French (FREN)

FREN 1001 Français élémentaire (4 Credits)

Connect with the diverse population around the world that uses French by developing practical communication skills and by learning about other cultural perspectives than your own to develop global insight and the foundations of intercultural awareness. Acquire the necessary competencies to interact in French with people from other countries, and from your own. In each unit, students will assume the role of a job applicant related to the material studied and will use their French communication skills in fun, practical, hands-on ways both in and out of class. First quarter in a three-quarter sequence. FREN 1001 is designed for students with no previous French experience. Students with more than 2 years of high school French must take the placement exam and enroll in a higher-level course.

FREN 1002 Français élémentaire (4 Credits)

Connect with the diverse population around the world that uses French by developing practical communication skills and by learning about other cultural perspectives than your own to develop global insight and the foundations of intercultural awareness. Acquire the necessary competencies to interact in French with people from other countries, and from your own. In each unit, students will assume the role of a job applicant related to the material studied and will use their French communication skills in fun, practical, hands-on ways both in and out of class. Second quarter in a three-quarter sequence. Prerequisite: FREN 1001 or equivalent.

FREN 1003 Français élémentaire (4 Credits)

Connect with the diverse population around the world that uses French by developing practical communication skills and by learning about other cultural perspectives than your own to develop global insight and the foundations of intercultural awareness. Acquire the necessary competencies to interact in French with people from other countries, and from your own. In each unit, students will assume the role of a job applicant related to the material studied and will use their French communication skills in fun, practical, hands-on ways both in and out of class. Third quarter in a three-quarter sequence. Prerequisite: FREN 1002 or equivalent.

FREN 1988 Study Abroad Resident Credit (0-18 Credits)

FREN 2001 Français du deuxième degré (4 Credits)

Grammatical structures, conversation and reading of cultural and literary materials. First quarter of a three quarter sequence. Prerequisite: FREN 1003 or equivalent.

FREN 2002 Français du deuxième degré (4 Credits)

Grammatical structures, conversation and reading of cultural and literary materials. Second quarter of a three quarter sequence. Prerequisite: FREN 2001 or equivalent.

FREN 2003 Français du deuxième degré (4 Credits)

Grammatical structures, conversation and reading of cultural and literary materials. Third quarter in a three quarter sequence. Prerequisite: FREN 2002 or equivalent.

FREN 2100 Ecrire, lire et parler (4 Credits)

Writing, discussion and reading based on a topic or topics in French and Francophone cultures. Close attention paid to paper-writing skills. Prerequisite: FREN 2003 or equivalent.

FREN 2301 Capitalism vs. Socialism: Emile Zola (4 Credits)

This course analyzes the complex interrelationship between the economic ideologies and practices of capitalism and socialism in the works of the nineteenth-century French novelist Émile Zola. Three novels in which these themes are a major driving force of the action will be studied. In the first, Germinal, the capitalist system is viewed from the outside by poor, oppressed workers who feel victimized by it. In the second novel, Money, the author delves into capitalism at its very heart, the Stock Exchange of Paris. He explores all its machinations but also shows the growing cracks in the system as socialist protestations make inroads at the top. The third work, The Ladies Paradise, proposes a possible reconciliation of capitalism and socialism, inspired in part by the writings of French socialist thinkers earlier in the century. In a new era department store, workers’ rights and commercial profit are seen to be mutually beneficial.

FREN 2302 The French Shakespeares: From Feudalism to Absolutism in 17th-Century France (4 Credits)

This course studies the works of the three leading French playwrights of the seventeenth century: the tragedians Pierre Corneille and Jean Racine and the comic genius Molière. Each of these authors explores various forms of power play that played an important role in the society of their time. These include competitions for political dominance between the feudal aristocracy and an increasingly absolutist monarchy, between the same aristocracy and an emerging middle class, allied with the monarchy, between women and men in their conflicting assertions of rights and privileges, between traditional religion and modern secularism, between the established church and Protestants, between rival liberal and conservative factions within the established church, and between Christian Western Europe and the Muslim Ottoman Empire. Students will read and analyze two plays by each of the three dramatists. This course counts toward the fulfillment of the Analytical Inquiry- Society and Culture requirement.

