1057. Medicine, Disability and Literature
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: None.
Grading Basis: Graded
Introduction to the fields of Medical Humanities and Disability Studies, through a range of texts and visual works from a range of national, cultural, and historical contexts across the French and Francophone world. Awareness of current ethical, social, and conceptual issues related to healthcare and disability and emphasis on cultural competence while also allowing students to demonstrate skills in the critical analysis of texts and visual materials. Topics include the role of narrative structures in shaping public discourse and individual perception on issues of health and disability; perceptions of the lived experience of healthcare and disability, such as the efficiency of doctor/patient communication or the impact of strategies of inclusion; narratives of cultural identity and difference around notions of body normativity or the importance of sociocultural factors for notions of health and disability. Taught in English.
View Classes »1101. Elementary French I
4.00 credits
Prerequisites: Not open to students who have had three or more years of high school French. May not be taken out of sequence after passing FREN 1102, 1103, 1104, 1174, 1175, or any 2000 level or higher course taught in French.
Grading Basis: Graded
Elementary French grammar. Emphasis on speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills. Cultural and social content reinforces the linguistic skills taught in every class.
View Classes »1102. Elementary French II
4.00 credits
Prerequisites: FREN 1101 or permission of the Language Coordinator. Not open for credit to students who have had three or more years of high school French.
Grading Basis: Graded
Elementary French grammar. Emphasis on speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills. Cultural and social content reinforces the linguistic skills taught in every class.
View Classes »1103. Intermediate French I
4.00 credits
Prerequisites: FREN 1102 or two years of high school French or permission of Language Coordinator. May not be taken out of sequence after passing FREN 1164, 1175, or any 2000-level or above course taught in French. Not open for credit to students who have passed FREN 1174.
Grading Basis: Graded
Continuation of FREN 1102. Review and extension of French grammar. Graded composition. Intensive and extensive reading. Intensive oral practice. Cultural and social content reinforce the linguistic skills taught in every class.
View Classes »1104. Intermediate French II
4.00 credits
Prerequisites: FREN 1103 or two years of high school French or permission of Language Coordinator.
Grading Basis: Graded
Continuation of FREN 1103. Review and extension of French grammar. Graded composition. Intensive and extensive reading. Intensive oral practice. Cultural and social content reinforce the linguistic skills taught in every class.
View Classes »1155. Literature and Sexuality
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: None.
Grading Basis: Graded
Introduction to French literature and critical theory in translation as a way of analyzing, imagining, and subverting divergent modes of sexuality. Literary texts and reflections, beginning with the Marquis de Sade – the French author whose work gave rise to the word “sadism” – reconstructing the variegated history of sexuality in relation to corporeality, gender, and desire. Examination of the limits and intersections of the humanities, anthropology, and biology. Readings from de Sade, Balzac, Sand, Proust, Colette, Pagnol, de Beauvoir, Genet, Duras, Wittig, Foucault, Cixous, Derrida, Khatibi, and Deleuze. We will also watch a range of films from the silent to the contemporary era. Taught in English.
View Classes »1169. Revel, Riot, and Revolution: France and the Francophone World from 1789 to the Present
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: None.
Grading Basis: Graded
A cultural history of France viewed through artistic, social, and political trends and revolutions. Topics may include the French Revolution and its aftermath, reforms and republics, social classes, the colonial empire, war and peace, artistic scandals, Nazi occupation and resistance, relations between France and the U.S, feminism, national identity, and social justice. Exploration of the varied processes of exclusion in France’s theoretically universalist society. Taught in English.
View Classes »1171. French Cinema
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: None.
Grading Basis: Graded
Weekly screenings of French films. Early comedies, film noir, surrealism, New Wave as foundations for analysis of films by contemporary filmmakers. Culture explored in the Francophone world via an introduction to film history, narrative structure, genre, and aesthetics. Readings, viewings and lectures in English. May not be used to meet the foreign language requirement.
View Classes »1176. Literature and Cultures of the Postcolonial Francophone World
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: None.
Grading Basis: Graded
Evolution of literatures and cultures formerly under French colonial rule. Language, identity, religion, art and politics as they shape these societies' passage to cultural autonomy. Taught in English.
