FREN 520/820 - 16th CENTURY SEMINAR: RABELAIS

The tales of Pantagruel and Gargantua enact a drama of upheaval, portraying and challenging early-modern notions of language and narrative. Can language lead to knowledge? How and what can words signify? Who has the authority to interpret words? What is the relevance of the word made print to the Word made flesh? While reading closely Rabelais's narratives, we will examine sixteenth-century notions of history, of giants, of the New World and of evangelical religious reform. Visits to the Gordon Collection's Rabelais volumes will orient students to the use of rare books and to the history of early printed book production. Requirements: one or two oral presentations and a seminar paper of approximately 20-25 pages. M.A. students are welcome in this seminar.

3:30-6:00 W - Ms. McKinley

FREN 561 - DRAMA & LYRIC IN THE 20th CENTURY

This course will survey major authors and texts of 20th-century drama and lyric. Course requirements will include regular oral reports, a midterm, and a final examination. Some readings in the Reserve collection will also be incorporated into the course, which is intended to provide the student with a working knowledge of recent literature and its critical vocabulary, as well as trends in French literature and society.

Undergraduates wishing to enroll must have successfully completed two 400-level literature courses in the department.

2:00-3:15 TR - Mr. Arnold

FREN 570 - AFRICAN LITERATURE

Survey of 20th century Francophone literature of Africa. Colonial literature and Assimilation; Negritude, Nationalism and Identity; Postcolonial literature; Feminism; Literature and Censorship; Language and Literature; Theatre and ritual performance; and Oral literature as a major intertext will be examined through novels, poems, and plays by contemporary African writers in French. Authors will include Senghor, B. Diop, C. Beyala, Béti, A. Laabi, Djébar, Mimouni, Utamsi, Rabémanjara, and Ken Bugul. A mid-term exam, a term paper and a final exam will be required.

11:00-11:50 MWF - Mr. Dramé

FREN 580/880 - CIVILIZATION/CULTURAL STUDIES

Title: LA FRANCE, DE LA RÉVOLUTION DE 1789 À 1989

Couvrant simultanément deux niveaux distincts d'études, ce cours offrira d'abord l'occasion de s'informer sur les étapes historiques essentielles du développement de la France contemporaine, de la veille de la Révolution à la célébration de son bi-centenaire. On se penchera plus spécifiquement sur la question de savoir comment les valeurs de l'Ancien Régime ont pu informer les débats politiques, sociaux et artistiques de la Révolution de 1789 jusqu'à la fin du XXe siècle. Les grands thèmes abordés seront, entre autres : le rôle des élites, la notion d'identité nationale, la fonction des institutions nationales, la « mission » de la France, les conflits de classe et les utopies, etc. Les étudiants au niveau du PhD seront invités à faire leur recherche individuelle sur des problèmes spécifiques.

Lectures et travaux seront précisés ultérieurement.

3:30-6:00 R - Mr. Simon

FREN 705 - TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

This course is designed to cover the rudiments of classical rhetoric, stylistic analysis and close reading. We will also study the format of explication de texte and more elaborate forms of analytic writing. The first part of the course will be devoted to a general study of classical rhetoric and stylistics, the latter section concentrating on specific examples of textual analysis. Students will give oral presentations of texts they have chosen, followed by a final written project on the same subject (10-20 pages).

3:30-6:00 T - Ms. Ladenson

HIEU 528 - THE FRENCH SEABORNE EMPIRE, 1600-1830

This course surveys the development of French colonial expansion from Henri IV through the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, to the collapse of the restored Bourbon monarchy.

We shall examine how imperial expansion shaped, and responded to, the economy, culture, society, and politics of metropolitan France.

This is a seminar course which will meet once weekly. Reading will amount to perhaps 200 pages a week. Your grade will be based 25% on discussion and 75% on a twenty-five page research paper. At least half of the reading, and in some weeks most of it, will be in French. It is thus a prerequisite that students be able to read and think in French with some facility.

1:00-3:30 T - Mr. Drayton
(Time not confirmed yet)

FRTR 780 - ANTI-AMERICANISM IN FRANCE: AN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY

Description not available at this time.

TBA - Mr. Philippe Roger*

*Mr. Roger is the Research Program Director at CNRS, professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and editor of the prestigious French literary and philosophical review Critique. His many books include studies of Sade, Barthes, Chateaubriand, and human rights.

FRTR 790 - COMPARATIVE CARIBBEAN LITERATURE

A seminar designed for students in the Ph.D. Certificate Program in New World Studies, 790 is open to students from all participating departments. In 1999 we will examine Caribbean foundational romances in terms of the politics of regional representation. Literary texts and other cultural documents from the region will be read in English, which will also be the language of the seminar.

Students will identify an individual research area early in the semester and will present an oral version of their results prior to presenting the paper formally for a grade at the end of the semester.

Regular weekly participation is encouraged and expected.

1530-1800 M - Mr. Arnold