Undergraduate French 2019-2020

This course offers students who are registered for the Beginners' course in French language an introduction to twentieth and twenty-first century French culture and society through the study of films, short prose texts and poetry. The course is organised around the broad themes of childhood and adolescence, gender, sexuality and love and marginalisation in contemporary France. The texts will be studied in translation or with subtitles.

This course offers students with intermediate or good knowledge French language an introduction to twentieth and twenty-first century French culture and society through the study of films, short prose texts and poetry. The course is organised around the broad themes of childhood and adolescence, gender, sexuality and love and marginalisation in contemporary France. 

This intensive language course is designed for students who have little or no previous knowledge of French.

This course is intended for students who have studied French to Higher or equivalent level. It will enable them to consolidate and extend their knowledge of French, written and spoken.

This course offers students with intermediate or good knowledge French language an advanced introduction to twentieth and twenty-first century French and Francophone culture and society, focusing on the occupation of France during World War II and the experience of colonialism and post-colonialism.

This course offers students who are registered for the beginners' course in French language an advanced introduction to twentieth and twenty-first century French and Francophone culture and society, focusing on the occupation of France during World War II and the experience of colonialism and post-colonialism. Written texts will be studied in translation or with vocabulary help and films will be studied with subtitles.

This course builds on the work done in FR1023, providing students with an adequate command of French language to allow them the possibility of continuing their studies into level 2 and Honours. 

This course is intended for students who have studied French to the equivalent of Scottish Higher or beyond. Building on the work done in the first semester, it seeks to enable students to consolidate and extend their knowledge of French, written and spoken.

This second year French language course which runs in the first half-session is only open to students who have passed FR1524. It will improve their written, oral and aural skills, and is one of the two second year French language courses required to be allowed into the French honours Programme.

This second year French language course which runs in the first half-session is only open to students who have passed FR1523. It will improve their written, oral and aural skills, and is one of the two second year French language courses (along with FR2512) that has to have passed to be allowed into the French honours Programme.

This course will introduce students to a variety of texts which focus on the theme of relationships between the individual and society in France from the 18th century onwards. The course will involve lectures and tutorials and will include the study of novels, a play and a film.

This course will introduce students to a variety of texts which focus on
the theme of relationships between the individual and society in France
from the 18th century onwards. The course will involve lectures and
tutorials and will include the study of novels, a play and a film.

This second year French language course which runs in the second half-session is only open to students who have followed FR2002. It will improve their written, oral and aural skills, and is one of the two second year French language pre-requisite courses to be allowed into the French honours Programme (a minimum CAS mark of 12/20 at the first attempt will be required for FR2502).

This course will look at

-  the French sound system (with the spin-off of helping you to improve your pronunciation). 

-  word meaning and also speaker meaning (what a speaker means by, e.g., "were you born in a barn?")

-  how new words are formed

-  how sentences can be analysed

-  how French has developed from the Middle Ages up to the present

-  how French spread throughout the world (including French-based creoles)

-  how French varies according to the person using the language, and the purpose for which they are using it

This second year French language course which runs in the second half-session is only open to students who have followed FR2012. It will improve their written, oral and aural skills, and is one of the two second year French language pre-requisite courses (along with FR2012) that one must have passed to be allowed into the French honours Programme.

This course will introduce students to a variety of texts which focus on the theme of relationships between the centre and periphery in France and the Francophone world from the 17th century onwards. The course will involve lectures and tutorials and will include the study of a play, poetry, postcolonial theory and a film.

This course will introduce students to a variety of texts which focus on the theme of relationships between the centre and periphery in France and the Francophone world from the 17th century onwards. The course will involve lectures and tutorials and will include the study of a play, poetry, postcolonial theory and a film.

This third year French language course which runs for the whole term is only open to Francophone Erasmus students during their residency at the University of Aberdeen.

This third year French language course which runs in the first half-session is only open to Francophone Erasmus students during their one half term residency at the University of Aberdeen.

This course will examine modern and contemporary Paris as a site of transnational cultural production by exploring literature, film, music and the visual arts. The course involves lectures and discussion-led seminars.

The course will examine the development of French thought since the 1950s through the study of the writings of a number of important intellectual figures. In particular, we will look at the ways in which each of the writers questions and redefines a particular field of knowledge (such as linguistics, anthropology, philosophy, history or psychoanalysis).

This Junior Honours French language course, whose pre-requisites are FR2502 or FR2512, runs over the full session and is only open to Single and Joint Junior Honours degree in French students. 

Building on the skills gained during their first two years of study of French, this course will improve the students' French language skills in all four areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing, whilst increasing their grammatical and lexical knowledge, as well as their sensitivity to linguistic variety.

It carries 15 credits and is assessed by way of four equally weighted assignments. 

This Non-Honours Level 3 French language course, whose pre-requisites are FR2502 or FR2512 , runs over the full session and is open to students following a Designated Degree in French Studies, LLB (French or Belgian law), European Studies (with one language) or any Degree with French language as a minor .