FREN 2400 Conversation et composition (4 Credits)

Intensive practice in spoken and written French. All aspects of the course, including vocabulary acquisition, phonetics, structural review, compositions, readings, oral presentations and comprehension exercises are presented through a topical approach to everyday French and Francophone life, literature, and contemporary issues. Prerequisites: FREN 2003 or FREN 2100.

FREN 2500 Qu'est-ce que la littérature? (4 Credits)

Introduction to critical analysis and appreciation of French and Francophone literary texts. Critical examination and questioning of the conventionally recognized literary genres of fiction, poetry, and theater. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement. Prerequisite: FREN 2400 or equivalent.

FREN 2501 La Nature et les animaux (4 Credits)

Nature and animals: as seen, imagined, and understood by humans. Literature has long made plants, landscapes, birds, and other animals into part of a human story. Through readings of French and Francophone literary texts, we will reflect on the various relationships that we construct with animals and nature. Works studied may include fables where animals serve to voice social values (La Fontaine) and poetry in which natural elements are symbolic of human concerns. But other works in this course will take a different approach: confusing or toppling the "normal" places occupied by humans and animals. Our discussions will occasionally touch on contemporary issues of environmental concern. This course many be taken in addition to other courses in the 25-series. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement. Prerequisite: FREN 2400 or its equivalent.

FREN 2502 La France et ses autres mondes (4 Credits)

In Les Petits garçons naissent aussi des étoiles (1988), a humoristic novel which retraces the history of an anonymous African country from colonization to its present days, Emmanuel Dongala’s narrator relates: “[t]hey ruled over us, ran the country, exploited us, taught us their language, sent us to their schools, gave us new ancestors called Gauls. That’s why we still speak French, love French food, and still like to spend our vacations in France, even if these days it is easier to get visa to the moon than to that country.” This seminar reexamines these well captured relations in Dongala’s novel between France and its “other” worlds. How and why has France built and maintained its empire in Africa, Asia and the Americas? How do the leaders of the Francophone world cope with the politics of hegemony put in place by the (ex)rulers? How do the former question and reject the latter in their quest for self-affirmation and nation building before, during and after independence? Our wide range of Pan-Francophone textual and filmic selection from prominent writers and filmmakers such as Aimé Césaire, Patrice Lumumba, Sékou Touré, Christiane Taubira, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Kim Lefèvre, Samin Nair, Jacques Kane, Isabelle Boni-Claverie and Raoul Peck will help us answer the aforementioned questions and classic and newly emerging notions of civilizing mission, Francophonie, Francosphere, postcolonialism, neocolonialism, Afropeanism and Afropolitanism. This course is conducted in French. It counts toward our Analytical Inquiring: Society and Culture. Prerequisite: FREN 2400.

FREN 2503 La Satire (4 Credits)

This course is an introduction to satire in French and Francophone literature. A classical literary technique of denunciation, satire has been recently adopted and adapted in popular televised shows (Les Guignols de l’info in France, Kouthia Show in Senegal, SNL in the US) to recapture important sociopolitical events throughout the world. In our selection of literary texts, films, and sketches such as Alioune Badara Bèye’s Les Larmes de la patrie, Moussa Absa Sène’s Tableau Ferraille and Dieudonné’s Le Président africain, we will analyze why and how authors make use of satire to denounce the most prevailing problems faced by French and Francophone societies at given times of their historical trajectories. Prerequisite: FREN 2400 or equivalent.

FREN 2504 La Culture au Cinema (4 Credits)

We will read and interpret contemporary French feature films and other related journalistic or literary texts. We will analyze the ways in which the directors/authors of such films/texts understand and represent a certain notion of "French" culture, in general, and its diverse and varied expressions, in particular. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement. Prerequisites: FREN 2400, 2500 or any FREN 26XX course.

