French Course Descriptions
French 110
- First-Year French
Full course for one year. A study of elements of grammar, speaking,
and reading. Lecture-conference.
French 210
- Second-Year French
Full course for one year. Revision of grammar and elementary
composition; readings in philosophy, lyric poetry, novel, and
theatre. Prerequisite: French 110 or equivalent.
Lecture-conference.
French 320
- Stylistics and Composition
Full course for one year. This course is designed to help students
develop strong written and oral skills in French, and become
familiar with the critical uses of a rhetorical vocabulary. Through
frequent discussions of regular writing and close-reading
assignments we will explore ways to frame a wide range of questions
regarding both French literature and French culture. Conducted in
French. Prerequisite: French 210 or demonstration of equivalent
ability by placement exam. Lecture-conference. Fulfills the Group D
requirement.
French 331
- French Literature and Culture of the Middle Ages
Full course for one semester. This course examines the literature
of eleventh- to fifteenth-century France, with an emphasis on the
cultural milieu (social, artistic, religious, philosophical,
political) in which the texts appeared. In 2005-06, we will examine
various representations of the chivalric hero and his relationship
to society. We will ask: must all knights be errant? Is the idea of
a courtly society an oxymoron? How does the law of the individual
translate to the law of the social group? Can women be heroes?
Works will include: the Chanson de Roland, the Lais
of Marie de France, two romances of Chrétien de Troyes, several
short chansons de geste, farces, and satires. Discussion in
French. Prerequisite: French 210 or demonstration of equivalent
ability by placement exam. Lecture-conference.
French 332
- Early Modern French Literature and Culture
Full course for one semester. This course explores the literature
and culture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with a
special emphasis on how literature shapes the history of
philosophical ideas. In 2005-06, the course will put the notion of
dualism--the body divided from the mind--to the test by examining
literary works which represent either the excesses of the flesh
which corrupt the mind (in Rabelais, Marguerite de Navarre,
Ronsard, Labé, and Molière) or the excesses of the mind which
corrupt the body (in Montaigne, Corneille, and Descartes).
Discussion in French. Prerequisite: French 210 or demonstration of
equivalent ability by placement exam. Lecture-conference.
French 333
- The French Enlightenment
Full course for one semester. This course examines the literature
of eighteenth century France, with emphasis on the cultural milieu
(social, artistic, religious, philosophical, political) in which
the texts appeared. We will examine the emergence of the ideology
of reason as it is thematized and promoted by the different
literary genres that developed in the period: novels, philosophical
essays, popular theater, political critique, scientific analysis,
art criticism, aesthetic theory, etc. We will also examine forms of
popular culture that the scientific and philosophical agenda keeps
in the shadows and demonizes as superstition, imagination, or
foolishness. Conducted in French. Prerequisite: French 210 or
demonstration of equivalent ability by placement examination.
Conference.
French 334
- Nineteenth-Century French Literature and Culture
Full course for one semester. This course examines the literature
of nineteenth-century France, with an emphasis on the cultural
milieu (social, artistic, religious, philosophical, political) in
which the texts appeared. The topic for 2003-04 was the development
of realism in general and the (in)compatibility between the
premises and the practices of the realist novel in particular.
Authors included Balzac, Flaubert, Sand, Nerval, Chateaubriand,
Stendhal, Constant, and Zola. We also considered seminal
developments in nineteenth-century French painting and photography.
Discussion in French. Prerequisite: French 210 or demonstration of
equivalent ability by placement exam. Lecture-conference. Not
offered 2005-06.
French 341
- French Narrative and the Novel Prior to Realism
Full course for one semester. An examination of the novel and other
narrative forms that developed in France from the seventeenth to
the nineteenth century. The course will focus on the function of
these new narrative forms within their social and historical
contexts, with special emphasis on the institutionalized forms of
public discourse that developed during the period and the various
theories of representation upon which they drew. Authors covered
will include Mme. de Lafayette, Laclos, Rousseau, Hugo, Michelet,
Benjamin Constant, Balzac, and Flaubert. Discussion in French.
Prerequisite: French 210 or demonstration of equivalent ability by
placement exam. Conference. Not offered 2005-06.
French 342
- Novel from Flaubert to the New Novel: The Collapse of Realism and the Undoing of the Subject
Full course for one semester. The theory and decline of realism in
the French novel will be discussed in Flaubert, Zola, Proust,
Sartre, and Robbe-Grillet. Focusing primarily on the evolution in
narrative form from 1850 to 1960, this course will examine the
shift in the modern novel from representing social structures or
systems objectively to evoking subjectivity within the reader.
Discussion in French. Prerequisite: French 210 or demonstration of
equivalent ability by placement exam. Conference.
