Exploring French Culture and Language expands on the skills acquired in the French language sequence (French 1, 2, 3) as well as offering a transition to French 10 and upper-division courses that call on strong foundations of cultural knowledge. This class introduces students to contemporary and historical French and Francophone societies by focusing on topics such as evolving political and regional identities, writing and literature in the expression of identity, gender relations, the role of the media, and the culture of daily life. Students expand their active use of French, refine communicative, reading, and writing strategies, and comprehensively review grammar. Course work includes active participation in class discussions, oral presentations, and regular reading and writing assignments in the areas of narrative and poetry, cinema, music, and journalism.   Prerequisite FREN 3, or equivalent preparation. Degree Requirement Attributes-Dist:SOC; WCult:W.

These courses, offered each term by various members of the Department, deal in major figures, themes, or issues of modern French literature, and of those earlier periods which have particular relevance to today's world. Techniques of critical reading and interpretation are studied as an approach to these topics, which reflect the interests of the teaching staff.

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.

• Prerequisite: French 8 or permission of the individual instructor.
• Dist: LIT; WCult: W

Students will acquire the analytical skills to interpret French and Francophone cultures.  To prepare students to be "culturally competent," the course will focus on how and why we read signs of culture, whether through the lenses of history, symbols, politics or class and power.  We will explore a variety of cultural objects in conjunction with the writings of authors who may include Balibar, Barthes, Baudrillard, Condé, Fanon, Foucault, Le Goff, Nora and Wieviorka.

• Prerequisite: A course in the FREN 10 series or permission of the instructor.
• Dist: SOC; WCult: W

This course surveys the evolution of French language (Francophone) literature of the former French colonies and examines the social, political, and cultural issues it raises: race, colonialism, decolonization, revolution, independence, neo-colonialism, Négritude, Antillanité, Créolité, écriture féminine, mimetic desire, cultural hybridity, post-independence government and society. The survey will include novels, plays, poetry, film and essays by representative writers from the principal divisions of the Francophone world: the French West Indies, the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa; Quebec, and Francophone Canada.

• Prerequisite: A course in the FREN 10 series or permission of the instructor.
• Dist: LIT; WCult: NW

Medieval France - its art, architecture, technology, philosophy and literature - exerted an unparalleled influence throughout Europe. Studying the first texts written in French, as well as the manuscripts in which they circulated, will shed light on the nature of French culture. We will examine defining issues of the period: the transition from oral to written expression, the invention of printing, debates concerning the status of women, Renaissance humanism, scientific inquiry, religious reform and conflict. Texts may include La Chanson de Roland, selected poetry, and works by Chrétien de Troyes, Christine de Pizan, Marguerite de Navarre, François Rabelais, and Michel de Montaigne.

• Prerequisite: A course in the FREN 10 series or permission of the instructor.
• Dist: LIT; WCult: W

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were a dynamic and volatile period characterized on the one hand by the rise to power of the most absolute of all monarchs, the Sun King Louis XIV, symbolized by Versailles, and on the other hand by the French Revolution. Fostered by royal patronage, literature and the arts flourished, yet many writers also used artistic expression to counter this royal power. The period saw the birth of the modern French novel and the development of a rich body of theatrical and philosophical literature. These centuries are recognized as major components of France's collective identity and their influence is still felt in France today. Authors may include Descartes, Corneille, Racine, Molière, Lafayette, Diderot, Rousseau, Voltaire, Graffigny, Beaumarchais and Laclos.

• Prerequisite: A course in the FREN 10 series or permission of the instructor.
• Dist: LIT; WCult: W

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.

• Prerequisite: A course in the FREN 10 series or permission of the instructor.
• Dist: LIT; WCult: W

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.

• Prerequisite: A course in the FREN 10 series or permission of the instructor.
• Dist: LIT; WCult: W

This course will explore the French language by means of the linguistic analysis of texts. Its purpose is a) to familiarize the student with the constraints and freedoms of the French language as these are revealed by linguistic analysis, and b) to develop the student’s spontaneity of expression. The course will include the study of structural linguistics and recent rhetorical systems such as those of Genette or Riffaterre. 

• Prerequisites: A course in the FREN 10 series or permission of the instructor.
• Dist: SOC; WCult: W

This course will be devoted to significant examples of a particular literary genre. Genres may be defined historically: thus epic is recognized in its medieval form; tragedy receives its normative definition during classicism. Genres may also be defined formally so that narrative may be studied as it evolves across several centuries. Issues to be considered may include the way genre shapes the production and reception of literary texts and the relationship between historical and generic determinants of a given work.

• Prerequisite: A course in the FREN 10 series or permission of the instructor.
• Dist: LIT; WCult: W

• Prerequisite: A course in the FREN 10 series or permission of the instructor

• Distributive: LIT; WCult:W

This course will be devoted to the study of a single author or to a group of authors who have exercised a decisive influence on French, European or world literature or who are deserving of concentrated attention because of the quality or originality of their literary production.

• Prerequisite: A course in the FREN 10 series or permission of the instructor
• Dist: LIT; WCult: W

This course will study texts which have shaped influential views of human nature, scientific knowledge, social and moral values. Its focus may be on the philosophers and moralists of the classical period (such as Pascal and La Rochefoucauld), the social and political thinkers of the Enlightenment (Diderot and Rousseau) or contemporary thinkers (Beauvoir, Foucault, Lévi-Strauss).

• Prerequisite: A course in the FREN 10 series or permission of the instructor
• Dist: TMV; WCult: W

This course will study the broad field of French civilization with a variety of approaches. Literary texts may be studied for their political influence; literature may be seen as a way of changing history or a reflection of history. Writings on cultural or political issues, by such figures as Montaigne, Diderot or de Staël, may also be included as may more current works from the field of cultural criticism.

• Prerequisite: A course in the FREN 10 series or permission of the instructor
• Dist: SOC; WCult: W

Intersections of gender and literary expression will be studied from a variety of perspectives: gender and authorship (women writers, écriture féminine, comparative analysis of masculine/feminine treatments of genres or themes); gender and reading (do men and women read differently? do certain texts address a specifically gendered readership?); gender and literary form (the lyric, the romance plot); representations of men and women in certain movements or periods (the female body, women/men as subjects or objects of representation).

• Prerequisite: A course in the FREN 10 series or permission of the instructor
• Dist: LIT; WCult: W

This course will involve the study of Francophone literature outside Europe. This may include the literature of Africa, the Caribbean, Québec and Southeast Asia.

• Prerequisite: A course in the FREN 10 series or permission of the instructor
• Dist: LIT; WCult: Varies

This course will focus on one of the following: an individual filmmaker, a significant movement or period, or a major theme in French cinema. Students will become familiar with aspects of French cinematic history as well as with important concepts in film analysis.

• Prerequisite: A course in the French 10 series or permission of the instructor
• Dist: ART; WCult: W

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.

The 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.

• Dist: LIT; WCult: W

Literary works (poetry, theater, the novel, the essay) will be examined in their relationship to the other arts. This will include music, painting, the plastic arts, architecture, etc. Sample topics: opera and melodrama; symbolism and Impressionist painting; surrealism in poetry and collage; art criticism by such writers as Baudelaire, Apollinaire, Ponge.

• Prerequisite: A course in the FREN 10 series or permission of the instructor
• Dist: ART; WCult: W

All terms: Arrange

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.

All terms: Arrange

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.