Departmental Writing Requirements :

The following writing requirements apply to courses in which the authorized enrollments do not exceed 20 (French 331 and 332) or 25 (literature and civilization courses numbered higher than French 332) :

• FREN 331 and 332 : 10-15 pages, typically divided among 4 to 5 papers. Peer editing introduced during class and practiced outside.
• 300-level literature and civilization courses : 10-15 pages, typically divided among 2 to 4 papers. Relatively less sophisticated content than at the 400-level. Peer editing outside of class may be offered to students as an option (or requirement).
• 400-level literature and civilization courses : 15-20 pages, typically divided among 2 to 4 papers. Relatively more sophisticated content than at the 300-level. Peer editing outside of class may be offered to students as an option (or requirement).
• In all courses the quality of written French (that is, accurate use of grammar and vocabulary ) is an important factor in grading. Command of the language affects how understandable, persuasive, and impressive writing is. As students move from 300- to 400- level courses they will be expected to show greater sophistication in sentence structure, grammar, and use of idioms.

  FREN 331 INTENSIVE GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION

Prerequisite: Exemption from FREN 201 & 202; or a score of 3 on the AP French language exam; or a score of at least 660 on the SAT. Required as preparation for all subsequent courses except FREN 333 and FREN 339.

This course will place emphasis on grammatical rules and their application to composition. Short readings in French will provide a context for discussion, writing, and grammar practice. Students will be graded on short quizzes, dictations, compositions, a mid-term, and a final exam.

10:00-10:50 M W F Ms. Sapir
12:00-12:50 M W F Ms. Sapir

  FREN 331 INTENSIVE GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION

Ce cours est une revision en profondeur de la grammaire et de la syntaxe françaises, ainsi qu'un atelier d'écriture; des lectures et des exercices de traduction aideront à l'acquisition de vocabulaire.

La note est basée sur: une dizaine de dictées, trois interrogations cumulatives, cinq à six rédactions, un examen partiel et un examen final.

1:00-1:50 MWF Ms. Houyoux

  FREN 331 INTENSIVE GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION

Prerequisite: Exemption from FREN 201 & 202; or a score of 3 on the AP French language exam; or a score of at least 660 on the SAT. Required as preparation for all subsequent courses except FREN 333 and FREN 339

This course will place emphasis on understanding the different elements of the French language (classification, origins, and formation of words) and on the relationship that exists between those words (syntax). Students will be asked to apply grammatical rules to composition. Short readings in French will provide a context for discussion, writing, and grammar practice. Students will be graded on dictations (weekly), compositions (bi-weekly), three "interrogations," and a final exam. The course will be taught in French.

11:00-11:50 M W F Ms. Zunz

  FREN 332 THE WRITING AND READING OF TEXTS

Prerequisite:French 331. This course is a prerequisite for all undergraduate courses on a higher level except French 333 and French 339.

The development of writing skills and strategies in French: grammar, vocabulary, organization and style. Careful reading and analysis of a variety of texts (for example, poetry , theater, fiction and essays). Sections will be limited to fifteen students. Several papers in French (10-15 pages total).

9:00-9:50 M W F Ms. Bargach
9:30-10:45 TR TBA
10:00-10:50 M W F Ms. Bargach
11:00-11:50 M W F Ms. Houyoux
2:00-3:15 T R Ms. Lyu

  FREN 334 ADVANCED ORAL & WRITTEN EXPRESSION IN FRENCH

Prerequisite: Students must have completed French 331 and French 332 or their equivalent. Does not count for major credit.

An intensive course designed to improve more advanced students' oral and written language skills. Assignments include discussion on topics of current interest, presentations, translations, and compositions. All materials are French- or Francophone-related. The course focuses on language development in a Francophone cultural context, so students can get familiar with French and Francophone cultures and comfortable in expressing their viewpoints in French. Of course, consistent attendance and active participation are essential.

1:00-1:50 MWF TBA
1:00-1:50 MWF TBA

  FREN 339 FRENCH PHONETICS

The study of the sound system of French (theory and practice): phonetic transcription, syllabification, articulation of vowels, consonants and semi-vowels (with practical exercises aimed at training the ear and improving pronunciation and enunciation), contrastive analysis of French and English sounds, etc. Involves classroom instruction and practice in the language laboratory. Basis of evaluation: 4 -5 quizzes, final exam, 'travaux pratiques' and in-class performance. Required text: D. Dansereau, Savoir Dire: cours de phonétique et de prononciation.

