Close readings of novels from the 1930s to the contemporary period introduce the principal themes and techniques of the modernist and postmodernist French novel. Students are encouraged to analyze a variety of questions commonly evoked in these texts, such as the problem of representation, the uses and abuses of writing, the relation of fiction and history, and the status of the subject in the world. Prereqs., FREN 3100, 3110, and 3120 or instructor consent.