Fall 2009 Course Descriptions

Students who have never before taken French language courses at UC Berkeley should consult with the Undergraduate Assistant in French, in 4209 Dwinelle Hall, 642-2713 or at frendept@berkeley.edu

Related Links:   Studying French at Berkeley, The French Major, The French Minor

French 1: If you have never taken French before, or you have taken 2 years or less of high school French, or a first-quarter college French course, sign up for French 1 (or French 12, if it is being offered). Course not open to native or heritage speakers of French.

French 2: Sign up for French 2 if you have a passing grade in a first-semester or second-quarter college French course, or three years of high school French. Course not open to native or heritage speakers of French.

French 3: Sign up for French 3 if you have a passing grade in French 2 at UC Berkeley or four years of high school French. New students who have taken second or third-semester, or third or fourth-quarter college French courses elsewhere, or received an AP Literature score of 3, should also enroll in French 3. Course not open to native or heritage speakers of French.

French 4: Open to students with a passing grade in French 3 at UC Berkeley. New students who have taken a fourth-semester or a fifth-quarter college French course elsewhere, or received an AP Literature score of 4, should also enroll in French 4. Students who have spoken French or lived in a French speaking environment should take the French 102 Placement Exam and consult with the Second Year Coordinator (Désirée Pries).

French 13: Open to students with a passing grade in French 2 at UC Berkeley or four years of High School French. Students with native fluency are not eligible to enroll in this course.

French 14: Open to students with a passing grade in French 3 at UC Berkeley or the equivalent. Students with native fluency are not eligible to enroll in this course.

French 35: Open to students with a passing grade in French 3 at UC Berkeley, or the equivalent. Students with native fluency are not eligible to enroll in this course.

French 102: Open to students with a B- grade or above in French 4 at UC Berkeley; those with a C+ or lower will need consent of instructor before enrollment can be finalized. New students who have taken the equivalent of a third-year college level French course elsewhere, or who have AP Literature scores of 5, should also enroll in French 102; they will be screened for appropriate placement during the first week of classes.

Chavdarian, Seda

Readings:
Chez nous: Branché sur le monde francophone 4th edition; Chez nous: Branché sur le monde francophone, Student activities manual 4th edition;

Recommended: Morton, English Grammar for Students of French

Course Description:
Introduction to Francophone cultures through speaking, listening, reading, and writing in French, with French as the exclusive means of communication. Emphasis is placed on developing student ability to create and to communicate with basic French structures and vocabulary. Linguistic and cultural competency is developed through oral exercises, individual and collaborative reports, class discussions, and the use of various media resources. Reading and writing are developed through both in-class and independent reading projects using the French Department Library, as well as through compositions and other written assignments. The program integrates all aspects of foreign language study through a process-oriented approach in compliance with ACTFL‘s Oral Proficiency and the 5Cs of the National Standards for Foreign Language Learning for the 21st Century. Cultural competency is also reinforced by exposure to French and Francophone worlds through various oral/aural exercises, written assignments, film clips various media resources. The students will gain a historical perspective on French and Francophone cultures. Class conducted entirely in French.

The Department offers multiple sections of French 1 each semester. All sections meet five days a week for one hour, with each section taught by a different instructor. All sections are conducted entirely in French, with 18-20 students per section. See the Schedule of Classes to get the course control number (CCN) for your desired section.

If you have questions regarding French 1 enrollment, see our FAQs (frequently asked questions).

Prerequisites:
For students with no French experience. Also recommended for students with one-quarter of college-level French, 2 years of high school French, or less. If you are unsure whether French 1 is right for you, contact the instructor for placement questions.

