English Department

> 1st Year (L1)

LICENCE DEGREE COURSE IN ENGLISH STUDIES

INTRODUCTION
The Faculty of Languages (UFR de Langues) of the University of Nantes offers both French and
exchange students the possibility of taking classes as part of a Degree Course in English Studies
(Licence LLCEr [Langues, Littratures, Civilisations trangres et Rgionales]). Courses are
taught by the English Department comprising 34 permanent professors and lecturers and 9
temporary lecteurs drawn from our partner universities in the United Kingdom and North
America. The Degree is organised over a three-year period with each year being divided in two
semesters, making a total of 6 semesters in all (S1 S6). Each year follows on from the previous
one but it is still possible for exchange students to follow classes in Years 2 or 3 without having
attended classes in Year 1, provided they have the necessary level. Virtually all classes are given
in English. The subjects covered include:

Civilisation (History, Politics, Cultural Studies)

Didactique (Didactics in Language Teaching in Primary and Secondary Education)
Franais (French Literature course taught in French)
Langue Orale (spoken English with a native-speaker lecteur/lectrice)
Linguistique/Phontique/Grammaire/Faits
de
Langue
(Linguistics,
Phonetics,
Grammar)
Littrature (British and American literature from the 16th century to the present)
Pratique de la Langue (listening comprehension)
Traduction/Thme/Version (Translation: French>English and English>French)

In Year 3 it is possible to choose from a range of specialities and options in Modules

54/55/56/64/65/66. In French the modules are referred to as UE meaning unit denseignement
and each counts for 5 ECTS credits.
Most modules are assessed by semestrial examinations which take place during the first two
weeks in January (for Semester 1 classes) and during the last two weeks in May (for Semester 2
classes). Resit examinations are organised in June. Some courses require students to hand in work
on a regular basis.
Lectures (CMs) are given either in amphitheatres or large lecture rooms with an attendance of up
to 150 students. Classes (TDs) take place in smaller classrooms where there are between 25 and
45 students taking part. Lecteur classes (TPs) are organized for Spoken English Practice and here
the groups are smaller (10-18 students on average). All classes take place at the FACULTE DES
LANGUES ETRANGERES on the Humanities Campus north of the city centre and easily
accessible by tram and bus.
The following courses are offered for the period 2012-2017

SEMESTER 1
Each UE counts for 5 ECTS credits. The semester runs over 12 weeks.

UE

MODULES

COURSES

11

LANGUE

Approches de la langue
orale
Langue orale

12

13

LANGUE

CULTURE

14

LV2

15

DECOUVERTE

Initiation la linguistique
Traduction
Lecture de documents
Civilisation
Lecture de documents
Littrature

See relevant language

Department
See relevant language
Department

NB
HOURS/TERM

SUPERVISOR

24h TD

G. Ferr

12h TP
12h CM + 12h
TD
12h TD
12h CM + 12h
TD
12h CM + 12h
TD

Lecteurs

36h
36h

M. Tutton
M. Feith
A. Thiec
V. Benejam

SEMESTER 2
Each UE counts for 5 ECTS credits. The semester runs over 12 weeks.

UE

21

MODULES

LANGUE

22

LANGUE

23

CULTURE

24

LV2

25

LV2

COURSES
Initiation la linguistique
Langue orale
Etude de texte/image
Traduction
Lecture de documents
Civilisation
Lecture de documents
Littrature

Franais**
LV2, See relevant language
Department
See relevant language
Department

NB HOURS/
TERM
12h CM + 12h
TD
12h TP
12h CM
24h TD
12h CM + 12h
TD
12h CM + 12h
TD
12h CM
36h
36h

More information will be provided at the information meeting in September.

