Graduate Course Offerings
Fall 2002

FREN 704 - THEORIES AND METHODS OF LANGUAGE TEACHING (1)

An introduction to pedagogical approaches currently practiced in second-language courses at the university level. Students will examine critically the theories behind various methodologies, and the relation of these theories to their own teaching experie nce. Assignments include readings, exercises, and case studies on the teaching of French; development and critique of pedagogical materials; peer observation and analysis; and drafts of materials for an eventual teaching portfolio.

1:00-1:50 W - Ms. Krueger

FREN 501 ADVANCED COMPOSITION

This intensive " hands-on " course will deal with problems of essay writing in French with an emphasis on literary analysis. It will be comprised of weekly short critical papers, intensive grammar review, exercises in translation from French to English and English to French, and writing of pastiches. The use of ToolKit will be required for peer editing and share-writing.

2:00-3:15 MW Mr. Simon

FREN 520/820 RHETORICS OF DISSENT IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE

In Renaissance France the new medium of the printed book facilitated (or fomented) religious reform movements in spite of church and state efforts to suppress them. Writers developed new forms and strategies to avoid censorship -- and worse. In this course we will read selections from Marot's epistles, Rabelais's Gargantua, Marguerite de Navarre's Heptaméron, Marie Dentière's Epistre Très Utile, D'Aubigné's Tragiques, and Montaigne's Essais, as well as polemical pamphlets from the civil wars. We will examine the rise of new genres and the literary techniques that shaped them. Through a focus on poetics, rhetoric and narrative techniques, we will explore the relationship between literature and ideology. Our resources will include books in Alderman Library's Gordon Collection as well as electronic material and sites on the web. Mid-term and final exams (for M.A. students), weekly response writing and a term paper.

2:00-3:15 T R Ms. McKinley

FREN 485/529 SEMINAR IN FRENCH LINGUISTICS: PROBLEMS IN FRENCH PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY

Prerequisite: FREN 339, FREN 428; good knowledge of oral French, and keen interest in French linguistics

This seminar focusses on a number of difficult issues in French phonetics and phonology: la liaison (nombre et nature des liaisons facultatives), la neutralisation des voyelles inaccentuées, les assimilations, les dilations (l'harmonie vocalique), le e muet, des traits régionaux, les réductions, les intonations. . . We shall study these, and more practical problems (such as how to teach French pronunciation to speakers of English, the fossilisation of pronunciation errors) in considerable detail.
Requirements: A midterm exam, a final exam, an oral demonstration (involving corpus linguistics), and an error analysis write-up.

Course will count for French major credit and for Linguistics major credit; interested graduate students may take course under the number 529.

3:30-4:45 T R Ms. Saunders

FREN 540/840 LA FORME BREVE AU XVIIIe SIECLE : UN LABORATOIRE DE LA FICTION

Le XVIIIe siècle français réinvente (parallèlement à l'Angleterre) les formes de la fiction romanesque. La "forme brêve" joue un rôle capital dans l'élaboration et la mise au point de nouveaux dispositifs narratifs. Par "forme brêve", on entend ici : conte, conte moral, conte philosophique, conte galant, récit libertin, auxquels s'éjoutent quesques textes encore plus difficilement identifiables (comme Le Lévite d'Ephraïm de Rousseau ou l'écriture fragmentaire de Louis Sébastien Mercier).

Ce parcours devrait permettre une "reconnaissance" assez générale des formes et thèmes chers aux Lumières, en même temps qu'une réflexion plus théorique sur la narrativité et les frontières entre les genres.