View Classes »1177. Magicians, Witches, Wizards: Parallel Beliefs and Popular Culture in France
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: None.
Grading Basis: Graded
The search for traces of a counter culture which grew out of pagan beliefs and remained latent despite the domination of Christianity from the Middle Ages to modern times. Tales of magic and witchcraft, as presented by texts and films. The evolution of exemplary figures like Merlin or Nostradomus. Taught in English.
View Classes »1193. Foreign Study
1.00 - 6.00 credits | May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites: None.
Grading Basis: Graded
Special topics taken in a foreign study program.
View Classes »3101. French for Engineering I
1.00 credits
Prerequisites: Open only to dual-degree French and Engineering students; instructor consent required. Recommended preparation: FREN 1103 or equivalent.
Grading Basis: Graded
Provides dual-degree French and Engineering students with the technical and scientific vocabulary needed to discuss a wide variety of topics in engineering.
View Classes »3102. French for Engineering II
1.00 credits
Prerequisites: Open only to dual-degree French and Engineering students; instructor consent required. Recommended preparation: FREN 1103 or equivalent.
Grading Basis: Graded
Provides dual-degree Engineering and French students more advanced vocabulary, methods, and field-specific knowledge. Students will learn to describe scientific processes, to follow scientific presentations in French, and to create preparation and evaluation materials for these presentations.
View Classes »3103. French for Engineering III
1.00 credits
Prerequisites: Open only to dual-degree French and Engineering students; instructor consent required. Recommended preparation: FREN 1103 or equivalent.
Grading Basis: Graded
Provides dual-degree Engineering and French students more advanced vocabulary, methods, and field-specific knowledge. Students will learn to describe scientific processes, to follow presentations in French, to do research to create preparation materials for their interviews with engineers. Students will also learn practical job-seeking skills, including practice with French-style CVs, job letters and interviews.
View Classes »3210. French Art and Civilization
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: French 1104, three years of high school French, or equivalent proficiency level.
Grading Basis: Graded
Studies of the arts in the cultural context of French and Francophone civilization, from the Middle Ages to the late nineteenth century. Considerations of social systems, passions, sexuality, relations of power in their manifestations in architecture, painting and sculpture. Some lectures by and discussions with experts from Anthropology, Music, Political Science, History, and Art History.
View Classes »3211W. Contemporary France
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011. Recommended preparation: French 1104, three years of high school French, or equivalent proficiency level.
Grading Basis: Graded
An overview of forces that have shaped contemporary French society. Topics include political institutions, elections, religions, education, women’s rights, the media, and the economy. Focus on interpretive techniques such as close reading and other discursive and rhetorical tools to help students improve their critical thinking skills. Taught in French.
View Classes »3215. Introduction to Translation
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: French 1104, three years of high school French, or equivalent proficiency level.
Grading Basis: Graded
An introduction to the techniques needed to render English into French and French into English. Examination of existing translations, comparing French and English stylistics and exploring different registers of the French language. Practice in translating texts from a range of genres, including fiction, film subtitles, technical texts, etc. Includes practical information for aspiring professional translators. Taught in French.
View Classes »3217. French for Professions: French vs. American Business Cultures
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: FREN 1104, three years of high school French, or equivalent proficiency level.
Grading Basis: Graded
Introduction to the vocabulary, communication skills, and cultural literacy required for work or travel in a French-speaking environment. Topics may include French and international business, engineering, health care, diplomacy, NGOs, and other international institutions. Composition of a curriculum vitae and professional emails, discussions in formal and informal registers of French. Taught in French.
View Classes »3218. Francophone Studies
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: French 1104, three years of high school French, or equivalent proficiency level.
Grading Basis: Graded
The literatures, societies, and cultures of French-speaking countries in North Africa, West Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific and of Francophone communities of Europe and North America. CA 1. CA 4-INT.
View Classes »3221. Classics of French Literature
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: FREN 1104, three years of high school French, or equivalent proficiency level.
