| Module Identifier |
FRM0330 |
| Module Title |
PROBLEMS OF REPRESENTATION IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF MODERNITY |
| Academic Year |
2006/2007 |
| Co-ordinator |
To Be Arranged |
| Semester |
Intended for use in future years |
| Next year offered |
N/A |
| Next semester offered |
N/A |
| Course delivery |
Lecture | 12 Hours. |
| Assessment |
| Assessment Type | Assessment Length/Details | Proportion |
|---|
| Semester Exam | 3 Hours | 60% |
| Semester Assessment | Continuous Assessment: Essay of 2500 words and commentary of 1500 words on a set text | 40% |
|
Learning outcomes
On completion of this module students will be able to:
-
articulate and understand debates around the literary representation of reality
-
describe eighteenth-century theories of mimesis
-
trace the development of these theories in the nineteenth century
-
relate these theories to twentieth-century critical thinking
-
offer critical analysis of primary texts
-
use secondary literature with an appropriate level of sophistication
-
acquire and demonstrate analytical skills
-
read critically, with a sensitivity to language or 'textuality'
-
demonstrate a sophisticated grasp of the relationship between form and content
Those students who wish to go on with their studies should be able to demonstrate that they have a solid foundation for postgraduate research.
The learning outcomes above will be explicitly tested by the independent research, undertaken on the student's own personal initiative, and production of the essay. Both forms of assessment specifically consolidate developments and debates covered in the course. The 3 hour examination will be designed to test further the students' acquisition of the outcomes described.
Brief description
This module studies in depth the development of theories and practice of representation from the late eighteenth century to the late twentieth century. The four writers will be considered both as theorists and practitioners. Close critical reading of their work will provide students with a detailed knowledge of the issues and debates around contemporary critical discussion of mimesis, as well as the periods under consideration.
Content
week 1: The painting of modern life: an introduction
week 2: Diderot and mimesis
week 3: The case of 'Jacques le Fataliste'
week 4: The 'Golden Age' of the Realist novel
week 5: The decadent Reality: Huysmans' 'A Rebours'
week 6: Student presentations
week 7: Poetry and plagiarism: the case of Lautreamont
week 8: 'The Society of the Spectacle': cinema and revolution
week 9: 'Commentaries on the Society of the Spectacle': reading Guy Debord
week 10: 'The World is Illusion': The last words of Guy Debord
week 11: Student presentations and Conclusions (two sessions)
Reading Lists
Books
Agamben, Giorgio (1998) 'Le cinema de Guy Debord', in Image et memoire
Hoebeke
Apostolides, Jean-Marie (1998) Les Tombeaux de Guy Debord
Exils Editeurs
Baudelaire, Charles (1975) 'Le peintre de la vie moderne', in Oeuvres completes, vol. 2
Gallimard
Birkett, Jennifer (1986) The Sins of the Fathers: Decadence in France, 1870-1914
Quartet
Bremner, G. (1985) Diderot: 'Jacques le Fataliste'
Grant & Cutler
Bremner, G. (1983) Order and Chance: The Pattern of Diderot' Thought
Cambridge University Press
Brewer, Daniel (1993) The Discourse of Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century France: Diderot and the Art of Philosoophizing
Cambridge University Press
Brombert, Victor (1975) La Prison romantique: essai su l'imaginaire
Corti
Chouillet, Jacques (1973) La Formation des idees esthetiques de Diderot
Armand Colin
Clark, T. J. (1985) The Painting of Modern Life, Paris in the Art of Manet and his followers
Thames and Hudson
Clark, Timothy and Donald Nicholson-Smith (1997) 'Why Art Can' Kills the Situationist International', in October, 79
Cogny, P. (1953) J.-K. Huysmans a la recherche de l'unite
Corti
Debord, Guy (1993) La societe du spectacle
Gallimard
Debord, Guy Panegyrique
vol. 1. Gerard Lebovici, 1989 (reprinted Gallimard, 1993)
Debord, Guy (1997) Panegyrique
vol. 2. Artheme Fayard
Debord, Guy (with Gianfranco Sanguenetti) La veritable scission dans l'Internationale
Champ Libre, 1972 (reprinted Artheme Fayard, 1998)
Diderot, Denis (1962) 'Jacques le Fataliste' in Oeuvres romanesques
Garnier
Diderot, Denis (1968) selected pieces from 'Oeuvres esthetiques', ed Verniere
Garnier
Diderot, Denis (1961) selected pieces from 'Oeuvres philosophiques', ed Verniere
Garnier
Diderot, Denis (1984) selected pieces from 'Salon de 1765' , ed Bukdahl and Lorenceau
Hermann
Doyle, Natalie (1992-93) 'Against Modernity: The decadent voyage in Huysmans' A Rebours', in Romance Studies, 21
Ducasse, Isidore (1985) comte de Lautreamont, Chants de Maldoror
Garnier-Flammarion
Dumontier, Pascal (1990) Les Situationanistes et mai 68: Theorie et pratique de la revolution 1966-1972
Gerard Lebovici
France, Peter (1983) Diderot [Past Masters]
Guilbert, Cecile (2000) Le Musee Nationale
Gallimard
Guilbert, Cecile (1996) Pour Guy Debord
Gallimard
Guy Debord (film) (1995) Guy Debord, son art et son temps
Canal + Television, Paris
Guy Debord (film) (1973) La societe du spectacle
Simar Films, Paris
Hussey, Andrew (2000) 'La Divinite d'Isou': The making of a name and a messiah, in Forum for Modern Language Studies
vol. XXXVI. Oxford University Press
Hussey, Andrew (1999) Abolish everything!, in The London Review of Books
Hussey, Andrew (2000) La guerre de l'art: L'art de la guerre. Les exiles situationnistes et pre-situationnistes, in Autour de la creation de l'internationale situationniste
Editions Sulliver
Hussey, Andrew (2001) The Game of War, The Life and Death of Guy Debord
Jonathan Cape
Huysmans, J.-K. (1978) A Rebours
Garnier-Flammarion
Lloyd, Christopher (1990) J.-K. Huysmans and the 'Fin-de-siecle'
Edinburgh University Press
Marcus, Greil (1989) Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twenthieth Century
Harvard University Press
Marmande, Francis (1994) Guy Debord, esthete de la subversion, in Le Monde
Matthews, J. H. (1988-89) Andre Breton, J.-K.Huysmans, 'ces abominables Zola et autres' in Nineteenth-Century French Studies, 17
Mension, Jean-Michel (1998) La Tribu
Allia
Prendergast, Christopher (1992) Paris and the Nineteenth Century
Blackwell
Prendergast, Christopher (1986) The Order of Mimesis
Cambridge University Press
Pruner, F. (1970) L'Unite secrete de 'Jacques le Fataliste'
Minard
Rousseau, Nicolas (1997) Diderot: L'ecriture Romanesque a l'epreuve du sensible
Champion
Smietanski, Jacques (1965) Le Realisme dans 'Jacques le Fataliste'
Nizet
Soulier, Jean-Pierre (1977) Lautreamont: genie ou maladie mentale
Nizet
Zayed, Fernande (1973) Huysmans peintre de son epoque
Nizet
de Haes, Frans (1986) Images de Lautreamont: Isidore Ducasse, comte de Lautreamont; histoire d'une renommee et etat de la question
PUF
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 7