Every Wednesday between the third week of October 1995 and the last of January 1996, I will hold a 2-hour seminar at Universite Paul-Valery, in Montpellier. The theme of the seminar is "Utopias, political science and committed literature: the modes of presentation of political theory". The texts on the syllabus are More's *Utopia* (1516-1518), Richard Overton's The Arraignment of Mr Persecution (1645), James Harrington's The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656) & A System of Politics (1661?). Overton's text, a satire, will be provided in facsimile form, the edition chosen for the study of Utopia is the Logan/Adams edition in the Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought series (CUP, 1989), Harrington's two works are also in that series, the editor being J.G.A. Pocock (1992), who also published the Complete Political Works of James Harrington with CUP in 1977.
The graduate students registered to the 'real' seminar will automatically be ascribed an e-mail address and be subscribed to the virtual seminar. They are reading for the first degree of doctoral studies, Diplôme d'Etudes Avancees (DEA) in "Anglo-american studies", required of all students considering the preparation of a Doctorate. They already hold a Master's degree in English, which involves a dissertation in English (80-100 pp.) and several seminars. Most of them have spent at least one year abroad in an English-speaking country. This will be at least their fifth or sixth year at university, including the year abroad; those that are coming back to college, or are already working in schools, may be older than the average graduate beginner.
They will need to follow 5 seminars (one grade in each seminar), write a dissertation in French (about 50 pp.), which is supposed to develop into their Doctorate, if they wish to go on with their research, and if they achieve one of the top two grades on a scale of four (Passable, Assez Bien, Bien, Tres Bien). They are supposed to complete the whole course in one academic year, and may be occasionally allowed to register for a second year if they have at least passed three of the seminars, and only with the agreement of the Professors' committee.
The grade they will get from me will involve the quality of their seminar reports to the list, of their participation in class and in the e-seminar, and depending on volunteers, it may also involve the collective preparation of an electronic edition of Overton's text. They will get one grade in each seminar, and take a final oral in English on one of the seminars, in front of two of their professors. Those interested in the early modern period can of course choose me as their supervisor for their DEA dissertation, which may bear on another aspect of the culture of the period.
I will mail to the list a presentation of each session during the week ends. Every week, a student will be asked to write a summary of the session, to be mailed before the Friday of the same week. The seminar will take place mostly in English, the students' reports will always be written in English, to ensure comprehension by all the members of the virtual seminar. It will also be an opportunity for me to check the reliability of their English, since most of them are prospective teachers at school or college level, and must be as close as possible to fluency.
The virtual seminar will concentrate on More's Utopia as political literature, on the politics and poetics of the utopian form; when the real seminar shifts to the other works, the students will be asked to concentrate on the poetics-politics connection in their reports, to keep feeding the discussion on More. When the real seminar is over, the virtual seminar will go on; I hope that the Montpellier students will also stay tuned after they've finished their semester with me.
I personally commit myself to moderating the list for one year. At the end of the incipient academic year, if we choose to go on with our discussions, I'll be glad to have started a new place for scholarly exchange under the auspices of EMLS; yet, I'll ask for volunteers to succeed me as moderator. I am not sure of the impact of this new kind of teaching upon French students, most of whom are totally uncontaminated as yet by any inkling of what the Net is for. I just hope that we shall collectively offer them a generous, open-minded, convivial picture of the academic world and of the Net, so that they can go out into the 'real' world to spread a positive and friendly image of both.
Indeed, though French academics and artists are currently highly enthusiastic about the Net, the media are often very diffident, sometimes hostile, and most of the time misinformed since their reporters only browse the commercial services. The more bright young folk get to know what it can do for them, apart from filling the coffers of multinational media corporations, the more the aforesaid corporations will find it tough to peddle their wares to the general 'cultural' public (viz. students, schools and school teachers, families, local libraries, media centres, etc) without due respect for their expectations... By the way, did I warn you that this was about utopias? ;=))
************************TIME TRIETH TRUTH************************
*e-mail: lb@alor.univ-montp3.fr - lb@bred.univ-montp3.fr
*Prof. Luc Borot - Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur la Renaissance Anglaise
*Universite Paul-Valery, Montpellier (France)
*phone: 33-67142448 - 33-67142449 - fax 33-67142465