Close readings of plays from the turn of the century to the contemporary period introduce the principal themes and techniques of modernist and postmodernist French theatre. Students are encouraged to consider problems commonly evoked by these texts, and to compare the positions that each text takes on such problems as the status and uses of language, the function and limits of the theatre, and the dialectic of appearance and reality. Prereqs., FREN 3100, 3110, and 3120, or instructor consent.