Course Number

Description and links

BASIC FRENCH:
A two-semester course. Five meetings a week for oral practice. One hour of work outside of class is expected every day (grammar/writing, oral practice, reading). An accelerated track enables qualified students to go directly to FREN 0500 after FREN 0200.
Prerequisites: See the instructor for placement. Written permission required
NOTE: This is a year course. Enrollment limited to 18 per section.

Section 01: M,F 9:00-9:50 & T,TH 10:30-11:50
Section 02: M,F 10:00-10:50 & T,TH 10:30-11:50
Section 03: M,F 11:00-11:50 & T,TH 2:30-3:50
Section 04: M,F 12:00-12:50 & T, TH 9:00-10:20
Section 05: M,F 1:00-1:50 & T,TH 1:00-2:20
Section 06: M,F 10:00-10:50 & T, TH 9:00- 10:20

INTERMEDIATE FRENCH II:
Continuation of FREN 0300 but may be taken separately. A four-skill language course that stresses oral interaction in class (three meetings per week plus one 50-minute conversation section). Materials include audio activities, film, and a contemporary novel. Short compositions with systematic grammar practice. Enrollment limited to 18 per section.
Prerequisites: FREN 0300, FREN 0200 with written permission, or placement

Section 01: M,W,F 10:00-10:50
Section 02: M,W,F 11:00-11:50
Section 03: M,W,F 1:00-1:50
Section 04: CLOSED

WRITING AND SPEAKING FRENCH I:
A four-skill language course that stresses oral interaction in class (three meetings plus one conversation hour). Materials include audio CD, film, press articles, and literary excerpts. Writing is organized around specific tasks and systematic grammar practice. Enrollment limited to 18 per section.
Prerequisites: FREN 0400, FREN 0200 accelerated track (with permission), or placement.

Section 01: M,W,F 9:00-9:50
Section 02: M,W,F 12:00-12:50
Section 03: M,W,F 2:00-2:50

WRITING AND SPEAKING FRENCH II:
Prerequisite for study in French-speaking countries. Continuation of FREN 0500. Class time is devoted mainly to conversation and discussion practice. Writing instruction and assignments focus on essays, commentaries, and to a lesser degree, on story writing. Apart from reading assignments for discussion (press articles and literary excerpts), students select two novels to read. Three meetings plus one conversation hour.
Prerequisites: FREN 0500 or placement.

Section 01: M,W,F 9:00-9:50
Section 02: M,W,F 10:00-10:50
Section 03: M,W,F 12:00-12:50
Section 04: M,W,F 1:00-1:50
Section 05: M,W,F 2:00-2:50

For Undergraduates and Graduates

General prerequisite for all 1000-level courses except 1510: one course from among French 500, 600, 750, or 760.

FRESHMAN SEMINAR: From Courtly Love to Post-Modern Desire
From twelth-century courtly literature fo contemporary film, this course explores the enduring romance between French culture and Eros. The ambiguities of desire are brought to the fore across changing religious and social contexts. Readings include Duras, Flaubert, Freud, and Baudrillard.
Open to students who receive a 5 (AP test), 700 and above (SAT II) or with instructor's permission. Open to first year students only. Please email Virginia_Krause@brown.edu if you have questions. FYS

Section 01: M,W,F 1:00-1:50

INTENSIVE INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE AND LITERARY METHODS:Introduction à l'analyse littéraire
On what terms and with what tools can we "read" a literary text? An introduction to major periods and genres (the short story, the novel, poetry, theater) of French and Francophile literature and to a range of analytical approaches to the text, including narrative theory, poetics, psychoanalysis and gender studies.

Section 1: T, TH 1:00 - 2:10

MASTERPIECES OF FRENCH LITERATURE FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE PRESENT: Littérature et Intertextualité: du 18éme siécle jusqu'à nos jours
This chronological survey introduces students to works from diverse genres (e.g. realism, symbolism, postmodernism). Authors to be studied include Marivaux, Prévost, Balzac, Maupassant, Baudelaire, Duras, and Camara Laye.

Section 01: T, TH 1:00-2:20

STUDIES IN FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE RENAISSANCE: The French Renaissance: The Birth of Modernity?
The underlying question we will ask throughout the semester is: "did the Renaissance mark the birth of what we call the modern period?" We will look at how artists and writers helped create this modern period and phenomena such as "individualism" and the "nation state." At a time when both the individual and the nation-state are being questioned, it is important to look at how literature and the other arts played a role in creating these modern paradigms. We will read literary works by writers such François Rabelais, Louise Labé, Joachim Du Bellay, Pierre Ronsard, Marguerite de Navarre and Agrippa d'Aubigné. We will also look at political treatises by authors such as Claude de Seyssel, François Hotman, and Jean Bodin. All of these works show finally how our modernity was created during the period often called "the Renaissance."

Section 01: T 4:00-6:20

STUDIES IN FRENCH POETRY: Révolution poétique - à la française: Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarmé
Primary emphasis: intensive study of the poetic production and theoretical texts of three writers who substantially contributed to the radical transformation of modern Western poetry. Additionally: attention to historical contexts and to influences on later writers and theories. Enrollment limited to 20.

