Undergraduate Licence: Literatures - DEFLE - French as a Foreign Language

Description

Why study Literatures?

This is a programme of study that prepares students for a range of professions, in the fields of communications, culture, teaching, the book trade, and the written word. The fundamental skills taught by the programme include a strong command of the French language, and a solid general culture: essential skills for all professions. 

Objectives

This undergraduate Licence in Literatures thus enables students to acquire a range of skills, which are the driving force behind this truly specialised programme of study, but which also extend far beyond the purely academic context. Choosing to study literature means:

• Learning how to read, via the study of texts from a range of periods and genres, with varied registers and differing complexities, and learning how to analyse text and speech of any kind.

• Learning compositional skills, ultimately gaining the careful command and good appreciation of the French language, in both its written and oral dimensions, as well as the methods and academic exercises that are specific to the discipline of Literatures (composition; commentary and analysis; summary; abstract; essay).

• Learning to think, with a strong intellectual training that is of a high quality; that is to say where the focus is on quality and structured knowledge, rather than its quantity. This implies the acquisition of a range of skills and learning, the development of a propensity for critical distance and reflection, and familiarity with the intercultural scope of literary studies (via the study of old languages, the study of a foreign language, and the comparative study of different literatures). 

• Gaining a general literary culture, thanks to the interaction with other disciplines that may have a point of contact with the literary text: the arts; history; philosophy; art history; foreign literatures and civilisations. Students acquire this level of culture as much through the Literature units (in the strict sense of the term) as they do through the ‘minor’ units, which enable students to build and strengthen skills in other domains beyond that of literatures.

• Gaining the command of a foreign language. 

Training content

Three years of study

First year of undergraduate study (Licence 1) 

The first year of this undergraduate Licence is dedicated to the acquisition and consolidation of fundamental knowledge (French literature; comparative literature; French language; Greek and Latin language and literature, according to the study pathway chosen). Students choose a ‘minor’ course unit, that is to say a secondary specialisation in another discipline (history; art history; philosophy) and a choice of options. The study of a modern language and the development of skills in information technology and archiving, are then added to this.

Second year of undergraduate study (Licence 2)

The second year of this undergraduate Licence is devoted to greater study of these fields. The minor unit plays a smaller role, and the specialisation takes more precise shape. The introduction of new subjects complement those previously studied.

Third year of undergraduate study (Licence 3)

In the third year of undergraduate study, students begin to prepare for their student personal professional project (PPE), or for the potential continuation of their studies at Master’s level and their choice of programme. The specialisation is intensified.

Access condition

Find information regarding enrolment procedures and the supporting documents to be provided, according to your profile and your level of studies :

• Independent Stay
• Exchange Programme

Career pathways

Following potential specialisation, this undergraduate Licence in Literature typically leads into the following fields:

• Professions related to teaching or research: following the undergraduate Licence, students may prepare for the competitive examinations for teaching at primary school, secondary school (‘CAPES’), or university (‘Agrégation’) via further study at Master’s level, within the Master’s for Future Teachers (‘Master MEEF’). Alternatively, students may undertake further study at Master’s level within the research-based Master’s in Literary Studies (Master REEL).
• Professions related to information and communications.
• Professions related to culture, heritage, and cultural outreach.
• Professions related to the book trade and publishing; professions related to the written word more generally.
• The French public service (including high-level senior officials, following the ‘Category A’ competitive recruitment examination, which requires the equivalent of three or more years of higher education); librarian. 

But this programme of study may also lead to more varied and less conventional career opportunities, where literary skills (a high standard of written communication; the capacity to summarise information; a good level of general culture) are now increasingly valued and appreciated. 

Further studies

In order to best respond to the demands of the range of possible career openings, and to enable students to choose from a variety of further study options, the undergraduate Licence in Literatures offers two possible study pathways, to which a third possible study pathway is added in the third year of undergraduate study.

• The mission of the ‘Classical Literatures’ pathway is to produce students who have a solid grounding not only in French literature, but also in Latin and Greek literatures. The pathway has been specifically designed with those students in mind who have an interest in ancient languages and literatures, and in the history of science in Classical Antiquity in general. The pathway is also open to complete beginners, and places emphasis on ancient civilisations and literatures, demonstrating the intention to offer a programme of study that is as comprehensive as possible. This pathway may lead into a range of career openings; students also study French language and literature, in common with the students of the ‘Modern Literatures’ pathway.

• The mission of the ‘Modern Literatures’ pathway is to shape students who have a solid grounding in both French language and literature and in foreign literatures, with a window on to neighbouring disciplines (the arts, film, or other specialisations with a view to a range of professions). The pathway divides into two in the third year, with one pathway entitled ‘Teaching Professions’ and another ‘Professions Related to the Written Word and ‘Interculturalism’’. This bifurcation aims to prepare students for all the programmes of further study that might then lead to professions related to the written word, to culture and the arts, and to the book trade. In the third year of this undergraduate Licence, it is also possible for students to join the undergraduate Licence in Modern and Contemporary Cultures (subject to approval).