University of Aberdeen School of Language & Literature Department of French

FR3065/4065 Literature and Photography: Image-Making Interactions 15 credits; 12 weeks

Course Guide 2011-2012

Literature and Photography: Image-Making Interactions
Course co-ordinator and tutor: Dr ine Larkin
Office hours: Taylor Building A23, Tuesday 2-3pm and Thursday 10-11am Telephone: 01224 272155 Email: a.larkin@abdn.ac.uk

Aims and Learning Outcomes 1. Aims

The relationship between the visual arts and literature has been attracting increasing critical attention over the past twenty years, and photography has been written about and used for a variety of purposes by literary authors since its invention in 1839. Exploring several modern writers appropriations of this new image-making system gives us insights into the way they think about writing, as practice and product, as well as their understanding of photography as a distinctive image-making system.

2. Learning Outcomes
You will be able to demonstrate a general understanding of the history of photography, and situate the works studied in relation to the cultural practices connected with photography at the time they were written. You will explore the ways photography is used thematically and stylistically by the writers on the course, and trace the changes which have appeared over 160 years of photographic history. Like all level-3 option course, this course has the following generic learning outcomes: you will apply critical reading skills to various forms of written French; you will select, evaluate and organize primary and secondary material, demonstrating an ability to synthesize material from disparate sources and to take account of the wider cultural context of the topic under consideration; you will articulate your views in speech and writing using the appropriate discourse for the subject; you will acquire the habits of autonomous learning, independently applying insights gained on the course to unfamiliar material. In addition, this level-4 module has the following subject-specific learning outcomes: you will draw comparisons between the texts; you will apply the general knowledge and understanding of the main themes and ideas to a more detailed analysis of the individual texts; and you will conduct independent investigations and present the findings in a seminar.

Prescribed Texts
Charles Baudelaire Le Public moderne et la photographie Champfleury La Lgende du daguerrotype Marcel Proust la recherche du temps perdu (Gallimard Quarto) Roland Barthes La Chambre claire (Gallimard Seuil) Marguerite Duras LAmant (Minuit) Patrick Modiano Chien de printemps (Seuil) Annie Ernaux LUsage de la photo (Folio)

3. Course plan
Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Wednesday, 11am-1pm, room TBC Introduction (lecture) and Baudelaire/Champfleury (seminar) Baudelaire/Champfleury (seminar) and Proust (lecture) Proust (seminar) Proust (seminar) and Barthes (lecture) Barthes (seminar) Duras (lecture and seminar) Duras (seminar) and student presentations ------------- No classes (reading/writing week) ---------------Modiano (lecture and seminar) Modiano (seminar) and Ernaux (lecture) Ernaux (seminar) Student presentations

Senior honours student-led seminars and presentations

Senior Honours students will be asked either to present and lead a discussion of a short secondary text relating to one of the texts; or to research a more general question relating to French literature and photography; or to read and present a non-prescribed text by one of the authors. All level 3 students are expected to prepare and participate fully and actively, and are welcome to do class presentations if they wish.

Monitoring students progress The University operates a system for monitoring students' progress to identify students who may be experiencing difficulties in a particular course and who may be at risk of losing their class certificate. If the Course Co-ordinator has concerns about your attendance and/or performance, the Registry will be informed. The Registry will then write to you (by e-mail in term-time) to ask you to contact their office in the first instance. Depending on your reason for absence, the Registry will either deal directly with your case or will refer you to your Adviser of Studies or a relevant Support Service. This system is operated to provide support for students who may be experiencing difficulties with their studies. Students are required to attend such meetings with their Adviser of Studies in accordance with General Regulation 8. Set criteria are used to determine when a student should be reported in the monitoring system. You will be asked to meet your Adviser if any of the following criteria apply for this course: either (i) if you are absent for a continuous period of two weeks or 25% of the course (whichever is less) without good cause being reported; or (ii) if you are absent from two teaching sessions without good cause; or (iii) if you fail to submit a piece of summative or a substantial piece of formative in-course assessment by the stated deadline.' If you fail to respond within the prescribed timescale (as set out in the e-mail or letter), you will be deemed to have withdrawn from the course concerned and will accordingly be ineligible for assessment by coursework or for the resit. The Registry will write to you (by email in term-time) to inform you of this decision. If you wish consideration to be given to reinstating you in the course you will require to meet with the Convener of the Students' Progress Committee.

