fr 304 paris

FR 304 – IDENTITÉS SOCIOLOGIQUES ET (AUTO)BIOGRAPHIQUES
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Lecturers: Dr Dervila Cooke (Coordinator)
Teaching: 1.5 Lectures per week
Period: Semester 1
Assessment: 2-hour Examination at end of Semester 1
Semester Essay, c. week 8
Weighting: 60 marks (Exam 45 + Semester Essay 15)
ECTS: 2.5 credits (BA); 2 credits (BEd)
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Description:
Learning
Outcomes:
The course involves the in-depth study and analysis of two texts by the contemporary
writer Annie Ernaux, allowing students to consider in detail different types of textual
narration and the ethnographic/documentary/life-writing impulses. Journal du dehors
relays Ernaux’s sociological and personal observations in the urban settings of the Ville
nouvelle of Cergy-Pontoise and the centre of Paris, as well as during her travels by public
transport. The biographical text, La Place, another sociologically-focused work,
concentrates on Ernaux’s family background and on some of the attitudes that have
informed her writing. Social class is a key issue in both texts. Also vital is Ernaux’s
attention to – and valuing of – daily experience (le quotidien) and ordinary life (whether
this be the urban experience of the individual-amid-the masses, or the experiences of her
parents as ouvriers originally from poor farming backgrounds who graduated to the
tenuously middle-class status of petits-commerçants). The link between the
autobiographical and sociological will be discussed both in terms of the personal and
subjective elements of her writing, and of her idea of an écriture neutre (or indeed an
écriture photographique). How, for example, do issues of personal identity coexist with
her notion of the ethnotexte? Ernaux’s deliberately accessible and non-literary writing
(her écriture plate) will be examined in terms of technique and motivation, with La Place
allowing particular insight into how she views language.
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After engaging satisfactorily with the course and completing the required exercises,
readings and study, you will be able to:
(LO1) appreciate some of the sociological issues underlying the works, including
questions of class, urban life, education, and (post)modernity ;
(LO2) evaluate the presence and manifestations of authorial subjectivity and identity in
the works ;
(LO3) discuss questions relating to language, style, and technique ;
(LO4) appraise and incorporate judgements from the key critical literature on the works
studied ;
(LO5) compare and contrast the works studied from various perspectives.
The Examination and Semester Essay components assess the indicated Learning
Outcomes:

LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4 LO5
Examination
Semester Essay
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Requirements: Successful completion of the second-year BA or BEd programme.
Language:
The working language of this course is French.
Texts: Annie Ernaux, Journal du dehors (1993)
Annie Ernaux, La Place (1983)
Reference:
Secondary
Reading:
Oxford Hachette English-French French-English Dictionary
List supplied by lecturer.
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