FREN101 Elementary French I

This course is designed for first-time French learners who wish to acquire and develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills by learning basic vocabulary, useful expressions, and fundamental grammatical structures. Students will also gain cultural insights into the French-speaking world, from Senegal to New Caledonia, from Quebec to Louisiana, from Belgium to Guadeloupe, and beyond. In class, students will participate in activities that promote communicative proficiency and cultural competence through vocabulary and grammar exercises, games, skits, conversation, authentic readings, and the use of various audio-visual materials. Classes are conducted in French. FREN 101 is the first semester of the elementary French language sequence.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN102 Elementary French II

This second-semester elementary French course is designed for students who have taken FREN101 or have had one or two years of French in high school and placed into FREN102 through the language placement test. The main goal of this course is to enable students to achieve intermediate communicative proficiency in French by developing their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Students will thus increase their vocabulary, learn more advanced grammatical structures, and gain further cultural insights into the French-speaking world. In class, students will participate in activities that promote communication and cultural competence through vocabulary and grammar exercises, games, skits, conversation, authentic readings, and the use of various audio-visual materials. Classes are conducted entirely in French.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN110 Accelerated Intermediate French I & II

This course combines two semesters of intermediate French into one to allow for a faster track in French. The course develops students' abilities in the four basic skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing through oral and written practice. It focuses on grammatical structures and vocabulary at the intermediate level and introduces students to contemporary French-language cultures from around the world through discussion of cultural and literary texts and use of audiovisual material.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN111 Intermediate French I

Students will develop their abilities in the four basic skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing through oral and written practice. The course focuses on grammatical structures and vocabulary at the intermediate level and introduces students to contemporary French-language cultures from around the world through discussion of cultural and literary texts and use of audiovisual material.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN112 Intermediate French II

This is a course for students who have taken FREN 111 or arrive at Wesleyan with a good command of French and are ready to develop their reading, writing, and speaking skills through exposure to a variety of challenging cultural and literary materials in various media. It includes a review of basic grammar but emphasizes more complex linguistic structures.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN215 Advanced Intermediate French

This course prepares students for upper-level French courses and for study abroad. It offers students the opportunity to review and strengthen their speaking, writing, and reading abilities in French. Class time is devoted to grammar review and to discussions of short reading assignments (literary and non-literary) from the French-speaking world (France, Africa, and the Caribbean). The semester ends with students reading an entire novel in French. Daily class discussions, oral presentations, weekly discussions with French teaching assistants, outside-of-class grammar review, and compositions are to be expected.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN216 Introduction to French Literature and Culture: From Notre Dame to The Terror

This class will introduce students to the ideas, culture, art, and literature of pre-Revolutionary France. We will read a "romance" by Chrétien de Troyes, bawdy tales by Rabelais, poems by Louise Labé and Ronsard, Montaigne's mediation on cannibals, a play by Molière, and a short "science fiction" tale by Voltaire. This class is designed to help students improve their writing and speaking skills and prepare for a term abroad in a francophone country.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN217 Exoticism: Imaginary Geographies in the 19th-century French Short Story

In this seminar we will consider the fascination with the exotic--with foreign landscapes, customs, and culture--in 19th-century French fiction, particularly in the genre of the short story. Discussions will focus on the representation of foreignness, the construction of the exotic woman, and the status of the European gaze. Major authors may include Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Chateaubriand, Balzac, Merimee, Loti, Flaubert, Hugo, Baudelaire, and Théophile Gautier. Although a 20th-century text, we will also read Duras's L'Amant.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN219 "Enfances": Literature and Childhood

At the heart of our discussions in this class will be the question of how adults construct the child's point of view. How can we define childhood? How can we evoke it through narrative? How ought we make art for children? We'll explore a variety of literary and cinematic sources from the French speaking world including Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, the Comtesse de Ségur's Les Malheurs de Sophie, François Truffaut's L'Argent de Poche, and assorted French-language picture books. Along the way we will work on developing analytic and creative writing skills in French. (This course is conducted in French.)
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN220 Lancelot, Guinevere, Grail: Enigma in the Romances of Chretien de Troyes

Chretien de Troyes, the greatest writer of medieval France, was the first to tell the stories of Lancelot and Guinevere's fatal passion and of the quest for the Holy Grail. Written at the height of the Renaissance of the 12th century, his Arthurian tales became the basis for all future retellings of the legend. We will read these tales in depth, paying particular attention to their enigmatic quality.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: MDST230
Prereq: None

FREN221 French Mythologies

Starting from "Mythologies" by Roland Barthes (1957) and "Nouvelles Mythologies" edited by Jerome Garcin (2007), this course examines how contemporary social values are turned into modern myths and some of the domains that seem to define France in the 21st century. How do the representations of food, fashion, le chic, la laïcité, strikes, colonialism and post-colonialism, etc., in contemporary novels and films still define France today?
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN222 Love and Loss in Medieval and Early Modern French Literature and Culture

The interconnected themes of love and loss encompass others such as desire, passion, friendship, death, separation, and grief. This course introduces students to the uses of these themes in French literature of the medieval and early modern periods by reading a range of texts, from the courtly romance and lyric poetry, to the essay, the novella, and theater. We will examine how men and women treat these themes, and we will be especially sensitive to the ways in which women write in genres traditionally dominated by men. Topics of study will include the body, virtues and vices, marriage, sexuality, seduction, chastity, and violence. We will also place emphasis on improving French pronunciation and on developing oral presentation and written skills. Readings, papers, and discussions will be in French.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: COL217, MDST220
Prereq: None

FREN223 French Way(s)

What are "French" ways? What is important to the French, and how do they view themselves? What do they think about issues facing their country, Europe, and the world at large? What relationship does France have with the francophone world? What does it even mean to be "French?" Students in this course will explore these questions by examining a variety of materials including the press, comic strips, films, music, vlogs, television and radio broadcasts, and other selected readings. This course is designed for highly motivated students with a firm foundation in French who wish to refine their skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing while gaining more insight into French life and culture.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN224 Cultural Mo(uve)ments from the 19th to 21st Centuries

