Hedging! Agrégation interne: Preparation for Exposé en langue étrangère

This is a text commentary on Home Rule in English, given orally. We will have three classes on how to do this. the classes will be based on a series of documents I will put up here on the blog fairly soon. Basically in the first class I will comment on documents, and in the following two classes student volunteers will do so.

If you should have agreed to comment on a document, and are unable, finally, to do so, please do contact me and not simply stay away from the class (I apologize for giving you such infantile advice, but this has happened more than once!)

One aspect of academic language which one must get practice with is "hedging". Academic analysis is made up of facts, certainties, probabilities and possibilities, and it is very important to be able to express the solidity (or not) of a statement. These sentences all speak of the same question.

Brexit will destroy the British economy.
Britain's economy will be fine outside the EU.

Some commentators are quite sure that leaving the EU will have dire economic consequences for Britain.
The reorganization of trade, separate from the European free market, may well cause unexpected difficulties which might take considerable time to be overcome.
Opponents of Brexit claim there will be disastrous effects, though evidence is hard to come by.


The first two are to be avoided at all costs.

This page will help further with hedging.
http://www.uefap.com/writing/feature/hedge.htm

British women artists

News on visual art in Britain

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/dec/18/tate-britain-celebrate-60-years-work-female-art

Cultural history on TV

TV history programmes have been transformed in the past few decades. From the "talking heads" paradigm, many new forms have diverged. In Britain there has been a boom in programmes where people form today are made to live like one did at a particular period in the past. This episoed from "That'll teach em" takes modern teenagers back a few decades to see how they fare with old fashioned teaching and learning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5hs_MxGOAk&

Home Rule

You will have seen that our day conference in Rouen on Home Rule is available in online videos here:

https://webtv.univ-rouen.fr/channels/#2019-symposium-on-the-home-rule-issue-1870-1914

It is indispensable!

There was also a day conference in Toulouse. Some of its videos are now online. Here is one

https://video-streaming.orange.fr/autres/simon-deschamps-university-of-toulouse-jean-jaures-from-irish-home-rule-to-indian-swaraj-the-empire-strikes-back-1870-1914-CNT000001cZLEc.html

The others  can be found by exploring the orange video streaming site.

MEEF CAPES

Two things.
Remember it is nearly time to send me your homework assignment (on the documents concerning Ireland). But Thursday night is OK.

For revision, I do recommend this lecture on the Labour Party. The speaker has an establishment but fair-minded approach. That is, he is rather conservative himself, but is careful to explain the positions of those who do not agree with him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OnEYdQrZFQ&app=desktop

And also this one, on the Conservative Party:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIlaLbCMa3U&app=desktop

Collection of news articles: MEEF mémoire, héritage, ruptures

These are recent UK news articles in connection with the theme of mémoire, héritage, ruptures. I recommend you read them.

Download them here.

agrégation interne

Remember to look over regularly the report by the jury.

saesfrance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/rapport-agreg-interne-2018.pdf

MEEF CAPES Mémoire héritage ruptures podcast

You will find here the classes I gave in January 2019 on mémoire héritage ruptures.

The first class is here
The second PowerPoint is here

The (purely illustrative) PowerPoint is here

keywords: CAPES, podcast, mémoire héritage ruptures, Powerpoint, université de Rouen 

Master LEA final podcasts on women in the USA

A few weeks back I posted recordings of the first two classes on women in the USA. You will find here the recordings of the third class.

The first part of the class is here
The second part of the class is here

And the PowerPoint, which accompanies all three classes, can be found here.
Note that, as usual, the PowerPoint is for illustration purposes. Almost all the information is only present in audio form in the recorded classes.

Keywords; podcast, women, history, United States, PowerPoint, university lecture.

L3 Classroom test

Perhaps you remember that the marking scheme for the L3 class includes a classroom test. This will be on the 19th March. It will either be a text commentary or an essay.

Social changes in the UK

Not very positive ones this time:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/08/million-more-young-adults-live-parents-uk-housing

Britain since 1945 general background podcast and powerpoint

You will find below the podcasts of the two classes I gave in January 2019 on Britain since 1945. These follow political and social history over the last few decades. They are the first part of the L3 class "British popular culture since 1945". If you are a MEEF student who has not recently revised this period of history, I recommend you listen too.

First class podcast
http://www.jcmullen.fr/0119L3popular1.mp3

Second class podcast
http://www.jcmullen.fr/0119L3popular2.mp3




Accompanying PowerPoint
http://www.jcmullen.fr/0119L3general.pps

Thème class next Wednesday 13th

If I understand correctly, the agrégation interne people are free from 9h to 10h30 next Wednesday. You are of course most welcome to come to the thème class in  L209. We will be working on the passage beginning "La porte de la chambre..." which is below. If you send me your translations before Sunday night, I will try to correct them on Monday.

La porte de la chambre s’ouvrit alors qu’il trempait ses tartines dans le café tiède. Elvire s’étira en bâillant les pans de sa chemise de nuit rose, ferma ses poings de poupée, poussa un grognement de plaisir avant de lancer la phrase qui inaugurait chacune de leurs journées communes depuis près de quinze ans.

-         Oh, cette nuit j’ai bien dormi…

Valère Notermans leva les yeux et il anticipa le moindre geste de sa femme. Il se promettait souvent de changer un objet de place pour voir si cela compromettait le déroulement du rituel ou s’il existait encore assez de ressources en elle pour s’adapter à l’inattendu… Il se contentait d’imaginer des scénarios qui tous, sans exception, s’achevaient dans le plus grand tragique.

Ses nuits étaient peuplées d’apocalypses.