Additional information:
Course not open to native or heritage speakers of French.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Quinan, Christine

Readings:
Marie Cardinal, The Words To Say It; Assia Djebar, Children of the New World, ""Today: Women of Algiers in Their Apartment"" in Women of Algiers in Their Apartment; Leïla Sebbar, The Seine Was Red; Simone de Beauvoir, Les Belles Images; Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried; Bobbie Ann Mason, In Country

Films: Alain Resnais, Muriel; Michael Haneke, Caché; Oliver Stone, Born on the Fourth of July

Course Description:
This course seeks to explore the relationship between memory and embodiment in two mid-twentieth century international conflicts: the Algerian War of Independence and the Vietnam War. (The course will also include brief forays into other historical events, including World War II, the student movement of May 1968, and the War in Iraq.) Throughout the course, we will use both literature and film in order to examine how bodies hold memories, refusing any attempt to forget, on both an individual and collective level. Central to the course will be an analysis of the place of gender, race, sexuality, and physical ability, as these conflicts disrupted traditional understandings of such socially constructed categories. As we examine the relationship between bodies and memories, we will also be interested in the process whereby individuals and nations put themselves back together after personal and collective traumas. Therefore, the construction of a postwar national identity will be central to our concerns, as will be an investigation of the politics of commemoration and memorialization.

Additional information:
French R1A satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition Requirement.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Martin, Lowry

Readings:
Jean Racine, Les Plaideurs; Albert Camus, The Stranger; Franz Kafka, The Trial; Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird; Maryse Condé, Who Cut Célanire’s Throat; Gisèle Halimi and Simone de Beauvoir, Djamila Boupacha; John Grisham, The Appeal

READER: French R1B--Available at Copy Central


Films:
Amistad (Spielburg, 1997)
The Trial (Wells, 1962)

Course Description:
This course will explore some of the intersections between law and literature, and the ways that literature is important for understanding law. One of the course’s objectives is to illustrate how literature teaches a certain way of thinking -- one that is synthetic, creative, and comfortable with ambiguity and ambivalence—and to underscore that such a mode of expression is essential to critical legal thinking and writing. As jurisprudence changed over the last few centuries in Western Europe and the United States, the importance of creating a convincing narrative, a better story, has played an increasingly important role in legal systems. Likewise, aspects of the law have become objects of literature, and more specifically the idea of the lawyer. Although we will discuss during this course the work of law as a production of society, we will concentrate primarily on the representations of the lawyer and his role in society as both a figure of punishment and redemption as well as a figure of political order, social change and social consciousness. In some of the works to be studied this semester we learn that whether defending a black man against a charge of rape or exposing the torture of a young Algerian woman accused of terrorism to the world, the role of the lawyer is complex and ambiguous. This analysis of the lawyer’s role in a variety of fictional productions will allow us to interrogate the role of law and it’s literary importance from a humanistic and philosophical perspective.

Additional information:
French R1B satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition Requirement.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Chavdarian, Seda

Readings:
Chez nous: Branché sur le monde francophone 3rd edition; Chez nous: Branché sur le monde francophone, Student activities manual 3rd edition.

Recommended: Morton, English Grammar for Students of French

Course Description:
Continuing development of students' knowledge of fundamental structures of French, awareness of Francophone cultures, and their appropriate socio-linguistic application in both spoken and written communication. Speaking ability is developed through oral exercises, individual and collaborative reports, class discussions and debates. Reading and writing are developed through both in-class and independent reading projects using the French Department Library, compositions and various written assignments. Students are introduced to French analytical writing through an exploration of various topics relating to contemporary French and Francophone societies. The course also includes the reading of authentic literature in the form of a modern play. The program integrates all aspects of foreign language study through a process-oriented approach in compliance with ACTFL‘s Oral Proficiency and the 5Cs of the National Standards for Foreign Language Learning for the 21st Century. Cultural competency is also reinforced through individual oral reports, class debates on issues affecting contemporary world societies, and the use of appropriate media resources including radio and television news, film clips, and cultural programs. Students will have the opportunity to do comparative studies on French and American cultures in terms of both personal and national identity. Class conducted entirely in French.

