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Course details
Autobiographie Littéraire Contemporaine (Ordinary) (ELCF09006)
Subject Area
European Languages and Cultures - French
Pre-requisites
In order to be eligible to take 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).
Credits
20
Course level
SCQF Level 9 (Year 3 Undergraduate)
Course description
In recent decades, self-writing has enjoyed great popularity in France. Yet modern French authors find the writing of the self to be an enterprise always on the threshold of failure: 'Qui-est "je"?'/'Je est un autre' (Rimbaud). This option examines the theory and practice of modern and contemporary autobiography in French. Explorations of personal identity by some of France's foremost writers will constitute the starting point for considering the problems inherent in trying to seize the self in writing. Insights from key French philosophical and literary movements (e.g. psychoanalysis, existentialism, the new novel), as well as from modern French thought, will inform our study. The importance of memory and the past to the establishment of a sense of identity will be analysed, as well as to difficulties in negotiating identity which may result from the subject's ethnicity, gender or sexuality. Amongst other potential themes to be covered are: estrangement and belonging, testimony and confession, truth and fiction. The option is seminar-led, with regular student presentations.
Timetable
View the timetable and assessment information for this course
Course delivered by
College of Humanities and Social Science
School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures
This article was published on Feb 24, 2012