French Studies and Film BA Hons - 2020 Entry

Course Overview

Lancaster’s joint French Studies and Film degree is taught by the Department of Languages and Cultures in conjunction with Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA).  French Studies ranks 2nd in the Times and Sunday Times Good University guide 2017.

Your French Studies programme enables you to acquire high-level language skills while gaining a thorough understanding of the country’s historical, cultural, social and political background in a global context. In Film, you’ll examine cinema’s aesthetic, social and political importance in the context of an increasingly visual and media-orientated culture, while also investigating the intersections between contemporary art, theatre, design, sound and film.

Your first year comprises an exploration of the French language and its cultural context as well as an introduction to Film Studies and the core module, ‘Modernism in the Arts’.  Alongside this, you will study a minor subject of your choice.

Building on your language skills in Year 2, you will study the culture, politics and history of the French-speaking world in more depth, as well as selecting modules which are international in scope and promote a comparative understanding of Europe and beyond.  You will combine these with the modules ‘Critical Reflections’ and ‘Hollywood and Beyond: Global Cinema’.

Spending your third year abroad in a French-speaking country makes a major contribution to your command of the language, while deepening your intercultural sensitivity. You can study at a partner institution or conduct a work placement.

In your final year, you consolidate your French language skills, and study specialist culture and comparative modules, such as ‘Contemporary Cities in Literature and Film’.  You will also choose film modules such as ‘Apocalypse Then: New Hollywood Cinema’, ‘Silent Cinema’ or ‘Media and Performance’.

Entry Requirements

Grade Requirements

A Level ABB

Required Subjects A level French, or if this is to be studied from beginners’ level, AS grade B or A level grade B in another foreign language, or GCSE grade A in a foreign language. Native French speakers will not be accepted onto this scheme.

IELTS 6.5 overall with at least 5.5 in each component. For other English language qualifications we accept, please see our English language requirements webpages.

Other Qualifications

International Baccalaureate 32 points overall with 16 points from the best 3 Higher Level subjects including appropriate evidence of language ability

BTEC Distinction, Distinction, Merit accepted alongside appropriate evidence of language ability

We welcome applications from students with a range of alternative UK and international qualifications, including combinations of qualification. Further guidance on admission to the University, including other qualifications that we accept, frequently asked questions and information on applying, can be found on our general admissions webpages.

Contact Admissions Team + 44 (0) 1524 592028 or via ugadmissions@lancaster.ac.uk

Course Structure

Many of Lancaster's degree programmes are flexible, offering students the opportunity to cover a wide selection of subject areas to complement their main specialism. You will be able to study a range of modules, some examples of which are listed below.

Year 1

Core

• Introduction to Film Studies

  This module is intended to provide you with the essential knowledge and competencies to undertake the academic study of film at university level. The first term provides you with an understanding of the formal and technical composition of films to allow you to undertake detailed analysis of films, from the level of close scrutiny of individual images, and their interrelation with the soundtrack, to the narrative assembly of shots and scenes. Through the analysis of a range of examples, you will become familiar with the key formal and semantic conventions of cinema. The second term is designed to provide you with a framework knowledge of world film history. By focusing on a selection of key films and filmmakers, this section of the module will explore historically significant movements and themes within international cinema from the 1920s to the present day. This term is thematically organized around issues of ideology and realism, and explores the shifting social and political status of cinema during the last century. In the third term you will undertake a practical project, working with a small group to produce a short film.

• Part I French Studies (Advanced/CEFR: B1)

  This module is designed for students who have already completed an A-level in French or whose French is of a broadly similar standard. The language element aims to enable students both to consolidate and improve their skills in spoken and written French. A further aim is to provide students with an introduction to the historical and cultural development of France in the past, and also to contemporary institutions and society.

  There are three language classes per week, of which at least one is normally conducted by a French native speaker. Tutorials are based on a textbook, and emphasis is placed on the acquisition of vocabulary and a firm grasp of French grammatical structures. Listening and speaking skills are developed under the guidance of French native speakers using audio and video materials.

  The culture programme consists of a combination of lectures and seminars over 20 weeks. The module looks at how key moments in French history have shaped contemporary French culture (films, plays, novels etc.).

• Part I French Studies (Beginners to CEFR: A2)

  This module is designed for students having little or no knowledge of the French language. Consequently, a substantial part of the module is devoted to intensive language teaching aimed at making the student proficient in both written and spoken French. At the same time, students will be introduced to aspects of French history, culture and society in the twentieth century.