Textes :

  • Marivaux : Lettres de Mme de M*** contenant une aventure
  • Voltaire : Candide
  • Diderot : Jacques le Fataliste, Les Deux amis de Bourbonne, Ceci n'est pas un conte,
    Sur l'inconquéquence du jugement public de nos actions particulières
  • Rousseau : Le Lévite d'Ephraïm
  • Vivant Denon : Point de lendemain
  • Bernardin de Saint-Pierre : Paul et Virginie
  • Sade : Les Infortunes de la vertu et Eugénie de Franval
  • Louis Sébastien Mercier, Tableau de Paris [extraits]

3:30-6:00 M Mr. Roger

FREN 860 SEMINAR IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY LITERATURE

A new generation of writers emerged from World War II under the banner of Existentialism, which would dominate French literature and thought for a generation. A long period of preparation preceded the emergence of Beauvoir, Camus, and Sartre, alongside an older generation of writers such as Montherlant , Mauriac, and Colette, in the crucible of the Occupation. The transformation of leading literary journals such as the Nouvelle revue française into organs of transmission of Nazi ideology effectively ended the careers of Brasillach and Drieu la Rochelle, while former Surrealists Aragon and Eluard emerged as bulwarks of a literature of resistance that harked back to a classical canon. L.-F. Céline would go to prison in Denmark for his collaboration during the war years. Violette Leduc's literary career was sponsored by Beauvoir and Camus immediately after the war.

The seminar will focus on students' research projects and will feature collaborative learning, particularly in the presentation of oral reports. The final grade will combine results in oral reports, general discussion, research skills, and the intellectual quality of the term paper.

3:30-6:00 W Mr. Arnold


FREN 580 UNE INVENTION SEMIOTIQUE DE L'AMERIQUE : TEXTES, IMAGES, CLICHÉS FRANÇAISE SUR L'AMÉRIQUE DU 18e AU 20e SIÈCLE

Ce cours se donne un double objectif :

1° explorer l'imaginaire français sur l'Amérique depuis les récits des missionnaires jusqu'aux polémiques de presse contemporaines;

2° initier les étudiant(e)s à l'analyse combinée de documents iconographiques et textuels.
Chaque séance (de deux heures et demie) sera consacré à un "moment" ou "sujet" précis : la représentation des Indiens Américains; la perception de la Révolution américaine; les images françaises de la Civil War; la mythographie de la Statue de la Liberté; la vision de la Ville américaine; les livres antiaméricains des années 1920-1930 et leurs illustrations; les livres pour enfants (dont évidemmentTintin en Amérique); l'iconographie et le discours de propagande collaborationnistes contre les Etats-Unis; les images et chansons communistes de la Guerre Froide; la réception française du 11 septembre 2001.

Un aspect important du travail demandé sera la recherche et l'analyse de nouveaux documents graphiques, sonores ou textuels qui viendront enrichir ceux présentés dans le cours.

3:30-6:00 M Mr. Roger

RELATED COURSE OF INTEREST:

 

HIST 711 FRENCH IMPERIALISM SINCE 1798

A survey of classic and recent scholarship on the late French empire. We will read some general texts on the theory and practice of European imperialism; however, our most sustained emphasis will be on the peoples who lived under French rule in the Middle East and North Africa, and to a lesser degree, in West Africa and Southeast Asia. In other words, we will approach the empire, not from the perspective of Paris, but from the viewpoint of those who lived locally beneath its umbrella. And we will approach the lived experience of colonizer and colonized in all its variety: political, economic, and cultural. We will ask, for example: How did the ideals and promise of the French Revolution appear to residents of Dakar, Hanoi, and Algiers? How did the experience of settler colonialism in Algeria differ from that of plantation-style economies in West Africa and Southeast Asia, or the internationally regulated mandates in Syria and Lebanon? How did French people interact with the various peoples who became their trade partners, neighbors, or subjects? And how did they view the French? Can we, indeed, speak generally about the French empire from the perspective of the many differing colonies? Can we discern a common legacy among postcolonial societies, or did experience vary too much?

Knowledge of French is desirable, but not required. Weekly assignments will average about 300 pages of reading. Students should be prepared to discuss these readings in detail at each weekly class meeting. Students will also write four five-page papers that place assigned texts in their scholarly and historical context.

1:00-3:30 R Ms. Elizabeth F. Thompson

Home  Back  Top