FREN 2701 Sujets spéciaux (4 Credits)

Selected topics in French or Francophone literature and/or culture. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: FREN 2400 or equivalent.

FREN 2988 Study Abroad Resident Credit (0-18 Credits)

FREN 2988S Study Abroad Resident Credit (0-18 Credits)

FREN 3110 La Grammaire à l'oeuvre (4 Credits)

Our most advanced language course, students perfect their knowledge of French grammar in all of its intricacies. Written and oral practice. Prerequisites: FREN 2500, FREN 2501, FREN 2503 or FREN 2701.

FREN 3150 L’Art de la traduction: français-anglais et vice versa (4 Credits)

In this course you will study techniques of translation from French to English and from English to French. There will be lots of practice which will allow a thorough review of French grammar. In addition, by translating texts we become more aware of the complexities of both English and French, and attuned to the working of literary or other styles of language. The course includes some study of theories of translation or commentaries on its cultural implications or its history. There will be time for reflection on the broader implications of translation such as intercultural understanding, differences, the question of what is a “faithful” translation, or the experience of living bilingually or in cultural translation Prerequisites: FREN 2500, FREN 2501, FREN 2503 or FREN 2701.

FREN 3501 L'Afrique aux Antilles (4 Credits)

This seminar examines the literary and political enterprises undertaken by Francophone Caribbean novelists, essayists, filmmakers and artists in re-rooting/routing Africa in the Caribbean. We will particularly focus on how and why the Afro-Caribbean tradition is captured in the distinctive movements of Negritude, Antillanité and Créolité. We will use the latter as standpoints from which to examine the affective, historical, and political implications of Africa in the social lives of Caribbean people. We will also discuss the visions and stances of these writers and theorists on the Black Experience and the correlations that exist between the historical and the fictional in essays as well as novels and films. The seminar is conducted in French and emphasizes discussion, writing and critical thinking. Prerequisite : Two courses at the 25XX level.

FREN 3504 Identité et Altérité (4 Credits)

This course offers an examination of the complex notions of Self and Other in contemporary texts in French and Francophone Studies at a crucial time when the political debate on national identity reemerges in the West in general and in France in particular. Two fundamental questions have been at the center of the national debate in France: “Pour vous, qu’est-ce qu’être français aujourd’hui?” [For you, what does it mean to be French today?] and “Quel est l’apport de l’immigration à l’identité nationale?” [ What is the contribution of immigration to national identity?]. These “controversial” questions subtly divide France into La France française [French France] and La France étrangère [foreign France]. Our textual and filmic selection features writers and filmmakers from France and the Francophone world who address these aforementioned issues by analyzing the power dynamics between the Self and the Other, the Français/es de souche [People of French descent] and the Immigré/es français/es [French Immigrants].

FREN 3505 Masques du moi (4 Credits)

Qui suis-je??? The question of self, identity, and discovering "who I am" has preoccupied many writers, filmmakers, or other artists. Identity, or one's sense of self, can be shaped by families, personal experiences, or social and historical forces. Writers might recount the "true" facts of their lived experience or mix in some fictions as they fashion a story of the self. This course will explore the diverse ways that autobiography and others ways of "writing the self" represent the relation of self, world and word. Examples will come from French and Francophone contexts. The class is conducted all in French and emphasizes discussion, writing, and critical thinking. This course counts toward the Analytical Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement. Prerequisite: Two courses in the 25XX series or their equivalent.

FREN 3507 Auteures classiques (4 Credits)

A comprehensive and analytical study of women authors of France from the Middle Ages to 2000. Prerequisite: two courses beyond 2400.

FREN 3701 Séminaire (4 Credits)

Selected authors, literary movements and genres in French-speaking world. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: FREN 2500.

FREN 3980 Internship (1-4 Credits)

FREN 3988 Study Abroad Resident Credit (0-18 Credits)

FREN 3991 Independent Study (1-4 Credits)

FREN 3998 Undergraduate Honors Thesis (1-4 Credits)