The Department offers multiple sections of French 2 each semester. All sections meet five days a week for one hour, but each section is taught by a different instructor. All sections are conducted entirely in French, with 18-20 students per section. See the Schedule of Classes to get the course control number (CCN) for your desired section.

If you have questions regarding French 2 enrollment, see our FAQs (frequently asked questions).

Prerequisites:
For students with 1 semester (or 2 quarters) of college-level French; or 3 yrs of high school French. Contact the instructor in charge for placement questions.

Additional information:
Course not open to native or heritage speakers of French.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

PRIES, Désirée

Readings:
Tufts, Sur le vif & Sur le vif cahier d'exercices écrits et de laboratoire 4th edition; Course Reader (available at University Copy Service, 2425 Channing Way (510) 549-2335)

Course Description:
This is an intermediate language and culture class that aims to consolidate and expand the skills of listening comprehension, speaking, reading and writing in French. The course aims to promote cross-cultural understanding through the use of authentic materials such as literary and journalistic texts, multimedia, film, pop songs, and television/radio broadcasts, comedic improvisation, comics, commercial and cultural ads and slogans, and other cultural artifacts. We will explore such topics as self and family, education, human relationships, traditions, politics, and national identities, and compare American and other perceptions to those of the French and francophone world in whole class discussion, small groups and other collaborative formats. In addition to a review and refinement of grammar and vocabulary in a culturally rich context, students also experiment with their written expression through different formats, including analytical essays, journals, creative writing and independent projects using the Internet. Class conducted entirely in French.


The Department offers multiple sections of French 3 each semester. All sections meet five days a week for one hour, but each section is taught by a different instructor. All sections are conducted entirely in French, with 18-20 students per section. See the Schedule of Classes to get the course control number (CCN) for your desired section.

If you have questions regarding French 3 enrollment, see our FAQs (frequently asked questions).

Prerequisites:
For students who have 4 years of high school French; passed French 2 at Berkeley; have taken 2nd or 3d semester college French; 3d or 4th-quarter college French; or received a 3 on the AP French exam.

Additional information:
Course not open to native or heritage speakers of French. Satisfies L & S breadth requirement in International Studies (IS).

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

PRIES, Désirée

Readings:
Ollivier, Grammaire française 4th edition; Sartre, Huis clos; Course Reader (available at University Copy Service, 2425 Channing Way (510)549-2335

Course Description:
An advanced intermediate language and culture class that aims to refine the skills acquired in French 3 or equivalent courses and to introduce students to French and francophone literature. Emphasis is placed on the development of oral and written expression to promote linguistic and cultural competences through an extensive grammar review and exploration of spoken and written texts, as well as film, multi-media, and other cultural artifacts. We will read short stories, plays, poems and discuss their literary cultural contexts (music, art, history, philosophy). Throughout the semester, students will share ideas in collaborative, small-group and whole class discussion, explore new formats for expository prose, continue journalistic and creative writing activities in French, and work on independent projects using the Internet. Class conducted entirely in French.

The Department offers multiple sections of French 4 each semester. All sections meet five days a week for one hour, but each section is taught by a different instructor. All sections are conducted entirely in French, with 18-20 students per section. See the Schedule of Classes to get the course control number (CCN) for your desired section.

If you have questions regarding French 4 enrollment, see our FAQs (frequently asked questions).

Prerequisites:
For students who passed French 3 at Berkeley; have taken 4th-semester or 5th-quarter college French; or received a 4 on the AP French exam. Students who have spoken French or lived in a French speaking environment should take the French 102 Placement Exam and consult with Désirée Pries, the Second Year Coordinator.

Additional information:
Course not open to native or heritage speakers of French. Satisfies L & S breadth requirement in International Studies (IS).

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Kern, Richard

Readings:
Selected Readings

Course Description:
This course develops students' ability to speak and understand French in both conversational and formal contexts, enlarges vocabulary, and enhances familiarity with contemporary French culture. Activities include oral presentations, debates, collaborative projects, language journals. Class conducted entirely in French.