SUPERVISOR
M. Tutton
Lecteurs
A. Blandeau
M. Feith
F. Le Jeune
M. Feith

COURSE DESCRIPTION
UE 11 Approches de la langue orale
This course aims to train students in two fundamental oral skills: Listening Comprehension
and pronunciation. The Listening Comprehension part will focus on detailed and global
understanding of the ideas expressed in a sound document. In phonetics, the articulatory
description of the English language will be studied. Pronunciation will be improved thanks to
regular phonetic transcription and use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, which should
also allow students to develop their writing skills (e.g., spelling).
Bibliography
Duchet, J.L., 1994, Code de langlais oral, Gap : Ophrys.
Jones, D., 1998, English Pronunciation Dictionary, revised by P. Roach and J. Hartman,
Cambridge: C.U.P.
Roach, P., 2000, English Phonetics and Phonology, Cambridge: CUP. Compulsory reading.
Tench, P., 2011. Transcribing the Sound of English. A Phonetics Workbook for Words and
Discourse. Cambridge University Press, C.U.P.
Wells, J., 1990 (2000), Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, Harlow: Longman.
UE 11 Langue orale
Conversation with a language assistant.
UE 12 Initiation la linguistique
This course is an introduction to a linguistic reflection on the concept of specification. The
specification of verbs will be studied in UE 12 and the specification of nouns in UE 21.
The various degrees of specification of verbs in English will be studied. The course will focus
on:
- Simple forms with a direct reference to the notional level: simple present and simple past
- Complex forms which introduce the contents of the utterance from a particular point of
view:
* aspectual forms : have-en and be+ing
* modal forms : can/could/may/might/must/will/would/shall/should
Various practice tasks will be provided in the TD course.
Bibliography
George Yule, The Study of language, Cambridge, 2007.
J. Bouscaren, Linguistique Anglaise, Initiation une grammaire de lEnonciation, Ophrys.
J. Bouscaren, J. Chuquet, L. Danon-Boileau, Introduction to a Linguistic Grammar of
English, an Utturer-Centered Approach, Ophrys.
P. Larreya, C. Rivire, Grammaire Explicative de lAnglais, Longman.

R. Quirk, & S. Greenbaum, A University Grammar of English, Longman, 1973.

UE 12 Traduction
Introduction to prose and unseen translation (French-English; English-French).
A bibliography will be provided in class.
UE 13 Lecture de documents (civilisation) : Origins and Development of British
institutions and society : An Introduction to British Studies
This course is an introduction to British studies. The lectures will aim at providing 1 st-year
students with background knowledge on British institutions and society to be complemented
with further reading of the books recommended in the following bibliography. The weekly
tutorials will give students the methodological tools which will help them to develop their
analyzing as well as writing skills through the study of a selection of primary sources placed
within their historical context.
Textbook (compulsory reading)
Blamont, Grard, Paquette, Anne, Les Cls de la civilisation britannique, Paris, Ellipses,
2000.
Further reading
Leach, Robert, Coxall, Bill, Robins, Lynton, British Politics, London, Palgrave Macmillan,
2011.
Leruez, Jacques, The Systme politique britannique. De Winston Churchill Tony Blair, Paris,
Armand Colin, 2me dition, 2001.
Oakland, John, British Civilization : An Introduction, London, Routledge, 7th edition, 2010.
Pickard, Sarah, Civilisation britannique. British Civilisation, Paris, Langues pour Tous, 7me
dition, 2012.
Picton, Herv, A Handbook to British Civilization, Paris, Ellipses, 2008.
UE 13 - Literature : Introduction to British Literature
CM - V. Bnjam
TD - V. Bnjam, A. Blandeau, A. Clark-Wehinger (2), G. Letissier (2), M. Mianowski, F. TusquesVenisse
This course will provide students with an overview of English literature from the Middle Ages to our
time. It will broach the three genres: fiction writing (novels and short stories), poetry and drama. At
the end of term, students will be expected to have a general understanding of the history of English
literature and the capacity to engage with a text and comment upon it in good English.
The lecture course (or cours magistral, CM) will present the various literary movements and
tendencies of literature in the British isles. A brief introduction to medieval literature will lead us to the
Elizabethan period (and Shakespeare), then we shall progress diachronically (chronologically) up to
the literature of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The more canonical authors will be
introduced, together with the main classics.
In smaller classes (or travaux dirigs, TD), students will be guided through a series of extracts from
classics, and introduced to the basics of text commentaries in English: methodology, technical

