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FR3112 Image, Identity and Consumer Culture in Post-war French Fiction and Film

 

Terms: 1 and 2
Convenor: Dr Ruth Cruickshank
 

Assessment

Formative piece: 0%; 15-minute Presentation: 20%; Long Essay: 80%; 3,000-3,500 words.

Overview

Raising important questions about our own modes of consumption today, this course investigates how changes arising from the development of consumer culture in post-War France offer us new ways of understanding the politics of gender, race and sexuality as the trauma of conflicts intersects with the impact of the mass media and global market forces. Examining how novels and films may reflect, perpetuate and challenge stereotypes, we will examine how some of France’s most original writers and filmmakers explore new ways of understanding identity by representing, appropriating and exploiting the techniques of advertising, animation, Hollywood, crime fiction, television and journalism.

Key Primary Bibliography/Filmography

Georges Perec, Les Choses (Paris: Juliard, 1965)/Things, trans. by David Bellos (London: Havill Press, 1999)

Didier Daeninckx, Meurtres pour mémoire (Paris Gallimard. 1984)/ Murder in Memoriam, trans by Liz Heron (London, Serpent's Tail,2005)



Marie Darrieussecq, Truismes (Paris: Gallimard, 1996)/Pig Tales, trans. by Linda Coverdale (Faber and Faber 1998)


Jacques Tati, Jour de fête (1949) DVDVO/subtitled


Jean-Luc Godard, Masculin/Féminin (1966) DVD VO/subtitled



Sylvain Chomet, Les Triplettes de Belleville (2003) DVD VO/subtitled

Secondary Literature: General, Theoretical, Introductory

You do not need to read all of these texts, though classes will refer to some of the material, and dipping into them will enhance your ability to enjoy the course and respond to the questions raised in it, as well as to research your essay questions.

Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1991)

Zygmunt Bauman, Does Ethics have a Chance in a World of Consumers? (Cambridge: Polity, 2007)

Robert Gildea, France since 1945 (Oxford: OUP, 2002)

John D Lyons, French Literature: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010)

Celia Lury, Consumer Culture (Rutgers, 2011)

Susan Hayward, French National Cinema (Routledge, 2005) 

James McMillan, Modern France (Paris: Oxford University Press, 2003)

Kristin Ross, Fast Cars, Clean Bodies: Decolonization and the Reordering of French Culture (Cambridge MA and London: MIT Press, 1995)

David Walker, Consumer Chronicles: Cultures of Consumption in Modern French Literature (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press 2010)

Sarah Waters, Between Republic and Market: Globalization and Identity in Contemporary France (New York: Continuum, 2012)

  
 
 
 
 

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