  There are four language classes per week, of which at least one is normally conducted by a French native speaker. Tutorials are based on a textbook, and emphasis is placed on the acquisition of vocabulary and a firm grasp of French grammatical structures. Listening and speaking skills are developed under the guidance of French native speakers using audio and video materials.

  The culture programme consists of a combination of lectures and seminars over 20 weeks. The module looks at how key moments in French history have shaped contemporary French culture (films, plays, novels etc.).

Year 2

Core

• French Language: Oral Skills (CEFR: B2)

  This module comprises of both oral and aural skills, to be taken alongside the Written Skills module. It builds upon skills gained in the first year.

  This module aims to enhance students’ linguistic proficiency in spoken French in a range of formal and informal settings (both spontaneous and prepared). Specific attention will be given to developing good, accurate pronunciation and intonations well as fluency, accuracy of grammar, and vocabulary when speaking the language.

  This module also aims at broadening students’ knowledge about different aspects of modern Spanish-speaking society, politics and culture, and contemporary issues and institutions in order to prepare them for residence abroad in their 3rd year.

  By the end of this module, students should have enhanced their comprehension of the spoken language, as used in both formal speech, and in everyday life situations including those that they may encounter in Spanish-speaking countries.

• French Language: Oral skills (post-Beginners/CEFR: B1))

  This module comprises of both oral and aural skills, to be taken alongside the corresponding Written Language module. It builds upon skills gained in the first year of the Intensive course. Students who have taken the Intensive language course in their first year, normally follow this course throughout the second year.

  The module aims to enhance students’ linguistic proficiency in spoken French in a range of formal and informal settings (both spontaneous and prepared). Specific attention will be given to developing good, accurate pronunciation and intonations well as fluency, accuracy of grammar, and vocabulary when speaking the language.

  This module also aims at broadening students’ knowledge about different aspects of modern society, politics and culture, and contemporary issues and institutions in order to prepare them for residence abroad in their 3rd year.

  By the end of this module, students should have enhanced their comprehension of the spoken language, as used in both formal speech, and in everyday life situations including those that they may encounter in French-speaking countries.

• French Language: Written Skills (CEFR: B2)

  This module comprises of reading and writing skills to be taken alongside the Oral Skills module.

  This module aims to consolidate skills gained by students in the first year of study, and enable them to build a level of competence and confidence required to familiarise themselves with the culture and society of countries where French is spoken.

  The module aims to enhance students’ proficiency in the writing of French (notes, reports, summaries, essays, projects, etc.) including translation from and into French; and the systematic study of French lexis, grammar and syntax.

  Students will enhance their linguistic proficiency, with particular emphasis on reading a variety of sources and on writing fluently and accurately in the language, in a variety of registers.

• French Language: Written Skills (post-Beginners/CEFR: B1)

  This module comprises of reading and writing skills to be taken alongside the Oral Skills module.

  This module aims to consolidate skills gained by students in the first year of study, and enable them to build a level of competence and confidence required to familiarise themselves with the culture and society of countries where their studied language is spoken.

  The module aims to enhance students’ proficiency in understanding spoken French, as well as in the writing of French (notes, reports, summaries, essays, projects, etc.) including translation from and into French; and the systematic study of French lexis, grammar and syntax.

  The module aims to enhance students' linguistic proficiency, with particular emphasis on reading a variety of sources and on writing fluently and accurately in the language, in a variety of registers.

• Hollywood and beyond: Global cinema

  This core module has two main objectives. Firstly, it is designed to develop further your analytical skills in order to examine individual films in greater detail. Secondly, it is intended to encourage you to understand world cinema in relation to a variety of social, cultural, political and industrial contexts. The module will explore such issues as the relationship between film form and modes of production (from industrial film-making through to low-budget art film), theories of film style and aesthetics, and the political function of cinema. In the first term, we focus wholly on various modes of American film production, and in the second term we explore some broader theoretical questions through an analysis of films from a number of different national traditions. Across the whole module, you will gain a thorough grasp not only of the historical factors shaping various national and international cinemas, but also of some key critical and theoretical concepts within the field of film studies.

• Second Year Programme for Academic Skills, Employability and International placement preparation

  DELC200 is a non-credit bearing module. All major students going abroad in their second or third year are enrolled on it during the year prior to their departure, and timetabled to attend the events. These include: introduction to the Year Abroad and choice of activities; British Council English Language Assistantships and how to apply; introduction to partner universities and how they function; working in companies abroad; finance during the Year Abroad; research skills and questionnaire design; teaching abroad; curriculum writing and employability skills; welfare and wellbeing; Year Abroad Preparation Week in the Summer Term. Materials are uploaded on the DELC200 Moodle pages.