Section 01: TH 4:00-6:20

STUDIES IN FRENCH CINEMA: French Cinema from its Origins to WWII
This course explores French cinema and French culture from a variety of perspectives and viewpoints in the context of politics, history, art and socio-economics. The objective of the course is a critical understanding of how film functions as an art form and as a product, of the contributions of French filmmakers and immigrants to the art of the cinema, and of the development of French cinematic styles and techniques over time. Taught in English with discussions and papers in French or English

Prerequisite: FREN 0600 or equivalent.

Section 01: M,W,F 10:00-10:50
Screening Monday: 6:00

ADVANCED WRITTEN AND ORAL FRENCH: Translation
An introduction to the theory and practice of translation, this course will be designed to expand students' range and appreciation of written styles and registers and will be based on translation exercises and texts reflecting different types of written and oral communication.Texts will range from literary texts (excerpts from novels, plays, comic books...) to journalistic texts (articles from newspapers...). Class activities will also include comparative studies of translated texts, as well as grammar review and vocabulary work. Course taught in French. Written translations to and from French.
Follows FREN 0600 in the sequence of language courses Development of oral skills via presentations, debates, conversation, and discussion based on a variety of topics. Writing activities: essays, e-mails, commentaries, journals, etc. May be repeated for credit. Instructor permission required.

Prerequisite: FREN 0600 or equivalent.

Section 01: M,W,F 10:00-10:50

ADVANCED WRITTEN AND ORAL FRENCH:
Regards sur la France actuelle: Through an unconventional approach, this course will use contemporary and classic works, newspaper articles, and film – all "made in France" – to explore and analyze the myths, realities, and contradictions of France today. Student participation will be key. Through in-class discussions, debates, and presentations, students will gain a deeper understanding of the enigma and legacy of this European country that once was the center of the cultural world and an early model of democracy. Course taught in French.
Follows FREN 0600 in the sequence of language courses Development of oral skills via presentations, debates, conversation, and discussion based on a variety of topics. Writing activities: essays, e-mails, commentaries, journals, etc. May be repeated for credit. Instructor permission required.

Prerequisite: FREN 0600 or equivalent.

Section 02: M,W,F 12:00-12:50

SENIOR SEMINAR: Ateliers d'écriture
An advanced course in (functional or creative) writing. The workshops range from practice in interpersonal communication (letters) to essays and various forms of narration. Recommended to students returning from a study-abroad program, students with a native French background who lack formal training in writing, or post-FREN 1510 students. Exercises for each workshop plus a final writing project. Prerequisite: FREN 1510. Enrollment limited to 17. Instructor permission required.

Section 01: M,W,F 11:00-11:50

SENIOR SEMINAR: Boulevard du Crime
A study of crime and criminality in relation to French culture and literature during the 19th and 20th centuries. Readings in a variety of fictional and non-fictional sourcesincluding short stories, detective diction, novels, trials, memoirs, and criminological treatises.

Section 01: F 3:00-5:20

Primarily for Graduates

STUDIES IN FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE RENAISSANCE: Façons d'aimer: Discourses of Sexuality in Early Modern France
This course will examine both the connections and tensions among the legal, literary, philosophical, medical, and religious discourses of sexuality in early modern France. Topics such as Neoplatonism, erotomania, one-gender theory, conjugal love, cuckoldry, impotence, sodomy, and tribadism will be studied in their historical, social, and literary contexts. In addition to primary sources (selections from edicts, essays, treatises) and secondary readings (theoretical and critical), literary texts by Rabelais, Ronsard, Labé, Montaigne, Viau, Molière, Choisy, among many others. Class discussions in English or French, depending on preparation of students. Enrollment limited to graduate students or advanced undergraduates (with instructor’s permission only).

Section 01: F 3:00-5:20

SEMINAR IN FRENCH STUDIES:The Francophone Routes of Postcolonial Thought
One of the more striking omissions from the founding theoretical work of postcolonial studies, The Empire writes Back (1989), is Francophone writing in general and the Francophone Caribbean in particular. For instance, the Republic of Haiti, which has presumably been postcolonial since 1804, inexplicably gets short shrift. Nevertheless, the Francophone Caribbean maintains a shadowy yet powerful presence in postcolonial thought. Frantz Fanon, in particular, is central to postcolonial theory because of his insight into the binary nature of colonialist discourse and the appeal of his theory of radical deracination. The course sets out both to resituate francophone writing in the blindspots of postcolonial theory and to explore the way in which a postcolonial approach liberates writing in French from what some see a the neocolonial label of francophonie. The major preoccupations of postcolonial critics, such as the interrogation of identity, the anti-essentialist thrust of notions of hybridity and creolisation as well as the decentering process begun with decolonisation which permits new global networks of inter-relating to be imagined will be examined in major works from the French Caribbean, Haiti, the Maghreb and Africa.
Enrollment limited to graduate students or advanced undergraduates (with instructor's permission only).

Section 01:M 3:00-5:20

TEACHING METHODS: Theory and Methods of Foreign Language Teaching
Introduction to the theoretical and practical aspects of foreign language learning and teaching. Specific topics include theories of language acquisition, an overview of teaching practices and the principles underlying them, selection and evaluation of textbooks, teaching materials, and learner variables. Students observe beginning language courses and do micro-teaching. Taught in English. Undergraduates may enroll with instructor's permission.

Section 01: T 3:00-4:50