• Home
• Study
• Study Information
• Modules
• Module Information

The Devil Is in the Detail: An Introduction to the Short Story in French

Module description

This module introduces you to a range of important writers and texts from different periods of French history, all connected by the short narrative form. In any given year we will study three or more of the texts indicated on the syllabus, exploring issues of national identity, individualism, love, desire, death, and freedom. We will look at how these themes are brought to the fore within the stylistic conventions of short form writing, and draw both formal and thematic comparisons between the texts studied to gain insight into important literary works and events from across French history.

This module is for beginner students of French; for Post-A-level students, please see MLF1018

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to introduce you to a range of short stories and novellas originally written in French, distinct in their historical setting but connected in aspects of form. It analyses the ways in which short narratives can be used to make ideologically engaged or culturally meaningful comment, and identifies how this is connected to stylistic features. More generally, it seeks to increase awareness of a range of Francophone literary texts, and to consider them both within their socio-historical and cultural context and in more universal ways.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

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

• 1. Demonstrate familiarity with and understanding of the set texts, and key aspects of their historical, literary and cultural context.
• 2. Demonstrate an understanding of the short story form, in particular how the chosen authors use it for particular purposes.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

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

• 3. Mount an argument in an appropriate register applying basic textual evidence.1
• 4. Engage closely with texts to connect their content to wider topics.

ILO: Personal and key skills

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

• 5. Plan and write a commentary to a specified deadline and length, showing awareness of basic academic conventions, and showing evidence of engagement with secondary material
• 6. Use both traditional and modern methods of information gathering to research a topic.

Syllabus plan

While the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some of the following texts and topics:

• Introduction to the short story in French.
• Study of Le Diable est dans les détails: Leïla Slimani is a literary sensation, and the short stories and essays in Le Diable est dans les détails (The Devil is in the Detail)are written from her perspective as a woman of North African origin who does not practise any religion and who has embraced Republican values. The three fictional stories are all set in North Africa, and engage with questions of religion, freedom, imagination, and oppression. The three pieces of short non-fiction that complete the collection are all written from a Metropolitan French perspective, considering religious fundamentalism in the light of the freedom of thought and tolerance that ostensibly characterise French values.
• Study of La Fille aux yeux d’or: Honoré de Balzac, a famous and enormously popular French novelist of the nineteenth century, is one of the founders of the realist style in literature. La Fille aux yeux d’or is one of his most melodramatic and intriguing stories, combining realist and fairytale elements. Set in the aftermath of Napoleon Bonaparte’s reign, at a time when France was poised between a rising desire for social equality and the reality of social hierarchies, the novella centres on the themes of sexual obsession, power, money, and freedom, At the centre of the story is the question of how an individual can avoid being ‘owned’ by another person..
• Study of La Chastelaine de Vergy: this short thirteenth-century narrative explores the dangers of secrecy and the gender-role expectations of men and women, through the description of a clandestine love affair and its tragic unravelling. It will also allow us to consider how narratives from other periods of history compare to the literature of modernity, and what the Middle Ages may still have to teach us today.
• Study of Boule de suif: In this 19^th-century novella, Guy de Maupassant uses the backdrop of the Franco-Prussian war to shed light on historical events and alliances, and to examine the power of silence and shame, suggesting that these are linked to the shaping of French national identity.
• Analysis of short story writing, and the ways in which it uses form to make philosophical or critical interventions.
• How to write a literary commentary.

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

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

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

• Honoré de Balzac, Ferragus/ La Fille aux yeux d'or (Paris: Flammarion, 1990)
• La Châtelaine de Vergy, ed. by Jean Dufournet and Liliane Dulac (Gallimard)
• Maupassant, Guy de, Boule de suif (any edition)
• Slimani, Leïla, Le Diable est dans les détails (Éditions de l’aube)

Translations:

• Honoré de Balzac, The Girl with the Golden Eyes and Other Stories (Oxford University Press, 2013)
• The Chatelaine of Vergi, translated by Alice Kemp-Welch (1903): https://www.yorku.ca/inpar/vergi_kemp.pdf
• Maupassant, Guy de, Boule de suif (any edition)
• Leïla Slimani, The Devil is in the Detail and other writings, translated by Helen Vassallo (Liverpool University Press, 2023)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – 

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

• A full reading list will be available on ELE

Key words search

Short story, French literature, Francophone literature, Republican values, national identity, freedom, multiculturalism, women and place