• Shaping Contemporary France: Moments and Movements

  This module is divided into four topic areas comprising of the following:

  • Language and linguistic heritage- this topic covers the evolution of French language from a dialect to a national language, explains the relationship between written and spoken language, and shows language variety: argot, verlan and francophonie.
  • Centralisation and Regionalisation- this topic aims to enhance students’ understanding of the French political system, gastronomy, agriculture, demographics, management of the territory and environment, and transport and communication.
  • Space, Place and the Urban- this topic aims at explaining how the Situationists, Dadaists, Surrealists, Le Corbusier and Henri Lefebvre influenced urbanism.
  • Education, Science, Technology and Innovation- this topic covers the development and the structure of contemporary education in the French Republic, and aims at expanding students’ knowledge about modernism and development of technology.

Optional

• Critical Reflections

  This course provides an introduction to critical theory in the arts and its application to aesthetics and art. The first term concentrates on 'structures' in artworks and the second on 'identities'. The structure of the course is six three-week blocks: (1) Form and Structure, (2) Semiotics and Authorship, (3) Phenomenology and Spectatorship, (4) Sex/uality and Gender, (5) Race and Ethnicity, and (6) Class and Society. Weekly plenary lectures make connections across the arts, and weekly two hour seminar/workshops allow students to work in their subject groups (art, film, theatre, design) on ideas and examples specifically tailored towards these disciplines.

• Cross-cultural encounters in World Literatures

  What is world literature? How have writers engaged with the concept? How have they explored their role as a writer in the 20th century?

  This module explores a range of texts written in a range of languages and genres, examining the engagement of writers with their role in different social, political and historical contexts. Lectures will provide an introduction to the genre being studied and address the question of the role of the writer in the context of world literatures. Workshops will focus on a range of set and optional texts of global importance, which will be considered as examples of the literary genre and in relation to material covered in the lecture.

  The module is divided into five sections, each focusing on a specific genre. Each section will comprise three texts, two of which are optional. All texts explore the role of the writer in different social, political and historical contexts of the 20th century, and the ways their writing engages with these contexts.

• Documentary Film Practice

  Documentary Film Practice is a practice-based module in which small groups of students (3-7 students) make a short documentary film (between 5-7 minutes in length). The module builds on knowledge acquired in LICA250: Documentary Cultures.

  By undertaking a practical project in Documentary Film Practice, students are expected to apply theoretical knowledge gained in LICA250 to a practical project. As well as applying theory to practice, the module aims to enhance students’ filmmaking skills, with specific training provided for camera operation, sound recording and editing skills. Students will also gain skills in terms of working in groups.

• Economic and Social Change in France, Germany and Spain since 1945

  This module explores how post-war economic change has affected European societies, and how socio-political factors in turn have influenced the patterns and outcomes of economic development, over the second half of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty first century.

  The module is structured on the basis of three country-specific modules (France, Germany and Spain), examining how these countries have confronted key moments of economic change, and what the longer-term consequences of that change have been. While the module emphasis is on broad national developments, discussion also covers examples relating to particular industries and major companies.

  In lectures, workshops and seminars we will explore the context of reconstruction after World War II and the pattern of subsequent economic development; the relationship between social and economic policies; the development of the three country's economies; the changes of the 1980s and their impact on subsequent years; and the consequences of specific momentous events, such as the re-unification of Germany and how the financial crisis of 2008 affected, and still affects, France, Germany and Spain.

• European New Wave Cinema

  The module aims to develop an understanding of historically important European films from the 1950s-1980s and the stylistic and historical significance of these films. It will explore the thematic importance of these films and consider the critical debates relating to this period of filmmaking enabling students to develop a critical understanding of the conditions of production, reception and distribution of these films.

• Film and Comic Books

  LICA256 is a specialist module examining a historical genre that now occupies the economic centre of Hollywood film production. The module focuses centrally on film and comic book aesthetics; on questions of narration and visual depiction in these two related media; on the shifting norms of this film genre in relation to technological change across history; and on the significance and uses of the comic-book film in society. As such, the module develops ideas introduced, and skills acquired, in the core Film Studies modules in both Part 1 and Part 2 (LICA 150 [Introduction to Film Studies] and LICA251 [Global Cinema]).

• Language and Identity in France, Germany and Spain

  This module will introduce second-year students to the role that the language used by institutions plays in shaping individual perceptions of identity. It will provide them with a basic theoretical framework that allows them to understand the relationship between language and power as reflected in current language policies at regional, national, and supranational levels. It will enable them to recognise forms of prestige and stigma associated with varieties of the three main languages under study. It will therefore raise critical awareness of the portrayal and representation of linguistic variations in the media and in the sphere of literature.