Class Certificates A class certificate is defined as a certificate confirming that a candidate has attended and duly performed the work prescribed for a course. Students who have been reported as at risk through the system for monitoring students progress due to their failure to satisfy the minimum criteria (as outlined above) may be refused a class certificate. If you are refused a class certificate, you will receive a letter from the Registry (e-mail in term-time) notifying you of this decision. Students who are refused a class certificate are withdrawn from the course and cannot take the prescribed degree assessment in the current session, nor are eligible to be re-assessed next session, unless and until they qualify for the award of a class certificate by taking the course again in the next session. If you wish to appeal against the decision to refuse a class certificate should do so in writing to the Head of School within fourteen days of the date of the letter/e-mail notifying you of the decision. If your appeal is unsuccessful, you have the right to lodge an appeal with the relevant Director of Undergraduate Programmes within fourteen days of the date you are informed of the Head of Schools decision.

As this course forms part of an Honours programme, you should be aware that if you are refused a class certificate, you will be awarded the equivalent of a No Paper (NP) for the course, i.e. a CAS mark of zero when applied to the Grade Spectrum used for determining degree classification. This will mean that, normally, you would be unable to gain a higher class of degree than Lower Second Class Honours. Absence from Classes on Medical Grounds Candidates who wish to establish that their academic performance has been adversely affected by their health are required to secure medical certificates relating to the relevant periods of ill health (see General Regulation 17.3). The Universitys policy on requiring certification for absence on medical grounds or other good cause can be accessed at: www.abdn.ac.uk/registry/quality/appendix7x5.pdf You are strongly advised to make yourself fully aware of your responsibilities if you are absent due to illness or other good cause. In particular, you are asked to note that selfcertification of absence for periods of absence up to and including eleven weekdays is permissible. However, where absence has prevented attendance at an examination or where it may have affected your performance in an element of assessment or where you have been unable to attend a specified teaching session, you are strongly advised to provide medical certification (see section 3 of the Policy on Certification of Absence for Medical Reasons or Other Good Cause).

4. Assessment

The course is continuously assessed by means of two essays. The first one must be handed in to the Languages Secretariat by 4:30 p.m. on the Thursday of week 8 of the course (week 19 of the academic year, Thursday, 17 November 2011), and the second by 4:30 p.m. on the Thursday of week 13 of the course (week 27 of the academic year, Thursday, 12 January 2012). Each essay will count for 50% of the final CAS mark. Students may not make the same text or topic a significant part of more than one essay. Senior honours students may, with the prior approval of the course co-ordinator, substitute an essay title of their own devising for one of the titles in List 2.

The essays should be around 2000-2500 words long.

Information on plagiarism, referencing, presentation of written assignments, and marking criteria is to be found in the Departmental Handbook. Penalties for late submission of assessed work are detailed in the Departmental Guide for Honours Students. In particular, students should note that unless an extension to the deadline has been granted for medical reasons or other good cause, an essay will lose 2 marks if submitted up to one week late and will receive a mark of zero if submitted more than one week late. Students should also refer to the Modern Languages document on plagiarism. For guidance on conventions of reference and citation, they should refer to the Modern Languages document on writing and presenting essays and dissertations. As of Academic Year 2011-12, TurnitinUK will be accessed directly through MyAberdeen, the University of Aberdeens Virtual Learning Environment. MyAberdeen replaces WebCT as students virtual learning environment. This is where you will find learning materials and resources associated with the courses you are studying. You can log in to MyAberdeen by going to www.abdn.ac.uk/myaberdeen and entering your University username and password (which you use to access the University network). Further information on MyAberdeen including Quick Guides and video tutorials, along with information about TurnitinUK, can be found at: www.abdn.ac.uk/students/myaberdeen.php. Advice about avoiding plagiarism, the Universitys Definition of Plagiarism, a Checklist for Students, Referencing and Citing guidance, and instructions for TurnitinUK, can be found in the following area of the Student Learning Service website www.abdn.ac.uk/sls/plagiarism/.

You must submit two paper copies of each essay, and an electronic copy via Turnitin. Make sure that the pages of your essay are firmly fixed together with a staple (not a paper clip). You must attach a cover-sheet, duly completed, to one of the copies. The cover sheet should have your name on it, but the two copies of the essay proper must be identified only by your student identity number to enable it to be blind-marked. Once marked, one copy of the essay will be returned to you, but remember that you must retain all marked essays until you graduate for possible scrutiny by the external examiners.