If you have questions regarding French 13 enrollment, see our FAQs (frequently asked questions).

Prerequisites:
A passing grade in French 2 at Berkeley or four years of high school French. If you have questions
about placement, see the Placement Guidelines.

Additional information:

Enrollment is limited to 15 students. Cannot be repeated for credit. Course not open to native or heritage French speakers.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Kern, Richard

Readings:
Selected Readings

Course Description:
Listening, reading and discussion of French sociocultural realities including economics, politics, popular culture, and family life at the beginning of the 21st century. Oral presentations, debates, collaborative projects, regular journal entries and assignments. Class conducted entirely in French.

If you have questions regarding French 14 enrollment, see our FAQs (frequently asked questions).

Prerequisites:
A passing grade in French 3 or 13 at Berkeley or the equivalent. If you have questions about placement, see the Placement Guidelines.

Additional information:
Enrollment is limited to 15 students. Cannot be repeated for credit. Course not open to native or heritage French speakers.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Kern, Richard

Readings:
Baron, N. S. (2008). Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile world.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Course Description:
This seminar focuses on relationships between technologies of communication and language use. Starting from an historical perspective on technologies of writing and their relationships to cultures of reading and writing, the seminar will consider current questions about computers, literacy, and language use: How do computer environments affect how we use language? What does it mean to be 'literate' in an age of electronically mediated communication? How do notions of 'text',
'reader', and 'writer' change as new media, new discourse communities, and new literacy practices take hold? What kinds of meaning-making abilities do people develop to participate successfully in communities that rely on forms of electronic communication? How do people acquire these abilities? We will look at practices in a variety of languages, including French.

Additional information:
No knowledge of French is required. 1 unit P/NP

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Kern, Richard

Additional information:
For 2009-2010, French 35 will be offered in Spring 2010 only. Enrollment is limited. Priority is given to declared French majors. Course not open to native French speakers.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Martin, Leslie

Readings:
Available online after 1st day of instruction.

Course Description:
Various historical and aesthetic themes and problems in the development of French civilization. In English.

Prerequisites:
No French required.

Additional information:
Satisfies L & S breadth requirement Historical Studies or in Social and Behavioral Sciences.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Dutoit, Ulysse

Readings:
Course Reader; Moli

Course Description:
This course introduces students to different modes of proposing and furthering a point of view or argument (whether in a critical essay, through dramatic metaphor, or in plays or short stories). To this end, we read passages from a variety of works, such as critical essays, novels, and plays, in order to study their use of language, their structure, and their tactics of persuasion. Through readings on problems of language and the visual arts, we explore the ways in which words and images structure thought, communication and interactions of the subject and society. Great attention is paid, both through the readings and through extensive written work, to questions of interpretation as well as to the logical and coherent development of reading and writing skills leading to correct and effective expression in French.


French 102 is the sole prerequisite to all French courses numbered 103 and above. There are multiple sections offered each semester and each section is taught by a different instructor. See the Schedule of Classes to get the course control number (CCN) for your desired section.

Prerequisites:
French 4 at Berkeley. New and transfer students: 3rd-year college level French or a 5 on the AP French exam. Students will be screened for appropriate placement during the first week of classes. For additional placement information please see Placement Guidelines.

Additional information:
Course not open to native French speakers. This course is designated as "W" (writing intensive) in the French major.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Sanyal, Debarati

Readings:
Course Reader; Moli

Course Description:
This course introduces students to different modes of proposing and furthering a point of view or argument (whether in a critical essay, through dramatic metaphor, or in plays or short stories). To this end, we read passages from a variety of works, such as critical essays, novels, and plays, in order to study their use of language, their structure, and their tactics of persuasion. Through readings on problems of language and the visual arts, we explore the ways in which words and images structure thought, communication and interactions of the subject and society. Great attention is paid, both through the readings and through extensive written work, to questions of interpretation as well as to the logical and coherent development of reading and writing skills leading to correct and effective expression in French.

