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.
• 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 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• TRF 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Samuel Skippon
  CULPA: 13 Info
• 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 8:40 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
• MTWR 8:50 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
• MTWR 10:10 a.m.-11:15 a.m.
• MTWR 11:40 a.m.-12:45 p.m.
• MTWR 1:10 p.m.-2:15 p.m.
• TRF 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• MWR 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• MWR 6:10 p.m.-7:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Juliette Goutierre
  Info
• Instructor: Pascale Crepon
  CULPA: 10 Info
• 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.

• MTWR 12:10 p.m.-1 p.m.
• TRF 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• TRF 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• MTWR 11:10 a.m.-noon
• 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.

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

RAPID READING AND TRANSLATION

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.

• TR 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Rj McIntyre
  Info
• 3 points

INTERMED CONVERSATN FRENCH I

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.

• MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• 2 points

INTERMED CONVERSATN FRENCH II

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.

• MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• 2 points

THIRD-YEAR CONVERSATION FR II

Prerequisites: completion of the language requirement in French or the equivalent. Conversation on contemporary French subjects based on readings in current popular French periodicals.

• TR 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Alexandra Borer
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 2 points

ADVANCED TRANSLATION WORKSHOP

• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Sophie Queuniet
  CULPA: 7 Info
• 3 points

FREN LANG,SOC,CULTRE THRU FILM

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.

• TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Heidi Holst-Knudsen
  CULPA: 20 Info
• 3 points

FRENCH LANGUAGE THRU THEATER

FREN LANGSOCCULTRE THRU THEA

The course is taught in French and focuses on learning the French language via the study of theatre (through plays, scenes, theories, lecture/workshops by guests, as well as performing a series of activities). The course offers students the opportunity to have a better grasp of the variety of French theatres within the culture; and to perform the language through the body and mind. Its goal is to both introduce students to theatre and to explore how it challenges us physically and emotionally, as well as in intellectual, moral, and aesthetic ways. No previous acting experience is necessary but a desire to “get up and move” and possibly even go see plays as a class project is encouraged.

• MW 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.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.
• Instructor: Alexandra Borer
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 3 points

INTRO TO FRENCH & FRANCOPHONE HISTORY

INTRO FREN FRANCOPHONE HI

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.

• TR 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Zachary Desjardins-Mooney
  Info
• 3 points

Intro French & Francophone Literature

Intro French Francophone

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.

• MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Eponine Senay
  Info
• 3 points

Contemporary French and Francophone Lite

US Goncourt Prize Selecti

This contemporary French and Francophone literature course designed for undergraduate students is part of the “
Choix Goncourt USA
” (US Goncourt Prize Selection), an initiative led by the Goncourt Academy in France and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy (Villa Albertine) in the United States.

The course provides students with the unique opportunity to read the latest French contemporary fiction through the lens of critical literary tools, to experience being part of a selecting literary committee, to interview outstanding contemporary writers, and to practice writing book reviews, in addition to the more traditional essays and close readings. This course is entirely conducted in French (readings, discussions, and writing).

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

Female Friendship in Francophone Novels

This course will be taught in French with films and novels in French.

This course will examine depictions of female friendship in French and Francophone novels and films. We will consider the different configurations that female friendship took over the course of the 20th century, in diverse political contexts in the Francophone world, from Algeria, France, Haiti, Mauritius and Cameroon. We will elaborate how female friendship works through the lens of three themes: virtue, desire and utopias. First, we will consider how representations of female bonds engage with or disrupt classical (and male) ideas of virtuous friendships based on equality and reciprocity, and how colonial contexts trouble these ideals. Secondly, we will trace the role of queer and heterosexual desire in making and breaking friendships. Finally, we will explore utopian visions of female friendship which imagine the future of women’s communities. This class will be strongly based on a feminist praxis of close reading, and reading “against the grain” by reading more canonical texts alongside non-canonical ones.

• MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Nadrah S Mohammed
  Info
• 3 points

SENIOR SEMINAR

Prerequisites: completion of either FREN UN3333-FREN UN3334 or FREN UN3420-FREN UN3421, and FREN UN3405, or the director of undergraduate studies' or the instructor's permission. Required of all French and French & Francophone Studies majors. Usually taken by majors during the fall term of their senior year. Critical discussion of a few major literary works along with some classic commentaries on those works. Students critically assess and practice diverse methods of literary analysis.

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Joanna R Stalnaker
  CULPA: 18 Info
• 3 points

SENIOR TUTORIAL IN LITERATURE

Prerequisites: the director of undergraduate studies permission. Required for majors wishing to be considered for departmental honors. This course may also be taken at Reid Hall. Recommended for seniors majoring or concentrating in French and open to other qualified students. Preparation of a senior essay. In consultation with a staff member designated by the director of undergraduate studies, the student develops a topic withing the areas of French language, literature, or intellectual history.

