Essential module information – please note that the information provided here is for the
stated year/ semester only and may change in subsequent sessions.
Module: FR4180 – Modern French Thought
Credits
15
Year/Semester
2014-15/Semester 1
Module Co-ordinator
Dr Elodie Laügt
Tutors
Dr Elodie Laügt
Contact Details
email: el40@st-andrews.ac.uk
Module Surgery Hours
Monday 11-12 and Thursday 11-12noon.
Module Description
This module will aim to give students a better sense and knowledge of the area of
humanities known as “critical theory”. Main critical and intellectual currents will be studied,
such as existentialism, structuralism, semiology, deconstruction, and feminism. Texts by
key authors of the second half of the twentieth century will be analysed to show how the
notions of language, knowledge and power as well as gender issues have evolved, how
they are connected and how they are currently interpreted on the French contemporary
literary and intellectual scene. This module will draw on the knowledge of French language,
literature, history, society and politics gained by students at Level 1 and 2 as well as in
other honours modules, and it will encourage them to view them from a number of
different critical perspectives developed in the second half of the 20th century by French
thinkers and intellectuals.
Teaching and Learning
The module sessions are as follows.
Sessions
Frequency 1.5hrs week
When Monday 2-4pm
Where B312
Essential module information – please note that the information provided here is for the
stated year/ semester only and may change in subsequent sessions.
Assessment
The module will be assessed as outlined below:
Assessment
Summative
essay
Due Date
Week 8
Examination
% of Module
Mark
40%
Description
2500 word essay or
commentary
Submission
Details
Turnitin on MMS
and hardcopy to
School Office
60%
Reading list
The core reading list for this module is:
Jean-Paul Sartre, L'existentialisme est un humanisme. Paris: Galllimard, 1996.
Roland Barthes, Fragments d'un discours amoureux, in Œuvres Complètes V. Paris:
Seuil, [1977] (extracts provided by the lecturer).
Hélène Cixous, La jeune née. Paris: 18/18, 1975 (extracts provided by the lecturer).
Luce Irigaray, J’aime à toi. Paris: Grasset, 1992 (extracts provided by the lecturer)
Fathy Safaa, D'ailleurs Derrida (DVD).
K. Dick and A.Z. Kofman, Derrida (DVD).
Jacques Derrida, ‘Lettre à un ami japonais’. Psychée. Inventions de l’autre II, Paris:
Galilée, 2003 (text provided by the lecturer)
Jean-Luc Nancy, Identité: Fragments, franchises. Paris: Galilée, 2010
Week-by-week programme
The programme for this module is outlined below:
Week 1
Introduction
Week 2
Sartre, L'existentialisme est un humanisme
Week 3
Barthes, Fragments d'un discours amoureux
Week 4
Barthes, Fragments d'un discours amoureux
Week 5
Cixous, La jeune née
Essential module information – please note that the information provided here is for the
stated year/ semester only and may change in subsequent sessions.
Week 6
Irigaray, J'aime à toi
Week 7
Derrida, “Lettre à un ami japonais”
Week 8
Dick & Kofman Derrida
Week 9
Fathy, D’ailleurs Derrida
Week 10
Nancy, Identité: Fragments, franchises
Week 11
Conclusion