The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with movements such as romanticism, realism, surrealism, and the Nouveau Roman, to name a few. Some of these movements stem directly from the political context, while others seem to have grown almost organically. Though the course will primarily rely on literary texts, it will also examine the "passerelles" between literature, music, and painting.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN225 20th-Century Franco-Caribbean Literature and the Search for Identity

This course investigates how 20th-century Francophone literature from the Caribbean defines Caribbean identity. Through a study of literary texts, films, and paintings from Guadeloupe, Martinique, Haiti, Guyana, and Louisiana, we will explore the evolution of Caribbean self-definition, focusing on the major concepts of Negritude, Antillanite, Creolite, and Louisianitude.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN226 From the Diary to the Graphic Novel, Women Writers from the 17th to the 21st Centuries

While women in France were for a long time not welcomed in the literary sphere, they have nonetheless participated in the various movements that have affected literature from the 17th century on. The purpose of this course is to discuss women's space within the literary field. Through the study of various texts, this course will examine women's compliance and defiance towards literary trends. Far from only writing diaries and fairy tales, French women writers have considerably expanded their presence in genres that seemed resolutely closed to them.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN227 Trailblazing French Women in Science, Food, and the Arts

One could argue that all fields are mined for women, but certain domains are more closed than others. Such is the case for "haute" cuisine, haute couture, cinema, and the political sphere among others. This course seeks to examine the destiny of a group of women who established themselves in spaces traditionally reserved for men. Besides retracing and discussing their work, we will examine the discrimination they suffered and their strategies to overcome the norms. Finally, we will study the representations which were or are made of them through texts, articles, and films. These women include known figures such as Simone de Beauvoir and Marie Curie, but also others like the artist Annette Messager, the cook Hélène Darroze, the designer Coco Chanel, and more.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: FGSS229
Prereq: None

FREN228 Fight like the French: Debates, Quarrels and Polemics in French Culture

In the age of "fake news" and polarization, knowing how to debate is essential. The French are notoriously practiced in debate; the importance of public opinion and the figure of the public intellectual have made French society as a whole particularly prone to the agonistic discussion of ideas. This course will survey foundational aesthetic and political debates in French culture from the 15th century to this day, focusing on those that were led by writers, philosophers, and intellectuals and that have entered French literary and cultural history. The course will show how controversies mark and make paradigmatic changes in the cultural landscape, advancing the arts and sciences and voicing political dissent. Throughout the course we will read literary works, treatises, letters, and newspapers.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: MDST229
Prereq: None

FREN229 What Can the Middle Ages Teach Us About Nature?

Today nature is at the center of our preoccupations. This course will go back to a time before human beings thought they were the masters of nature, when nature was at the same time teaching and allegory, metaphor and science. We will explore the different functions of nature in bestiaries, poems, romances, and herbaria from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the Early-Modern period (in modern French translation). We will be able to see a real herbarium in the Special Collections & Archives. Students will also visit the Davison Center for the Arts and the Joe Webb Peoples Museum to explore visual representations of nature as well as scientific displays. During the semester, students will put together a herbarium that will be displayed in an exhibition at the end of the semester.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: MDST227, ENVS229
Prereq: None

FREN230 Knights, Fools, and Lovers: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance French Culture

The study of history and past literature provides intellectual, psychological and emotional resources that make one more resilient in adapting to new circumstances, enable one to see new possibilities of being-in-the-world, and provide new capacities for self-understanding. A knowledge of the European past, moreover, can be an advantage for people seeking to study, live, or work in Europe. This course will help students develop those resources and knowledge through a study of various forms of short fiction and poetry from the French Middle Ages and the Renaissance (12th-16th centuries). We will focus on the representations of human relations, above all romantic relations and their inherent conflicts of power, in these works. We will also view a couple of historical films in order to develop our visual imagination.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: MDST257
Prereq: None

FREN231 By Sword, By Cross, and By Pen: An Introduction to Early Modern French Literature and Culture

This course introduces French literature and culture from the 15th to the 17th centuries, when the French territory expanded to its present borders with the rise of the French monarchy. Historical developments include religious upheaval and civil war, overseas exploration and conquest, and the greater dissemination of written works with the invention of the printing press. In this evolving context we will read a variety of literary works of prose and poetry. We will follow the emergence of genres such as the essay and the novel, and observe how different literary forms served to express ideas ranging from personal experiences to sociopolitical aspects of contemporary society. Several film representations of this period will also help us consider how we envision the past.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN232 French Society in Music From the Roaring Twenties to Today

Music has kept the beat of French history through its ordinary and extraordinary chapters. How has music supported France's cultural power and interacted with its external influences? How do songs guard dominant narratives or rally people under revolutionary banners of protest? Over the course of the semester, we will explore music (and its multimodal nature) as a site of cultural expression and a means of understanding social and political movements of modern French society over the last 100 years.



In the first part of this course, we will situate the music of artists such as Josephine Baker, Edith Piaf, Boris Vian, and Serge Gainsbourg in relation to major 20th-century events, from post-World War I Annés folles to May '68. We will consider how songs engage political events and discover the ways in which music shapes and is being shaped by its society. The second part of the course focuses on contemporary music of French expression (Indochine, Orelsan, Yseult, Angèle, Stromae) as related to questions of gender and sexuality, the legacy of decolonization, immigration, technology, and consumerism. Listening to the voices of France and its "others," we will examine expressions of belonging and alienation within a society that constantly reinvents itself while endeavoring to preserve its "inherent" characteristics. Close readings of lyrics paired with historical contextualization will be supplemented with theoretical and literary texts, excerpts from films and documentaries, posters, and photography.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN233 French and Francophone Gastronomy

This course explores the variety of French and Francophone gastronomy through texts, recipes, and other media such as films and cooking shows. Through these materials, students will reflect on the relationship between food and culture and the shape it takes in French and Francophone cultures. They will develop a deeper knowledge and appreciation for various foods and dishes.