French 343
- Contemporary French Fiction
Full course for one semester. This course will examine narrative
strategies since the late 1950s and their underlying aesthetic
theories. The course will focus on several issues or problems,
including the autonomy of the literary text, narrative as a space
of encounter between objective reality and the creative
imagination, and the construction of the subject through
autofiction. How do the formal aspects of prose fiction place into
question our experience of the self and the world? To what extent
are the self and the world disclosed through narrative, and what is
the nature of this process? Readings will include Robbe-Grillet,
Perec, Duras, Hébert, Barthes, Modiano, Ernaux, and Quignard.
Conducted in French. Prerequisite: French 210 or demonstration of
equivalent ability by placement exam. Conference. Not offered
2005-06.
French 351
- Seventeenth-Century French Drama
Full course for one semester. In this course, we will examine
several plays by Corneille, Racine, and Molière. The course for
2003-04, "Autorité et Sagacité," focused on how authority is
established in a society where all authority is in question. We
looked at the theatrical representation of kings, sultans,
courtiers, nobles, doctors, servants, martyrs, and others in order
to consider the various sources of power, authority, and sagacity
in a political climate where dissimulation, spectacle, and
divertissement often got you further than more traditional means.
Conducted in French. Prerequisite: French 210 or demonstration of
equivalent ability by placement exam. Conference. Not offered
2005-06.
French 363
- Francophone Literature
Full course for one semester. General introduction to Francophone
literature. This course examines masterpieces by authors writing in
French from a variety of cultural situations and geographic
locations outside metropolitan France. In 2003-04 we focused on
sub-Saharan African and Caribbean fiction, all the while reading
from the Maghreb, Southeastern Asia, and Quebec. In particular we
looked at the relationship between narrative and identity,
nationalism, resistance, language, gender, and religion. Discussion
in French. Prerequisite: French 210 or demonstration of equivalent
ability by placement exam. Conference. Not offered 2005-06.
French 371
- Nineteenth-Century French Poetry and Poetics
Full course for one semester. This course explores the emergence of
a new poetic representation of the self in the nineteenth century
and follows its development from the contemplative verses of
Lamartine to the typographical experimentations of Mallarmé.
Through reading a combination of canonical works (by poets of the
Romantic, Parnassian and Symbolist schools) and popular poetry,
students will identify and reflect upon the rhetorical and prosodic
innovations that upturned the idea of lyricism in the modern
period. Topics discussed will include: popular culture; the
relation between the arts; hermeticism; irony; modernity. Conducted
in French. Prerequisite: French 210 or demonstration of equivalent
ability by placement exam. Conference.
French 381
- Twentieth-Century French Poetry and Poetics
Full course for one semester. This course will focus on poets since
Mallarmé and the theoretical, aesthetic, and ethical projects of
poetry in the context of modernity. Poets covered will include
Apollinaire, Reverdy, Desnos, Eluard, Ponge, Bonnefoy, Guillevic,
Réda, and Roubaud. The course will rely on close rhetorical
readings in order to found an understanding of lyric poetry in the
modern age, focusing on address, theories of performative language,
relationships between figurative and literal language, and the
materialism–textualism debate. Conducted in French. Prerequisite:
French 210 or demonstration of equivalent ability by placement
exam. Conference.
French 382
- Twentieth-Century French Theatre
Full course for one semester. In this exploration of dramatic
writing and stage production in twentieth-century France we will
focus on sociocultural context, narrative structure, and dramatic
effect. We will trace major French theatrical movements
historically and theoretically. Authors will include Cocteau,
Giraudoux, Artaud, Ionesco, Beckett, Genet, Koltès, Cixous, and
Vinaver. Special emphasis will be placed on the transformation of
the theatrical text in performance, as we consider outstanding
directors and actors of the period and experiment with in-class
student readings and short performances. Conducted in French.
Prerequisite: French 210 or demonstration of equivalent ability by
placement exam. Conference. Not offered 2005-06.
French 400
- Introduction to Literary Theory
See Literature 400 for description. Not offered in French, 2005-06.
Literature 400 Description
French 451
- Special Topics in French Literature: Historical Memory in Postwar French Cinema
Full course for one semester. In this course, we reflect on the
testimonial function taken on by French cinema in the aftermath of
the Second World War. Focusing on significant moments of crisis in
twentieth-century French history (e.g. the Occupation, the
Holocaust, and decolonization), we will analyze the tropes and
audiovisual strategies that enable the filmic medium to challenge
traditional historical narratives, while "working through" these
experiences of collective trauma. We will view films by Melville,
Resnais, Bresson, Ophüls, Godard and Marker, and discuss each one
from two complementary perspectives: we will consider the films
from an aesthetic and technical point of view, focusing on issues
such as camera, lighting, sound, editing, narrative, documentary,
etc. Additionally, we will read important reviews and essays that
have opened up the debate over cinema’s commitment to politics and
ethics. Weekly film screenings. Discussion in French. Prerequisite:
French 210 or demonstration of equivalent ability by placement
exam. Lecture-conference.
French 470
- Thesis
One-half or full course for one semester or one year.
French 481
- Independent Reading
One-half or full course for one semester. Prerequisite: French 210
or demonstration of equivalent ability by examination; approval of
instructor and division.
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