2:00-3:15 TR Ms. Saunders

  FREN 343 INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY ANALYSIS: 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY LITERATURE

The general theme of this course will be war in French literature from the Revolution to the present. The object of the course is to situate the selected works in their historical and cultural context, to acquire critical techniques and lexical tools needed for textual analysis, to expand the students working vocabulary, and to learn how to write an essay in French.

The reading list will be comprised of a few novels and short stories, two plays, newspaper articles and some poetry.

The work will consist of 2/3-page papers on each of the works read, an oral presentation which will require teamwork, and participation in discussions. The final 3-page paper will be an " explication de texte " of a passage not read before.

Use of ToolKit mandatory.

11:00-11:50 M W F Mr. Simon

  FREN 345 FROM THE PARIS OF BAUDELAIRE TO THE BELLE EPOQUE: THE HISTORY OF PARIS 1850-1900

At mid-century, the elegance of Paris had few rivals among the European cities, yet at the same time, its inner core remained dark, congested, and even dangerous - largely untouched since the time of Louis XIV. Existing in these two extremes was a city of pleasures, writers, artists, and architects unequaled anywhere else. Within this period also, Parisians would experience a massive renovation project called for by the Emperor Napoleon III and under the direction of the Baron Haussmann. The newly created boulevards would become the stage of a lively urban drama, the subject of artists, poets, an animated café society, developing commerce (the birth of the department store), political and literary salons, a World's Fair, etc…

This course will examine the complex and changing urban landscape and its relationship to society as revealed in the ideas and artistic output of the time, and will end with the 1890's - la Belle Epoque.

Readings will include articles and representative works of the period about Paris - the poetry of Baudelaire, descriptions of the city by Hugo, texts by Zola, etc… Short assignments, midterm, and final project.

1:00-1:50 T R Ms. Sapir

  FREN 345

Belgian writer Georges Simenon, owes his fame to Maigret, the superintendent of the Préfecture de Police in Paris and the main character of his 76 mystery novels. Perhaps less well known but equally important are Simenon's other non-detective novels. Although Simenon is clearly an exemplar of "middlebrow" culture, with his books for sale in train stations and airport bookshops, he has been admired by such "highbrow" writers as Gide, Colette, Céline, Cocteau, who have compared his productivity to that of Victor Hugo, his sense of social milieux to that of Balzac, and his ability to caricature to that of La Fontaine. In reading Simenon, we will explore his ways of creating foggy sensations and atmospheres as well as vivid physical and psychological descriptions. This course is an invitation au voyage. A selected choice of readings will take students to Liège (Belgium), Paris (France), Libreville (Gabon), Lakeville (Conn., USA) among other places. Students will learn much from Simenon's ways of using the local to illuminate the universal. The course will be taught in French.

9:00-9:50 MWF Ms. Zunz

  FREN 346 LA LITTÉRATURE FRANCOPHONE MAROCAINE

La littérature francophone marocaine prend ses racines dans l'Afrique, dans la France coloniale mais aussi dans le monde arabo-musulman et dans les berbère et judéo-arabe.
Depuis l'epoque coloniale (1912-1956) jusqu'à nos jours, les écrivains marocains d'expression française ont tour à tour séduit ou choqué de part et d'autre de la Méditerranée.
Après avoir étudié des oeuvres écrites pendent le Protectorat français au Maroc, nous aborderons la littérature contemporaine expression de rêves, des mythes et des aspirations politiques et sociales.

Lectures:
Périod coloniale: Ahmed Séfrioui, La boite à Merveilles; Driss Chraïbi, Le passé simple.
Littérature d'aujourd'hui: Fouad Laroui, Les dents du topographe; Edmond Amrane el Maleh, 1000 ans et un jour.
Expression féminine: Rajae Benchemsi, Fracture du désire.

Documents audiovisuelles:
Films:
Souheil Benbarka, Amok ; Nabil Ayouch, Ali Zaoua, prince des rues ; Farida Belyazid, Ruses de femme.
Sites sur l'internet : entretiens avec les auteurs francophones.

Travaux :
Examen partiel, examen final, 5 essais de 2 à 3 pages et un projet de récherche par équipe.

