Greenwood Press.

Sanders, C. (ed.) (1993) French Today: Language in its social context,

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

4. The Limits of Literature FR4047 (Dr. Lukes)

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_____________________________________________________________

The beginning of the twentieth century witnessed an explosion of artistic creativity

in France and across Europe. Artists, writers, and poets began questioning the

conditions that had led to the madness of the First World War and expressed

doubts about whether art was capable of representing the chaos of the times.

How was it possible for mankind to have lost its reason to such an extent? What

did this reveal about our cultural foundations and the processes through which we

conventionally made sense of the world and of our lives? Literature in particular

became the testing ground for critiquing man’s claim to rationality: by revealing the

limits of our mastery over language and the insufficiency of our linguistic tools,

writers and poets not only explored the ways in which our conventional processes

of sense-making could be destabilized but also pushed literature to confront its

limits by looking at what may lie beyond them.

This course will explore these fertile years according to a two-fold approach: on

the one hand, by focusing on the different literary practices developed by poets

and writers to respond to the madness of the times (such as Surrealist

explorations of the fine line between dream and reality, sense and nonsense,

reason and unreason—particularly in the works of Apollinaire, Breton, Eluard,

Artaud, Leiris, Bataille); on the other hand, by analysing the significance of these

practices as a way of questioning the very conception of literary limits (exploring

the cross-disciplinary dialogue between visual and verbal that motivated painters,

film-makers, and photographers—such as Dalí, Magritte, Buñuel, Man Ray).

COURSE TEXTS Apollinaire, Guillaume. Calligrammes. Paris: Gallimard. Poésie, 1966.

Artaud, Antonin. La coquille et le clergyman (film)

Bataille, Georges. Documents (online)

Breton, André. Manifestes du surréalisme. Paris: Gallimard. Coll: Folio Essais,

1985

Breton, André. Nadja. Paris: Gallimard. Coll: Folio, 1972

Dalí & Buñuel. Un chien andalou (film)

Richard Calvocoressi. Magritte (Colour Library). Phaidon Press; New edition,

1998.

Néret, Gilles. Dalí. Taschen France, 2011.

Garcia, Erin C. Man Ray in Paris. Tate Publishing, 2011.

5. The Art of Representation: From Plato to Artaud (FR4xxx Dr Opelz)Page 11 of 15

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_____________________________________________________________

As far as Western aesthetics is concerned, our categories for making sense

of art – whether we accept or reject them, forgo or forget them, deconstruct

or reconstruct them – are still fundamentally determined by what Plato and

the Greeks called mimesis (generally translated as “representation”). Century

after century, and however powerfully undermined, the Platonic model to

interpret the practice, process, or experience of art continues to dominate

Western thought and culture, giving rise to endless debates both inside and

outside the philosophical field. At the heart of these debates lies the question

of theatre. To this day, it is as if the question of representation cannot be

adequately addressed – or indeed addressed at all – without addressing the

question of theatre.

Moving across different centuries, the purpose of this module is to explore

the political, philosophical, affective, and aesthetic implications of

understanding the art of representation through theatre. Three key French

figures will guide us through the pressing issues that Western theories of the

theatre compel us to confront: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1788),

Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898), and Antonin Artaud (1896-1948). After

examining extracts from works by Plato and Aristotle, we shall look at the

ways in which Rousseau, Mallarmé, and Artaud decisively engage with – and

problematize – received notions of theatre and representation. As such, the

module will offer students an opportunity to address the issues at stake from

a variety of perspectives (that of a philosopher, a poet, and a dramatist) and

periods (the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries), as well as to

engage with more contemporary interpretations of theatre (Derrida, Lacoue-

Labarthe, Taminiaux, etc.).

Designed to assist students in expanding both their analytical skills and their

conceptual language, the module will be especially useful for those with an

interest in literary theory and, more generally, in the age-old conversation

between philosophy and literature. Whilst prior knowledge of philosophical

texts is not a requirement, students should be prepared to engage with

philosophical questions. Taught in French, the module is assessed by an

essay (2,500-3000 words) and a three-hour written examination.

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Primary texts:

Platon, extraits de La République, trad. P. Pachet (Gallimard, coll. Folio Essais, 1993).

Aristote, extraits de La Poétique, trad. R. Dupont-Roc et J. Lallot (Le Seuil, coll. Poétique, 1980).

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Lettre à d’Alembert sur les spectacles, éd. M. Buffat (Flammarion, coll. GF, 2003).

Stéphane Mallarmé, “Crayonné au théâtre”, in Igitur, Divagations, Un coup de dés, éd. B. Marchal (Gallimard, coll. NFR/Poésie, 2003).

Antonin Artaud, Le Théâtre et son double (Gallimard, coll. Folio Essais, 1964).

_____________________________________________________________

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Special Subject 2016/17 (Dissertation)

The choice of a Special Subject is left to the individual student. However, this choice

must be agreed with a member of the teaching staff of the Department of French,

who will act as supervisor. By special arrangement with the head of department,

supervision may be sought from a member of staff in a cognate department. You

should therefore consult members of staff about a dissertation subject at the earliest

opportunity and obtain his or her signature showing agreement in principle. The

following list is intended to give students an idea of each member of staff’s academic

interests. The subject of your dissertation should be indicated on the form supplied,

but it is recognized that this subject may be modified or defined more closely in due

course. The number of students to be supervised by any member of staff will be

limited: you are advised to take action without delay.

Sarah ALYN-STACEY French Renaissance poetry. French Renaissance literature,

with particular reference to Marc-Claude de Buttet and the court circle of Marguerite

de France, duchesse de Savoie. Classical and Italian influences on French

Renaissance literature. Comparative Renaissance literature (French, English,

Italian). Critical theory, notably its application to Renaissance texts and also the

related concerns of intertextuality and literary hermeneutics. Contemporary cinema.

(On sabbatical in Michaelmas Term 2016)

Edward J. ARNOLD Twentieth-century French intellectual, political and social

history: history of ideas in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Europe; right

and left-wing, counter-revolutionary, fascist and national-populist thought in France,

1880s to the present.

James HANRAHAN While my area of research is the Enlightenment, I

would be happy to supervise dissertations that deal with literary history,

cultural history, the history of ideas. I would also be very interested in projects

on the literature, history, or culture of the Enlightenment, particularly Voltaire,

Rousseau, or Diderot; the historiography of the Enlightenment and the ancien

régime; history of ideas and histoire des mentalitiés; history of intellectuals

and public opinion.

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Rachel HOARE Linguistics. Second language acquisition. Sociolinguistics of

French, especially attitudes towards regional languages and varieties in France.

Language variation. (Rachel is on sabbatical in Hilary Term 2017. However, she is

available to supervise dissertations during Michaelmas Term 2016. Supervision of

these will be passed to Dr. Zach Lyons during Hilary Term 2017).

Claire LAUDET Second language acquisition. French for specific purposes.

Course design, teaching materials development, programme evaluation.

Alexandra LUKES Nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature; relations

between literature, psychoanalysis, philosophy, and linguistics; madness,

nonsense, and marginal forms of writing; translation studies and translation

theory; literary bilingualism; autobiography.

Hannes OPELZ 20th-century French literature and thought; relations

between literature, philosophy, politics, and affect; deconstruction; Maurice

Blanchot; Georges Bataille; Jacques Derrida; Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe..

Paule SALERNO-O'SHEA Business French, Direct Marketing. (On sabbatical in

Michaelmas Term 2016)

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