Spring 2008

Courses Primarily For Undergraduates

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 FR 50 after FR 20. Sections are limited to 18 students. Note: This is a year course.

Section 01: M, W, F 9-9:50 & T, TH 10:30-11:50 Smith-Buonanno 206
Section 02: M, W, F 10-10:50 & T, TH 1-2:20 Smith-Buonanno 206
Section 03: M, W, F 12-12:50 & T, TH 1-2:20 Barus & Holley 141
Section 04: M, W, F 2-2:50 & T, TH 2:30-3:50 Wilson 103
Section 05: M,W 1-1:50 Wilson 205 and F 1-1:50 & T,TH 9-10:20 Wilson 203

INTERMEDIATE FRENCH II Continuation of FR 30 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 novel. Short compositions with systematic grammar practice.

Section 1: M, W, F 9-9:50 111 Thayer Street-Watson Inst 116
Section 2: M, W, F 11-11:50 Smith-Buonanno 201
Section 3: M, W, F 11-11:50 111 Thayer Street-Watson Inst 112

WRITING AND SPEAKING FRENCH I: Prerequisite for FR 60. A four-skill language course that stresses oral interaction in class (three meetings plus one conversation section). Materials include audio CD, film, press articles, and literary excerpts. Writing is organized around specific tasks and systematic grammar practice.

Section 1: M, W, F 9-9:50 Salomon Center 004
Section 2: M, W, F 10-10:50 Salomon Center 202
Section 3: M, W, F 12-12:50 Smith-Buonanno G01
Section 4: M, W, F 1-1:50 Sayles Hall 306

WRITING AND SPEAKING FRENCH II: Prerequisite for study in French-speaking countries. Continuation of FR 50. 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.

Section 1: M, W, F 12-12:50 Sayles Hall 105
Section 2: M, W, F 11-11:50 Sayles Hall 205
Section 4: M, W, F 12-12:50 111 Thayer Street-Watson Inst 116

WRITING AND SPEAKING FRENCH II FOR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: Prerequisite for study in French-speaking countries. Continuation of FR 50 with a strong emphasis on IR content.

Section 3: M, W, F 12-12:50 Smith-Buonanno 101

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

M, W, F 2-2:50 Wilson Hall 105

For Undergraduates and Graduates
General prerequisite for all 100-level courses except 151: one course from among French 50, 52, 60, 75, or 76.

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

M, W, F 1-1:50 Smith-Buonanno 207

STUDIES IN FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: Le roman français au présent. Reading and discussion of postmodernist novels of all kinds and shapes--lyrical or essayistic, minimalist or baroque, centered upon female or male subjectivities, or simply bringing an echo of inner debates, lost legends and eternal quests. Novelistst include Le Clézio, Sollers, Ernaux, Germain, Rio, Redonnet, Savitzkaya, Chevillard, and Mauvigner. Two short essays and a final paper.

T, TH 10:30-11:50 Wilson Hall 109A

STUDIES IN FRENCH LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION: Fairy Tales and Culture Introduction to the study of fairy tales: elements of the genre and uses to which it has been put in children's literature, illustrations, and film.   Readings in French, American, English, German, and Italian fairy tales.   All readings and discussions are in English, but readings will also be available in the original languages.   Optional French discussion section if sufficient demand.  

M, W, F 10-10:50 Wilson Hall 309

FRENCH CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION: Sorcellerie et Renaissance : le sort de la sorcière. An interdisciplinary exploration of witches and witchcraft in Renaissance France based on close analysis of primary texts--confessions from trials, iconography, literary texts, and witchcraft theory.   Topics include the trial of Joan of Arc, the science of demons, skepticism, and the nature of belief.   Readings in Montaigne, Mauss, among others.

M, W, F 11-11:50 Rockefeller Library 205 

Pierre Saint-Amand

Stéphanie Ravillon

ADVANCED WRITTEN AND ORAL FRENCH: Follows FR 60 in the sequence of language courses. Development of oral and written skills via presentations, debates, conversation, and discussions on a variety of topics. In Spring 08, You can choose between 2 topics:

Section 1: "Crisis and Paradoxes in Today's France" (P. Saint-Amand)
Section 1: M, W, F 10-10:50 Smith-Buonanno 207

Section 2: L'adaptation This course will focus on the theme of adaptation: we will examine the process by which fiction/fact is translated from one medium to another (novel to film, comic book to film, novel to comic book, television series to film, journalism to novel). Class activities will include presentations, discussions, as well as writing scripts and adaptations. There will also be film screenings outside of class (S. Ravillon)
Section 2: M, W, F 1-1:50 111 Thayer Street-Watson Inst 112

ATELIERS D"ECRITURE: 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-FR 151 students. Exercises for each workshop plus a final writing project. Prerequisite: FR 151.

T, TH 9-10:20 Sayles Hall 002

TOPICS IN FRANCOPHONE STUDIES: - Foreign Bodies/Forbidden Sexualities in Africa and the Caribbean. The practice of homosexuality is a crime in several Caribbean and African countries. In Uganda, it is referred as "carnal knowledge of another against nature" while Zimbabwe's president Mugabe claimed homosexuals are "worse than pigs and dogs". We will explore ways in which artistic forms engage the LGBT experience within predominantly heterosexual societies. Topics include: psychoanalysis, Black feminism, Black Queer theory, HIV/AIDS, gender role socialization.

M, W, F 11-11:50. In English. This course is cross listed with Africana Studies and Gender and Sexuality Studies Smith-Buonanno G12

SENIOR SEMINAR: Figures de l'étranger From Montaigne to Marguerite Duras, Segalen to Jean Genét, modern French literature has been haunted by a specter: the figure of the Other (the foreigner, the "immigrant", the "bon sauvage", etc.) Various literary and philosophical texts will help us study the historical status and the various forms of these figures in modern French literature.

W 3-5:20 Smith-Buonanno G18

Primarily For Graduates

STUDIES IN FRENCH LITERATURE OF THE RENAISSANCE: Qu'est-ce que l'humain? Erasmus famously wrote: "one is not born human, one becomes human." For Renaissance humanists, then, how does one become human? And what makes literature so well suited to crystallizing a certain understanding of the "human" as well as its antitheses, the inhuman, non-human, and animal? Readings include Rabelais, Marguerite de Navarre, Du Bellay, and Montaigne, among others.

M 3-5:20 Rochambeau Library

SEMINAR IN FRENCH STUDIES: Discours amoureux. We will discuss love novels/plays (by Proust, Claudel, Breton, Duras, Sollers, Ernaux, Redonnet) and essays on love by Barthes, De Rougemont, Bataille, Kristeva, Lévinas, Irigaray.

T 1-3:30   Rochambeau Library