vocabulary, etc. By the end of term they should know what to look for in texts and how to present their
findings.
A midterm exam (contrle continu, CC) will take place shortly after the midterm break.
The final exam (examen final) will consist in an extract from a text, on which students will be
expected to comment in good English. A series of questions will guide their commentaries.
Bibliography (compulsory)
These books may be purchased, but can also be found at the University Library. Students are invited to
refer to them regularly during term.
- Franoise Grellet, A Handbook of Literary Terms : Introduction au vocabulaire littraire anglais
(Hachette Suprieur)
- Franoise Grellet & Marie-Hlne Valentin, An Introduction to English Literature, from Philip
Sydney to Graham Swift (Hachette Suprieur)
Bibliography (recommended suggestions)
This is a list of books in which students are invited to pick and read, as much as they canand want.
It is ordered chronologically, from the Renaissance to our time.
[N is for novels, T for theatre, D for detective novels, G for graphic novels (BD)]
- Shakespeare, William. Macbeth or Romeo and Juliet (T)
- Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice (N)
- Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations (N)
- Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest (T)
- Woolf, Virigina. Mrs Dalloway (N)
- Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot (T)
- Pinter, Harold. The Caretaker (T)
- Golding, William. Lord of the Flies (N)
- Tolkien, JRR. The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings (N)
- McEwan, Ian. Enduring Love or On Chisel Beach or The Children Act (N)
- Churchill, Carol. Top Girls (T)
- Mitchell, David. Cloud Atlas (N)
- Waters, Sarah. Fingersmith (N)
- Coe, Jonathan. The Rotters' Club (N)
- Smith, Zadie. White Teeth or WS
- Hawkins, Paula. The Girl on the Train (D)
- Simmonds, Posy. Gemma Bovary or Tamara Drewe (G)
This website will offer BBC interviews with famous authors:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/writers/
UE 21 Initiation la linguistique
I. Introduction to Linguistics: This semester, the course will focus on the concept of
specification, applied to nouns.
The determiners of the noun and the underlying linguistic operations will be studied:
- + singular noun and + plural noun
- A + singular noun
- The + singular or plural noun
- Some / any / no
- specific and generic genitives
II- Introduction to lexicology: This new chapter of the course will provide an introduction to
lexicology and will thus focus on the concept of word analysing the morphemic structure of
words and word formation processes (affixation, composition, borrowing, clipping,
derivation).
Various practice tasks will be provided in the TD course.
Bibliography
George Yule, The Study of language, Cambridge, 2007.
J. Bouscaren, Linguistique Anglaise, Initiation une grammaire de lEnonciation, Ophrys.
J. Bouscaren, J. Chuquet, L. Danon-Boileau, Introduction to a Linguistic Grammar of
English, An Utturer-Centered Approach, Ophrys.
P. Larreya, C. Rivire, Grammaire Explicative de lAnglais, Longman.
R. Quirk, & S. Greenbaum, A University Grammar of English, Longman, 1973.
UE 21 Langue orale
Conversation with a language assistant.
UE 22 A Etude de texte/image : Picturing the Middle Ages on the Silver Screen (6h)
The course aims at reflecting on the various ways this remote historical period has been
visualised and pictured on film. While wondering about the film representation of the Middle
Ages over the past 75 years or so (The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn was
made in 1938), the students will be given an opportunity to get familiar with a few major
medieval themes and texts (extracts).
Bibliography
Rebecca A. Umland & Samuel J. Umland, The Use of Arthurian Legend in Hollywood Film.
From Connecticut Yankees to Fisher Kings, Westport: Greenwood Press, 1996.
John Aberth, A Knight at the Movies. Medieval History on Film, New York: Routledge, 2003.

