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First-Person Outsiders in Modern French Literature

Module description

This module explores five works dating from the early 19^th century to the present. All are written in the first person and from the perspective of an outsider figure, and all dramatise the relationship between self and other. The module examines the reasons why an author might choose to speak from an outsider’s perspective, and what effects might be produced by this strategy. Lectures will offer an introduction to the significance given to the outsider figure in French literary history, and will discuss relevant historical, cultural, critical and theoretical frameworks for each of the primary texts. Seminars will engage in close readings and discussion of the primary texts and selected critical and/or theoretical texts.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module will  introduce you to works by five French-language authors from the 19^th century to the present day: two are from the first decades of the nineteenth century, two from the recent past, and one from the mid-twentieth century. It will consider the depiction of the outsider, in these texts, both as a critical observer with whom readers are tacitly invited to identify and as a disruptive element within the social group, whom readers might be tempted to censure. In the case of each primary text, you will explore the significance of the outsider figure as represented within a given historical and cultural context:  the aristocratic, Romantic soul  who carries a dark secret with him from 18th-century France to his new home among the native American people of Louisiana (Chateaubriand); the black woman transported from Senegal to late 18^th-century Paris;  the pied noir who appears to be tried for the wrong crime in mid-20^th-century Algeria (Camus); the Belgian woman hired as an interpreter who struggles to find her place in a Tokyo firm until she is sent to work in the toilets (Nothomb); and the lesbian Muslim woman growing up in the Parisian banlieue (Daas) You will deepen your understanding of narrative theory and theories of otherness (post-colonial, existential, gender, psychoanalytic) and will engage with ideas about literary reception and canon formation.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate detailed knowledge of selected primary texts and of the narrative strategies deployed within them.
• 2. Demonstrate an understanding of appropriate historical, cultural, critical and theoretical contexts.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. After initial input from the course tutor, apply and evaluate critical approaches to the material under analysis independently.
• 4. Analyse and critically compare/ contrast texts in the TL, showing awareness of their relation to the social, historical and cultural context in which they were written, and present the results orally and in writing.
• 5. Access and critically use secondary resources identified as useful by the course tutor.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 6. Demonstrate sound research, bibliographic and presentation skills.
• 7. Adopt a critical approach to the selection and organisation of a large body of material in order to produce, to a deadline, a written argument of some complexity.

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Lectures will give an introduction to the significance given to the outsider in French literary history, and will discuss relevant historical, cultural, critical and theoretical contexts for the primary texts.
• Seminars will engage in close readings and critical discussion of the primary texts and selected secondary texts.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Camus, Albert, L’Étranger (Paris: Gallimard, 1972)
• Chateaubriand, François-René de, René (Paris: Hatier, 2012)
• Daas, Fatima, La Petite Dernière (Paris: Hachette, 2021)
• De Duras, Madame, Ourika (Paris: Gallimard, 2010)
• Nothomb, Amélie, Stupeur et tremblements (Paris: Magnard, 2009)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE : https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11642

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

• Ansel, Yves, Albert Camus, totem et tabou: Politique de la postérité (Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2012)
• Ernaux, Annie, ‘Vers un je transpersonnel’, in Autofictions & Cie, ed. Serge Doubrovsky, Jacques Lecarme et Philippe Lejeune (Université de Paris X, 2000)
• Grell, Isabelle, Autofiction (Paris, Belin, 2014).
• Genette, Gérard, Nouveau discours du récit (Seuil, 1983)
• Glowinski, Michal, ‘Sur le roman à la première personne’, Poétique, n^o 72 (1987), p. 497-506.
• Kristeva, Julia, Étrangers à nous-mêmes (Folio essais, 1991)
• Rabaté, Dominique, Vers une littérature de l’épuisement (José Corti, 1991)
• Sarraute, Nathalie, ‘L’Ère du soupçon’, in L’Ère du soupçon: Essais sur le roman (Gallimard, 1987)

Key words search

First-person narrator, first-person narrative, outsider figures, Chateaubriand, Claire de Duras, Albert Camus, Amélie Nothomb, Fatima Daas