12:00-12:50 M W F Ms. Bargach

  FREN 351 HISTORY AND CIVILIZATION OF FRANCE: REVOLUTION TO 1945

Beginning with a study of the French Revolution, this course focuses on the cultural and historical influences which have shaped Modern France. We will explore the relationship between culture and political power, the changing role of government, and how ordinary men and women experienced social change. Readings will be drawn from primary documents, memoirs and secondary historical texts. Visual elements will be incorporated in this course through the use of electronic classroom, the World Wide Web and selected films. Readings in this course will be done in both French and English. All lectures, discussions and writing will be done exclusively in French.

11:00-12:15 TR Ms. Horne

  FREN 402 THE FRENCH "RENAISSANCE"

Sixteenth-century France witnessed the Protestant Reformation, the Copernican Revolution, and the discoveries of worlds both Ancient and New. The printed book was the innovation that announced change to a newly literate society. In Erasmus's Praise of Folly, Rabelais's Gargantua. Marguerite de Navarre's Heptaméron and Montaigne's Essais, we will see how writers both recorded and shaped their turbulent times. We will appreciate their use of paradox, ambiguity and irony as they create new genres and publish in perilous conditions. These books include stories about giants and cannibals, love and passion, the search for truth and the discovery of the self. Selected films (L'Oeuvre au noir, Le Retour de Martin Guerre and La reine Margot) will show how the twentieth century both depicted and distorted this period. Three short papers, a mid-semester and a final exam.

11:00-12:15 T R Ms. McKinley

  FREN 409 LITTERATURE D'AUJOURD'HUI

The course will focus on significant works of autobiography and autobiographical fiction produced since the mid-twentieth century by such authors as Beauvoir, Camus, Duras, Ernaux, Leduc, and Sartre. Concepts of gender and the gendered text will be examined in relation to both fiction and autobiography. Success in this course requires a reasonable level of cultural competence (measured by completion of at least two FREN 300-level literature courses with a grade of B or better) and the ability to speak and write literary French correctly. Students' grades will be computed as follows: participation in class, including collaborative oral presentations (1/3), a midterm and a final exam (1/3), and a substantial research paper (1/3). Strongly recommended for French and Women's Studies majors and motivated students from other departments and programs such as English and Comparative Literature.

2:00-3:15 MW Mr. Arnold

  FREN 411 FRANCOPHONE LITERATURE OF AFRICA

Introduction to the Francophone literature of Africa; survey, with special emphasis on post- World War II poets, novelists, and playwrights of Africa. The role of cultural and literary reviews (Légitime Défense, L'Etudiant noir, and Présence Africaine) in the historical and ideological development of this literature will be examined. Special reference will be made to Caribbean writers of the Negritude movement. Documentary videos on African history and cultures will be shown and important audio tapes will also be played regularly. Supplementary texts will be assigned occasionally. Students will be expected to present response papers on a regular basis.

In addition to the required reading material, 2 essays(60%), regular class attendance, response papers and contribution to discussions (10%), and a final exam (30%) constitute the course requirements. Papers are due on the dates indicated on the syllabus.

Required reading
Chevrier, J. Anthologie Africaine: Poésie
Bâ, Amadou Hampaté. Amkoullel, l'enfant peul.
Bâ, Mariama. Une si longue lettre.
Boudjedra, Rachid. L'escargot entêté.

9:30-10:45 TR Mr. Dramé

  FREN 436 FRANÇAIS DES AFFAIRES

Ce cours vise à vous familiariser avec les termes propres aux documents et à la vie des affaires en France. Il peut également servir de préparation au Certificat de français des affaires de la Chambre de Commerce Internationale de Paris. Basé sur un manuel et une série de vidéos, le cours requiert un effort de mémorisation et de rédaction. La note est fonction de: tests, lettres et divers documents d'affaires, une interview et l'analyse d'unepublicité.

10:00-10:50 MWF Ms. Houyoux

  FREN 444

This course will examine a series of films from the perspective of French cultural history. We will analyze historical film as a genre and as a vehicle for communicating ideas about the past, as well as about the present. Are historical films "accurate"? How do filmmakers represent the past? What is the role of myth and memory in historical film? Why can it be argued that Jean Renoir's "La Grande Illusion" is as much about 1937, the year it was made, than about 1916, the year depicted in the film? Students will be expected to do close textual readings of scenes and shots to demonstrate the choices made by filmmakers who portray the past. Through various films depicting the 16th to the 20th centuries, we will also pay particular attention to the problem of French identity: what, if anything, did it mean to be French during a given historical period?

