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Les Miserables from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day

Module description

This module will explore the text of Victor Hugo’s ground-breaking novel, analysing its importance within nineteenth-century French literary history, while also examining those aspects of the novel that have ensured the work’s endurance as a worldwide cultural phenomenon. To this end we shall also study iconic adaptations of the book – this may includethe films by Claude Lelouch and Ladj Ly, as well as the Boublil/ Schönberg musical. Selected sections from the novel will be studied as opposed to the whole work.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module aims to enable you to:

• Gain a detailed appreciation of one of France’s most notable and understudied authors.
• Gain an understanding of French literary and political nineteenth-century history.
• Acquire an understanding of approaches to adaptation and reception.
• Acquire skills to appreciate and analyse intertextual presences.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

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

• 1. Demonstrate detailed knowledge of the text and afterlife of Les Misérables.
• 2. Demonstrate an appreciation of the historical context of the novel and how this may affect our reading.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

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

• 3. After initial input from course leader independently apply and evaluate critical approaches to the material under analysis.
• 4. Argue at length and in detail, engaging with both primary and secondary texts, about an aspect of the selected topic.

ILO: Personal and key skills

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

• 5. Undertake independent research tasks on the basis of a taught course.
• 6. Adopt an independent, critical approach to a topic in order to produce, by a deadline, a written argument of some complexity.

Syllabus plan

The course will focus on key sections of Hugo’s Les Misérables, considering them within the context of nineteenth-century France, Hugo’s own life and the literary and film receptions of the work.

Key themes that we shall explore may include:

• The literary presentation of figures such as the prostitute, the street urchin, the convict and the bishop.
• Hugo’s presentation of Les Misérables as a Bible for nineteenth-century France.
• The reworking of classical epic and the implications for our understanding of the book.
• The presentation of nineteenth-century Paris.
• Les Misérables and the Second World War.
• Turning fiction into film – adaptations.

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 might be granted. The mark given for 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

Basic reading:

• Set text: Les Misérables. Victor Hugo (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1985). Required reading: 49-86, 93-125, 159-219, 223-279, 297-337, 353-371, 483-507, 577-645, 793-824, 993-1049, 1125-1153.
• Film adaptations: Les Misérables – Claude Lelouch. Les Misérables – Ladj Ly and Les Misérables – Tom Hooper.

Selected Secondary Reading:

• Bellos, David – The Novel of the Century – The Extraordinary Adventure of Les Misérables (London: Particular, 2017)
• Brombert, Victor – Victor Hugo and the Visionary Novel (Cambridge Mass and London: Harvard University Press, 1984)
• Griffiths, Kate and Watts, Andrew – Adapting Nineteenth-Century France: Literature in Film, Theatre, Television, Radio and Print. (Oxford: Legenda, 2013)
• Grossman, Kathryn – Figuring Transcendence in Les Misérables – Hugo’s Romantic Sublime (Pennsylvania: Penn State University Press, 2017)
• Grossman, Kathryn and Stephens Bradley (eds) – Les Misérables and its Afterlives: From Page to Stage to Screen (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015)
• Hiddleston, James (ed) – Victor Hugo Romancier de l’abîme (Oxford: Legenda, 2002)
• Robb, Graham Victor Hugo (London: Picador, 1997)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

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Key words search

Hugo, Paris, Nineteenth-Century France, adaptations, reception theory