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 short quizzes (bi-weekly), dictations (weekly), compositions (weekly), a mid-term, and a final exam. The course will be taught in French.

9:00-9:50 MWF     Ms. Zunz

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 MWF     Ms. Lyu
10:00-10:50 MWF      Ms. Sapir
12:00-12:50 MWF      Ms. Sapir
12:30-13:45 TR     TBA
14:00-15:15 TR     Mr. Dramé

The course is designed to introduce students to the skills necessary to write correctly on literary subjects. To that end, readings are organized around three major genres--lyric poetry, drama, and prose fiction--with one paper assigned at the end of each section of the course. Several formal and informal papers in French (approximately 15 pages).

All readings can be found in Schofer et al., Poèmes, Pièces, Prose (Oxford UP, 1973).

There will be a final exam but no midterm.

11:00-11:50 MWF     Ms. Krueger

An intensive course designed to give students a better command of present-day spoken French. Conversation on topics of current interest, mastery of advanced vocabulary, weekly graded written and oral assignments including one guided short exposé, oral and written quizzes and final exam. This course is designed for students who have not had the advantage of an extended stay in a French-speaking country. Students who have participated in semester study-abroad programs must confirm placement and transfer credit with the course chair to avoid duplication. Students who have studied in a French speaking country for a year should enroll in FREN 334. Section size is limited to 14 students. Consistent attendance and ACTIVE participation constitute 30% of the semester grade.

9:00-9:50 MWF     TBA

An intensive course designed to give more advanced students an opportunity to maintain and improve oral language skills. Conversation on topics of current interest, graded written and oral assignments. Oral and written mid-term and final examinations. Continues language development from the level commensurate with the prerequisite. Consistent attendance and active participation essential.

14:00-14:50 MWF     TBA

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 phonetique et de prononciation'.

12:30-13:45 TR     Ms. Saunders

"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 Chretien 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.

14:00-14:50 MWF     Ms. Ogden

Close readings of representative works from the 17th and 18th centuries, principally theater and novel. Readings chosen from: Corneille, Molière, Racine, Mme de LaFayette, Prévost, Rousseau, and Laclos. Requirements include active class participation, two 5-page papers, and two in-class exams.

11:00-11:50 MWF     TBA

As we read selected works from an increasingly expanding repertoire of genres, our focus will be on the evolution, invention, and fragmentation of literary forms to correspond to a rapidly modernizing world. Readings will include: Desbordes-Valmore, Poésies; Balzac, Le Père Goriot; Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal; Barthes, Mythologies; Duras and Resnais, Hiroshima mon amour; Colette, Sido. Issues raised will include feminine expression and transgression (Desbordes-Valmore, Colette); the demise of patriarchy and the old sociocultural order (Balzac, Colette); the urbanization of poetry (Baudelaire); the impact of revolution on poetic form (Desbordes-Valmore, Baudelaire); history and the deconstruction of "nature" and the "natural" (Barthes); the role of fragmentation and discontinuity in structuring memory and reconstructing history (Duras, Resnais, and New Wave cinema). Two papers, two exams.

11:00-12:15 TR     Ms. Beizer

Georges Simenon (1903-1989) and Middlebrow Culture

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.

10:00-10:50 MWF     Ms. Zunz

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 the web and selected films. In addition to regular participation and informal writing exercises, course work includes three 3-4 page papers and a final research project.

9:00-9:50 MWF     Mr. Simon

Against a dominant tradition that relegated them to silence, women writers of the sixteenth century assumed new identities of female authorship. How and why did unprecedented numbers of women become authors in a world where authority was male? We will consider descriptions of women by prominent male authors (Castiglione, Erasmus, Rabelais, Calvin and Montaigne) and examine polemics about women such as the "querelle des femmes" and the "querelle des amies" as we read stories and lyric poetry by Hélisenne de Crenne, Marie Dentière, Marguerite de Navarre, Pernette du Guillet, Louise LabJ, Madeleine and Catherine des Roches and Marie de Gournay. Class conducted in French. A mid-term and final exam as well as three short papers (15-20 pages total) written in French will be required.

11:00-11:50 MWF     Ms. McKinley

Centered on the plays of Jean Racine, this course will explore the world of French classical tragedy and will contrast the French approach to tragedy with contemporary English works. Typical questions raised in this course will be: How does tragedy relate to history, on one hand, and to myth, on the other? What did the seventeenth-century French keep from the tragedy of Greek, polytheistic, democratic antiquity while trying to embody the "modern" values of monarchy and Christianity? What is the relationship between tragedy and the "tragic"? Three brief papers, an oral presentation in class, microquizzes, and a final exam.

