Module manager: Adina Stroia
Email: a.stroia@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable
Year running 2026/27
French language skills equivalent to B2/C1 of the CEFR (eg successful completion of Level 2 French)
FREN3093 Iconic Images FREN3094 The Kaleidoscope
This module is not approved as a discovery module
If a picture paints a thousand words, can a thousand words paint a picture? We live in a world increasingly saturated by images, but words continue to play a crucial role in cultural expression. This module gives you the opportunity to gain an overview of the shifting relationship between the two in French-speaking cultures, from the past through to the present day. It will interrogate the tensions and interdependencies between verbal and visual language. How do illustrations interact with our reading of words? How does the written word appeal to our visual imagination? How do visual arts use words? How does the written word inspire the visual arts, and how do the visual arts inspire the written word? Through an exploration of diverse forms of cultural expression in the French-speaking world we will invoke notions of how taste and cultural judgement are shaped by societal and historical forces. You will gain an understanding of how culture is acquired, transformed, and transmitted in its various textual and visual manifestations. Please note this is an optional module and runs subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose this module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module.
Through introductory lectures, in-depth seminar discussion of specific materials, and independent study leading to the production of spoken and written work, this module will equip students to evaluate cultural materials produced in the French-speaking world which draw, in differing ways and to differing extents, on the interplay of word and image. Lectures will introduce the materials themselves and frameworks of critical analysis appropriate to their study. Students will build upon these foundations through their preparation for seminar discussions, where the materials will be evaluated in detail using pertinent critical frameworks, and their broader significance in relation to their historical, intellectual and cultural contexts will be explored.
On successful completion of the module, students will be able to
LO1. Appraise the interplay of word and image in selected cultural materials from the French-speaking world
LO2. Evaluate critical approaches appropriate to the particular materials under analysis
LO3. Analyse selected cultural materials from the French-speaking world
LO4. Express themselves fluently in spoken French
LO5. Gather and evaluate evidence and information from a range of sources
LO6. Develop a complex and evidence-based argument
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supervision | 2 | 0.3 | |
| Seminars | 20 | 1 | |
| Independent online learning hours | 20.6 | ||
| Private study hours | 179.4 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 0 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
Students will give formative presentations in class, with oral discussion during the class from peers and tutors. Additional written feedback will be provided by email after the class, with the opportunity to discuss that feedback further. Formative feedback for the essay will take the form of written and/or oral feedback on a sample. The sample may take the form of a detailed essay plan and/or a draft section of the essay. Students will decide with their supervisor whether to submit this sample before or after the supervision meeting.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Presentation | 30 |
| Coursework | Essay | 70 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
Check the module area in Minerva for your reading list
Last updated: 30/04/2026
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team