• Instructor: Aubrey A Gabel
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 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.

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

BD Reportage: The Origin and Aesthetics

Comics Journalism

This course will trace the rise of “comics journalism,” a term first coined and popularized by the Maltese-American artist Joe Sacco in the 1990s. Surpassing the political or editorial cartoon in both space and scope,
BD reportage
is often aligned with subjective or opinion journalism, or “op-art.” It is rooted in long-form reporting, oral interviews, and embedded research—all communicated via the full arsenal of tools available in the comics medium. Like investigative journalism more broadly, graphic reporting covers the breadth of topics that affect modern life: from on-going wars and conflicts, to mass migration and the immigrant experience, to environmental disasters, trial reporting, the prison industrial-complex, and so on. Often approached as a predominately American phenomenon, practiced by first and foremost by Sacco himself, it is an increasingly dominant subgenre of French-language comics, as can be seen in the runaway success of
Le photographe
(2003-2006)
—
artist Emmanuel Guibert’s stunning, multi-album collaboration with the late photojournalist Didier Lefèvre, about the latter’s 1986 humanitarian mission through Pakistan and Soviet-occupied Afghanistan during the Afghan War (1979-1989)—and in a proliferation of French-language terms and formal prizes. While glancing at a prehistory of proto-forms (like illustrated news in the UK and the US or “printed literature” in Europe), this class will reconstitute a narrower French-language lineage of graphic reporting, through early children’s supplements, wartime comics propaganda, and postwar and present-day illustrated magazines.

This course also juxtaposes the work of active artist-reporters, with non-journalist illustrators whose work is adjacent to reporting. Class held in English, with primary and secondary materials in French and English.
French majors and minors must submit papers in French, as must graduate students in the Department of French.
This class will also involve a few class trips (TBD, likely to the Museum of the Society of Illustrators and the Rare Books and Manuscript Library), as well as at least one in-person event at the Maison Française.

• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Aubrey A Gabel
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 3 points

Annie Ernaux: Writing as a Knife

Annie Erneaux

This course offers a deep dive into French contemporary novelist Annie Ernaux’s auto-socio-biographical fiction. It does so through close readings of some of her major works, organized thematically and across Ernaux’s oeuvre. Close readings of texts will be paired with research notes and recent film adaptations, sociological and theoretical work that has inspired Ernaux, her growing critical reception (amplified by her recent Nobel prize), as well as other writers whom she has inspired. Themes covered include: writing impersonally in the first person; what is auto-socio-biography; exploring women’s desire and sexuality; Ernaux’s feminism and political militancy; ethnographies of contemporary France and the baby-boomer generation; history, time, and memory. Throughout, we will consider what kind of genre Ernaux’s writing is, and what writing as a knife can do. Class taught in French (if you are unsure about whether you have the required level please consult with instructor).

• R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Thomas Dodman
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 3 points

Radical Enlightenment Women

In this seminar, we will explore three different but interrelated questions. First, how did women (both real and fictional) shape the Enlightenment through the radical questions they posed? Second, how has Enlightenment historiography sought to affirm or deny the importance of women to an intellectual movement many believe ushered in the modern world? Third, what critical questions do we want to put to Enlightenment women in confronting the persistent challenges of our own time? In addressing these questions, we will read novels, letters, literary portraits and philosophical dialogues, and explore critical debates surrounding sociability, letter-writing and the institution of the salons. Authors will include Gouges, Montesquieu, Graffigny, Châtelet, Deffand, Voltaire, Lespinasse, Diderot, Rousseau, Henriette and le Chevalier / Mademoiselle d’Éon.

 

This seminar will be offered in French, with all readings and discussions in French. Advanced undergraduates may enroll with instructor permission.

• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Joanna R Stalnaker
  CULPA: 18 Info
• 3 points

FRENCH FOR DIPLOMATS

This course deals with French foreign policy. It is designed for students who have a good French level (the whole course is taught is French, so there are minimal requirements) and are interested by international relations and France. It aims at improving students knowledge of French diplomacy : the vision and values it carries, its history, its logic, its strenghts, its weaknesses, the interrogations and challenges it faces. Though it is not a language course (there will be no grammar), it will also shapren students mastering of French (especially useful for those considering an exchange at Sciences Po, or wanting to work in places such as the United nations where it is useful to master some French diplomatic vocabulary).

• MW 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Mohamed Yacine Chitour
  Info
• 3 points

THE HERMENEUTIC TRADITION

A historical and conceptual study of what it is to think historically, with a focus on the hermeneutic tradition. Authors include Erasmus, Spinoza, Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger, Collingwood, Gadamer, and Habermas.

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Pierre Force
  CULPA: 12 h-index: 11 Info
• 4 points