On Monday 21st November, students of French had the pleasure of taking part in a French literature session with Dr Jonathan Patterson. Dr Patterson is a French lecturer in the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages (MML) in St Edmund’s Hall at the University of Oxford. He teaches French language and literature with a focus on his period of research – the 16th and 17th centuries. The session was interactive and there was some great input from students and teachers alike. Dr Patterson discussed Diderot and his text Ceci n’est pas un conte which translates as “This is not a story”. Diderot was a French philosopher and a prominent figure in the Enlightenment period.
Dr Patterson started the session by asking us to define what a short story is, which he defined as a literary sugar rush. The obvious answer is that it is a story that is often very short in length but on reflection, we realised that it is complicated to define a short story. We must consider structure, language and form, among other things. Diderot's work immediately challenges the notion of a story. He plays with perceptions of reality and appearances, truth and falsehoods, as well as good, bad and the relativity of these notions. In the end, Diderot presents what could be interpreted as a story within a story – a metafiction. At various points, Dr Patterson stopped and asked us if Diderot’s work was in fact a story and, as expected, many in the audience changed their mind as we read and discussed it further. Overall, the session was fun and very insightful, encouraging us to read quickly for pleasure and then read again slowly for greater understanding.
At the end, we were fortunate enough to have a Q&A session on Oxbridge entrance. Dr Patterson provided valuable insight into the Oxford application process which will be prove useful to many. He also encouraged us to apply for MML; Oxford University's statistics show that the linguists are their most employable graduates, along with the medics and lawyers.
Geraldine, SFC2 (Year 13)
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