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Semester 1

Recognition Struggles in Contemporary France (Ordinary) (ELCF09038)

Subject

European Languages and Cultures - French

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

In order to be eligible to take 3rd/4th Year Options, Visiting Students should have the equivalent of at least two years of study at University level of the appropriate language(s) and culture(s).

Course Summary

This course engages with the different recognition struggles that have emerged since decolonisation in contemporary France. It focuses on the struggles of ethnic and religious minorities (Jewish, Muslim, African and Afro-Caribbean) to achieve political recognition for different histories of trauma, including slavery, colonisation and the Holocaust.

Course Description

'Recognition Struggles in Contemporary France' investigates the socio-political struggles of different ethnic minorities and their attempts to achieve state recognition and reparation for the different histories of trauma affecting their communities. The course examines how France's historical involvement in crimes against humanity (slavery and the Holocaust), as well as other histories of human exploitation and oppression, continues to impact negatively upon African, Jewish and Muslim minority groups. It engages with issues such as: identity formation and shifting ideas on national identity; immigration and integration; memory and trauma theory; social justice and societal racism; and political activism and minority voice. A wide variety of primary sources, including political documents, memory laws, film clips, newspaper reports and political speeches, will be used to provide students with an in-depth knowledge of the historical traumas that connect the past to the present, the wide variety of social responses to the impact of trauma, and the multiple theoretical approaches that can be taken to 'repair' the past. Course content: Students will be provided with an excellent theoretical grounding in theories relating to recognition and identity struggles, memory and trauma, social justice theory and postcolonialism. These will then be applied through different case studies focusing on particular histories of trauma, their effects on different groups and how these groups have mobilised to achieve political recognition. Three case studies will be investigated, inviting comparisons between the state's treatment of different ethnic and religious groups. Examples include: migrants from the former French colonies, notably those from North Africa, and the fraught memories of colonialism in contemporary France; the Jewish community and social movements to remember France's role in the Holocaust; and the Afro-Caribbean population and the struggle for recognition linked to the history of France's enslavement and genocide of African, Indian, Malagasy and indigenous Caribbean peoples. Student learning experience: This is a lecture and seminar-based course. On a week-by-week basis, students will be provided with relevant materials and pointed to recommended secondary reading (through the resource list). The first half of the course will focus on theory, with a mixture of lectures and seminars, while the second half of the course will focus on the different case studies, leading to class discussions based on set texts and wider reading. Students' learning and understanding will be tested through a variety of formative and summative assessments, including essay writing, project design and extended essay, and oral presentations.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%

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