ELEMENTARY FRENCH I

Basic elements of French grammar. Oral, writing, and reading skills. Students may take either or both of these courses at Columbia.

• MWF 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• MWF 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• TRF 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• TRF 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Elsa Stephan
  CULPA: 3 Info
• 4 points

REVIEW OF FRENCH FUNDAMENTALS

Prerequisites: Primarily for students who need further instruction to qualify for the intermediate course. Credit cannot be granted for both FREN BC1002 and BC1102 (or its equivalent). Enrollment limited to 20 students per section. Oral and written review of basic grammar and syntax. Readings in modern French and Francophone literature.

• MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Hadley T Suter
  CULPA: 7 Info
• Instructor: Alexandre Bournery
  Info
• 3 points

INTERMEDIATE FRENCH I

Prerequisites: FREN BC1001, BC1002, BC1102, C1101 and C1102, or an appropriate score on the placement test. Further development of oral and written communication skills. Readings in French literature.

• MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• MW 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• TR 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Melanie Heydari
  Info
• 3 points

INTERMEDIATE FRENCH II

Advanced work in language skills. Readings in French literature. Prerequisites: FREN BC1203 or an appropriate score on the placement test.

NOTE: This course
does not
fulfill the Columbia College and GS language requirement.

• MW 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• MW 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Karen Santos da Silva
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 3 points

COMPOSITION AND CONVERSATION

Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to 12 students. Discussions on contemporary issues and oral presentations. Creative writing assignments designed to improve writing skills and vocabulary development. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.

• MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Karen Santos da Silva
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 3 points

Advanced Translation

ADVANCED TRANSLATION

Translation of French texts--both critical and literary, focusing on particular questions or themes.  FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.

• TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Anne Boyman
  CULPA: 16 Info
• 3 points

ADVANCED ORAL FRENCH

Prerequisites: At least one French course after completion of FREN BC1204: Intermediate II or permission of the instructor. Oral presentations and discussions of French films aimed at increasing fluency, acquiring vocabulary, and perfecting pronunciation skills.

• MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Anne Boyman
  CULPA: 16 Info
• 3 points

MAJOR FRENCH TEXTS I

An exploration of the early periods of French literary creation (Medieval-17th century) through works of fiction, poetry, and theatre. Special attention is given to texts that use tradition to bring about change, to provoke, to contest social norms, and to test the expected parameters of literary expression.

• TR 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Laurie Postlewate
  CULPA: 17 Info
• 3 points

THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

Dans ce cours, nous examinerons le phénomène qui domine—et révolutionne—le discours philosophique, religieux, sociologique et politique au 18e siècle en Occident: les Lumières. Visant les dogmes jusque-là incontestables d'un Etat monarchique et d'une Eglise catholique autoritaires, ce mouvement réclame la liberté de la pensée et du culte; condamne l'intolérance religieuse, l’iniquité politique et le préjugé culturel; expose et déplore l’inégalité sociale; examine les bases de l’autorité politique; et subvertit par ses propos l'idéo. A l'exception d'un texte de l'Allemand Immanuel Kant, nous nous bornerons à lire des écrits des principaux philosophes francophones des Lumières (Voltaire, Diderot, et Rousseau), aussi bien que deux romans "dystopiques” (Charrière et de Sade), et deux textes politiques parus durant la Révolution française.

• MW 10:10 a.m.-11:20 a.m.
• Instructor: Hadley T Suter
  CULPA: 7 Info
• 3 points

SURREALISM

This course examines the aesthetic, psycho-sexual, and socio-political dimensions and implications of Surrealism, an international avant-garde movement that emerged in Paris in the wake of World War I. Focusing on artworks from a number of different genres, we will explore such issues as: the avant-garde reformulation, subversion, and/or destruction of pre-existing artistic conventions and practices; the development of an alternative literary tradition privileging the “humour noir” of such subversive authors as Jonathan Swift and the Marquis de Sade; the celebration of dreams, desire, and the unconscious, as conceived by Sigmund Freud; the rejection of “bourgeois” values such as order, rationality, morality, decency, patriotism, work, and “high culture”; the transformation of lieux communs into artistic dreamscapes; the rhetoric of violence and anarchy; and the politics of gender.

• MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Hadley T Suter
  CULPA: 7 Info
• 3 points

Women Writers of Contemporary Middle Eas

WOMEN WRITERS MIDEAST AFR

Since the last decades of the twentieth century there has been a dramatic increase in the number of women writers from the Middle East and North Africa. This advanced course, which will be taught mainly in French, provides a window into this rich and largely neglected branch of world literature. Students will encounter the breadth and creativity of contemporary Middle Eastern and North African women’s literature by reading a range of twentieth- and twenty-first-century novels, short stories, memoirs and poetry available in French or in translation, and by viewing films that are from or about Iran, Lebanon, Algeria, and Egypt. How do Middle Eastern women authors address women’s oppression – both social and physical – and enunciate issues such as the tension between tradition and modernity, sexuality, identity and class from a female perspective? What literary traditions and models do they draw on? How different are those texts written in French for a global audience, as opposed to those written in Persian or Arabic? What are the effects of reading them in translation? Authors will include Marjane Satrapi, Shahrnush Parsipur, Assia Djebar, Maïssa Bey and Nawal El Saadawi.

• TR 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Melanie Heydari
  Info
• 3 points