  The main topics covered in the course include Language and Power; European language policies; German as a pluricentric language and ‘Gastarbeiter’ language and policies; regional variations of France: Linguistic Diversity: A threat to French National Identity?; The languages and language attitudes of Spain (Castilian Spanish, Catalan, Basque, Galician).

  This module is taught in English.

• LICA Schools Placement

  The module will enable you to understand how a work environment functions and how you can contribute to this. It will enable you to develop a range of transferable skills and apply your knowledge and understanding to a project linked to your placement organisation.

  You will work with an external organisation for between 45 – 60 hours and attend lectures and seminars which will provide you with guidance and support. The placement will take place in a cultural organisation (such as a Gallery, Theatre or Studio) or a schools-based placement in Primary, Secondary or Special Needs dedicated school. The module will provide you with the opportunity to combine practical work and develop your interest in relation to a specific subject related issue. The module will prepare you for placement by providing you with the academic skills that will enable you to reflect upon your experiences.

• Media & Performance

  This module aims to introduce key issues and practical skills in the production of video for media, performance, new media art and documentary film. The module will introduce the historical and practical applications of media technologies in art, theatre and performance by presenting the key practitioners in the areas of installation, multi­media performance, video, and new media art.

  A group practical project will introduce the use of video cameras, filming and editing, project planning, team work and the practical use of installation technologies. The module offers students the opportunity to work in interdisciplinary teams to produce a short film, performance, installation or documentary, including video and other media where appropriate.

• Perception and the Arts

  This module explores the relationships between the arts and how we see and hear. Artists are aware, consciously or unconsciously, of the processes and limitations of perception. They often play with our perceptions in their works to make something which draws our attention, makes us see something in a different way, or gives us a kind of perceptual puzzle or challenge. The module also explores recent scientific research on perceiving art and how that relates to ordinary perception.

  Assessment is by an essay and an exam.

• Professional Contexts for Modern Languages

  This module seeks to support students to apply their linguistic and cultural understanding in a specific professional context. Students will develop, reflect on and articulate both the range of competences, and the linguistic and cross cultural skills that enhance employability by working in language-related professional contexts and reflecting on key issues in relation to their placement organisation. Students will typically spend between 25-30 hours over a period of 10 weeks engaging with a placement organisation in Lent. Alternatively students may undertake a 'block' placement over a two to three week period during the Easter vacation (this will allow placements abroad). We have developed a number of local work placements and students can also source placements (subject to departmental approval). There will be some preparation for the module before Lent. This will consist of short interviews and the sourcing and confirmation of placements. For students undertaking schools placements, there will also be some training. Workshops in Lent will provide preparation for placements and guidance on reflective academic work. Students will share their experiences and learning with each other by means of end-of-module presentations.

• Society on Screen: The Language of Film

  How do films deal with topics like terrorism, immigration, resistance and city life? Do they entertain viewers, instruct them, or both?

  This module explores European and Latin American films in their social and historical contexts. The main aim is to make connections between the films and such contexts not only on the level of narrative, characterisation and dialogue, but also on that of form and technique.

  To these ends, there will be introductory lectures on cinema and society and on film aesthetics and content in the first week of the module. The connections mentioned will be the focus of seminars and presentations within the four core topic areas: terrorism, migration, the city and resistance.

  The module consists of four two-week strands on cinema and society: Terrorism, Migration and Hybrid identities, The City and Collaboration/Resistance.

  Each strand will be introduced with a lecture and followed by seminars on the set films. Students will give a presentation on a short sequence within their allocated film.

• Understanding culture

  This module aims to give students a background to and insight into the diversity of twentieth and twenty-first century thought and contemporary definitions of culture.

  Some key questions explored on the module include: What is 'culture' and how does it work? How do 'art' and 'culture' relate to each other? What do we mean when we talk about the production and consumption of culture? Why does popular culture arouse conflicting responses? What role does the body play in our understanding of culture? How does culture define who we are? Can a work of culture be an act of resistance?

  With these questions in mind, this module focuses on texts which raise questions about class, race, gender, and subcultures.

