Contemporary France

Undergraduate | 2026

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area/catalogue icon
Area/Catalogue
LANG 2203
Course ID icon
Course ID
202821
Level of study
Level of study
Undergraduate
Unit value icon
Unit value
6
Course level icon
Course level
2
Study abroad and student exchange icon
Inbound study abroad and exchange
Inbound study abroad and exchange
The fee you pay will depend on the number and type of courses you study.
No
University-wide elective icon
University-wide elective course
No
Single course enrollment
Single course enrolment
No
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Note:
Course data is interim and subject to change

Course overview

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to contemporary France through the prisms of history, politics, society, and culture. It is designed to contribute to your understanding of how a modern French citizen thinks and feels in the twentieth-first century. Taught in French at the intermediate level, the course provides opportunities for students to improve their language skills in the areas of speaking, writing, listening and reading.


Students enrolling in Contemporary France will undertake activities and discussions using a variety of literary and audio-visual texts such as literature, film and music. This textual engagement will afford students the opportunity to acquire cultural knowledge as well as sociolinguistic competence pertinent to French Studies. The course will examine life in France from different perspectives and voices, from its diversified artistic landscape to its taste for intellectualism, and what led to the development of French culture as we know it today. Does the well-known national motto 'Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite' still represent an ultimately deeply divided society? An analysis of different media of expression will serve to feed current debates and give the keys to understand the place of the French in France and the place of France in the world.

Prerequisite(s)

N/A

Corequisite(s)

N/A

Antirequisite(s)

N/A