The aim of the beginning French sequence (French 1101 and French 1102) is to help you to develop an active command of the language. Emphasis is placed on acquiring the four language skills--listening, speaking, reading and writing--within a cultural context, in order to achieve basic communicative proficiency.
The aim of the beginning French sequence (French 1101 and French 1102) is to help you to develop an active command of the language. Emphasis is placed on acquiring the four language skills--listening, speaking, reading and writing--within a cultural context, in order to achieve basic communicative proficiency.
This course will further your awareness and understanding of the French language, culture and literature, provide a comprehensive review of fundamental grammar points while introducing more advanced ones, as well as improve your mastery of oral, reading, and writing skills. By the end of the course, you will be able to read short to medium-length literary and non-literary texts, and analyze and comment on varied documents and topics, both orally and in writing.
Prerequisites: FREN UN2121 Intermediate Conversation is a suggested, not required, corequisite Prepares students for advanced French language and culture. Develops skills in speaking, reading, and writing French. Emphasizes cross-cultural awareness through the study of short stories, films, and passages from novels. Fosters the ability to write about and discuss a variety of topics using relatively complex structures.
The course focuses on reading comprehension and translation into English and includes a grammar and vocabulary overview. It also addresses the differences between English and French syntax and raises questions of idiomatic versus literal translations.
We will be working on pronunciation, vocabulary acquisition, listening comprehension, and oral expression. Activities will include listening comprehension exercises, skits, debates, and oral presentations, as well as discussions of films, songs, short films, plays, news, articles, short stories or other short written documents. Although grammar will not be the focus of the course, some exercises will occasionally aim at reviewing particular points. The themes and topics covered will be chosen according to students’ interests.
We will be working on pronunciation, vocabulary, listening comprehension, and oral expression. Activities will include listening comprehension exercises, skits, debates, and oral presentations, as well as discussions of films, songs, short films, news, articles, short stories or other short written documents. Although grammar will not be the focus of the course, some exercises will occasionally aim at reviewing particular points.
Prerequisites: completion of the language requirement in French or the equivalent. Conversation on contemporary French subjects based on readings in current popular French periodicals.
Prerequisites: FREN UN2102 French socio-political issues and language through the prism of film. Especially designed for non-majors wishing to further develop their French language skills and learn about French culture. Each module includes assignments targeting the four language competencies: reading, writing, speaking and oral comprehension, as well as cultural understanding.
The course is an introduction to the visual arts and art professions in the context of French and
francophone arts and cultural institutions. Students will experience arts through class discussions of artistic production and a familiarization with art history and art criticism in French, presentations, workshops, discussions with art professionals, guest lectures, and visits to art museums and
galleries. Students who take the class can apply for paid internships in an art institution in the
spring following the class. In these internships, students will use some of the French language
skills they have acquired in class.
UN3405 enables students to hone and perfect their reading and writing skills while improving their ability to express and organize thoughts in French. In this engaging advanced language class, students are exposed to major texts in fields as diverse as journalism, sociology, anthropology, politics, literature, philosophy and history. Stimulating class discussions, targeted reviews of key grammatical points in context, and an array of diverse writing exercises all contribute to strengthen students’ mastery of the French language. This course also works as a bridge class between Intermediate French II and courses that focus on French and Francophone cultures, history and literature (such as 3409 and 3410). Students who take this class will be fully prepared to take advanced content classes or spend a semester in a Francophone country. This class is required for the French major and minor.
This class provides an introduction to the history of France and of the francophone world since the Middle Ages. It initiates students to the major events and themes that have shaped politics, society, and culture in France and its former colonies, paying special attention to questions of identity and diversity in a national and imperial context. Modules include a combination of lecture and seminar-style discussion of documents (in French).
This course is part of a two-course sequence and is a core requirement the French and Francophone Studies major.
This class offers a survey of major works of French and francophone literature from the Middle Ages to the present. Emphasis will be placed on formal and stylistic elements of the works read and on developing the critical skills necessary for literary analysis. Works will be placed in their historical context.
Asylum/Asile
is an experiential learning class conducted in collaboration with Project Rousseau, a holistic non-profit organization that helps young people in communities with the greatest need.
Since migrant youth and families began arriving in New York by bus from the southern border, Project Rousseau has been on the frontlines serving them. A large proportion of these migrants are Francophone asylum seekers who need support with their application. This class will teach the theory and practice of asylum law, the specific sociohistorical, cultural, and political contexts that motivates Francophone asylum seekers, especially in the case of Mauritania and Guinea, and the ways in which translation is critical to this process. The class will culminate in students assisting Project Rousseau’s Francophone clients with their asylum applications.
The class is offered in the Fall. Interested students will be able to apply for internships with Project Rousseau in the Spring Semester.