The course will include a hands-on component through which students will cook and taste foods from various areas in the Francophone world. The course will culminate in a final public event during which students will introduce and share foods from the Francophone world, which attendees will have the opportunity to taste.



This course is a CLAC course conducted entirely in French. In addition to weekly meetings, there will be a few cooking workshops. Grade will be based on class participation, weekly reflection journals, a final presentation, and a final paper.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: CGST226
Prereq: None

FREN234 Francophone Belgian Culture

The Kingdom of Belgium gained its independence from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands after the Belgian revolution of 1830 and has since then developed as one of the central powers of the European Union, of which it was a founding member and whose principal institutions are located in the Belgian capitol, Brussels. The kingdom contains four linguistic regions: Dutch-speaking Flanders, French-speaking Wallonia, German-speaking Eupen-Malmedy, and bilingual (French-Dutch) Brussels. This course will study the development of Francophone Belgian culture since the mid-20th century. We will focus on authors like Georges Simenon, Marguerite Yourcenar, Jean Bofane, Joseph Ndwaniye, Amélie Nothomb, Nicolas Ancion, and Bernard Quiriny; musicians like Toots Thielemans, Jacques Brel, Cecile Kayirebwa, Princesse Mansia M'Bila, Dieudonné Kabongo, Zap Mama, Hooverphonic, Stromae, Damso, Romeo Elvis, and Angèle; and cineastes like Chantal Akerman, Jaco Van Dormael, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Lucas Belvaux and Bouli Lanners. The course will also include a unit on the well-known bandes dessinées (comic books) created by Belgian authors and artists, like Herge (Tintin), Morris et Goscinny (Lucky Luke), Jean Van Hamme (Thorgal, XIII, Largo Winch), Hermann (Jeremiah), and Spenale (Wonder Pony).
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN236 Going South: "Le Sud" and Its Representations in French Literature and Culture

The course explores representations of "le Sud" across media, from myths and legends to songs, literature, film, and television. We will learn the origins of Provençal identity and how its portrayal has evolved over time. We will gain a greater knowledge of the many artists and thinkers who have been drawn to the South. Eventually, we will work out a new definition of "le Sud," from Provence to one that includes other Souths such as the global South represented by immigrants from former French colonies.



Although a geographical denomination, a cardinal point, "le Sud" is a contradictory and moving space. The French anthem was first sung on one of Marseille's streets (rue Thubaneau), and the city remains a cosmopolitan port, open to migrations. The 2005 riots did not affect Marseille, yet the first elected mayors from the far-right Front National were in Orange, Toulon, and Vitrolles. The South remains a place of light and sun that attracted numerous painters and a place of dark and shady business run by local and international mafias. How have these contradictions shaped "le Sud" as territory, community, and idea, and how do they function within definitions of French identity?
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN237 Francophone North America: French-Canadian, Cajun, Creole, and Haitian Cultures in North America

This course introduces students to key cultural and political mo(ve)ments that made the Francophone (French-speaking) communities in Canada, Maine, and Louisiana. From the tragic Grand Dérangement of Acadians (1755-1763), and the Creole Saint-Domingue refugees in Louisiana (1792-1809), to the more recent arrival of French-speakers from Haiti, Africa, and Asia, Francophone cultures in North America continue to evolve as their diversity grows with each new migration. Special attention will be paid to Canadian and U.S. linguistic policies, migration policies, and the role of art (literature, cinema, etc.) and activism in shaping Francophone identities in an Anglophone context.



Writers studied may include Réjean Ducharme (Québec), Dany Laferrière (Québec-Haïti), Kim Thùy (Québec-Vietnam), Victor Séjour (Louisiana), Zachary Richard (Louisiana), as well as a few writers in English such as Kate Chopin (Louisiana), Edwidge Danticat (US-Haïti), Louise Penny (Québec), and singer-songwriter Josée Vachon (Québec-Maine) who straddle the Francophone-Anglophone divide.



The course will be conducted entirely in French except for a few readings in English.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN238 Representing the Self, Representing Yourself

In our digital age, with the pervasiveness of Facebook, Instagram, and other forms of social media, what can testimony do? What stories are told? How are they told? What do they mean? How do writers, artists, musicians, intellectuals, and politicians represent themselves? As students, how can you give your memories material substance? How do others' narratives influence the way you interpret your own being? In this course, we will begin to answer these questions by reading, watching, and examining a vast selection of French and Francophone texts, films, and images that recount the self from the Middle Ages to today. There will be a particular focus on queer people, women, and people of color, and how they negotiate difference and alterity in their work. Throughout the course, you will also journal your own experiences and imitate other writers' modes of expression (e.g., memoires, autobiographies, autofiction, the graphic novel, film, documentary, theater, poetry, music, photography). The course will culminate in the creation of your own story, which will in turn prepare you to think critically about the world around you and how to tell your story in interesting, creative, and provocative ways. We will also place emphasis on improving French pronunciation and on developing oral presentation and written skills. Readings, papers, and discussions will be in French.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN239 A Virtual Semester in Paris

This course will introduce students to different aspects of life in Paris. It will include virtual visits to museums, monuments, and neighborhoods; lectures by faculty from the Vassar-Wesleyan Program in Paris; and online meetings with different people in Paris. Students will undertake a research project on an aspect of Paris that is of particular interest to them.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN240 Cinema and the French Theatrical Tradition

This course examines the connections between French theater and film by looking at manifestations of the theatrical tradition in 20th- and 21st-century cinema. We will read four plays and view a selection of films, along with commentary by directors, playwrights, and actors on their craft. Coursework will focus on the development of literary and visual analysis, the acquisition of terminology related to theater and film, and the appreciation of these two art forms in their past and current contexts.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN241 Seeing Is Believing?: The Search for Cinematic Truth

The French director Jean-Luc Godard once remarked that, "Cinema is the truth 24 times per second." Godard refers here to an interplay between truth, time, and the mechanics of film. But does cinema really show us the truth? What kind of reality is it able to capture and how does "truth" relate to its means of representation? This course examines how Francophone film treats the relationship of cinema to truth, covering aspects of film history, theory, and its technical construction. The course is organized around four main areas of inquiry: we first consider the role fantasy and spectacle in the early films from Georges Méliès and the Lumière Brothers, before exploring how cinema re-orients its relationship to the "real" via social realism and the experimental documentary style of the French New Wave. We then discover how cinematic "truth" is reclaimed by filmmakers outside of France, before finally turning to the highly-aestheticized, non-narrative films of "Cinéma du look."



