FREN 408/530 SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY COMEDY(3)

The development of the genre will be traced from its roots in ancient and medieval theater, as well as the Renaissance traditions of Spain and Italy, through its emergence as an element in French Classical literature. Emphasis will be given to the particular contributions of Pierre Corneille and Jean Racine, though the central subject will be Molière's synthesis of comic traditions into the grand models of the comedies of character and of manners. Other factors to be examined will be the relationship of comedy to tragedy, the contextual influences of Molière's rivals and emulators, and the unique stage and career conditions that prevailed during the rise of comedy. Special importance will be given to the social and political influences that affected this aesthetic evolution and to the strain of skeptical thought that informed Molière's creative efforts. Finally, some plays from the post-Molière period will be studied in order to appreciate how comedy began to be modified in the Classical mentality even before the era reached its culmination and how it began to have such an immediate and sweeping international impact.

6:00-8:30 M Mr. Gaines

  FREN 535 TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES OF TRANSLATION(3)

A continuation of FREN 430 Grammaire et style. The course will pursue the contrastive study of French and English structures and vocabulary with further, fairly extensive translations and re-translations. Classroom work will be seminar or workshop style to the extent class size allows. There will be experiments in collective translation and "peer editing."

2:00-3:15 TR Mr. Cook

  FREN 545 CULTURAL STUDIES - CROISADE ET CULTURE: LA FRANCE ET L'ISLAM AU MOYEN AGE (3)

La croisade: terme du Moyen Age, terme d'actualité, évoquant aussi bien le choc des cultures que l'idée de guerre sainte. Quelles sont les structures politiques, les conditions de vie, les pratiques religieuses des croisés et de ceux qu'ils ont choisis pour ennemis? De quelles idéologies les croisades se sont-elles autorisées? Quelles littératures, quels mythes "l'esprit de croisade" a-t-il engendrés en France, tant aux débuts qu'au cours du Moyen Age? Nous tenterons des réponses à ces questions en situant le "pèlerinage de Jérusalem" et l'Islam médiéval dans leurs contextes d'époque. Pour ce faire, il sera nécessaire de fixer un certain nombre de faits (noms, lieux, idées, dates) au moyen d'interrogations de type traditionnel.

12:30-1:45 TR Mr. Cook

  FREN 550/850 THE SCANDAL OF REALISM

The term "realism" gradually shed its pejorative connotations over the course of the 20th century, as the idea took hold that the representation of life's grimier aspects was an acceptable function of literature and art in general. In the 19th century in France, though, "realism" had most often served as a term of opprobrium, an accusation hurled at Flaubert and Baudelaire, for instance, as they were prosecuted on obscenity charges. This course will trace the trajectory of the idea of Realism in 19th-century French literature, from Balzac through the Naturalists, with particular attention to the ways in which 19th-century French Realism paved the way for Modernism in French, English and other literatures. Readings may include: Balzac, Eugénie Grandet; Stendhal, Le Rouge et le noir; Flaubert, Madame Bovary; the Goncourt brothers, Germinie Lacerteux; Zola, l'Assommoir; Maupassant, stories; Daudet, Sapho.

3:30-6:00 T Ms. Ladenson

  FREN 570/870 SEMINAR IN FRANCOPHONE LITERATURE(3) - 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 all be examined through novels, poems, and plays by contemporary African writers in French. Authors will include Senghor, B. Diop, C. Beyala, M. Beti, A. Laabi, Djebar, Mimouni, Utamsi, Werewere Liking, Rabemanjara, and Ken Bugul. A mid-term exam, a term paper and a final exam will be required.

3:30-6:00 R Mr. Dramé

  FREN 580/880 LINGUA FRANCA: LANGUAGE AND NATION IN MODERN FRANCE

This course proposes to examine the historical roots of the tight articulation between language and national identity in France. From at least the late 18th century, political debate focused on the question of the French language as a tool for national cohesion. Within the context of 19th century French imperial expansion, the dissemination of the French language and the institutions and cultural values associated with it played a pivotal role in attempts to achieve colonial dominion. Today, within the context of the European Union and the changes wrought by globalization, issues of citizenship, language, and French cultural identity have once again risen to the fore of public preoccupation and debate.

Students should expect a general course on the cultural, social, and political history of modern France with a particular focus on the construction of nationhood and the role of language in that process.

3:30-6:00 W Ms. Horne

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