Grading Basis: Graded
Milestone texts in the history of French literature, with an emphasis on the range of literary forms in their social, cultural, and historical contexts. Genres include the realist novel, detective fiction, and fantasy writing; romantic and symbolist poetry; slapstick and surrealist plays and the theater of the absurd. Taught in French.
View Classes »3224. Breaking News: History of the French Media
3.00 credits | May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: French 1104, three years of high school French, or equivalent proficiency level.
Grading Basis: Graded
An exploration of French society through the lens of major French media outlets. Enhancement of core language proficiency skills through active engagement with French media coverage of key issues. Topics may include diversity, discrimination, environmental challenges, political and ethical debates, technological change, and the historical evolution of the French media. Critical interrogation of the role of the media in shaping national debates. Emphasis on language proficiency, analytical skills, media literacy, and cultural competence. Taught in French.
View Classes »3226. Inventing Cinema: French and Francophone Film Cultures
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: FREN 1104, three years of high school French, or equivalent proficiency level.
Grading Basis: Graded
Survey of French and Francophone Cinema from the silent era to the digital age, encompassing a diverse selection of French and Francophone filmmakers. Exploration of the intersections among history, social issues, and formal experimentation across narrative, avant-garde, and documentary film. Topics may include social change and activism, experiences of displacement and migration, memorial culture, and representations of the Cold War and decolonization.. Taught in French.
View Classes »3234. Reading and Writing the Nineteenth Century
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: French 1104, three years of high school French, or equivalent proficiency level.
Grading Basis: Graded
The literary and artistic innovations that made France the center of 19th-century culture and their relations to revolutions in technology, media, and material culture. Personhood, justice, social and economic agency reimagined through Romantic, Realist, Symbolist, Naturalist, Decadent, and Fantastic literature. Readings and short writings explore genre creatively and analytically.
View Classes »3235. Paris at Midnight: Modernity, Minorities, and Exiles
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: None.
Grading Basis: Graded
Paris as a hub of ethnic, national, religious, gender, and linguistic diversity and a hotspot for radical ideas and paradigms in the twentieth and twenty-first century. Focus on minorities and exiles in the rapidly evolving geographies of Paris. Analysis of the interplay of diversity, aesthetic modernity, and the struggle for equality and social justice. The course raises awareness of the role, contribution, and representation of migration and exile in modern and contemporary French society and emphasizes cultural competence while also allowing students to demonstrate skills in the critical analysis of texts and visual materials. Taught in English.
View Classes »3250. French Conversation
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: FREN 1104 or 1175 or three years high school French or instructor consent.
Grading Basis: Graded
Students improve their spoken French through dialogues, interviews, roundtables, oral reports, and other modes of active practice. Students will help students improve pronunciation, use fillers, and learn new idiomatic expressions. Students will study the techniques of oral communication by engaging in conversations on a range of topics drawn from the French and francophone world. Taught in French.
View Classes »3251. French Conversation II
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: French 1104, three years of high school French, or equivalent proficiency level.
Grading Basis: Graded
Extensive practice in oral French based mainly on authentic cultural materials. Emphasis on perfecting language skills for self expression and communication, on developing new vocabulary, and on recognizing and working with linguistic differences associated with various francophone cultures. Taught in French.
View Classes »3257. Phonetics: Mastering the Sounds of French
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: French 1104, three years of high school French, or equivalent proficiency level.
Grading Basis: Graded
A comprehensive study of the French phonetic system with the goal of helping students to improve their pronunciation. Coverage of prosody (intonation, accent, syllables, rhythm) and the connection between sounds and spelling in a wide array of contexts. Taught in French.
View Classes »3261. Knights and Fairies: Fantasizing About the Middle Ages
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: French 1104, three years of high school French, or equivalent proficiency level.
Grading Basis: Graded
Examination of literary appropriations of the Middle Ages throughout history, including stories of the Grail. Emphasis on conflicting models that evoke both courtly love and internecine hate; Christian virtue and feudal exploitation, knightly honor and mercenary rapacity; cultural homogeneity and admixture with neighboring cultures. Comparison of seminal French medieval texts with the contemporary adaptations of medieval stories in films, TV series, and video games. Taught in French.
