French Orientalisms

Subject 116-472 (2009)

Note: This is an archived Handbook entry from 2009. Search for this in the current handbook

Credit Points: 12.50
Level: 4 (Undergraduate)
Dates & Locations:

This subject is not offered in 2009.
Time Commitment: Contact Hours: Two hours of seminars per week
Total Time Commitment: 2 contact hours/week , 8 additional hours/week. Total of 10 hours per week.
Prerequisites: Admission to the postgraduate diploma or fourth-year honours in French.
Corequisites: None
Recommended Background Knowledge: None
Non Allowed Subjects: None
Core Participation Requirements:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

Contact

Dr Jacqueline Dutton
jld@unimelb.edu.au
Subject Overview: TThis course explores major developments in French representations of the Orient of the last 150 years from a new millennium perspective. The Exotic beckons and seduces, inspiring desire and stimulating the imagination, yet fictional accounts can be construed as complicit with totalitarian regimes. The authors treated in the course, including Pierre Loti, Paul Claudel, Victor Segalen, Andre Malraux, Marguerite Duras, and Roland Barthes, each experienced a deep dissatisfaction with modern European values, followed by a turn toward the East. However, due to different class, gender, and personal backgrounds, they entertained diverse and complex relationships to (post)colonial ideology, which they both served and subverted at the same time. By examining techniques of representation and the authors' ambiguous constructions of the Orient, the course challenges the dichotomy that is frequently drawn between the Western colonial Self and the Eastern exotic Other. New fictional and critical texts take us into the era of the post-exotic.
Objectives:
  • demonstrate in-depth knowledge of a particular topic in French culture or linguistics;
  • demonstrate the ability to analyse, and to report on their reading in a manner appropriate to the methodology adopted.
Assessment: A 30-minute class paper of 1500 words 35% (written version due 1 week after presentation), a 2500-word essay 45% (due 1 week after the end of semester), and brief presentations on key issues for discussion (using net resources) totalling 1000 words 20% (due at regular intervals during the semester).
Prescribed Texts: A subject reader will be available for purchase from the University Bookshop.
Breadth Options:

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.
Fees Information: Subject EFTSL, Level, Discipline & Census Date
Generic Skills:
Related Majors/Minors/Specialisations: French
French
French

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