This course will improve French language skills in all four areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing, whilst increasing grammatical and lexical knowledge, as well as sensitivity to linguistic variety.​

It carries 30 credits and is assessed by way of six equally weighted assignments.

This Non-Honours Level 3 French language course, whose pre-requisites are FR2502 or FR2512 , runs over the full session and is open to students following European Studies (with TWO languages), as well as any Degree with French language as a minor.

Building on the skills gained during the first two years of study, this course will improve French language skills in all four areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing, whilst increasing their grammatical and lexical knowledge, as well as their sensitivity to linguistic variety.​

The course, which carries 15 credits, is assessed by way of four equally weighted assignments.

By examining a collection of texts from the last 150 years, both texts specifically about photography and literary texts in which photography or a photograph figure prominently, the course will examine the history of the medium, changing cultural practices and attitudes associated with it, and the ways in which photography is used thematically and stylistically by the writers on the course.

This course is open only to mode B Junior Honours students of French fulfilling their residence abroad requirements in a French-speaking country. This is a correspondence course. It runs over the second half-session.

This course provides an introduction to early modern French literature and its contribution to the religious and philosophical debates of the period, by looking at how several major authors used laughter to challenge prevailing ideas and beliefs. Various comic forms will be studied across a range of literary genres, such as comedy, fable, picaresque novel and ‘conte philosophique’. Authors will change from year to year, but might include, for example, Molière, La Fontaine, Cyrano de Bergerac, Voltaire, and Diderot.

Three canonical French 'novels of their century' will be studied, one each from the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, together with well-known film adaptations of these novels. The course will consider the significance of these landmark novels within the historical and cultural context of their respective centuries, and explore more generally the question of cinematic adaptation of literature.

The course aims to introduce students to the literature of Francophone Africa from the Independence period and its aftermath to contemporary postcolonial society, including the African Diaspora.

This course will examine "postcolonial" cultural production in modern and contemporary Paris with a focus on music and film.  Students will consider a series of case-studies of post-migrant artists and artistic genres in order to look at how the city space is used and represented. In addition, students will extend their understanding of the subject by means of independent research, setting the topics treated in their wider context and synthesizing material from a range of sources.

The course will examine the development of French thought since the 1950s through the study of the writings of a number of important intellectual figures. In particular, we will look at the ways in which each of the writers questions and redefines a particular field of knowledge (such as linguistics, anthropology, philosophy, history or psychoanalysis). In addition, students will extend their understanding of the subject by means of independent research, setting the topics treated in their wider context and synthesizing material from a range of sources.

This Senior Honours French language course, whose pre-requsite is the Junior Honours French Language course, is run over the full session and is only open to Single and Joint Senior Honours degree in French students.

Building on the skills gained in their third year of study of French, this course will help the students' French language gain very high skills in all four areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing, whilst increasing their grammatical and lexical knowledge, as well as their sensitivity to linguistic variety.

This Non-Honours Level 4 French language course, whose pre-requsite is the Non-Honours Level 3 French language course, is run over the full session and is only open to students who are following LLB (French or Belgian law), any Degree with French language as a minor subject, or any other Degree with the addition of French to its prescribed courses.

Building on the skills gained in their third year of study of French, this course will help the students gain higher skills in all four areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing, whilst increasing their lexical knowledge sensitivity to linguistic variety.

This course is only open to students who are Senior Honours students in French Studies (Single/Joint). It requires a good level of written and oral French as all the assessments will be produced in French. 

Candidates will write a dissertation of 8,000 words on a subject to be decided in consultation with the Course Co-ordinator, to be researched and written (under supervision by a member of staff) in the second half session of Junior Honours, and submitted at the beginning of Senior Honours.

By examining a collection of texts from the last 150 years, both texts specifically about photography and literary texts in which photography or a photograph figure prominently, the course will examine the history of the medium, changing cultural practices and attitudes associated with it, and the ways in which photography is used thematically and stylistically by the writers on the course.

This course will examines texts from the late nineteenth century onwards to explore French poetry in its interactions with the visual arts, music and philosophy. In the process, the idea of poetry as a self-enclosed genre will be challenged and reassessed as a fascinating cultural interface. Different paradigms for thinking about poetry in dialogue with other media will be envisaged, from rivalry to translation. and will conduct independent investigations using basic research methodology.

This course provides an introduction to early modern French literature and its contribution to the religious and philosophical debates of the period, by looking at how several major authors used laughter to challenge prevailing ideas and beliefs. Various comic forms will be studied across a range of literary genres, such as comedy, fable, picaresque novel and ‘conte philosophique’. Authors will change from year to year, but might include, for example, Molière, La Fontaine, Cyrano de Bergerac, Voltaire, and Diderot.

Three canonical French 'novels of their century' will be studied, one each from the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, together with well-known film adaptations of these novels. The course will consider the significance of these landmark novels within the historical and cultural context of their respective centuries, and explore more generally the question of cinematic adaptation of literature.

The course aims to introduce students to the literature of Francophone Africa from the Independence period and its aftermath to contemporary postcolonial society, including the African Diaspora.