5. Essay topics

One essay must be handed in by 4:30 p.m. on Thursday 17th November 2011. A second essay must be handed in by 4:30 p.m. on Thursday 12th January 2012. Students taking FR3065 choose both essay titles from List 1 Students taking FR4065 choose ONE essay from List 1 and ONE essay from List 2

List 1: Specific questions 1. Either (a) Discuss how Baudelaires Le Public moderne et la photographie and Champfleurys La Lgende du daguerrotype engage with fears many early commentators had about photography. Or (b) Discuss Baudelaires and Champfleurys use of humour and irony in their representations of photography. 2. Either (a) Why does Marcel Proust, in your view, choose to evoke photography in several scenes where love, sexual desire and sexuality are the dominant themes? Or (b) How does Marcel Proust exploit photography in the evocation of perception and memory? 3. Either (a) Discuss the relationship between mourning, identity, and photography in Roland Barthess La Chambre claire. Or (b) Taking a photograph of your choice, from a personal album, magazine, book, website etc, make a reading of it that draws on Barthess notions of studium and punctum. The manner in which Barthes explores these notions in La Chambre claire should be addressed in your essay, as well as the ways in which they are articulated and highlighted in the photo-image you have selected. 4. Either (a) How does Marguerite Duras use photography in LAmant to address the issue of identity formation? Or (b) Discuss Marguerite Durass formal and thematic exploitation of photography as means to assimilate difficult or painful facts about her past. 5. Either (a) Discuss how, in Chien de printemps, Patrick Modiano writes photography into the form of his text, and the relationship between formal and thematic appropriations of photography in the text. Or (b) How successful do you think Chien de printemps is as a response to the challenge the photographer Jansen sets for the young narrator, to russir crer le silence avec des mots (p. 20)? 6. Either (a) Consider the effect of the presence of photographic images in Annie Ernauxs LUsage de la photo, on the reading of both the text and the images themselves.

Or (b) Why, in your view, did Annie Ernaux choose to include only still-life photographs in LUsage de la photo? In your answer, give some consideration to the theme of illness in Ernauxs text.

List 2: General questions 1. To what extent are the mimetic powers of the photograph and the written text comparable? Discuss with regard to two texts you have studied on this course. 2. How did the invention and dissemination of photography alter the relationship between visual and textual representation in France? Consider this question with regard to two texts on this course. 3. Rien de proustien dans une photo, says Barthes (p. 129). Do you agree with this statement, or do you think Barthes is being ironic? Discuss with regard to both Prousts and Barthess work. 4. Discuss with regard to two texts on this course the notion that, in comparison with language, photography has a privileged relationship to the real. 5. To what extent can photography be seen as having stimulated twentieth-century French authors to experiment with new forms of (life-)writing? Discuss in relation to two texts you have studied on this course. 6. Philippe Dubois notes that : Le principe de la gense automatique qui fonde le statut de la photographie comme empreinte, o cest le rel qui viendrait de lui-mme se marquer sur la plaque sensible, ce principe doit tre clairement dlimit et pos son juste niveau, cest--dire comme un simple moment (ft-il central) dans lensemble du procs photographique. Il ne faudrait jamais oublier, dans lanalyse, [...] quen amont et en aval de ce moment de linscription naturelle du monde sur la surface sensible (le moment du transfert automatique dapparences), que de part et dautre il y a des gestes et des processus, tout fait culturels, dpendant entirement de choix et de dcisions humaines, individuelles autant que sociales. (p. 83) Discuss with regard to two texts you have studied on this course the ways in which the photographic act or process has been used, and the extent to which they engage with the point Dubois makes here. 7. Why and how does the digital revolution in photography alter the status of the photographic image? What, in your view, are the potential consequences for literary writing as a result? 8. Discuss in relation to two texts on this course the relationship between time, perception, and memory, and the ways in which photography informs the representation of this relationship.