• Women Film Makers

  This module will explore the work of some of the most historically important female film-makers from the 1890s through to the present, considering films from around the globe. The module will examine the significant but often marginalized and obscured roles that women have played in industrial, experimental and avant-garde film production across a spectrum of roles from costume and production designers through to screen-writers, editors and directors. You will be invited to reflect upon the fact that, despite playing key roles in the development of the medium, women continue to be excluded at all levels of film production; for example, of 1,591 films released in the US between 2010 and 2015, less than 9% were directed by women, while only 13% were written by women, less than 20% produced by women, and less than 30% had female leads. The decision by Hollywood star and activist Geena Davis to establish a campaigning ‘Institute on Gender in Media’ is a measure of the urgency of this subject.

  The module will engage with revisionist film histories concerned with interrogating the dominant bias of academic and popular histories of the medium; it will also draw on feminist film theory concerned both with a critical understanding of mainstream cinema and the development of politicized women’s cinemas. The module will examine a series of key female directors and their work, and each week will be oriented around the screening of a case study film that will be the focus for the seminar. The directors studied include Alice Guy-Blaché, Dorothy Arzner, Leni Riefenstahl, Ida Lupino, Laura Mulvey, Mira Nair, Kathryn Bigelow, Marziyeh Meshkini, Lynne Ramsay.'

  Assessment is by a combination of coursework essay and exam.

Year 3

Core

• Residence Abroad: intercultural and academic reflection

  The International Placement Year is compulsory for Single and Joint Honours Language students, who must spend at least eight months abroad in their third year.

  Students will:

  • analyse the contemporary relevance of a tradition, contemporary social, political or economic issue, or a living part of the regional culture.
  • reflect critically on cultural differences observed in everyday life such as social relationships, politics, attitudes to food, drink, religion, etc., explaining them in the context of various historical, social and cultural developments.
  • think analytically about their intercultural position and understanding of the relevant culture(s).
  • reflect on language use (different registers, varieties of pronunciation and accents, dialects, vocabulary and idiomatic expressions, and aspects of grammar) and the process of the acquisition of skills in the relevant language(s).

  The module also aims to enhance and develop students' language skills, with all assessments being written in the target language.

  Students who started a language as a beginner in Part I must spend a minimum of four months in a country where that language is spoken.

  Joint Honours students studying two languages may choose to spend the year in either of the two countries concerned or, if appropriate arrangements can be made, can spend a semester in each country.

Year 4

Core

• French Language: Oral Skills (CEFR: C1/C2)

  This module is a half unit and is integrated with the French Language: Written Skills module.

  This module together with the written skills module consists of three hours tuition per week. Both the oral and the written language modules focus on particular topics of cultural and contemporary interest. The general aim of these half unit modules is to develop further the abilities the students gained during their second year and the year abroad.

  By the end of this module, students should have developed an informed interest in the society and culture of the French-speaking world. They should also have acquired almost native-speaker abilities in both spoken and written language.

• French Language: Written Skills (CEFR: C1/C2)

  This module is a half unit and is integrated with the French Language: Oral Skills module.

  This module together with the oral skills module consists of three hours tuition per week.

  This module has two main aims. The first one is to enhance students’ linguistic proficiency with emphasis on understanding of spoken and written French, the speaking of French (prepared and spontaneous) in both formal and informal settings, the writing of French, and the systematic study of French lexis, grammar and syntax. The second aim is to increase students’ awareness, knowledge and understanding of contemporary France.

  By the end of this module, students should have developed an informed interest in the society and culture of the French-speaking world. They should also have acquired almost native-speaker abilities in both spoken and written language.

Optional

• Advanced Film Theory

  This third-year core course will add to the theoretical, historical and cultural aspects of film investigated in Years 1 and 2, while focusing more closely on the challenging aesthetic and critical debates surrounding the concept of modernity. It will look at films made in the silent era, in post-war Europe and in Britain and the US. Key writings on film will be considered in conjunction with viewings of particular films, close analysis of specific filmic techniques and methods, and historical and theoretical approaches to film. The course will also pay attention to the debates of classical and contemporary film theory, feminist approaches and other critical traditions (semiotics, structuralism, formalism, cognitivism). Building on the approach to film taken in LICA251 (Film Cultures), this course focuses on film theory as students are introduced to key debates in classical and contemporary film theory, with topics exploring the relations between film and art, cinema and politics, cinema and psychoanalysis, and, above all, the question of how films produce meaning(s).