This course is designed as an introduction to the 19th-century French novel, taught in English. We will read and discuss some of the greatest hits of 19th-century French fiction: Hugo,
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
; Sand,
Indiana
; Balzac,
Père Goriot
; Dumas,
The Man in the Iron Mask
; Flaubert,
Madame Bovary
; Zola,
Pot-Bouille
. Our century will conclude with two scandalous bestsellers of 1900: Octave Mirbeau’s
Diary of a Chambermaid
and Colette’s
Claudine at School
. Discussion in English. Works may be read, and papers written, in English or French.
In this seminar, we will consider how the spirit of critique and contestation forged during the
Enlightenment and French Revolution can be reactivated to confront the challenges of our current
moment. How did the eighteenth-century philosophers—many of whom were imprisoned or exiled
for their writings—address inequality, prejudice, the abuse of power, colonialism and slavery, and
women’s rights? What were their blind spots and how can they help us to discover our own? The
seminar will dovetail with a lecture series at the Maison Française featuring three new books by
scholars whose work reflects critically on the legacy of the Enlightenment and French Revolution.
The seminar will be offered in English. Readings can be done in French or English. Undergraduates
with an interest in the topic are welcome to enroll. Please do not hesitate to contact Professor
Stalnaker at jrs2052@columbia.edu if you have questions about the seminar.
One cannot read Proust, one can only reread him. As a matter of fact, who has not heard of the legendary “Madeleine” before opening the book? However, we will try to read Proust’s novel, as far as possible, before rereading it, to read it afresh, with the naivety of the innocent readers who discovered
Swann’s Way
in 1913, and fell in love. Proust is a classic, but also an innovator, a follower of Balzac and Baudelaire, and a precursor of Barthes and Blanchot. This is why there is so much pleasure – complexity and contradiction – in reading and rereading the
Recherche
, betwixt and between, connecting centuries, coupling genres.
Our goal will be to closely read together at least four of the seven volumes of the
Recherche
, the first and last,
Swann’s Way
and
Time regained
, and two or three from in-between,
Within a Budding Grove
,
Sodom and Gomorrah
and
The Fugitive
.
Major literary critics will be introduced starting week 3.
Co-taught by Met curator Dr. Melanie Holcomb and Prof. Eliza Zingesser (Columbia, French) in conjunction with the exhibit “Spectrum of Desire” at the Cloisters, this course considers conceptions of gender, the body, and eroticism in medieval French-speaking territories. Surveying literary texts in their manuscript contexts, sculptures, paintings, and personal items, we will attend to “queer” sexual practices, non-normative conceptions of gender, the homosocial within “courtly love,” all while learning to look askance or queerly at what might initially seem to be resolutely heteronormative. We will consider the following questions, among others:
- In an era in which all non-procreative sex was conceived as sinful, does the opposition between homosexual and heterosexual still hold?
- Was gender assigned based on the body or on some other factor? Was it conceived as binary or spectral, natural or cultural?
- Does the use of modern categories help or hinder our understanding of gender and sexuality in a historically distant period?
- What might medieval categories be able to teach us about the limitations of our contemporary understanding of gender and sexuality?
- Where do literature and the visual arts align in their modes of engagement with/representations of queerness and where do they diverge?
Class taught in English with readings available in English translation. French majors or concentrators/minors should complete the readings in French, whenever possible. Several class sessions will be held at The Met.
Enrollment in this course is by application. Please send an email to
eliza.zingesser@columbia.edu
with information on your class year, major or main topic of research, and the reasons for your interest in this course.
Close reading of Rabelais, Marguerite de Navarre, Montaigne and La Boétie, in the context of the Renaissance, the rise of the individual, the religious quarrels, the civil wars, the discovery of the New World, the progress of science.
An exploration of the interconnections and intersections between history and literature, both as categories of cultural production and as scholarly disciplines. In the past thirty years the boundaries between history and literature have become usefully blurred, as literary scholars pursued the historical aspects of their texts and historians recognized the literary aspects of their narratives. The result is a propitious intellectual moment, which enables scholars to address new methodological horizons that combine close reading of texts with expansive attention to historical context.
The course treats the subject in terms of both theory and practice. Theoretical readings address the relations between history and literature, with a focus on texts relevant to scholars working in the field today. Exemplary recent works of English-language scholarship highlight the kind of creative blending of literary and historical approaches that the students might pursue in their M.A. essays.
Graduate students attend and lead a series of lectures open to all members of the French department, including graduate students, faculty and undergraduate majors/concentrators. These lectures are planned in conjunction with graduate seminars occurring that year, and graduate students are expected to introduce the guest speakers and lead the discussion.
The lecture series exposes graduate students to new work in the field, including new methodologies and emerging areas of research and teaching, while enriching the cultural and intellectual life of the department. Students benefit from meeting important faculty in the field and from observing the different possible formats and styles of academic talks. By helping to prepare events, write speaker introductions and moderate Q&A sessions, they also develop important professional skills.