6. Recommended Reading
General works of criticism and theory: David Bate, Photography: The Key Concepts Geoffrey Batchen, Each Wild Idea: Writing, Photography, History Andr Bazin, LOntologie de limage photographique Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility Pierre Bourdieu, Photography: A Middle-Brow Art Graham Clarke, The Photograph Philippe Dubois, LActe photographique Daniel Grojnowski, Photographie et langage Marianne Hirsch, Family Frames Scott McQuire, Visions of Modernity: Representation, Memory, Time and Space in the Age of the Camera Beaumont Newhall, The History of Photography from 1839 to the Present Day Philippe Ortel, La Littrature lre de la photographie : enqute sur une rvolution invisible Jane M. Rabb, Literature and Photography: Interactions 1840-1990 Susan Sontag, On Photography Alan Trachtenberg (ed.), Classic Essays on Photography Liz Wells (ed.), Photography: A Critical Introduction Charles Baudelaire Other Works: Le Fanfarlo (1847) Les Fleurs du mal (1857) Salon de 1859 (1859) Le Peintre de la vie moderne (1863) Le Spleen de Paris (1869) Secondary Material: Rosemary Lloyd (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Baudelaire Patricia A. Ward (ed.), Baudelaire and the Poetics of Modernity Pierre Taminiaux, The Paradox of Photography Champfleury Other Works: Le Ralisme (1857) Les Bourgeois de Molinchart (1855) Chien-Caillou (1847) Secondary Material: Lawrence R. Schehr, Rendering French Realism

Marcel Proust Other Works: Les Plaisirs et les jours (1896) Jean Santeuil (1952) Contre Sainte-Beuve (1954) Secondary Material: Adam Watt, The Cambridge Introduction to Marcel Proust Malcolm Bowie, Art in Proust Among the Stars Margaret Topping, Photographic Vision(s) in Marcel Prousts and Raoul Ruizs Le Temps retrouv in Le Temps retrouv Eighty Years After / 80 ans aprs: Critical Essays / Essais critiques Gabrielle Townsend, Prousts Imaginary Museum: Reproductions and Reproduction in A la recherche du temps perdu ine Larkin, Proust Writing Photography : Fixing the Fugitive in A la recherche du temps perdu Roland Barthes Other Works: Mythologies (1957) LEmpire des signes (1970) Image-musique-texte (1977) LObvie et lobtus (1982) Secondary Material: Jean-Michel Rabat, Writing the Image after Roland Barthes Jean-Pierre Richard, Roland Barthes, Dernier paysage: essai Andrew Leak, Barthes: Mythologies Nancy M. Shawcross, Roland Barthes on Photography: The Critical Tradition in Perspective Sen Burke, The Death and Return of the Author: Criticism and Subjectivity in Barthes, Foucault and Derrida Marguerite Duras Other Works: Le Marin de Gibraltar (1952) Moderato cantabile (1958) Hiroshima mon amour (1960) Dtruire, dit-elle (1969) La mer crite (1996) Secondary Material:

Bethany Ladimer, Colette, Beauvoir, and Duras : Age and Women Writers Carol J. Murphy, Alienation and Absence in the Novels of Marguerite Duras Renate Gunther, Fluid Boundaries: The Violence of Non-Identity in Marguerite Durass Representations of Female Relationships (Accessible on JSTOR) Nina S. Hellerstein, Image and Absence in Marguerite Durass LAmant (Accessible on JSTOR) Janice Morgan, Fiction and Autobiography/Language and Silence: L'Amant by Duras (Accessible on JSTOR) Karen Ruddy, The Ambivalence of Colonial Desire in Marguerite Durass The Lover (Accessible on JSTOR) James S. Williams (ed.), Revisioning Duras: Film, Race, Sex Jane Bradley Winston, Postcolonial Duras: Cultural Memory in Postwar France Leslie Hill, Marguerite Duras: Apocalyptic Desires Patrick Modiano Other Works: La Place de ltoile (1968) Rue des boutiques obscures (1978) Quartier perdu (1984) Voyage de noces (1990) Des inconnues (1999) La Petite bijou (2001) Secondary Material: John E. Flower (ed.), Patrick Modiano Alan Morris, Patrick Modiano ---, Un Chien (de) perdu, deux de retrouvs: Patrick Modianos Chien de printemps and Joseph Loseys Mr. Klein Akane Kawakami, A Self-Conscious Art: Patrick Modianos Postmodern Fictions Annie Ernaux Other Works: Les Armoires vides (1974) Ce quils disent ou rien (1977) La Femme gele (1981) La Place (1983) Une Femme (1987) La Honte (1997) Lvnement (2000) Les Annes (2008) Secondary Material: Siobhn McIlvanney, Annie Ernaux: The Return to Origins Claire-Lise Tondeur, Annie Ernaux, ou, LExil intrieur

Lyn Thomas and Emma Webb, Writing from Experience: The Place of the Personal in French Feminist Writing (Accessible on JSTOR) Chloe Taylor Merleau, The Confessions of Annie Ernaux: Autobiography, Truth, and Repetition (Accessible on JSTOR) Akane Kawakami, Annie Ernauxs Proof of Life: LUsage de la photo (Accessible on JSTOR)