• Apocalypse Then: New Hollywood Cinema

  Topics studied will normally include:

  Introduction – Hollywood breakdown (Easy Rider, Medium Cool)

  The future of allusion: New Hollywood’s nostalgic mode (The Godfather)

  Popular feminism (Klute, Woman Under the Influence)

  Politics and conspiracy (The Parallax View, All The President’s Men)

  Disaster movies (The Poseidon Adventure)

  Comedy (Annie Hall)

  Exploitation cinema I: blaxploitation (Coffy, Foxy Brown)

  Exploitation cinema II: horror/body genres (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)

  Blockbuster cinema and the franchise film (Star Wars)

  The end of the New (Apocalypse Now)

• Autocrats, Caudillos and Big Men: Understanding Dictatorship and its Cultural Representation in the 20th Century

  This module will consider different ways in which the concept of ‘dictatorship’ has been understood and critiqued throughout the twentieth century. Considering examples from Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Guinea, Italy, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe, students will explore the differences between the Latin American caudillo, European dictators, and the ‘Big Men’ of Africa. Selected critical and theoretical sources will be drawn upon to develop a more critical understanding of dictatorship, including the work of Hannah Arendt, Roberto González Echevarría and Achille Mbembe.

  The module will also examine relationships between dictatorship and cultural production. How have dictators represented themselves in their writing, speeches and literature? To what extent have they controlled cultural production and to what end? How, in turn, have they been represented in cultural production? What role do writers, artists and intellectuals play in evaluating and critiquing dictatorship? In turn, can the writer, artist or intellectual be considered to be a dictator in the particular world view he/she projects and/or the rhetoric he/she adopts?

• Classic Hollywood: The Studio Era

  This module is designed to provide you with a chance to explore one of America's most significant cultural contributions to the twentieth century - the motion picture. You are introduced to the American cinema through a genre approach to a series of selected films. This entails that you frame the formal and aesthetic aspects of Hollywood filmmaking in an appropriate social, historical, cultural, and industrial context. In considering why certain popular narrative formulas (such as the Western and the Gangster) are so deeply associated with American commercial screen art, lectures and seminars will attend to movie production as a dynamic process of exchange between the film industry and its mass audience.

• Contemporary Cities in Literature and Film

  This module introduces students to major themes that shape the experience of contemporary city dwellers: gender, social inequality, and practices of citizenship. These interlinking themes will be introduced through novels, poetry and films on the following European, North American (with the emphasis on immigrant communities within its cities) and Latin American cities: New York, Mexico City, Santiago de Chile, Barcelona, Berlin, and Los Angeles.

  Each topic will be covered though an introductory lecture and a core text, followed by a range of additional texts for students to analyse. During workshops students will share their findings and opinions, emphasizing on identifying links between the topics studied, aiming to encourage discussion.

  The format of the module encourages cross-referencing between the themes of the module (for example, gender and sexuality are relevant to an analysis of social inequality, and vice versa).

• Contemporary Hong Kong Cinema

  This module explores Hong Kong cinema from the mid-1980s up to the present – an era whose beginning witnesses the international breakthrough of a new wave of local filmmakers, and which goes on to encompass the early 1990s’ production surge, the 1997 handover to mainland China, the crippling economic crisis, and the outbreak of the SARS virus. The module will provide students with an understanding of a number of basic industrial, aesthetic, social and cultural trends marking Hong Kong films in the contemporary era. These include the emergence and impact of independent production; the rise of ‘high-concept’ filmmaking; the movement toward pan-Asian co-productions; the importance and cross-marketing of star performers and local musical traditions such as Cantopop; the popularity of genres like the swordplay film; and aesthetic tendencies such as episodic plotting and the narrative ‘thematisation’ of politics and identity. Emphasis will be placed not only on representative mainstream product, but also on the emergence of a distinct Hong Kong art cinema, whose presence and success on the international festival circuit has brought artistic credibility to a predominantly popular cinema, and which has heralded the arrival of a fresh wave of local ‘auteur’ filmmakers.

  Method of Assessment

  One essay of 5,000 words (100% of final course mark)

• Creative Enterprise

  This module provides an opportunity for students to develop an understanding of the innovative ways in which creative practitioners produce and deliver their work. It will provide an overview of the challenges faced by freelance practitioners, producers and small cultural companies within the creative industries. You will also develop a working understanding of the key management and enterprise skills involved in delivering creative projects. Working in groups you will put your learning into practice through the delivery of your own live creative arts project. This will enable you to understand the skills, knowledge, attributes and behaviours relevant for employment in the arts and creative industries.

• Dissertation

  This core module is directed towards completion of an independent research project on a topic of the student’s choice, presented in the form of a dissertation. The course is taught through lecture/seminars focused on research skills and one-to-one supervision.

• Francophone Voices: Literature and Film from Sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and Canada

  This final year module will provide students with an overview of the range of literature and culture produced in Sub-Saharan Africa, the French Caribbean and France to better understand the various relationships between France and these different parts of the Francophone world.

