FREN3531: Beasts, Bodies and Books: Lost Thought Worlds

• French Language 2 (FREN2051) OR an equivalent qualification to the satisfaction of the Chair of the Board of Studies in MLAC or their representative.

• Modern Languages, Combined Honours and all Joint and 'with' programmes: French Language 4 (FREN3041). Other: see Chair of the Board of Studies in MLAC or their representative

• None

• To introduce students to key medieval French works for thinking about the definitions of the human and other key categories of being (such as the animal, the plant, the stone and the angel) and about the workings of the universe.
• To show how these definitions were worked through on the pages of medieval books via close analysis of images and marginalia and other relevant visual or material features.
• To place medieval texts and modern theory in close dialogue to consider the value of premodern cosmologies to contemporary debates about humans and nonhumans.

• Themes explored in any given year may include the human, the animal, the plant, the angel, the stone; the organization of the universe; the elements, form and matter; bodies and behaviours; hybridity and transformation; communities and interspecies links.
• Students will be encouraged to reflect broadly upon the questioning of western scientific rationality in modern philosophy and anthropology and upon the value of medieval ways of thinking about the world.
• Set texts may include (extracts from) bestiaries, lapidaries, encyclopaedias, chivalry and hunting manuals, and medical, philosophical and literary texts, including accompanying illustrations and marginalia (to be accessed via digitized manuscripts).
• Modern theoretical works studied may include scholarship by Bruno Latour, Isabelle Stengers, Philippe Descola and Vinciane Despret.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• By the end of this module, students will have;
• Critical comprehension and knowledge of a range of medieval texts and images
• Understanding of the ways medieval books facilitated philosophical debates
• In-depth knowledge and understanding of key debates and terms in animal studies, plant studies, ecocriticism and anthropological and philosophical work on ontologies and cosmologies
• A historicized understanding of medieval epistemologies.

Subject-specific Skills:

• By the end of this module, students will be able to;
• Analyse and close read medieval books critically, including text/image relations
• Engage with relevant critical theory (to include animal studies, plant studies, ecocriticism and anthropological and philosophical work on ontologies and cosmologies)
• Read modern theory and medieval texts in dialogue, drawing links between different epistemologies.

Key Skills:

• Critical and analytical thinking
• Essay writing and oral presentation
• Structuring of arguments
• Independent learning and research

• Weekly lectures and fortnightly seminars.
• Lectures will communicate information about modern theory and medieval texts.
• Seminars will involve student-led discussion and presentations enabling students to practise the following: analysing texts; assessing medieval debates about the human, the animal, etc. and considering them in light of relevant modern discussions.
• Independent learning will include directed reading; preparing answers to questions for discussion in seminars; and preparing seminar presentations.
• Summative assessment will be through a commentary in which students analyse a medieval text in its manuscript context and an essay in which they will put medieval texts and modern theory into dialogue.
• Independent research will be fostered, particularly for the essay; students will be encouraged to design their own essay title in consultation with the tutor.
• Teaching will be in English.

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