FREN 001 - Basic French I (1st Year)
Handling the immediate context of daily experience in spoken and written French: identifying, describing, and characterizing people, objects, places, and events; giving information and instructions; issuing simple commands and requests. There are no prerequisites for this course.
FREN 002 - Basic French II (1st Year)
Speaking and writing in French about past and future events; telling a story (narrating and describing the past), promising, predicting, and proposing simple hypotheses and conjectures. Prerequisite: FREN 001. Course Website for sections 10, 11, and 12.
FREN 003 - Intermediate French I (2nd Year)
Increasing active vocabulary, reinforcing mastery of basic grammar, dealing with more complex structures (verbal phrases, subordinate clauses), and using some patterns of indirect speech (e.g., repeating or relaying messages, giving reports, summarizing). Prerequisite: FREN 002.
FREN 004 - Intermediate French II (2nd Year)
Consolidation and further expansion of the ability to understand as well as produce a more complex level of oral and written discourse emphasizing subjective expression: issuing indirect commands and requests; giving opinions; making proposals; building arguments; defending and criticizing ideas. Prerequisite: FREN 003.
FREN 009 - Language, Culture, and Society I (3rd Year)
Development of strong conversational skills and the rudiments of compository writing. The vocabulary and structures necessary to move from handling everyday experience and subjective expression to the exposition of more abstract thought and ideas, and the discussion of political, social, and cultural issues. Prerequisite: FREN 004.
FREN 010 - Language, Culture, and Society II (3rd Year)
Continued expansion of the range and complexity of conversational skills and further development of the writing of effective expository prose on a broad range of subjects. Short literary texts serve as the basis for oral discussion, analytical reading, and writing brief critical essays. Prerequisite: FREN 009. Course website for all sections of French 10.
FREN 049 - French for Graduate Students
For graduate students preparing for reading examinations. No academic credit. Prerequisite: gradute standing.
FREN 108W - Advanced French Grammar and Style (4th Year)
Compositions, drills, dictations. Translations into French. Study of vocabulary and syntax, with emphasis on stylistic devices. Prerequisite: FREN 010.
FREN 109 - Contemporary France (4th Year)
Empasis on advanced oral work. Discussion of French culture and civilization, based on contemporary writings and video documents. Prerequisite: FREN 010.
FREN 110 - Business and Commercial French (4th Year)
Structure and language of French economic institutions. Discussion of legal, financial, and administrative documents. Oral and written reports. Preparation for the certificate of the Paris Chamber of Commerce. Prerequisite: FREN 010.
FREN 030W - Introduction to French Literature
Readings, textual analysis, and writing on a broad selection of texts from different genres and periods. French and Francophone literatures in their cultural contexts. Close reading approach and introduction to literary vocabulary. Prerequisite: FREN 010.
FREN 053 - Medieval and Early Modern French Literature in Context
Texts of the Middle Ages to the 17th Century studied in their historical, social, and cultural contexts. Topics may include feudal society and the literature of courtly love; humanism, Rabelais, and Renaissance poetry; women and salon writing; Versailles, absolutism, and classical theater. Prerequisite: FREN 030.
FREN 054 - Modern French Literature in Context
Texts of the 18th Century to the present in historical, social, and cultural contexts. Topics may include philosophes and the rise of social consciousness; the French Revolution and Romanticism; dada and surrealism; existentialism and World War II; decolonization and Francophone literature. Prerequisites: FREN 030.
FREN 090 - Textual Analysis
Methodology and vocabulary of literary criticism. Application of various principles of textual analysis and critical approaches to literature. Prerequisite: FREN 030.
FREN 120 - Studies in Medieval French Literature
Readings and analysis of the major literary texts of the 11th through 15th Centuries. Chansons de geste, courtly literature, fabliaux, drama, lyric and didactic poetry. Prerequisite: FREN 030 or equivalent.
FREN 121 - French Literature of the Renaissance
16th Century prose and poetry in the context of cultural and historical movements. Topics may include humanism; concepts of self and subjectivity; the wars of religion; the discovery of the New World; court and city life; the private and public spheres; religious and secular love. Prerequisite: FREN 030 or equivalent.
TOPIC FOR SPRING 2010:
Nouveaux Mondes: L’Autre et la Différence à la Renaissance
With the onset of French voyages to the New World in the sixteenth century, French men and women were introduced to cultures and societies the likes of which they had never seen. But the French were no strangers to the notion of difference: intellectual rivalries with neighboring kingdoms, disputes about the cultural and religious role and value of women, religious civil wars, and concepts of the “new man,” different from his medieval predecessors, all contributed to new ideas of the “foreign.” This course will explore how French pre-modern writers grappled with the notion of difference. Setting the stage with La Chanson de Roland, the quintessential medieval text that explores notions of “les Francs” and “les étrangers,” we will examine how Renaissance writers begin to shape and define what separates a “nous” from “les autres,” and how they planted the seeds for a modern French identity, as a nation and as a people.
FREN 122 - The Age of Classicism
Drama, philosophy, criticism, poetry, and fiction in the 17th Century. Topics may include préciosité, baroque, Jansenism, classicism, and rationalism in the context of the major social, political, and religious movements of the period. Prerequisite: FREN 030 or equivalent.