This course will familiarize students with the basics of film analysis and critique, while also providing a foundation in the technical aspects of cinema and how it has evolved as both an art and a science. Each film will be accompanied by readings, and the theoretical framework of the course will derive from André Bazin's Qu'est-ce que le cinéma? and excerpts from Gilles Deleuze's Cinéma II: L'Image-temps. For their final project, students may submit either a traditional research paper or an original film project that engages with cinematic theories and techniques discussed over the course of the semester.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN248 Colonial/Decolonial

In recent years, the translation and production, in French, of postcolonial and decolonial theories have had a polarizing impact on the French academic and political worlds, particularly in the wake of the Paris terror attacks, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the rise of right-wing ethnonationalism. Colonial/Decolonial, a course taught in French and open to anyone who successfully completed Intermediate French II (or equivalent), is an introductory exploration of the (sometimes highly contentious) debates surrounding the role of colonization and its aftermaths in the formation of French and Francophone culture and society. In the first half of the course, we examine the genesis and justification of the French colonial projects of the 16th, 17th, and 19th centuries. Readings of this first half include start from the architects of the French empire to some of the main figures of Francophone anticolonial thought (Nguyen Ai Quoc, the Nardal sisters, etc.)



The second half of the course investigates the "postcolonial" and "decolonial" as both historical phases and distinct but communicating schools of thought. In this second part, we discuss the specificities of the process of decolonization from France; the evolution of the status of former French colonies; and the exchanges between the Francophone world and other formerly colonized parts of world. In this respect, we examine how the "French postcolonial" borrows and distinguishes itself from intellectual movements such as Subaltern Studies, Decoloniality, and Critical Race Theory. Guiding us through some of these questions will be writers and thinkers such as Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara, Assia Djebar, and Maboula Soumahoro, among others.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN249 The Art of the Essay: A Creative Non-Fiction Class

This is both a creative writing and literature seminar, a hybrid experience where students will read some of the most momentous and important examples of the essay genre while simultaneously producing their own interpretative compositions. We will begin by reading a few essays by Montaigne (the writer who effectively defined the genre) before moving on to other authors from the French and Francophone world (e.g., Baudelaire, Voltaire, Césaire, and Beauvoir) who gravitated to this open and highly personal way of writing. We will also speak to several essayists during the semester.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN254 Paris to Saigon: French Representations of Asia

The course explores the ways in which French explorers, writers, and artists traveled to Asian countries, such as Japan, China, and Vietnam, in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries and represented "Extrême-Orient," a Eurocentric designation. Attentive analysis of their works will allow us to question the colonial construction of the Far East as "other"; examine Asian influences on cultural, aesthetic, and literary expressions; and discuss Asian presence in postcolonial France. Issues such as orientalization, eroticization, and hybridization of genres and identities will be the subjects of our study.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN273 The Business of Letters: The French Epistolary Novel

Before the 18th century, the first-person narrative was often perceived as self-indulgent, not to mention distasteful. Eighteenth-century readers, however, became fascinated with the intimacy, immediacy, realism, and confessional aspect of highly charged first-person perspectives. It comes as no surprise, then, that this was the golden age of the ROMAN EPISTOLAIRE, the novel composed entirely of letters. In this class we will read a number of epistolary novels that allowed for the development of highly subjective, and often challenging, points of view. Sample works include Madame de Graffigny's critique of European society (LETTRES D'UNE PERUVIENNE), Mme de Charriere's praise of female independence (LETTRES DE MISTRISS HENLEY), Montesquieu's political satire of French life (LETTRES PERSANES), and Laclos's tale of seduction and aristocratic libertinage (LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES). We will also read one example of the epistolary novel's stylistic counterpart, the ROMAN-MEMOIRE.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN275 Histories of Race: Science and Slavery in an Age of Enlightenment

The concept of race was first "invented" during the 18th century by anatomists, natural historians, and, ultimately, the century's classifiers. This class will come to grips with the birth of this concept in two ways. First, we will read excerpts from travelogues to Africa and the Caribbean (as well as short excerpts from natural history) in order to chart the slow and halting creation of the concept of race as it crystallized in European thought during the 18th century. Having studied this "proto-raciology," the class will then examine 16 unpublished manuscripts that were submitted to a contest on the source of "blackness" organized by the Bordeaux Royal Academy of Sciences in 1739. These include essays submitted by priests, anatomists, and partisans of climate theory. Students in this class will actively engage with these materials by producing glossary definitions that will be published along with the entire collection of essays. The ultimate goal of this course is to provide students with an understanding of the concept of race that will inform their reactions to this question as both a historical concept . . . and an ongoing problem that affects all of us in the present.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-RLAN
Identical With: COL281
Prereq: None

FREN281 French and Francophone Theater in Performance

This course introduces students to the richness of the French and Francophone dramatic repertories, on the one hand, and, on the other, invites them to discover acting techniques (such as movement, physicalization, memorization, mise en scène, and so forth). Students will thus put their language skills into motion, and the course will culminate in a public performance at the end of the semester. (Special accommodations will be made for students who do not wish to perform publicly). Taught exclusively in French, the course will place particular emphasis on the improvement of students' oral skills through pronunciation and diction exercises, all the while polishing their written expression and enhancing their aural comprehension.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.25
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: THEA291
Prereq: None