Il lui arrivait quelquefois de la regarder, dans la pénombre, quand une émotion trop forte l’obligeait à s’asseoir brusquement dans le lit, pour calmer les battements de son cœur et dissiper la peur. Les cauchemars s’effilochaient comme des brumes touchées par le soleil sur la lande. Elvire gisait, immobile, les yeux recouverts d’une feutrine noire, et il s’était souvent penché pour saisir le filet d’un souffle, le frémissement de sa poitrine, la croyant morte. Savait-elle seulement que les rêves existaient ? Peut-être pensait-elle qu’il s’agissait là d’intermèdes publicitaires dans le néant de ses nuits.

-        

 Oh, cette nuit j’ai bien dormi…

Au premiers temps de leur vie commune, cette manière de souligner par la parole le moindre de ses faits et gestes l’enchantait. Il semblait à Valère qu’elle mettait ainsi en valeur des événements dont l’importance était masquée par leur apparence anodine. Elvire attirait son attention amoureuse sur son corps, sur sa capacité à déplacer l’air, à capter le soleil. (…)

Peu à peu, il s’était lassé du spectacle et les phrases sans importance s’étaient mises à résonner dans sa tête. Il n’y eut bientôt plus qu’elles, en bas de l’écran.

Une vie entière en version ordinaire sous-titré !

Didier Daeninckx ; Les figurants (1995)

 

Georgian Britain

If you are revising British history, and you like to watch videos, you could have a look at this series on the 18th century. No doubt mostly history from above, but full of useful information.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAmkSQC-SPA&list=PLSQ-VFMgfi4R0wUIBpC1W9ka72vS1hdJo


Whereas, in the mid nineteenth century, one of the huge changes was the abrogation of the Corn Laws, laws which protected landowners incomes, but were opposed both by workers and by the flourishing industrial capitalists :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_Laws

Home Rule : la meilleure journée d'études de l'année

Chers étudiants,
Géraldine Vaughan et moi-même sommes très contents de vous annoncer que les interventions de notre journée d'études du 25 janvier sur la question du Home Rule sont désormais disponibles en ligne au 

https://webtv.univ-rouen.fr/channels/#2019-symposium-on-the-home-rule-issue-1870-1914
Vous y trouverez l'ensemble des interventions:
Professor Alvin  Jackson (University of Edinburgh) "Understanding Home Rule and its Opponents: Ireland and Britain 1870-1914".
Dr Catriona McDonald (University of Glasgow) "Spirits Congenitally Factious? Scottish Nationalism 1870-1914
Dr Colin Reid (University of Sheffield) "Isaac Butt's Conception of Home Rule during the 1870s"
Dr Conor Mulvagh (University College Dublin)  "The Irish Parliamentary Party and Partition"
Dr Pauline Collombier-Lakeman "Butt and Redmond: a Comparison"

PS Nous allons rajouter à la page très bientôt l'introduction à la journée, d'Anne-Catherine Bouvier de l'Université de Caen.

5 February

My union has called for strike action on Tuesday 5 Feb, in parallel with calls from ongoing social movements. I will be absent at all classes on Tuesday 5 Feb. Please circulate this information to students. I will be back Wednesday of course.

Please check back here on the blog later this week: I will be recommending videos for each class, to keep learning momentum going.

Meef

If you were not in my seminar on World War One, you need to read this article. It was the biggest commemorative festival ever, so could come up on the exam, you never know. https://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/307

La frontière britannique en Irlande...

https://www.nouvelobs.com/monde/20190129.OBS9318/pourquoi-la-frontiere-irlandaise-complique-le-brexit.html

M2 translation into English exam marks

Here are the marks for the exam.  You are identified only by your initials, so that this information cannot be found in twenty years by searching for your name. (so I would be JM)

LB 10

DC  13

LLG 10

MM 15

VN  15

JP    11

MS   7

PT   7

TV   13

A little further down in this blog you can see my suggested translation. If you are in my seminar on the 1970s, I will show you your script in class. If you are not, and you wish to see your script, contact me by email (william.shakespeare@univ-rouen.fr but with my name instead of his) 

Agrégation compréhension

Our first class is on Wednesday.
To prepare for this épreuve you need to listen to radio programmes. They are much more dense than are films or TV series, and the latter will not give you sufficient practice.

I will recommend some radio programmes on Wednesday.

M2 seminar on the 1970s

Each week there will be some preparation to do for the seminar. For Tues 29 January I asked you to watch this TV programme and especially to think about it from the point of view of a historian.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJd063guo4Y&t=177s

For the following Tuesday I will  be asking you to read this article.

M2 seminar. Photos of the 1970s

here

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-in-the-1970s-fascinating-photos-reveal-life-in-the-capital-40-years-ago-a3780461.html

L3 Popular culture

We will be looking at visual art and the dividing line between high culture and popular culture. This is in the news today :

https://next.liberation.fr/culture/2019/01/26/le-banksy-du-bataclan-vole_1705644

L3 civilisation

Not everyone knew who D H Lawrence was.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._H._Lawrence

M1 Master MEEF

Visit this page regularly, because I post here useful videos and other links when I come across them.
Since you need to revise British history, if you search for words like "podcast" or "mp3" in this blog you will find a few dozen files ( and some broken links) which you can listen to and which will not do you any harm.

For the marking of the module, which is made up of my classes paired with those of Mme Vallet, there will be a "concours blanc" which Mme Vallée will be fixing, and there will be a home assignment. I have given out in class the documents to be used for this assignment, but if your dog has eaten them, or you were absent for the first class, you will find them here.

You will hand in the assignment by email on or before the 20th February. My email is prenom.nom at univ-rouen.fr (and my nom and prenom are at the top of the blog).

(This code is to stop robots sending me thousands of advertisements)

Theme

L209