Honours

Honours in French Language and Culture 4401 is the final stage of students' formal training in the French language. Accordingly, the course offers a range of language exercises that develop a high level of oral and written language proficiency. During the Honours year, students will also extend their knowledge and appreciation of French culture, both through their participation in the research seminar and through the independent research carried out for the thesis. Because it gives students a great degree of control over their work, the thesis is the key to a successful Honours year and prepares students for further research in French language and culture should they wish to continue to the higher degrees, ie. the MA or the PhD.

Honours French involves a full year's study of the French language and culture. It may be taken full-time, or, for those with significant work commitments, part-time over two years. Intending Honours students must have qualified for the Ordinary degree of the Bachelor of Arts and must have taken French II or French IIA in their second year, and have obtained a Credit or higher in French III or French IIIA in their third year.

The content of Honours French Language and Culture is as follows: Language — two hours per week in semesters 1 and 2 focusing on advanced written and oral skills; Cultural Studies — two hours per week in semester 1 on a topic (to be negotiated with the Honours coordinator); 12,000 word thesis in French and an oral interview on the thesis topic. Students enrolling in French Honours from French IIIA may choose to write a 15,000 word thesis in English. It is also possible to do a combined Honours degree in which students share their work between French Studies and another discipline.

Assessment: continuous assessment of language 25%; cultural studies 25%; thesis and oral interview 50%.

Previous thesis topics include:

• La France dans l'ex-Yougoslavie
• La superstition et la mythologie dans l'œuvre de Jean Giono
• L'art est “mathématique”. Les règles de la création romanesque de Maupassant
• Le Libertinage sous la Régence: le problème de la liberté dans quelques romans libertins du XVIIIe siècle
• Le Mauvais Aveugle: Aspects du visuel dans la tétralogie Malaussène de Daniel Pennac
• L'homme qui aimait les femmes: la représentation de la femme chez François Truffaut