FREN282 French Cinema: An Introduction

This course introduces students to the history of French cinema (the evolution of its aesthetics as well as of its main themes), from the films of the Lumière brothers in 1895 until now with French filmmakers of Maghrebi origins. One leading question of the course will be, What makes French cinema "French"?
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN301 The Race Makers: How the Enlightenment Invented the Most Dangerous Idea in History

The concept of race was first "invented" during the 18th century by anatomists, natural historians, and, ultimately, the century's classifiers. While this seminar is constructed as something of an intellectual history seminar, it will also delve into the lives and (often messy) psychologies of several of the people who helped develop the idea of race during the eighteenth century. We will become familiar with a French king and the signatory of the Code Noir (Louis XIV), the Swedish inventor of the term Homo sapiens (Linnaeus), the theorist of human degeneration from a white prototype (Buffon), the most famous philosopher of the eighteenth century (Voltaire), the theorist of human stage theory (Robertson), a skull-measuring naturalist (Blumenbach), and an American president, in Thomas Jefferson. The class will also examine 16 manuscripts that were submitted to a contest on the source of "blackness" organized by the Bordeaux Royal Academy of Sciences in 1739. The goal of this course is to provide students with an understanding of the origins of race that will inform their reactions to this question as both a historical concept, and an ongoing problem that affects all of us in the present.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-RLAN
Identical With: STS303
Prereq: None

FREN302 West African Literatures and Cultures in French

This course explores major texts in modern and contemporary Francophone African literature by delving into four major themes that traverse the recent cultural, literary, and political history of Francophone West Africa.



The course starts by investigating the relationships between orality and literature through the lens of often-intersecting debates around tradition and modernity; the focus will then shift to articulations of nation, liberation, and the promises of independence, war, and memory, and finally the ruptures and continuities of the post-colonial, neoliberal present.



By spending significant time with primary sources that span over a century of literary and cultural production from and about Francophone Africa, students will have a deep understanding of the urgencies animating writers wrestling with the weight of the colonial past, the violence of decolonization, the brightness of independence, and the uncertainty of the present. A thorough engagement with some of the most important authors of the last 60 years (e.g. C. H. Kane, B. Diop, Y. Ouloguem, M. Condé, among others) will allow us to deep-dive into the possibilities of literary expression, as well as questions of belonging, nation, and evolving ideas of "Africa."
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: RL&L302
Prereq: None

FREN304 The Art of the Essay

This is both a creative writing and literature seminar, a hybrid experience where students will read some of the most momentous and important examples of the essay genre while simultaneously producing their own interpretative compositions. We will read essays by Montaigne (who covered a myriad of subjects) before moving onto later authors from the French and Francophone world (e.g., Baudelaire, Voltaire, Césaire, Cixous) who gravitated to this open and highly personal way of writing to further their own artistic or ideological positions.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN305 Negotiating French Identity: Migration and Identity in Contemporary France

With the largest minority in France being of Maghrebi origin, Islam has become the second largest religion in France today. What are the repercussions of this phenomenon for French identity? How did French society understand its identity and regard foreigners in the past? What do members of the growing Franco-Maghrebi community add to the ongoing dialogue surrounding France's republican and secular identity? This course will analyze the recent attempts at redefining French identity through a study of literary texts, films, and media coverage of important societal debates (e.g., the Scarf Affair, French immigration laws, the Algerian war). Readings, discussions, and papers will be in French.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: COL307
Prereq: None

FREN306 Spectacles of Violence in Early Modern French Tragedy

The French Kingdom endured decades of socio-political unrest and religious wars during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The tragedies that emerged from these bloody conflicts--many of which staged physical violence--not only reflected but also actively participated in the debates surrounding the 'troubles civils.' In this advanced seminar, we will study such tragedies in order to examine the uses, functions, and ethics of spectacular violence, in plays that adapt mythological stories (e.g., Medea), religious narratives (e.g. David and Goliath, Saint Cecilia), and current events (e.g., executions, assassinations, and regicides) for the stage. We will read the plays alongside and against the competing theoretical frameworks of violence found in various poetic treatises of the time period, yet we will also keep in mind the practical constraints and conditions of performance in early modern France. Finally, we will reflect on why we should read these plays today and how they inform our contemporary moment. Readings, written assignments, and discussion will be in French.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: COL306, THEA292
Prereq: None

FREN307 Exoticism: Imaginary Geographies in the 19th-century French Short Story

This course will consider the fascination with the exotic--with foreign landscapes, customs, and culture--in 19th-century French fiction, particularly in the genre of the short story. Discussions will focus on the representation of foreignness, the construction of the exotic woman, and the status of the European gaze. Major authors may include Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Chateaubriand, Balzac, Merimee, Loti, Flaubert, Hugo, Baudelaire, Myriam Harry, and Théophile Gautier.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN308 Southern France Today: Villages, Territories, and Metropolises

This course offers an interdisciplinary exploration of Southern France, with a focus on Marseille, through historical, literary, sociological, and comparative approaches. It is designed to encourage students to question prevalent stereotypes and controversial contemporary issues related to the region.



Throughout the course, students will examine various topics such as migration, ethnic and social segregation, economic growth, safety, the environment, housing, transportation, urban planning, metropolization, education, and culture. By using Marseille as a case study, students will reflect on the notion of scale in the context of French and European governance.



Students will engage with a range of materials, including novels, short stories, graphic novels, journalistic investigations, films, archival footage, and testimonials from residents, association representatives, experts, and researchers. Additionally, the course will include a comparative analysis with Paris, other French cities, and Mediterranean regions.