View Classes »3262. Of Love and Other Demons: French Literature from the Romantics to the Present
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: French 1104, three years of high school French, or equivalent proficiency level.
Grading Basis: Graded
Study of the relation of words and experience, life and art, and passion and verse in French writing from 1800 to the present. Topics include love, loneliness, limerence, lust, and other emotions that have driven people to write plays, novels, song lyrics, and poems. Study of the varied ways writers in French have explored and expressed human emotion from Romanticism, Realism, and Surrealism to Existentialism. Taught in French.
View Classes »3267. Grammar and Culture
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: French 1104, three years of high school French, or equivalent proficiency level.
Grading Basis: Graded
The study of French and Francophone culture through fiction, non-fiction, journalism and film. Emphasis on perfecting both oral and written expression through discussion, presentations, and composition on assigned topics.
View Classes »3268. Grammar and Composition
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: French 1104, three years of high school French, or equivalent proficiency level.
Grading Basis: Graded
Advanced study of French texts and extensive written practice in a variety of forms ranging from compositions, essays, summaries and film reviews.
View Classes »3268W. Grammar and Composition
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011. Recommended preparation: French 1104, three years of high school French, or equivalent proficiency level.
Grading Basis: Graded
Advanced study of French texts and extensive written practice in a variety of forms ranging from compositions, essays, summaries and film reviews.
View Classes »3269. Advanced French Grammar
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: French 1104, three years of high school French, or equivalent proficiency level.
Grading Basis: Graded
An overview of grammar from points familiar to students to more sophisticated elements of the French language. Focus on texts from written, spoken, and electronic sources. Includes short creative writing projects to encourage reflection on and appreciation of the organizational function of grammar. Taught in French.
View Classes »3270W. French Literature and Civilization in English
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011.
Grading Basis: Graded
Representative works of French literature, on a particular theme. How literary forms articulate the ideas and values of different periods.
View Classes »3272. French Philosophy
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: None.
Grading Basis: Graded
Introduction to the French philosophical tradition from the Enlightenment to the post-structuralist revolution. Topics include theories of freedom, knowledge, power, language, subjectivity, sexuality, and the mind/body dialectic. Critical practice applied to literature, film, and other genres. Taught in English.
View Classes »3274. Diversity in France: Migration, Refugees, and Minorities
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: French 1104, three years of high school French, or equivalent proficiency level.
Grading Basis: Graded
Study of the culture and diversity of France through history, literature, music and the news media. Themes and topics include: religion and secularism, international relations between former French colonies and France, the politics of immigration, social stratification, racial discrimination, and police violence. Taught in French.
View Classes »3280. Fiction and Nonfiction by Women
3.00 credits
Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: FREN 1104, three years of high school French, or equivalent proficiency level.
Grading Basis: Graded
Study of a range of topics related to female subjectivity and freedom in the context of feminism, the LGBTQ movement, postcolonialism, and critical race theory. Examples include autonomy, rebellion, justice, love, sexuality, motherhood, fantasy, anxiety, mortality, and other themes that women writing in French have explored over the centuries. Taught in French.
View Classes »3293. Foreign Study
1.00 - 6.00 credits | May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites: None.
Grading Basis: Graded
Special topics taken in a foreign study program. Consent of Department Head required, normally to be granted prior to the student's departure. May count toward the major with consent of the advisor.
View Classes »3295. Special Topics
1.00 - 3.00 credits | May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites: Prerequisites and recommended preparation vary.
Grading Basis: Graded
3298. Variable Topics
3.00 credits | May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites: Prerequisites and recommended preparation vary.
Grading Basis: Graded
3299. Independent Study
1.00 - 6.00 credits | May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites: None.
Grading Basis: Graded
3381. French Internship
1.00 - 6.00 credits | May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites: None.
Grading Basis: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Use of linguistic and cultural skills in French in a professional training context such as an internship or in industry in a French-speaking country. Requires contract agreed to in advance by student, internship field supervisor, and program director, detailing expectations for the credits earned. Students taking this course will be assigned a final grade of S (satisfactory) or U (unsatisfactory).
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