Films may include: Le retour de Martin Guerre (Vigne); La reine Margot (Chereau); Ridicule (Leconte); La Grande Illusion (Renoir) La vie et rien d'autre (Tavernier); Princess Tam-Tam (Greville); Au revoir les enfants (Malle); Lacombe Lucien (Malle) ; Le Chagrin et la Pitié (Ophuls) ; Weapons of the Spirit (Sauvage) ; Outremer (Rouan); La Haine (Kassovitz).

12:30-1:45 T R Ms. Horne

  FREN 445 LITERATURE, SEX AND CENSORSHIP IN 19TH CENTURY FRANCE

Because the Revolutionary and Napoleonic regimes did away with the routine pre-publication government suppression of literary works that had characterized the Ancien Regime, the 19th century saw an explosion of literary censorship trials in France (21 in the course of the century). This course will address the question of why certain works were deemed dangerous for public consumption. We will approach the topic through an examination of the most notorious works earmarked for suppression on moral grounds, along with the transcripts of their trials (where available). Readings: Flaubert, Madame Bovary; Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal; Barbey d'Aurevilly, Les Diaboliques; and related texts. Requirements for the course include two (2) papers (5-7 pages), and an exam. There will also be occasional short assignments (1-2 pages).

2:00-3:15 TR Ms. Ladenson

  FREN 452 TOPICS IN FRENCH POETRY: SURVEY OF FRENCH POETRY

Prerequisite: at least one French literature or culture course above 332.

A study of a selection of French poems from the Middle Ages to the present with special emphasis on the modern periods (19th-20th centuries). Through a careful examination of the language of poetry, we will learn how to read a poem and explore what it means to "read" a poem. The ways in which a poetic text constitutes itself and engenders it own meaning and/or non-meaning will be analyzed in depth.

Short response papers, oral presentations, papers, and exams.

3:30-4:45 MW Ms. Lyu

  FREN 483 ADVANCED SEMINAR IN 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 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 TR Ms. Saunders

RELATED COURSES OF INTEREST:

*Although the following courses do not count for major or minor credit, the French Department highly recommends them to our students who wish to add interdisciplinary depth to their studies in French.

  HIME 202 HISTORY OF THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST

This course surveys Middle Eastern history from the era of Suleyman the Magnificent, the 16th-century Ottoman sultan, to recent decades, featuring the Arab-Israeli conflicts, rise of oil wealth, and Iranian Revolution. With a focus on the lands of the former Ottoman Empire and Iran, we will trace the origins of the region's 20th-century politics and society to the transformation of its role in the world's economy after the 16th century. Themes include the growth in state power, the effects of European imperialism, the polarization of rich and poor classes, the rise in political violence, and the emergence of women's, nationalist and religious movements. Source materials include novels, short stories, films, and memoirs, in addition to a basic textbook.

The course assumes no prior knowledge of Middle Eastern history. Requirements include participation in weekly discussion sections, a midterm exam, a short paper and a final exam. It fulfills the non-Western perspective and historical studies area requirements. It may also count as an adjunct course in Women's Studies, provided that the student write the paper on gender issues.

Ms. Elizabeth Thompson

  HIEU 338 REVOLUTIONARY FRANCE, 1770-1814

This course will examine the social, cultural, intellectual, and political history of France from the end of the Old Regime through the Napoleonic Empire. The origins, development, and outcome of the French Revolutionwill be our main focus. Attention will also be given to the impact of events in France on other western nations and to the legacy of the French Revolution in terms of such modern concepts as human rights, nationalism, social welfare, feminism, democracy, and revolution itself. Throughout the course, we will emphasize the different and often conflicting ways in which historians have interpreted the meaning and consequences of this critical moment of upheaval. Class meetings will combine lecture and discussion of weekly readings, including Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre, Lefebvre, The Coming of the French Revolution, Tocqueville, The Old Regime and the French Revolution, and numerous primary sources, from revolutionary festival programs to Al-Jabarti's chronicle of Napoleon in Egypt. The requirements of the course are one 8-10 page paper, a midterm exam, and a final.

12:30-1:45 TR Ms. Rosenfeld

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