By the end of the course, students will gain a deeper understanding of the region's place in French politics, society, and culture, while also developing critical thinking, research, and analytical skills.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN309 Writing Childhood in Contemporary French Literature

In the 20th century, children's literature and writings about childhood expanded alongside commercial book publishing, greater literacy, and theories on childhood. This course will follow the development of formal and creative expressions of childhood by turning first toward children's literature, including picture and comic books and classic works such as "Le Petit Prince." Literary depictions of childhood, as memory, testimony, and social commentary, will compose the second half of the course. Visual imagery (book illustrations, films) will be studied as well to consider the connections between childhood and its representations--for example, how children's literature reflects modernity and how childhood is a means to make sense of adulthood.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN310 French Crowds, Mobs, and Mobilities

Under the date of 14th July 1789, Louis XVI entered in his diary but one word: "Rien." That day, a crowd of sans-culottes flooded the streets of Paris, overwhelmed the guards, and captured the Bastille. What the king could not foresee is the political power of a mob, a "foule," deriving its etymology and strength from the pressure of thousands of feet pounding the pavement. From this founding event on, the building of the French nation could be read as a history of mobile crowds kept alive today in yearly student and union demonstrations. How does "rien" become the emblematic event of French national identity? What moves a crowd, and what does a crowd move? What do such gatherings accomplish, and how do they form in France and why? Can governments bring crowds to a stop? What does immobility mean for the French?

Drawing on French sociology and literature, this course will explore the influence that crowds have exerted on French politics, society, and aesthetics. We will discuss the power of numbers by focusing on major events in French history from the 18th century to contemporary France: the French Revolution, the Paris Commune, May 1968, the 1983 March for Equality and Against Racism, the Yellow Vests, and the COVID-19 lockdowns. Students will be encouraged to relate the course to their own experience of mobile crowds, in concerts or sports events, on more quotidian moves such as commuting, and to draw comparisons across time and space.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN312 Clandestins, Sans-Papiers, Migrant/e/s: 100 Years of Illegalization in the Francophone Mediterranean

Who is illegal, and why? When did "migrating illegally" across the Mediterranean start, and how? How did we come to think about certain ways of moving across borders as a criminal act? Using sources and literature on and about empire, borders, citizenship, seafaring, smuggling, and human rights, the course will attempt to answer these questions in the specific context of the Francophone Mediterranean, intended here as a space of migration much broader than the sea itself. We will read about Algerian workers hidden in the hulls of steamships at the turn of the century, watch Tunisian border policemen helplessly patrol an endless stretch of desert in a sandstorm, and read from "illegal" Africans seeking refuge inside the church of St. Bernard, in Northern Paris, in the hot summer of 1986, before police broke in. Through this heterogenous set of encounters, students will be able to explore, engage critically, and respond to some of the discursive, legal, and logistical devices that made and still make people on the move "illegal" in contemporary France and in the long wake of its colonial empire.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN314 From the Diary to the Graphic novel, Women Writers from the 17th to the 21st Centuries

While women in France were for a long time not welcomed in the literary sphere, they have nonetheless participated in the various movements that have affected literature from the 17th century on. The purpose of this course is to discuss women's space within the literary field. Through the study of various texts, this course will examine women's compliance and defiance towards literary trends. Far from only writing diaries and fairy tales, French women writers have considerably expanded their presence in genres that seemed resolutely closed to them.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN315 The Politics of the French Language and the Birth of the French State

Today, the advantages of national borders and monolinguistic language policies are being trumpeted all across the world. And yet, the study of premodern languages and literatures reveals that the history of national languages has always been a multicultural affair. In this course, we will look at the case of the French language, particularly the establishment of French as a literary language through strategies of legitimization. Starting with an examination of the first text written in the language that would later become French, from the 9th century, we will then go on to study (in modern French) a series of medieval and early-modern poems, plays, treatises and essays that borrow from other languages and literatures, even as they establish French as a literary and a national language. The final portion of this class will include a meditation on the status of French language in contemporary Francophone countries based on Derrida's essay "Le monolinguisme de l'autre."
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: MDST315
Prereq: None

FREN316 Women Writing in the Renaissance

Women writing in 16th-century France--the French Renaissance period--had the recent advantage of print publication to circulate their works despite great social limitations on women's roles and education. This course explores their writing--including fiction, poetry, epistolary, and polemic--and choices of subject matter with a focus on references to writing as/by women. We will situate these writers in their historical, cultural, and literary environments and read critical scholarship on this field of study. We will also take a comparative approach by looking at 15th- and 17th-century authorship to see how circumstances evolved and at several contemporary perspectives to consider the currency and perhaps continuity of early modern women's literary production and creations.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN317 The New World Bites Back: Cannibalism and the Colonial Encounter

What is the cannibal? Perhaps it makes us think of Hannibal Lecter or zombies from Dawn of the Dead. How do we understand the horror and fascination the cannibal, whose monstrosity depends in some sense on its humanity? An emblematic figure of the tension between alterity and resemblance, this course examines the diverse political, cultural, literary and economic representations of cannibalism that underly the relationship between Europe and the "New World."



Major Readings: Montaigne's "Des Cannibales," Voltaire's Candide, Dutertre's Histoire des Antilles, Marx, Capital (excerpts) Aimé Césaire's Une Tempête, Suzanne Césaire's Le Grand camouflage. 40-50 pages of reading per week.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN324 Interpreting the "New World": France and the Early Modern Americas

The impact and long-lasting effects of the "discovery" of the "New World" on Europeans cannot be overestimated. This advanced seminar will compare and contrast styles of expedition and conquest among the European nations, though the course will focus on the French context and the various events and encounters that occurred in the early modern Americas, particularly between 1492 and 1610, a period that laid the groundwork for the subsequent colonial project. Throughout the course, we will pay special attention to the Amerindians' points of view. In turn, students will examine the insights and blind spots in 16th-century French navigators', cosmographers', cartographers', and intellectuals' interpretations, representations, and negotiations of difference by critically engaging with concepts such as nature, culture, alterity, gender, sexuality, marriage, religion, exchange, possession, conquest, and war. Reading, writing, and class discussions will be in French.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: FGSS324, COL324
Prereq: None

