Undergraduate Course: Women writers in early modern France (ELCF10067)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Until very recently, the literary production of early modern women writers has been unjustly undermined by critics. In the early modern period, to be a woman was to comply with the patriarchal triptych: 'silence, obedience and chastity'. Female authorship was therefore controversial. Seen as monstrous by those who confined women to the domestic sphere, women writers were often turned into 'Muses' and exemplars of virtue and wisdom by the defenders of the 'fair sex'. This course will bring to light the works of some of the most fashionable and bestselling women writers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. |
| Course description |
While replacing these women's writings in the context of the Querelle des femmes (a centuries-long debate over woman's place in society), the course will explore the extent to which, and the ways in which these women writers subvert the patriarchal ideology that shaped the society in which they wrote, and whether, in the process, they establish a dialogue with the works of male writers. Given the popularity of these women writers during their own lives and beyond, the course will also aim to uncover whether or not these women writers can be labelled as the foremothers of 'feminism'.
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Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2022/23, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 18 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
***100% Coursework***
1. Participation (20%): will be based on weekly wikis activities taking into account the quality of the entries and number of entries produced. There will be a base line of 60% for each wiki, unless there is no entry in which case a mark of 0% will be given.
2. Presentation (20%)
3. Essay (60%)
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| Feedback |
The feedback given to you throughout the course is designed to help you improve your future work: you will be given both formative and summative feedback. Formative parts of the assessment: you will receive feedback on your presentation, and more generally on your engagement with the course.
You are also encouraged to highlight specific aspects you would particularly like to have feedback on. During the course, your tutor will take time to invite feedback about the course, and to give feedback on progress thus far. From week 8 onwards (or earlier if you wish), you will be able to bring along an essay plan in time for the feedback to be useful for the end-of-course essay. You will also be given summative feedback on your end-of-course essay
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand and reflect critically on the literary and socio-cultural movements and gender ideologies that inform early modern women's writing.
- Read and analyse the prescribed works within their literary, political and cultural contexts and show a clear appreciation of the aesthetic and ideological features of these texts.
- Demonstrate an awareness of the relevant socio-cultural contexts and conceptual frameworks (e.g early modern and contemporary feminist discourse; gender politics, novel and narrative theory).
- Engage in research on early modern women's writing, and construct clear, coherent arguments - in both oral and written forms - based on evidence from primary and secondary sources and produce analytical essays.
- Exercise autonomy and initiative, taking responsibility for the work of others in group work and develop the ability to reflect on the usefulness of materials for fellow students in a variety of interactive contexts.
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Reading List
The set texts and periods studied may vary from one year to another; but the course will generally cover texts by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century authors and will be based on the following works:
Madeleine de Scudéry, Extracts from 'L'HIstoire de Cyrus et Mandane (Partie X, livre 3) and 'L'Histoire de Sapho' in Artamènes ou le Grand Cyrus, eds. Alexandre Gefen et Claude Bourqui, 2006.
Mme d'Aulnoy, 'Contes de fées', ed. Constance Cagnat-Debeuf (Folio classique, 2008)
Mme de Villedieu, 'Mémoires de la vie de Henriette-Sylvie de Molière', ed. René Démoris (Desjonquères, 2003).
Mme de Riccoboni, 'Histoire de M. Le Marquis de Cressy' (Paris : Folio, 2009).
Isabelle de Charrière, 'Sir Walter Finch et son fils William' (Paris: Folio, 2008).
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
This course has the same aims as all French Options, which are well established and universally praised by both students and external examiners as fostering depth of understanding of rich intellectual fields and the ability to write and speak about them intelligently and cogently in French |
| Keywords | Querelle des femmes,humanism,feminism,phallocentricism,galanterie,patriarchy,gender representations |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Severine Genieys-Kirk
Tel: (0131 6)51 1734
Email: S.G.Kirk@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Claire Hand
Tel: (0131 6)50 8421
Email: claire.hand@ed.ac.uk |
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