  Students will identify and discuss themes that they will find through analysis of a selection of novels and films. These themes will include language and style, and issues addressed by writers and film-makers in relation to identity, gender, culture, history, and representation itself.

  Exploration of La Francophonie, the French Mission Civilisatrice, and relationships between contemporary France and her former colonies will provide context for the study of these novels and films. Discussions will be informed by the work of thinkers including Franz Fanon and Edward Said.

  This module is taught in English and all texts are available in English.

• French Culture in the Digital Age

  Technological progress now affects virtually every aspect of Western culture and society and it has become impossible to speak about contemporary culture without taking into account the radical transformations induced by digitization in both practices and concepts. This module introduces you to the most important phenomena and issues that arise in this context in France in particular and allows you to explore how artists use the new possibilities offered by the internet. The discourses about the effects of technology are as wide-ranging as the effects themselves, generating much confusion and often also superficial judgements about the uses and dangers of the Internet in particular. The module therefore begins by clarifying the most important concepts and the problems surrounding digitisation. It then takes a closer look at some of the fascinating cultural artefacts technology has inspired and enabled since the 1990s in the French context, and at the ways in which the life and meaning of "literature" has evolved."

• Full Unit Dissertation

  This module is assessed entirely through coursework. Students are given a chance of pursuing a topic of their own interest, which is not covered in taught options. A dissertation consists of approximately 10,000 words written in English. The topic of dissertation must relate to French/German/Spanish language, or a comparison between two or more, or a general European issue. The other two restrictions on topic choice are: it must be capable of and approached from a serious academic angle and it falls within the range of expertise of a member of the Department’s staff.

  Each student gets assigned a supervisor - one of the lecturers from the Department, who will provide regular supervision, and feedback on the first draft of the completed dissertation. The topic is agreed and discussed with the supervisor in the Summer Term of the second year, and preparatory research should begin during the Year Abroad.

• Imagining Modern Europe: Post-Revolutionary Utopias and Ideologies in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century

  This module aims at exploring the nature of the relationship between the individual and society, notions of progress and economic justice, as these are still widely debated topics in contemporary Europe in light of the current economic and political crisis.

  This module will use the concepts of utopia, dystopia and ideology as a forum for discussion on the relationship between individual imagination and social discourse in the nineteenth century, as well as the relationship between fiction and political discourse. Students will look at the major intellectual debates which influenced the contemporary European thought after the French Revolution.

  Students will explore the development of major ideologies and cultural movements such as Romanticism, Marxism, Socialism and Positivism, spanning from the period immediately following the French Revolution to the middle of the nineteenth century.

• Mirrors across Media: Reflexivity in Literature, Film, Comics and Video Games

  The module consists of a combination of weekly lectures and seminars. The lectures will introduce students to the broad lines of the history of self-reflexive phenomena in Western culture from Renaissance paintings through Baroque literature and the 18th-century novel to the boom of metafiction and related phenomena in Modernism and contemporary popular culture. At the same time, it will provide theoretical bases by introducing key concepts such as self-reflexivity, the fourth wall, frame, metafiction and metanarration, narrative levels, metalepsis, and the way these can manifest in different forms of art. The seminar discussions will serve to put these concepts into practice in the analyses of the texts, films, and mixed media and interactive products. Typical topics in any given year might include classics of metafiction in literature (Cervantes, Sterne, Fielding, Diderot, Unamuno, Borges, Calvino, Pirandello, Queneau, Barth..), film (Charlie Kaufman, Almodóvar, Woody Allen…), comics and visual art.

• Modernity of Forms and Forms of Modernity in French Literature 1850-2000

  The aim of this module is to consider how poets have engaged with controversial aspects of modernity in their works. Students will explore the relationship between literature and society in French poetry from Charles Baudelaire to Michel Houellebecq.

  Students will explore a selection of French poets’ responses to the rise of industrialisation, the development of mass-culture and the growth of cities, through a variety of themes. They will discover how poets have embraced, questioned and critiqued the temporality of modern life through literary experimentation.

  The module will introduce the emergence of new forms of writings associated with the beginning of this period such as the prose poem, free-verse, the manifesto and aesthetic experiments mixing poetry and visual art in the early twentieth century.

• Silent Cinema

  This course offers an introduction to the broad area of silent cinema and to a range of critical approaches to this rich area of study. You will have the opportunity to view and analyse a number of important films. We will also explore a number of critical questions raised by this material with regard to the writing and study of histories of cinema (and popular culture in general), the relationships between technology and form, the economics of film production, distribution and reception, the relationship between cinema and national identity, the social and cultural impact of new (entertainment) media, the study of cinema audiences.

• The Prosecution of 'Otherness' in Europe: Witchcraft, Heresy and Inquisition (14th -17th C)

  This module will explore the relationship between witchcraft, heresy and inquisition in regard to the prosecution of the 'otherness', focusing specifically on their literary representation in medieval and Renaissance Europe. Students will engage in the study of the socio-historical events and features of European society from the 14th to the 17th centuries, as well as the literary mechanisms utilised by authors of each one of the texts under study. The course will cover texts and events occurred in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and England. Specific authors, such as Dante Alighieri, François Villon and Miguel de Cervantes, and masterpieces such as 'The Divine Comedy', 'La Celestina', and 'Don Quijote de La Mancha', will be analysed together with genres such as 'Geisslerlieder', balade, and drama. In addition, we will have a special week studying our neighbours, the Lancashire witches, and how the successful trial from 1612 is still perceived all along our city.

• Translation as a Cultural Practice

  What makes a good translation and how do translations do good? This module helps you understand the practice of translation as it has evolved historically from the 18th century to the present across European and American societies. The materials we study include historical textual sources (philosophical essays on the craft of translation from French, German and Hispanic authors of the 19th and 20th centuries), representative fictional texts reflecting on translation processes, and contemporary documents from the EU directorate on translation, PEN and the Translators' Association. We will also make considerable use of contemporary online resources as exemplified by Anglophone advocates of intercultural exchange such as Words Without Borders. Our aim is to look at translation as both a functional process for getting text in one language accurately into another and a culturally-inflected process that varies in its status and purpose from one context to another. We will pay particular attention to the practical role that literary translators play within the contemporary global publishing industry and consider the practicalities of following a career in literary translation in the Anglophone world.

• Writing in the margins: narrating cross-cultural experience

  This module consists of 20 hours over the course of 10 weeks, comprising of a mixture of informal lectures and workshops, and independent showings of films.

  The module aims at reviewing a series of narratives by 21st century European-born authors: writers, cinematographers, anthropologists and documentary makers. It not only introduces students to the historical contexts within which each of the narratives is situated, but also explores contemporary theories of identity and writing.

  Students are presented with autobiographical accounts, semi-fictional stories, films and documentaries in order to understand the experience of being caught between cultures as a result of travel or involuntary displacement resulting from war or social upheaval. They reflect upon the issues of identity, problems associated with cross-cultural analysis and the relationship between history and personal destiny, border-crossing, cultural fragmentation and continuity. The focus of the module lies on the historical relationship between countries within Europe, and between Europe and other parts of the world; mainly India, North Africa and America.

Lancaster University offers a range of programmes, some of which follow a structured study programme, and others which offer the chance for you to devise a more flexible programme. We divide academic study into two sections - Part 1 (Year 1) and Part 2 (Year 2, 3 and sometimes 4). For most programmes Part 1 requires you to study 120 credits spread over at least three modules which, depending upon your programme, will be drawn from one, two or three different academic subjects. A higher degree of specialisation then develops in subsequent years. For more information about our teaching methods at Lancaster visit our Teaching and Learning section.

Information contained on the website with respect to modules is correct at the time of publication, but changes may be necessary, for example as a result of student feedback, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes, and new research.

Careers

As well as language and subject-related skills, a degree in languages develops rich interpersonal, intercultural, cognitive and transferable skills that can be utilised across a variety of careers such as accountancy, IT, business development, civil service, events management, finance, journalism, publishing, research and sales, as well as teaching and translating both in the UK and abroad. Film graduates may go on to roles in TV or independent film production and jobs in advertising, marketing and media production, arts administration and management.

For the last ten years, languages graduates from Lancaster have been in the top ten universities in the country in terms of their employment prospects.  The Complete University Guide 2017 ranked French Studies 1st in the UK for graduate prospects.

Many graduates continue their studies at Lancaster, making the most of our excellent postgraduate research facilities. We offer Masters degrees in Translation, Languages and Cultures, as well as MA and PhD research degrees in Film Studies or Arts Management.

Fees and Funding

Fees

We set our fees on an annual basis and the 2020/21 entry fees have not yet been set.

Channel Islands and the Isle of Man

Some science and medicine courses have higher fees for students from the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. You can find more details here: Island Students.

Funding

For full details of the University's financial support packages including eligibility criteria, please visit our fees and funding page

Students also need to consider further costs which may include books, stationery, printing, photocopying, binding and general subsistence on trips and visits. Following graduation it may be necessary to take out subscriptions to professional bodies and to buy business attire for job interviews.