FREN325 Museums, Objects, and Empire: Exhibiting the Self, Exhibiting the Other

This course will analyze the relationship between colonization and material culture. Using literary and historical documents, we will ask how objects helped to construct identities by studying the way objects were collected, used, and displayed during the colonial period. The course will also analyze how spectacles, exhibits, and museums have shaped a discourse about the other. The course will lead to an exhibition based on student work. Reading, writing, and class discussion will be in French.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN326 Topics and Genres in French Popular Culture

Spanning the mid-19th century to the present, this course will present and examine the expansion of such genres as newspapers' feuilletons (serialized novels), romans de gare (easy literature), detective novels, and bandes dessinées (graphic novels). Though at times poor in their execution, such productions are a revealing window into French society, and their popularity has only increased. The course will particularly focus on the participation of renowned writers in so-called low-cultures genres, as well as on women writers' growing presence in the field.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN330 Lancelot, Guinevere, Grail: Enigma in the Romances of Chretien de Troyes

Chretien de Troyes, the greatest writer of medieval France, was the first to tell the stories of Lancelot and Guinevere's fatal passion and of the quest for the Holy Grail. Written at the height of the Renaissance of the 12th century, his Arthurian tales became the basis for all future retellings of the legend. We will read these tales in depth, paying particular attention to their enigmatic quality.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: MDST330
Prereq: None

FREN333 Asia and the Making of France

Enlightenment philosophers, impressionist painters of the 19th century, and French Maoist intellectuals in the 1960s were all influenced by Asia. Although these influences from Asia were at times the fruit of solid knowledge, they were also often the result of imagination. In addition to attracting French intellectuals and artists, Asia also contributed very concretely to the economic development of modern France and its geopolitical position in the world. This relationship relied on voluntary exchanges but also on violence and French exploitation of Asian territories and people. Through the study of historical documents, films, and literary texts, this course aims to understand the various ways Asia shaped France. We will consider the various representations of Asia conveyed in 19th- and 20th-century France and the historical context of their production by focusing on key moments such as the Opium Wars in China, French colonialism in Indochina, and the two world wars. Reading, writing, and discussion will be in French.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN334 Days and Knights of the Round Table

This course will study the evolution of the Arthurian legend from its origins in sixth-century Britain to its development in the 12th-century romances of Chrétien de Troyes. The course will look at the way the various developments of the legend were rooted in specific historical circumstances and yet contributed to the elaboration of a rich and complex narrative that has been appropriated in different ways by each succeeding period of Western European culture.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: MDST234
Prereq: None

FREN345 Weird Literature: Tales of the Supernatural, Inexplicable, and Bizarre

In this course we'll look at fantastic literature (broadly defined) from 19th century France: tales of the supernatural, the inexplicable, and the bizarre. This genre flourished in post-enlightenment, post-revolutionary France. Part of our task will be to consider what made stories of the strange so appealing to French authors at this point in time, and how writers used the genre to grapple with societal changes and scientific advances. We will examine some formal definitions of the fantastic and the uncanny, and work towards our own characterizations, as we consider issues such as madness and sanity, provincial superstition, the clash of science and the inexplicable, and the place of gender within such narratives. We will also consider the reception of these texts: how they were illustrated and/or adapted and where (if at all) we can find echoes of them in modern culture. Authors to be studied include Maupassant, Merimée, and Villiers de L'Isle-Adam.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN348 Artistic Creation in Fin-de-siècle France

The end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century--the so-called fin de siècle--was a period of remarkable creative energy, production, and upheaval in France. Many of the most-recognized names in the art world were active there during that time: Debussy, Monet, Picasso, Stravinsky, Matisse, Baudelaire, Van Gogh...and many of them collaborated across media. In this course, we'll dig deep into the music, visual arts, and literature of the period, relying on contemporaneous primary sources (literature, of course, but also newspapers and popular periodicals, artists' letters and manifestos, performance reviews and notes, etc) as well as relevant secondary analyses, to get a sense of the competing energies of liberation and decadence that nourished so many remarkable and influential works of art.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN356 From the Diary to the Stage: Women Writers and Literary Genres from the 17th to the 21st Centuries

While women in France were not welcomed in the literary sphere, they have nonetheless participated in the various movements that have radically affected literature from the 17th century on. The purpose of this course is to discuss women's space within the literary field. Through the study of various texts, this course will examine women's compliance and defiance toward literary trends. It will also investigate the roles of literary categories (letters, plays, fairy tales, poems, novels, and essays) in women's production.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN357 Autobiography and Photography; Text and Image

Over the last decades, the question of autobiography as a genre has been thoroughly analyzed. The issue is further complicated by the use of photography within autobiographical texts, whether they are included in the text or merely described. In this course, we will examine the various roles of photography in autobiography. Is photography a way to trigger memory? Is it more referential than the word? How is the reader to read the coexistence of word and image? Such are some of the questions that will be discussed.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN363 (Un)Popular Performances/Performances (Im)Populaires

In 1607, a young Scotsman named William Drummond was studying law in Bourges, France, a popular "study-abroad destination" for Scottish students as well as an important stopover city on the routes of itinerant professional and amateur actors. While in Bourges, these actors performed a variety of different kinds of plays, including tragedies, comedies, tragicomedies, pastorals, and farces. Although these performances were often met with hostility from the city's religious authorities, Drummond attended several plays during his stay and, lucky for us, took rather detailed notes about them. His observations from the 1607 "season" are preserved in his personal papers in the National Library of Scotland. This course will use Drummond's notes as a guide to discover and examine other forms of evidence--both traditional and nontraditional--that help us understand what was at stake in theater, performance, and (un)popular culture in late 16th- and early 17th-century France. We will study the ways the past has been organized and cataloged, how traditional sources and research have shaped our view of the past, and how unconventional methodologies can help us locate new sites of knowledge and culture. Written assignments, class discussions, and (most) readings will be in French.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CHUM
Identical With: COL363, MDST363, THEA363
Prereq: None

FREN372 Exoticism: Imaginary Geographies in 18th- and 19th-Century French Literature

This course will consider the fascination with the exotic--with foreign landscapes, customs, and culture--in 18th- and 19th-century French fiction and, to a lesser extent, poetry. Discussions will focus on the representation of foreignness and the construction of the exotic woman, as well as on the status of the European gaze. Major authors may include Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Chateaubriand, Balzac, Mérimée, Loti, Flaubert, Hugo, Baudelaire, and Gautier.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: COL272
Prereq: None

FREN382 Jungle and Desert in Francophone African Literature

This course analyzes the constellation of images and sensations conjured up by the terms "jungle" and "desert," which are opposite but equally extreme. We will explore European adventure tales and travelogues, contemporary non-Western novels, children's books, and films in a quest to understand the imaginative power of these landscapes.



