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.

  FRTR 329 COMPARATIVE CARIBBEAN LITERATURE & CULTURE

This is an upper-division cross-disciplinary course; it supposes an introduction to literary, historical or anthropological study. The question to be examined throughout the semester is: Who/What is Creole? Literary texts (poems, novels) as well as popular genres will be examined for what they tell us about the construction of national identity. Students will be encouraged to work in small groups to develop a project for class presentation. Multi-media presentations will be welcome. There will be a midterm and a final examination or a research paper. Authors will include several of the following: Alexis (Haiti), Brathwaite (Barbados), Carpentier (Cuba), Condé (Guadeloupe), Naipaul and Lovelace (Trinidad), Walcott (St. Lucia).

1530-1800 M Mr. Arnold

  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 offers an intensive review of grammar rules and their application to oral and written communication. 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. The course is conducted in French.

  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). Several papers in French (10-15 pages total).

  FREN 334 ADVANCED ORAL AND WRITTEN EXPRESSION IN FRENCH(3)

Prerequisite: Students must have completed FREN 331 and 332 or their equivalent, or must be concurrently enrolled in FREN 332. Counts for major/minor 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. A good preparation for more advanced classes in French. Consistent attendance and active participation are essential.

1400-1515 TR Ms. Yence
1400-1450 MWF TBA

  FREN 339 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.

1900-2015 TR Ms. Saunders

  FREN 341 REPRESENTATIVE LITERARY TEXTS, 1080-1599: SINNERS, SAINTS & STORYTELLERS

"Medieval," in current usage, frequently means reactionary, superstitious or ignorant. "Renaissance" suggests breadth of knowledge and sudden resurrection after a period of intellectual darkness. However, the periods we now call the Middle Ages (1000-1499) and the Renaissance (1500-1599) witnessed the almost continuous revival and re-evaluation of both classical texts and folk traditions. The scholars and artists of this period are responsible for reworking the ideas, stories and literary genres of earlier ages into the forms that determine our "modern" assumptions about subjects such as romantic love, common courtesy, gender, literary conventions, virtue and heroism, sport and entertainment, and truth. Readings for this course include La Chanson de Roland, La Vie de saint Alexis; texts by Chrétien de Troyes, Marie de France, Christine de Pisan, Michel de Montaigne; and a selection of lyric poetry from each century. There will be several short assignments, a five-page essay, a midterm and a final exam.

1000-1050 MWF Ms. Ogden

  FREN 342 LITERATURE OF THE 17th & 18th CENTURIES

Vanity, hypocrisy, avarice, excess: can literature cure these human ills? The writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries certainly attempted to reform these and other kinds of "bad behavior" in their works by employing both humorous and serious techniques. This course will concentrate on a selection of these works, including La Fontaine's fables, Molière's comedies, La Bruyère's essays, as well as prose fiction by Voltaire, Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Isabelle de Charrière. These readings will lead us to consider issues which were of central importance to seventeenth and eighteenth-century France: the place of the individual in society, secular conceptions of virtue and vice, the concept of happiness, and, finally, the question of whether the blame for bad conduct should fall on human nature or the social institutions of the era.

The course will be conducted in French and will include short writing assignments, an oral presentation, and a final paper.

1230-1345 TR Ms. Tsien

  FREN 343 LITERATURE OF THE 19TH & 20TH CENTURIES

Le cours est consacré à la littérature moderne, de l'époque révolutionnaire à nos jours. Les auteurs retenus sont Staël, Duras, Lamartine, Baudelaire, Loti, Allégret et Genet. Dans le courant du semestre chaque étudiant fera deux exposés oraux et préparera un dossier de recherche d'une quinzaine de pages. Le dossier de recherche examinera de façon analytique un aspect d'une ou plusieurs oeuvres que nous aurons examinées ensemble. Il comporte obligatoirement un travail de recherche en bibliothèque. Le sujet est à débattre avec le professeur. La note finale sera établie de la manière suivante : 1/3, la moyenne des rapports oraux ; 1/3, l'examen partiel ; 1/3 le dossier de recherche. L'étudiant désireux de s'inscrire dans ce cours aura, au préalable, suivi avec succès les cours 331 et 332.

1400-1515 MW Mr. Arnold

  FREN 344 TEXT ÉCRIT, TEXTE FILMIQUE

Prerequisite: French 332.

We will study the incorporation and adaptation of various textual genres (short stories, historical documents, poetry, novels, myths and legends, etc.) in a variety of French films. The goals of the course are: to familiarize students with major works and movements in French cinema; to understand the concept of adaptation in terms of style, narrative, and cultural context; and to practice analyzing written and filmic texts through close "reading" of passages and sequences.

The course is conducted in French. Students watch assigned films outside of class.

Course work includes oral presentations, response writing, and a final research paper.

1400-1515 MW Ms. Krueger

  FREN 345 LA CULTURE BAROQUE

La période qu'on appelle baroque est marquée par sa culture spectaculaire--tout devient spectacle: exécutions au bûcher, cérémonies royales de grand apparat, créations architecturales et urbanistiques, fièvre de créativité théâtrale, et une poésie qui se veut peinture. Même la science se présente en termes de spectacle, grâce à l'invention du téléscope et du microscope. En même temps, on met en doute la fiabilité de la vision: galeries de miroirs et peintures en trompe l'oeil constituent le toile de fond d'intrigues basées sur le déguisement. Ce cours propose une introduction à cette culture à travers un éventail de textes et d'images. Trois brèves compositions et un examen.

1400-1515 MW Mr. Lyons

  FREN 345 / 493: VICTOR HUGO: POÈTE, DRAMATURGE, ROMANCIER, CRITIQUE SOCIAL, ARTISTE

A literary and political giant of nineteenth-century France, Victor Hugo was by age 25 a much-admired poet. Central to the romantic revolution in theater, he was also a tireless social critic who argued for many causes, including educational reform and abolition of the death penalty. When not writing novels such as Notre-Dame de Paris and les Misérables, Hugo was carving out a powerful political career and creating drawings and paintings that influenced some Surrealist artists. We will study Hugo's work in all these contexts, discussing the universality of his themes (for instance, passionate love, familial love, justice and injustice, liberty, the role of God). Our goals: Appreciate his genius and find perspectives and themes that speak to each of us individually. Course work includes discussion, written assignments, group work, one exam, and a personal research project done throughout the semester. Those who take the course as FREN 493 will do a more sophisticated, larger-scale project and an oral presentation. Course website (Spring 04) at http://www.people.virginia.edu/~mab7b/Hugo/HugoIndex.htm (log-in and password: "hugolien"). Course taught in French.

930-1045 T/R Ms. Barnett

  FREN 345 FROM THE PARIS TO BAUDELAIRE TO THE BELLE EPOQUE: THE HISTORY OF PARIS FROM 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 extremes was a city of pleasures, writers, artists, and architects unequaled anywhere else. Within this period, Parisians would experience a massive renovation project called for by the Emperor Napoleon III, 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 cafe society, developing commerce (the birth of the department store), World's Fairs, and all culminating in the gaiety and excesses of the Belle Epoque at century's end.

This course will examine the complex and changing urban landscape and its relationship to society as revealed through the eyes of artists, photographers, poets, and other writers of the time.

Readings will include articles and representative works of the period. Short assignments, midterm, and final project.

1100-1150 MWF Ms. Sapir

  FREN 346 LITTERATURE FRANCOPHONE MAROCAINE

La littérature francophone marocaine est à l'image du pays où elle trouve sa source: un carrefour d'influences et de cultures diverses. L'influence de la France qui a colonisé le Maroc de 1912 à 1956 n'efface en rien les racines africaines, arabo-musulmanes, berbères, andalouses et judéo-arabes que la littérature francophone marocaine traduit fort bien. Ce sont les mille facettes de cette mixité culturelle et ethnique que nous aborderons dans ce cours.
Les œuvres littéraires au programme sont d'abord celles écrites durant la période coloniale, ensuite nous étudierons des œuvres plus contemporaines qui reflètent les aspirations et les interrogations d'aujourd'hui.

Lectures :

Ahmed Séfrioui, La boîte à merveilles, Driss Chraïbi, Le passé simple, Tahar Benjelloun, L'enfant de sable, Fatima Mernissi, Rêve de femmes : une enfance au harem.

Travaux :

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

1300-1350 MWF 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: LITTÉRATURE DE LA RENAISSANCE

Upheaval, discovery, challenge and innovation mark the literary creations of Renaissance France. Sixteenth-century France witnessed the Protestant Reformation, the Copernican Revolution and discoveries of worlds both Ancient and New. The printed page was the novel medium that brought 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. Three short papers, a mid-semester and a final exam.

1100-1215 TR Ms. McKinley

  FREN 445 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 Islamic headscarves in public schools that led to the recent law that will forbid them and other religious symbols. How is an American to understand this debate? What can we learn about French culture and history if we analyse it closely?

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

Topics of study will include: the history of church/state relations in France; the legacy of the French revolution; anticlericalism; immigration and the evolution of public versus private identities; the defense and (re)definition of the secular state under the Fifth republic.

1230-1345 TR Ms. Horne

  FREN 452 FRENCH POETRY

Prerequisite: at least one French literature or culture course beyond 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 think about 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.

1400-1515 TR Ms. Lyu

  FREN 483/540 LA FABRIQUE DU ROMAN DANS LA FRANCE DES LUMIERES

Entre le XVIIe siècle, où renaît le roman européen, et le XIXe, où il s'impose comme genre majeur, le XVIIIe siècle n'est pas une simple période de transition. En France, comme en Angleterre et bientôt en Allemagne, c'est un moment décisif dans la configuration du genre.

La polémique récurrente sur le «danger des romans» n'empêche ni les audaces toujours plus grandes des romanciers, ni l'engouement de plus en plus affiché du public. Dès les années 1720-1730, on assiste en France à une ébullition créatrice qui lance le roman dans des voies originales, tant du point de vue des matières traitées que des techniques narratives. La seule année 1731 voit la publication de deux chefs-d'œuvre de facture très différente : L'Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut et la Vie de Marianne ; mais dès 1721, Montesquieu, dans Les Lettres persanes, avait imprimé au roman épistolaire le cachet d'une dramaturgie philosophique. Dès lors et jusqu'à la Révolution, le XVIIIe siècle français ne cessera d'être un vaste et remuant laboratoire des formes romanesques.

On lira des romans de Montesquieu, Prévost, Marivaux, Crébillon, Diderot, Rousseau, Laclos, choisis pour leurs qualités propres, mais aussi comme des exemples des diverses «voies» qu'emprunte alors la fiction romanesque en France.

On portera une attention particulière à l'accréditement des récits, aux techniques narratives, au statut des personnages et de leur parole.

On s'intéressera aux tensions productives entre romans «romanesques» et romans ironiques ou «anti-romans».

On évoquera les diverses «poétiques» romanesques qui se dégagent des œuvres étudiées - ou les inspirent.

On réfléchira aussi sur l'inflexion singulière donnée en France au roman (traditionnellement voué aux «histoires amoureuses») sous la double influence de la Philosophie et du libertinage.

[Students from departments other than French are welcome in this course; they may choose to write their papers in English.]

1400-1515 MW Mr. Roger

  FREN 485 LA LANGUE FRANCAISE ET LA LANGUE ANGLAISE EN CONTACT (ET EN CONFLIT)

Prerequisites: Good reading, writing and speaking ability in French, and at least one linguistics or linguistics-related course (FREN 339, FREN 428, or other).

This seminar focuses on three very different French/English contact-linguistic situations:

1. Norman French in Britain in the 11th-14th centuries (including Anglo-French in Gascony, and modern-day results in Jersey French);
2. French/English varieties in New Orleans in the 18th and 19th centuries; and
3. “Franglais” in contemporary France (i.e., French/English contact, post-1965, date of publication of Etiemble’s celebrated “Parlez-vous franglais?).

We shall study topics such as the variety(ies) of French and English involved; the historical, political, social, as well as linguistic causes and ramifications of the encounter; accuracy and reliability of linguistic theories and data; parallel developments vs. contact-specific developments; lexical analysis; lexical adaptation; types of bilingualism; language
shift . . .

Basis of evaluation: a mid-semester exam, a research paper and daily in-class participation.

Taught in French, but some of the reading assignments will be in English. Should appeal to students interested in linguistics, French/English legal language, journalism and spoken French.

1530-1645 TR Ms. Saunders

  FREN 493/501 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.

1400-1515 MW Mr. Simon

RELATED COURSE OF INTEREST

  CPLT 450 TOPICS IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE: TWENTIETH-CENTURY SEXUALITIES

One of the major ways in which literature changed over the course of the twentieth century was in the increasingly central and explicit representations of various forms of sexuality. This course will examine the literature of sexuality in the twentieth century from a number of national traditions. We will start with theoretical readings from Foucault and Freud, and then go on to read texts by, among others, Colette, Gide, Forster, Mann, Genet, Nabokov and Mishima, as well as more recent works by Alan Hollinghurst and Nicholson Baker.

1530-1800 W Ms. Ladenson

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