Anke Bernau & Bettina Bilschauer, Medieval Film, Manchester & New York: Manchester
University Press, 2009.
Leo Carruthers, Langlais medieval, Brepols (Latelier du mdiviste 4), 1996, 256 p.
UE 22 B Etude de texte/image : Reading images (6h)
How can images help us to understand history and society?
How can we analyse an iconographic document in civilisation studies?
This short introductory lecture course will attempt to deal with some of the important issues
raised by these questions in the following fields:
1. Painting and Lithography
2. Political cartoons and posters
3. Photography and advertisements
Bibliography
Amossy, Ruth & Herschberg Pierrot, Anne, Strotypes et clichs, Paris, Nathan Universit,
1997.
Barthes Roland, Mythologies, Paris, Editions du Seuil, 1957.
Dimbleby, David, A Picture of Britain, London, BBC Tate, 2005.
Guiffan, Jean, Histoire de langlophobie en France, Rennes, Terre de Brume Editions, 2004.
Okuefuna, David, The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn, London, BBC Books, 2008.
It is not necessary to buy all these books but students who would like to learn more about the
issues raised might consider consulting some of them.
UE 22 Traduction
Introduction to prose and unseen translation (French-English; English-French).
A bibliography will be provided in class.
UE 23 Lecture de documents (civilisation) : The making of an exceptional nation? Forging
American identity from the colonial era to the early twentieth century
CM
This Civilization course is designed as a introductory study of some of the founding myths of
a nation in the making: to what extent did the contradictory experiences of colonial America
inform the collective mentality of a people? How did immigration, slavery and territorial
expansion serve as decisive dynamics in American culture? From the American War of
Independence to the end of the Frontier in the late nineteenth century, lectures will seek to
bring out the multifaceted experiences of groups (European immigrants, native societies,
African Americans) which make up the multicultural fabric of the United States.
TD
Students will familiarize themselves with two different types of documents: primary
(eyewitness accounts) and secondary sources (argumentative texts by journalists and

historians). Tutorials (TD) will focus especially on the methodology of a text commentary,
which will be explored through visual and audio material throughout the semester. Annotated
versions of more complex documents will be provided when necessary.
Bibliography
*In addition to the Reader (see MADOC), here are two books to complement the lectures:
Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States from 1492 to the Present (Harper
Collins 2002)
Ronald Takaki, A different Mirror: a Multicultural History of the United States (Little, Brown
& company, 2008)
**An explanatory note about how to use those references will be posted on MADOC.
UE 23 Lecture de documents (littrature) : What can American literature teach us about
American history?
CM
This Literature course will be a companion to the Civilization course; its aim will be to show
the specific ways in which American Literature can teach us about American history. The
selected texts will all belong to the 19th century, and deal with the origins of the country, as
well as events contemporary to the time of writing.
We will try to see how history is transformed into story, what aesthetic imperatives condition
this transformation, but also what ideological and critical views can be expressed. A variety of
extracts will illustrate the CM, including scenes from films, since the cinema has also
revisited and interpreted history for generations of Americans.
TD
The TD will focus on extracts from specific literary works, dealing with key moments in
American history. These works are short, and have to be read in full. Since 19th century prose
and poetry are difficult, you may consult French translations, but always in order to read the
originals. These texts can be found at the University Library, or on the Internet (ex: Project
Gutenberg, or accessible through the Wikipedia website). Annotated versions of some difficult
texts will be available on MADOC when necessary.
The aim of the class will be to prepare students for an explication de texte (text analysis) in
the final exam.
Bibliography (a more comprehensive bibliography will be available on MADOC)
Discovery and exploration of America:
Washington Irving. Rip Van Winkle (1819). The Norton Anthology of American
Literature. Third Edition.Vol. 1, 1989. Also Aubier Bilingue.
The Puritan Heritage:
Nathaniel Hawthorne. Young Goodman Brown (1835). Young Goodman Brown and Other
Tales. Oxford Worlds Classics, 1998. Also Aubier Bilingue.

Slavery:
Mark Twain: The Tragedy of Puddnhead Wilson (1894). New York, Norton, 2005.
(The arts in African American English are difficult: notes will be given on Madoc)
The Civil War:
Ambrose Bierce: A Horseman in the Sky, Chicamauga, Killed at Resaca, in Tales of
Soldiers and Civilians. Penguin Classics, 2001. Available in French translation as Morts
Violentes. Paris: Les Cahiers rouges, Grasset, 2008.
Naturalism and the City:
Stephen Crane. Maggie, A Girl of the Streets (1893). Paris: Aubier Bilingue, 1993.

BIBLIOTHQUE UNIVERSITAIRE

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