Through our readings of such a wide range of texts, we will ask questions such as, What do these landscapes signify? How do descriptions of landscape convey a sense of individual and collective identity? What psychological terrain is explored when writing about extreme landscapes? And, finally, how do we each see ourselves in relation to landscape? What is our own version of an "extreme" landscape?
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN390 Directed Research in European Studies

This course is intended for students who wish to undertake a significant research project or get a head start on a senior essay or thesis devoted to any aspect of European civilization from 500 to 2021. The course will begin with three weeks of regular meetings devoted to the purpose of academic research in the humanities and social sciences, developing and refining a research topic, organizing one's research, bibliographies and sources, the construction of an argument, and the organization of a research paper. Students will work on their research projects individually during the rest of the semester, although the class will meet as a group from time to time so students can present and discuss the state of their work. Students will also have weekly tutorials with the instructor to discuss their progress and plan their next steps. Students who are able to do so are encouraged to engage with research materials in languages other than English.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: RL&L390, COL393, GRST291, MDST390
Prereq: None

FREN391 Diderot: An Encyclopedic Mind

In this class we will come to know the most progressive and often radical thinker of the French Enlightenment, Denis Diderot (1713-1784). We will begin this seminar with an examination of how this country abbot grew into the most well known atheist of his generation. We will then move onto his famous 74,000 article Encyclopédie, a book that not only dragged sacrilege and freethinking out into the open, but triggered a decades-long scandal that involved the Sorbonne, the Paris Parliament, the King, and the Pope. (During this portion of the class, students will undertake translations of select entries [from French to English] of the "dictionnaire" for possible publication.) In the second half of the semester, we will also study the writer's freewheeling art criticism. Finally, we will read two groundbreaking novels. The first of these, "La Religieuse", is a gripping pseudo-memoir of a nun who suffers unspeakably cruel abuse after she announces that she wants to leave her convent. The second, "Jacques le Fataliste", is a freewheeling anti-novel where Diderot used fiction to take up the problem of free will. In the final portion of the class, we will also read selections from his anticolonial and antislavery writings.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Identical With: COL391
Prereq: None

FREN397 Forbidden Love: From the Middle Ages to the French Revolution

This seminar examines the notion of "forbidden love" in prose fiction, memoirs, poetry, and theater written in French from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution. Students will gain a theoretical and historical understanding of concepts such as love and desire, and how they inform ideas of race, gender, and sexuality in the early francophone world. Students will also watch 20th- and 21st-century film and theatrical adaptations of selected works. By the end of the course, students will have acquired an appreciation for a central but often neglected dimension of francophone literature and culture, become familiar with a method combining a historical approach with the use of essential theoretical concepts, explored how attention to noncanonical and/or "nonliterary" material can extend their knowledge of the period, and provided evidence of competence in critical reading and in the presentation of independent research.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN399 French Histories: National Identity and Narratives since the Third Republic

At the end of the nineteenth century, schooling became free and mandatory in France. Since then, politicians have often considered the teaching of history as key to the construction of French national identity. Even today, some argue that the role of school is to equip children with a national narrative. French historians have questioned and resisted this instrumentalization, denouncing oversimplifications and ideological distortions. They also acknowledge that some biases have pervaded French history.



Through readings of historical novels, biographies, essays, and graphic novels as well as selected film and documentary viewings, this course will explore some of these national narratives and the way French historians, philosophers, and artists have participated in the construction of a French national identity.



The course will focus on France and its colonies since the 1870's and the Third Republic. Preliminary knowledge of the period is not required for this class. The final project will be a re-telling of a French historical event through students' preferred medium (video, graphic novel, essay, or podcast). The assignments during the semester will help students accumulate material and hone their skills toward this goal.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-RLAN
Prereq: None

FREN401 Individual Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

FREN402 Individual Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

FREN403 Department/Program Project or Essay

Project to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

FREN404 Department/Program Project or Essay

Project to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

FREN407 Senior Tutorial (downgraded thesis)

Downgraded Senior Thesis Tutorial - Project to be arranged in consultation with the tutor. Only enrolled in through the Honors Coordinator.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

FREN408 Senior Tutorial (downgraded thesis)

Downgraded Senior Thesis Tutorial - Project to be arranged in consultation with the tutor. Only enrolled in through the Honors Coordinator.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

FREN409 Senior Thesis Tutorial

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

FREN410 Senior Thesis Tutorial

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

FREN411 Group Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

FREN412 Group Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

FREN420 Student Forum

Student-run group tutorial, sponsored by a faculty member and approved by the chair of a department or program.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U

FREN465 Education in the Field, Undergraduate

Students must consult with the department and class dean in advance of undertaking education in the field for approval of the nature of the responsibilities and method of evaluation.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

FREN466 Education in the Field

Students must consult with the department and class dean in advance of undertaking education in the field for approval of the nature of the responsibilities and method of evaluation.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

FREN491 Teaching Apprentice Tutorial

The teaching apprentice program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to assist in teaching a faculty member's course for academic credit.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

FREN492 Teaching Apprentice Tutorial

The teaching apprentice program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to assist in teaching a faculty member's course for academic credit.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT