FREN 520/820 TOPICS IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE: Montaigne

Montaigne's Essais records the birth of an author at a time when history was recording the failure of humanism. As civil war and aristocratic decadence devastated France, Montaigne wrote to tame the "fantastic monsters" that troubled him. This course will require a thoughtful reading of the Essais from beginning to end as we focus on individual essays each week. We will also read a representative survey of scholarship on Montaigne. A visit to Alderman Library's Special Collections will allow us to examine the Essais as a product and an agent of the new print culture. Beginning master's and doctoral students -- as well as qualified undergraduates -- are welcome in this course. Requirements will include weekly 1-page reaction papers and a brief oral presentation of a passage from the Essais. A final project, the nature and scope of which will vary according to the student's level, will be presented to the group. M.A. students may use this course to fulfill the M.A. seminar requirement by doing the doctoral-level project.

2:00-3:15 MW Ms. McKinley

  FREN 339/527 FRENCH PHONETICS

This course, conducted in French, is designed to introduce basic concepts in phonetic theory and to teach students techniques for improving their own pronunciation. We shall examine the physical characteristics of individual sounds, the relationship between sounds and their written representations, the rules governing the pronunciation of "standard French", and the most salient phonological features of selected regional varieties (e.g. le français méridional). Working independently and regularly with audiotapes in the language laboratory, and as a group with the instructor in the classroom, students will have opportunities for oral practice in the production of French sounds (in isolation, in syllabic combinations, in rhythmic groups and in phrases). Requires much memorization. Basis of evaluation: 3-4 quizzes, final exam, ‘travaux pratiques’ (homework assignments), and daily in-class performance.

For students enrolled in FREN 527: a research paper, on an assigned topic in phonetics or phonology, is required in addition to the above-mentioned course work.

7:00-8:15 p.m. MW Ms. Saunders

   FREN 530/830 SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE

This seminar will assemble a view of the concept of love in the seventeenth century by looking at a variety of works in that emotion plays a significant role. Readings will be selected from texts such as the following: Corneille, La Place Royale and Le Cid; de Sales, Traité de l'amour de Dieu; Descartes, Traité des passions de l'âme; Fénelon, Les Aventures de Télémaque; Guilleragues, Lettres portugaises; Lafayette, La Princesse de Clèves; Racine, Phèdre; Saint-Réal, Dom Carlos; Scarron, L'Histoire comique de Francion; Scudéry, Clélie.

12:30-1:45 TR Mr. Lyons

   FREN 550 Modern Sex: From Baudelaire to Baise-moi

Among the countless ways in which Western culture set about reinventing itself during the 19th and 20th centuries was a revolution in approaches to sex, gender and sexuality. These changes in sexual self-definition are reflected in French literature in a variety of contexts. In this course we will concentrate on self-consciously "modern" representations of sexuality in French literature starting with Baudelaire. Readings will include: selected Fleurs du mal; Zola's Thérèse Raquin; selections from Barbey d'Aurevilly's Diaboliques; Colette's Claudine à l'école; Gide's Immoraliste; Radiguet's Diable au corps; Genet's Journal du voleur; Duras's Amant; Guibert's A l'ami qui ne m'a pas sauvé la vie; and Despentes's Baise-moi. The course will be conducted in French. Requirements will include weekly response papers as well as longer projects.

N.B. This course will entail reading, discussion and viewing of explicit and potentially offensive material; any student wishing to avoid such material should not take the course.

3:30-6:00 T Ms. Ladenson

  FREN 560/860 SEMINAR IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY LITERATURE

The seminar will be devoted to the subject "Institution littéraire et roman" and will focus on a selection of Prix Goncourt novels since the 1920s. Texts may be chosen from among Maran, Batouala, 1921; Malraux, La condition humaine, 1933; Gracq, Le rivage des Syrtes, 1951 ; Beauvoir, Les mandarins, 1954 ; Gary, Les racines du ciel, 1956 ; Duras, L'amant, 1984 ; Orsenna, L'exposition coloniale, 1987 ; Chamoiseau, Texaco, 1992. Student recommendations of specific titles are invited before Thanksgiving. The theoretical frame of reference will be provided by Dubois and Baudrillard, inter alia.

3:30-6:00 R Mr. Arnold

  FREN 580/880 La laicité: The Secular Tradition in France

Arguably, France is the most adamantly secular country in Europe today. Yet, the French tradition of secularism-or la laicité-is being challenged on several fronts, the most visible of which is the controversy surrounding the Islamic headscarf in public schools. President Chirac even named a "commission of experts" to advise him on the meaning and prospects of la laicité in today's French republic. At stake here are vital issues such as republicanism, citizenship, ethnicity, individual freedoms, and multiculturalism. Unquestionably, the growing importance of Islam in France is also fueling debate.

Beginning with a discussion of the main themes of this contemporary debate, we will take a longer view and study the historical and philosophical contexts that shaped France's distinctive form of secularism.

Topics of study will include: the history of church/state relations in France; the legacy of the French revolution; anticlericalism; the Dreyfus Affair; World War II and its influence on religious identities in France; immigration and the evolution of public versus private identities; the defense and (re)definition of the secular state under the Fifth Republic.

3:30-6:00 W Ms. Horne

  FREN 580 THE CAROLINGIAN WORLD

This course examines the political, social and cultural history of continental western Europe in the period c. 750 to c. 900 AD. Approaching 'the Carolingian achievement' from a number of angles, classes are built around students' close engagement with key primary sources from the period. Subjects to be addressed include: the rise of the Carolingian dynasty; forms of government, legislation, and dispute settlement; political ideas; varieties of the religious life; theological debates (Adoptionism, Predestination); Carolingian interaction with neighboring peoples, Byzantium and the Islamic world; art, architecture and literature; historical writing; social organization. The thought and writings of a number of particular Carolingian authors, including Alcuin, Einhard and Dhuoda, will also be studied. Classes are discussion based, and students must expect to be asked to lead the discussion or make occasional presentations on a prearranged topic. Reading will average around 175-220 pages per week. Students are required to produce a 20-25 page research paper by the course's end. It is strongly recommended that those who opt to take this course have some prior experience of European history in the earlier Middle Ages. This class meets the second writing requirement.

Required Reading
P. Dutton, Charlemagne's Courtier: The Complete Einhard (Broadview Press, 1998).
P. Dutton, Carolingian Civilization: a Reader (Broadview Press, 1993).
P.D. King, Charlemagne: Selected Sources (King, 1987).
B. Scholz, Carolingian Chronicles (University of Michigan Press, 1970).
R. McKitterick, Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation (Cambridge University Press, 1994).
P. Riché, The Carolingians, a Family who Forged Europe (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993).

6:00-8:30 W Mr. Paul J. E. Kershaw

Related Course of Interest

  ARTH 980 DUCHAMP

This seminar will consider the work of Marcel Duchamp. Topics will include Duchamp's abandonment of painting and development of the readymade, his experiments with language and optics in the 1920s and 1930s, and his activities in the United States after World War II. We will stress the theoretical implications of Duchamp’s work, including questions of gender and spectatorship. The course will end with a look into Duchamp’s historical impact, as registered in the reception of his work by artist and critics from the 1960s to the present.

10:00-12:30 T Mr. Affron

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