12:30-13:45 TR     Mr. Lyons

This course is designed to familiarize students with some trends in French literature since 1970. We will read works of fiction and autobiography, as well as some hybrid forms, and we will pay particular attention to the ways in which these genres overlap. Works will include Cardinal's Les Mots pour le dire, Desforge's Le Cahier volé, Ajar's La Vie devant soi, Labro's L'Etudiant étranger, Pennac's La Fée Carabine, Guibert's A l'ami qui ne n'a pas sauvé la vie, and Bauby's Le Scaphandre et le papillion. Students will be responsible for weekly response papers and a longer formal project (8-10 pages), and there will be two exams.

12:30-13:45 TR     Ms. Ladenson

Words are the elements of language most closely associated with the way we conceptualize the world in which we live. As our world changes so do the words that reflect it. Through the study of vocabulary we can discover which areas of experience are of particular importance or are emotionally charged for a speech community, at any given point in time. Designed for those students who are curious about French words (and who wish to improve their understanding of the vagaries and puzzles of the French vocabulary, as well as improve their speaking and writing skills), this new, experimental course focuses on the variety and complexity of modern French vocabulary (argot, jargon, jargot, mots savants, mots spécialisés, mots empruntés, anglicismes, bons mots, mots dérivés, les mots des jeunes, les mots et les femmes, etc.). Specific themes include: word formation, derivational processes, word usage (formal vs. colloquial); word origin; semantic change; ambiguity; polysemy, word frequency, anglicisms, politically correct words (or BCBG); the relationship between social and lexical change, types of dictionaries, etc.

Evaluation will be based on: a mid-term exam, a final exam, individual and group exercises (including dictionary assignments & word puzzles) and a data-oriented lexical project.

Required readings include sections from : Le français familier et argotique, by Pierre-Maurice Richard, 1997; The Vocabulary of Modern French by Hilary Wise , 1997; L'argot en 20 leçons, by Louis-Jean Calvet, 1993; Les Mots et les Femmes, by M.Yaguello, 1987, L'aventure des mots français, by H. Walter, 1997.

14:00-15:15 TR     Ms. Saunders

Grammar review through the traditional method of analyse grammaticale; includes free composition.

9:30-10:45 TR      Ms. Rigaud-Drayton

Introduction to the French business environment: its organization and institutions, with special attention to divergence from the Anglo-American model. With the intensification of exchanges among countries of the European Community, all aspects of the economic world are becoming more international. At the same time, Americans entering the French business setting must confront specifically French cultural standards, expectations, and practices. This course investigates these through such topics as the organization of industry, banking, marketing, and management, as well as the role of government and the educational system. Students will use business case studies, visual media, and the current press to discuss doing business in France.

13:00-13:50 MWF     Sapir

This course is an exploration of African cultures through cinema. It deals with the representations of African cultures by film makers from different cultures and studies the ways in which their perspectives on Africa are often informed by their own social and ideological positions as well as the demands of exoticism. It also examines the constructions of the African as "other" and the kinds of responses they have so far elicited from Africa's cineasts. These filmic "inventions" are analyzed through a selection of French, British, American, and African films by S. Pollack, J-J Annaud, M. Radford, Djibril Diop Mambety, Ngangura Mweze, Jean-Pierre Bekolo, Souleymane Cissé, Gaston Kaboré, Amadou Seck, Dani Kouyaté, Brian Tilley, and Jean-Marie Teno on a variety of subjects relative to the image of Africa in cinema. The final grade will be based on 2 short-papers (4 pages/each), a term paper (7 pages), and contributions to classroom discussions. Reading: Gardies, André - Cinéma d'Afrique Noire Francophone: L'espace-miroir (Reserve) Diawara, Manthia - African Cinema (Reserve) Vieyra, Paulin Soumano - Le cinéma africain (Reserve) and Ousmane Sembène, cinéaste... (Reserve); Ukadike, F. N. - Black African Cinema (Reserve); Research in African Literatures- Special issue: African Cinema, Vol. 26, No.3, Fall 1995.

11:00-12:15 TR     Mr. Dramé

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 16^th to the 20^th centuries, we will also pay particular attention to the problem of French identity: what 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; Danton; Le colonel Chabert (Angelo); La vie et rien d'autre (Tavernier); La grande illusion (Renoir); L'homme du Niger (Baroncelli); Au revoir les enfants (Malle); Le Chagrin et la Pitié (Ophuls); Outremer (Rouan); La Haine (Kassovitz).

12:30-14:45 TR     Ms. Horne