ELEMENTARY FRENCH I

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.

• TRF 8:40 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
• MTWR 8:50 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
• TRF 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• MTWR 11:40 a.m.-12:45 p.m.
• MTWR 1:10 p.m.-2:15 p.m.
• TRF 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• MWR 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• MWR 6:10 p.m.-7:25 p.m.
• 4 points

ELEMENTARY FRENCH II

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.

• MTWR 8:50 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
• TRF 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• TRF 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• TRF 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• TRF 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• 4 points

ELEMENTARY FRENCH II

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.

• TRF 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• 4 points

INTERMEDIATE FRENCH I

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.

• TRF 8:40 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
• MTWR 9:10 a.m.-10 a.m.
• MTWR 10:10 a.m.-11 a.m.
• MTWR 1:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• TRF 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• TRF 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• MWR 6:10 p.m.-7:25 p.m.
• 4 points

INTERMEDIATE FRENCH II

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.

• TRF 8:40 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
• TRF 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• TRF 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• MTWR 1:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• TRF 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• 4 points

Arts in Action

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.

• MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Pascale Crepon
  CULPA: 10 Info
• 3 points

Read, Think, Write in French

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.

• TR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Laurence Marie
  CULPA: 3 Info
• 3 points

INTRO TO FRENCH & FRANCOPHONE HISTORY

INTRO FREN FRANCOPHONE HI

Who were the Gauls and when was Paris the "capital of modernity"? What caused the French and Haitian Revolutions? Why do the French care so much about religion, nation, empire or, for that matter, food and fashion? This class surveys the history of France and the Francophone world from the Middle Ages to the present. It provides an introduction to major events and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions of people in France and across the world, in its former colonies. From feudalism and absolutism to imperialism, capitalism, and republicanism, we explore how questions of identity and difference play out in politics, culture and society. The class is based in lecture and discussion and relies on close readings of primary sources. The course is taught entirely in French and is one of two core courses for the major and minor in French. Students are encouraged to take FREN 3405 prior to this course.

• 3 points

Intro French & Francophone Literature

Intro French Francophone

This class offers students an introduction to major works that have marked the history of literature in French from the Middle Ages to the present. Our focus will be on close reading and discussion, but works will also be placed in historical context. We will look at a variety of literary genres (sonnet, short story, comedy, autobiography, narrative poetry, novel), and our readings will be complemented by visual materials such as paintings and films. The course is taught entirely in French and is one of two core courses for the major and minor in French. Students are encouraged to take FREN 3405 prior to this course.

• MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Joanna R Stalnaker
  CULPA: 18 Info
• 3 points

French in the World: A Linguistic Survey

French: Linguistic Survey

This course examines French from a linguistic perspective: the historical development of the language, as well as important phonetic, phonological, and sociolinguistic aspects of varieties of French from around the world. The course is intended for undergraduates in French, as well as students in linguistics, and is open to students across the Columbia community.

• MW 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Eric T Matheis
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 3 points

Asylum/ Asile: Theory and Practice of As

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.

• MW 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• 3 points

Rebel Literature: Politics and the Novel

“Quand on refuse, on dit non”, said Ivorian novelist Ahmadou Kourouma towards the end of his life. Taking this stance as a starting point, this seminar will explore, through the lens of the novel, major political upheavals in the Francophone world during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. We will shed light on the history of decolonization, May 68, the feminist movement, and struggles against racism and injustice by delving into the imaginary worlds of six leading francophone novelists: Marguerite Duras, Ahmadou Kourouma, Assia Djebar, Hélène Cixous, George Perec and Édouard Glissant.

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Emmanuel Kattan
  Info
• 3 points

Rousseau, Women and Gender

The objective of this course will be to tease out Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s complex and often contradictory ideas on women and gender difference in nature and society, to examine his own gender construction in his autobiographical writings, and to determine how women writers from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries have responded to these aspects of his work. Readings of Rousseau’s works (in French) will include the
Discours sur l’inégalité
,
Émile,
the
Lettre à d’Alembert
and the
Confessions
. Other authors will include Louise d’Épinay, Isabelle de Charrière, Olympe de Gouges, Germaine de Staël, Mary Wollstonecraft, Marie-Jeanne Roland de la Platière, George Sand and Monique Wittig, along with contemporary feminist criticism on Rousseau. The course will be taught in French with most readings in French, but papers may be written in English for non-majors or graduate students from other departments. This course fulfills the pre-1800 requirement for the French major and the 18th Century requirement for the MA or PhD in the French Department.

 

By the end of the course students should be conversant in the major arguments, themes and motifs Rousseau develops with respect to women and gender difference in the state of nature and society. They should have gained a nuanced understanding of the ways gender and sexuality are constructed in the
Confessions
and in the autobiographical works of women authors inspired by it. They should be able to characterize the diverse ways that various women writers, from Rousseau’s time to the present, have responded to his depiction of women and gender. They should have gained the ability to speak with fluency in French about these complex issues, and to develop in their written work, in French or in English, coherent and original arguments about Rousseau, women and gender. Above all, students will be expected to develop their own point of view on a central paradox of Rousseau’s corpus: how is it that a writer often derided in his own time and our own as misogynist has had such an outsized influence on successive generations of women writers?

• M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Joanna R Stalnaker
  CULPA: 18 Info
• 3 points

Francophone Romance Love, Sex, Intimacy

The forms of domination and violence that have characterized the phenomenon of empire have always been interwoven with desire and various forms of intimacy. Personal relationships have been vectors of colonial power as well as sites of resistance. In this course we consider various ways in which love, desire and intimacy have emerged as questions in the French colonial context. The course covers a broad historical and geographic span stretching from the age of plantation slavery to the era of decolonization and from the Caribbean and Louisiana to Vietnam and Africa. We consider both the transmission of categories and practices across colonial contexts and historical transitions and regional specificities. The course methodology is interdisciplinary, drawing on insights from history, sociology and law. The primary lens is, however, be that of literature, a medium in which the personal dimensions of empire have often found expression. We consider how recurrent themes and figures of colonial desire and intimacy have taken shape across different genres and registers of writing.

• M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Madeleine Dobie
  CULPA: 14 Info
• 3 points