Introduces important aspects of both classical and modern literary theory as an aid to reading and understanding literary texts. Covers theoretical works by figures ranging from Plato and Aristotle to modern French critics such as Barthes, Foucault, and Derrida in conjunction with selected literary works. Offers students more sophisticated means of understanding issues like gender, ethnicity, the roles of both author and reader in constructing meaning, the nature and functions of signs, and the relationship between literature and the larger society. Conducted in English, though French majors are required to read the texts in the original language. Required for students taking honors in French or Italian. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: literature and the arts. Requisites: Requires a prerequisite course of FREN 3100 (minimum grade C-).
For students who have spent fewer than four months in a French-speaking environment. Focuses on presentations, debates, discussions, readings, and written work. Requisites: Requires a prerequisite course of FREN 3060 (minimum grade C-).
Gives students the tools needed to function in a French-speaking work environment. A culminating project involves creating a business in a francophone country. Requisites: Requires a prerequisite course of FREN 2120 (minimum grade C-).
Through readings, films, discussion, and activities, students learn the defining values of their own country, those of France, and key differences between the two cultures. Taught in French. Requisites: Requires a prerequisite course of FREN 3060 (minimum grade C-).
Introduces students to the polemic colonial, social, and cultural interactions of France and Islam. Close attention will be paid to paradigms of identities of one of the major European nations and the Islamic world. Readings and discussion topics for this course cover the social, cultural, and literary depictions of Islamic and French interactions, negotiations, and contradictions. Taught in English. Cannot be used for French major or minor credit. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: human diversity. Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
Concentrates on developing (or preserving) speaking fluency, correct pronunciation, and a good working vocabulary. May be repeated once for credit. Requisites: Requires prerequisite courses of FREN 3100 and FREN 3060 or FREN 3060 (all minimum grade C-).
Topics vary each semester. Consult the online Schedule Planner for specific topics. See also FREN 4120. Requisites: Requires a prerequisite course of FREN 3110 or FREN 3120 (minimum grade C-).
Studies the literary expression of French-speaking peoples of Africa, the Caribbean, and French Canada. Gives special attention to oral tradition, identity question, and cultural conflict. Requisites: Requires prerequisite courses of FREN 3100 and FREN 3110 and FREN 3120 (all minimum grade C-). Restricted to students with 27-180 credits (Sophomores, Juniors or Seniors) only.
Explores the complex and evolving cultural and historical contexts of medieval and Renaissance French. Introduces the masterpieces of French medieval and Renaissance literature, including the Chanson de Roland and Arthurian romance. Also focuses on the work of Marie de France, Guillaume de Lorris, and Jean de Meun, Christine de Pisan, Machaut, Villon, Louise Labe, and the poets of the Pleiade, Rabelais, and Montaigne. Requisites: Requires prerequisite courses of FREN 3100 and FREN 3110 and FREN 3120 (all minimum grade C-).
Readings of plays by Corneille, Moliere, and Racine introduce students to theatre's role as a mirror of the multifarious tensions shaping modern Western experience. Taught in English with English translations. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: literature and the arts. Requisites: Requires prerequisite courses of FREN 3100 and FREN 3110 and FREN 3120 (all minimum grade C-).
Close readings of farces and comedies of Moliere in context with selected comedies by Corneille, Rotrou,and Cyrano de Bergerac and selected satires by Boileau and La Fontaine. Themes include comedy as a form of social criticism and the sociocultural significance of such episodes of Moliere's career as the scandalous quarrels of L'ecole des Femmes and Tartuffe. Requisites: Requires prerequisite courses of FREN 3100 and FREN 3110 and FREN 3120 (all minimum grade C-).
Studies fiction, essays, theatre, and philosophical tales. Emphasizes the Enlightenment in France through the texts of its major representatives: Montesquieu, Voltaire, Marivaux, Diderot, and Rousseau. Requisites: Requires prerequisite courses of FREN 3100 and FREN 3110 and FREN 3120 (all minimum grade C-).
Examines fiction, poetry, and theatre in 19th century France. Focuses on developing and changing literary styles and subject matter throughout the century in historical, philosophical, and social context. Requisites: Requires prerequisite courses of FREN 3100 and FREN 3110 and FREN 3120 (all minimum grade C-). Restricted to students with 27-180 credits (Sophomores, Juniors or Seniors) only.
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. Requisites: Requires prerequisite courses of FREN 3100 and FREN 3110 and FREN 3120 (all minimum grade C-).
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. Requisites: Requires prerequisite courses of FREN 3100 and FREN 3110 and FREN 3120 (all minimum grade C-).
Covers various topics in the French and some other Francophone cinemas (Belgian, Swiss, Quebecois) from 1895 to the present. Focuses on periods, schools, themes, and directors from Melies to Duras, and the critical approaches by which they are studied. Varies from year to year. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours on different topics. Requisites: Requires prerequisite courses of FREN 3100 and FREN 3110 and FREN 3120 (all minimum grade C-).
Presents current methodology and techniques for teaching foreign language for proficiency. Areas of study include ACTFL guidelines, National Standards, assessment, classroom activities, curriculum, and syllabus design. Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
Focuses upon recent innovations in the French novel, and upon the postmodernist literary aesthetic. Students will examine a variety of avant-garde novels, and analyze the kinds of literary experimentation that those novels propose. They will be asked to consider a series of questions concerning the changing nature of literary representation and the status of the novel as a cultural form. Taught in English. Cannot be used for major or minor credit. Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
Attempts to investigate how extreme historical events (war, genocides, terror attacks) function as "trauma" and how these extreme events are dealt with by personal and collective memory in historical narratives, literary and cinematic fiction, and memorials. Amnesia and other types of historical negations or revisions will be analyzed, along with representations of trauma and the difficulties raised by this memorializing. Taught in English. Cannot be used for major or minor credit. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: ideals and values. Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
Offered as part of the supervised student teaching in a secondary school required for state licensure to teach French. These hours do not count toward student hours in the major nor in the maximum departmental hours allowed. Pass/fail only. Requisites: Restricted to students with 27-180 credits (Sophomores, Juniors or Seniors) only.
The senior honor thesis is a 40 to 45 page original research paper, written in French, and constitutes a requirement for graduating with departmental honors. Requisites: Requires a prerequisite course of FREN 3200 (minimum grade D-).
Preparation of a 15-page research paper in French presented to two members of the department faculty and defended orally in class. Recommended prereq., at least one course numbered FREN 4100 or above and all third-year requirements and advisor consent.
Different topics are offered and, in a number of cases, cross-listed with other departments. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours on different topics. Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
