**All classes are remote with synchronous components**
French 1: Introductory French I at F
French 2: Introductory French II at D, E, F
French 3: Introductory French III at E, F
French 11: Intensive French at E (Lerme): This 1-credit course is designed for students who have studied French for one to three years in high school, or those who have been exposed to French through family ties or have spent some time in a Francophone environment. It is also suitable for students with little or no knowledge of the French language, but who have a strong background in another Romance language (i.e. Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese, Catalan, and also Latin). French 11 is an accelerated course that combines French 1 and 2 in one term, offering an exciting and fast-paced atmosphere in which to learn French. The course will have a web-based component, which, through cultural, grammar and multimedia learning activities, will complement face-to-face work and prepare students for in-class work. Students will learn to talk about familiar events in the present and the past, as well as formulate plans for the future. Weekly cultural videos will situate in context the grammatical content of the course, making it relevant and meaningful. Students will be actively engaged in a variety of creative written and oral activities that will help them develop their language skills. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to sign up for French 3 or apply for our French LSAs in Lyon or Toulouse. With the goal of facilitating the acquisition of the target language, this course will be conducted entirely in French.
*does not count toward the major/minor*
French 7.05: Nature and Colonized Spaces (First Year Seminar) at BL (Sanders) This course is an interdisciplinary study of the concept of nature, and its relationship to colonialism. In the pre-industrial age, natural philosophers discovered and theorized nature through colonial encounters. During the term, we will read literary and scientific works from European writers who situate nature within colonized spaces. In theorizing a version of nature outside of Europe, they construct a version of nature which is intimately connected to the process of colonization. Through engagement with primary and secondary sources, students will identify how literary and scientific rhetoric represent nature within colonial spaces. Students will then interpret and analyze the consequences of this cultural heritage: nature as a space from which to extract resources, as an object of knowledge from which scientists objectively unlock the mysteries of life, or as an Edenic sphere whose beauty is destroyed through colonization.
French 8: Exploring French Culture and Language at C (McConnell) and D (Mefoude Obiono): Practice in the active use of the language combined with an introduction to major aspects of French society. Each week students will write papers and participate in discussions based on books, articles, and films emphasizing social and historical concepts. In the event that French 8 isn't offered, you may take French 10, with the understanding that your next French course will be French 8. Dist:SOC; WCult:W
French 10: Introduction to French Literature
- French 10.10: Du mal/On evil at J (St. Clair): This course proposes a look at "evil" in French literature, art, and film (1665-1966). What does "evil" designate? A concept, or an ethical category? A limit of the thinkable and sayable? The proof of human freedom? Is there a semiotics of evil? Can it be represented, or does its excess necessarily elude our attempts to pin it down (as when something "hurts," or "fait mal")? What is its relationship to the violence of history (from the death of God to the ravages of time passing by)? How does literature challenge us to think about what it means to be a witness to evil?
Plays by Molière; novels, short-stories or essays by Voltaire, Balzac, Maupassant, Sartre; poems by Baudelaire, Musset, Verlaine, Hugo, Louise Michel; paintings and caricature by Daumier, Caillebotte, Manet, Meissonnier. Film by Gillo Pontecorvo (La Bataille d'Alger). Excerpts of readings from Hannah Arendt, Terry Eagleton, Georges Bataille, Raymond Williams, Sigmund Freud, Cathy Caruth.
French 24: Introduction to French Literature and Culture III: Nineteenth Century at K (St. Clair): This course examines the nineteenth-century renewal of literary form and vision from the French Revolution to the First World War. We will study the social and historical developments of French culture as they are reflected in various literary genres (narrative, poetry, dramatic theory and practice), literary criticism, philosophy, historiography, and the other arts. Emphasis will be placed on France's growing self-awareness as a nation and on the analysis of aesthetic and intellectual issues represented in the major literary movements of this period including romanticism, realism, symbolism, art for art's sake, naturalism, fin de siècle decadence, and modernism. Readings may include works by such authors as Chateaubriand, de Staël, Stendhal, Hugo, Musset, Sand, Balzac, Baudelaire, Flaubert, Michelet, Zola, and Huysmans.
French 25: Introduction to French Literature and Culture IV: Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries at C (Hollister): This course examines the radical transformations of literary form and vision that characterize twentieth-century France with its two World Wars, its colonial conflicts, and the challenges to French identity posed by immigration and globalization. We will use lyric poetry, fiction, drama, autobiography, and film to explore literary movements such as surrealism, existentialism, the new novel, the theater of the absurd and écriture féminine, as well as the recent impact of immigrant and minority writers. Readings and films may include works by Proust, Breton, Colette, Beauvoir, Sartre, Camus, Robbe-Grillet, Duras, Delbo, Cixous, Sebbar, Resnais, Malle, and Kassovitz.
French 45: Dartmouth meets the French Enlightenment at D (Sanders): Can we trace Tri-Kap's origin to the secret societies, masonic lodges, salons and cafés that arose prior to the French Revolution? This course will trace the migration of texts from France to Dartmouth where 18th-century literary societies - Social Friends (1783), United Fraternity (1786), Phi Beta Kappa (1787), and later Tri-Kap (1842) – read French Enlightenment texts on human rights as well as on the forms of sociability recently developed in France and at Dartmouth.
French 78: Senior Major Workshop at K (Hollister) As part of this culminating experience, each major will work on an independent project, either a senior thesis or expanding upon work begun in a previous course. The independent project will be developed within the framework of this course using a selection of critical texts that can be viewed as models of literary, cultural, and historical analysis. Lectures by a variety of faculty members will supplement the readings. Students will gain mastery in literary and cultural analysis, close analytical reading skills and composition in French. French 78 may be used to continue research on your honors thesis. This course is open only to French and Italian Department senior majors or by petition, which is due by the fifth day of classes of Fall term.
French 87: Independent Reading and Research (Arranged, all terms) A program of individual study directed by a member of the staff. Open only to French, French Studies and Romance Language Majors. By special permission this course may be taken more than once. A proposal, signed by the faculty advisor, must be submitted to the Departmental Committee on Independent Studies and Honors Theses for approval by the fifth day of classes of the term.
French 89: Honors Seminar (Arranged, all terms) Honors students will arrange a program of study and research during any term of the senior year on a tutorial basis with individual faculty members. A thesis, written in French, and a public presentation are the normal culmination of this course. A proposal, signed by the faculty advisor, must be submitted to the Departmental Committee on Independent Studies and Honors Theses for approval by the fifth day of classes of the term. For information about application procedures, please review the Honors Program section.
Updated 10/21/20