The BA in French Studies is delivered in three stages, each of which comprises one year of full-time study during which you will follow courses to the value of four units (one unit is equivalent to 30 national credits or 15 European credits). The programme provides progressive structures enabling you to develop increasingly specialised knowledge and understanding of key themes alongside core transferable skills.
The degree programme lasts three years, as opposed to the usual four for a Modern Foreign Languages degree in a UK university.
Teaching is delivered through a combination of lectures, seminars and workshops. Courses are assessed through coursework, oral presentations (individual or group) and formal written examinations. Depending on the range of Options taken in Stages 2 and 3, students will have up to 80% of their courses delivered and examined in French.
Compulsory core courses aim to:
- consolidate spoken and written language skills, including translation to and from French
- develop awareness of the post-1789 historical period and institutions and issues in modern France
- introduce diverse forms of cultural production through contemporary critical and theoretical approaches
Specialist options taught at Stages 2 and 3 will allow you to develop knowledge in your areas of interest.
Modules
Download an overview of our modules, or continue to find our programme outline*
Year 1
All courses are compulsory.
Compulsory modules
- Written and Oral Expression (ULL100) - taught in French
- Oeuvres: critical approaches to literature and visual arts (ULC100) - taught in French
- Histoire et Histoires: social, political and cultural issues from the Revolution to the present day (ULC110) - taught in French
- Issues in Contemporary French Politics (ULC140) - taught in English
- Introduction to Cultural Studies (ULC150) - taught in English
Year 2
Compulsory modules
- Advanced grammar of written and spoken French (ULL200) - taught in French
- Introduction to translation (ULL210) - taught in French/English
Optional modules (students select 6 from the list below)
- Introduction to French linguistics (ULC201) - taught in French
- Identités I: Gender and Sexuality (ULC212) - taught in French
- Twentieth-Century Art (ULC213) – taught in French
- History and Memory I: Les récits nationaux (ULC214) - taught in French
- Text and Image in Mass Culture (ULC223) - taught in English
- Climate Politics (ULC230) - taught in English
- Politics and Fiction (ULC231) - taught in English
- Queer Politics in Contemporary France (ULC232) - taught in English
- France, Britain and Empire (ULC234) - taught in English
- An Introduction to Global Cinema (ULC235) - taught in English
- Social Movements and Politics of Protests (ULC236) - taught in English
Year 3
Compulsory modules
- Advanced techniques in formal discourse (ULL300) – taught in French
- Advanced Translation from English to French (ULL311) - taught in French
- Advanced Translation from French to English (ULL312) - taught in English
Optional modules (students select 5 from the list below)
- Fin de siècle: Politics and Ideology (ULC304) – taught in French
- Le Républicanisme en France I: 1789-1914 (ULC310) - taught in French
- French colonialism in North Africa (ULC313) – taught in English
- Y2K BD: Fin de millénaire bande dessinée (ULC315) - taught in English
- Variation, Contacts and Ideologies in Contemporary French (ULC317) - taught in French
- French Society Through Musical Films (ULC318) - taught in French
- Trauma and Transmission: Holocaust afterlives (ULC326) - taught in English
- Classic French Cinema (ULC328) - taught in English
- Research dissertation (ULC329) - presented in French or English
- Postcolonial Fictions in the City of Paris (ULC333) - taught in English
- Contemporary Theory 1: Critique (ULC334) - taught in English
- Contemporary Theory 2: Crisis (ULC335) - taught in English
*All courses listed above are subject to availability.