FREN 123 - The Age of Enlightenment
The major novelists, dramatists, and philosophes of the 18th Century. The works of Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot and their relationship to the social, political, and philosophical thought of the period. Prerequisite: FREN 030 or equivalent.
FREN 124 - 19th-Century French Literature and Culture
Key aspects of 19th-Century French literature in its historical, cultural, and political context. Major authors and literary movements are studied through the lens of a particular theme, which varies from year to year. Prerequisite: FREN 030 or equivalent.
FREN 125 - Studies in 20th-Century French Literature
Major literary movements from the 20th-Century: avant-garde, surrealism, existentialism, nouveau roman, and nouveau théâtre.Prerequisite: FREN 030 or equivalent.
FREN 130 - Studies in Genre
Study in narrative, dramatic, or lyric form. Topics vary from year to year. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: FREN 030 or equivalent.
PREVIOUS TOPIC: French Poetry - Between Tradition and Revolt
Dans ce cours nous allons découvrir la poésie française de la Renaissance jusqu’au XXe siècle en étudiant le poète dans son contexte. Nous allons nous concentrer sur les moments charniers dans le développement de la poésie française et ses rapports avec les forces culturelles et sociales de l’époque. Ces moments clefs peuvent être définis comme des instants de rupture, de révolte du poète contre les contraintes de la tradition qui l’a précédé et contre sa société contemporaine – la révolte qui se traduit non seulement par des thèmes nouveaux mais aussi–et surtout – par une réinvention du langage poétique.
PREVIOUS TOPIC: Poetry: L'imaginaire et le réel
Through the study of French poetry from the nineteenth and twentieth-century, we will examine the manner in which poets integrate physical, social, and historical reality into poetic texts and in turn filter reality through the imagination. This approach will allow us to understand characteristics of French modern poetry and will allow us to examine a variety of poetic genres and uses of poetry: verse poetry, free verse, and prose poems. Authors studied will include Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Apollinaire, Eluard, Michaux, and Ponge.
FREN 131 - Topics in the History of French Cinema
French cinema from its inception to the “New Wave.” The relationship of filmmaking and audience reception to the evolution of French society and political institutions. The language of cinema as it evolves according to periods and genres and as critics and filmmakers create a theoretical discourse specific to film. Prerequisite: FREN 030 or equivalent.
FREN 132 - Topics in 20th-Century Francophone Literature and Cinema
Analysis of relations between France and its former colonies as manifested in the literature and cinema of France and the Francophone world. Race and gender relations; exile; nationalism; and identity and place as seen through various literary and cinematic responses to the discourses of metropolitan France by its former colonies. Prerequisite: FREN 030 or equivalent.
TOPIC FOR SPRING 2010: France / Algeria: Between Two Worlds
This course explores the impact of colonization on the cultural production in France and Algeria from the 1830s to today. We will examine how French and Francophone writers represented themselves and the other in literature, art and cinema. We will begin by looking at how French writers, artists and travelers imagined the otherness of the colonized, and the impact of l’imaginaire colonial on French culture in the nineteenth century. In the second half of the course we will investigate how twentieth-century Francophone Algerian writers forge their creative and national identity in the post-colonial world. Readings include Maupassant, Eberhardt; Gautier, Camus; Djebar, Sebbar, Yacine, Begag and others.
FREN 133 - Special Topics in French Literature I
Examines French and Francophone literature around a single theme, which varies from year to year. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: FREN 030 or equivalent.
FREN 134 - Special Topics in French Literature II
Examines French and Francophone literature around a single theme, which varies from year to year. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: FREN 030 or equivalent.
PREVIOUS TOPIC: Ecrire la peinture (Writing About Painting in French Literature; From Diderot to the present)
This course offers a wide range of approaches towards the way that French writers have integrated painting into their texts, ranging from poetry to the novel and essay. Painting serves metaphorical, metonymic, and theoretical ends for the various authors studied. Our inquiry will tackle a variety of questions including: what are the aesthetic and social values of painting in French culture as it is expressed in the works studied? What is the relationship between the two arts? Why do writers choose to focus on painting? How do they theorize painting in a scriptural context? Writers studied will include Diderot, Balzac, Baudelaire, Zola, Segalen, Apollinaire, Michaux, Bonnefoy, and Perec.
FREN 140 - Writing Women
Dynamics of gender in French literature and culture with emphasis on women as agents and objects of representation. Gender roles in the formation of social biases, norms, and power structures. Texts range from the Middle Ages to the present. Prerequisite: FREN 030 or equivalent.
FREN 197 - Independent Study
Admission by permission of department chair and instructor. May be repeated for credit. There are no prerequisites for this course.
FREN 198 - Proseminar I
Required for all French majors; preparation for the major field examination. Topics: textual analysis, literary criticism, theory, and methods. Prerequisites: Major in French and senior standing.
FREN 199 - Proseminar II
Required for all French majors; preparation for the major field examination. Topics: the concepts of literary history and the history of French literature; periods, authors, genres, and topics. Comprehensive field examination given at the end of the semester. Prerequisites: FREN 198.