French 102 is the sole prerequisite to all French courses numbered 103 and above. There are multiple sections offered each semester and each section is taught by a different instructor. See the Schedule of Classes to get the course control number (CCN) for your desired section.

Prerequisites:
French 4 at Berkeley. New and transfer students: 3rd-year college level French or a 5 on the AP French exam. Students will be screened for appropriate placement during the first week of classes. For additional placement information please see Placement Guidelines.

Additional information:
Course not open to native French speakers. This course is designated as "W" (writing intensive) in the French major.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Blocker, D

Readings:
Course Reader; Moli

Course Description:
This course introduces students to different modes of proposing and furthering a point of view or argument (whether in a critical essay, through dramatic metaphor, or in plays or short stories). To this end, we read passages from a variety of works, such as critical essays, novels, and plays, in order to study their use of language, their structure, and their tactics of persuasion. Through readings on problems of language and the visual arts, we explore the ways in which words and images structure thought, communication and interactions of the subject and society. Great attention is paid, both through the readings and through extensive written work, to questions of interpretation as well as to the logical and coherent development of reading and writing skills leading to correct and effective expression in French.

French 102 is the sole prerequisite to all French courses numbered 103 and above. There are multiple sections offered each semester and each section is taught by a different instructor. See the Schedule of Classes to get the course control number (CCN) for your desired section.

Prerequisites:
French 4 at Berkeley. New and transfer students: 3rd-year college level French or a 5 on the AP French exam. Students will be screened for appropriate placement during the first week of classes. For additional placement information please see Placement Guidelines.

Additional information:
Course not open to native French speakers. This course is designated as "W" (writing intensive) in the French major.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Smock, Ann

Readings:
Hocquard, Emmanuel. Tout le monde se ressemble. Une anthologie de poéie contemporaine; Alferi, Pierre. La Voie des airs; Cadiot, Olivier. Fairy Queen; Course Reader.

Course Description:
This course will be an experiment in reading recent and current French poetry. Emmanuel Hocquard, who is a poet and who compiled the small anthology we will use, observes that reading this poetry is like fishing. You can spend hours without catching anything, and then suddenly you catch something. It isn’t a matter of patience, which is passive, but of vigilance, he says. It’s not a question of discovering what is meant by the author, but of discovering the “conviction” the text awakens in you. And of seeing whether there is enough in you to do something with the poem.
The writing and conversation in our class will be pursued in that spirit. In addition to Hocquard’s anthology, and two small books, one by Pierre Alferi and one by Olivier Cadiot, we will use a “reader,” containing additional texts allowing us to exercize our vigilance on works by Anne-Marie Albiac, Danielle Collobert, Jean Daive, Claude Royet-Journoud, Anne Portugal, Jacques Roubaud, Jacques Jouet… We will read some manifesto-like works, a few secondary essays; we will receive a visit or two from poet-translators.

For a term project, each student will compose her/his own anthology—making an individual selection of poets, introducing each briefly and choosing one or two poems for each.

Prerequisites:
Students must have either previously completed French 102 or its equivalent, or be concurrently enrolled in French 102. For additional placement information please see Placement Guidelines.

Additional information:

Satisfies L & S breadth requirement in Arts and Literature.

This course is designated as "W" (writing intensive) in the French major.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Hult, David

Readings:
See course description.

Course Description:
The Black Plague, the Hundred Years’ War, serve as the gruesome backdrop for one of the richest periods of creation in the aristocratic tradition of courtly poetry and romance, extending from the mid-fourteenth to the late fifteenth century. Were the light and frivolous fictions of love and seduction merely an escapist fantasy, a way of thinking of things other than death and disease, or is there a darker side to these fictions? In the course of the semester, we will study lyric and narrative works by some of the best-known court authors of the period: Guillaume de Machaut, Christine de Pizan, Charles d’Orléans, Alain Chartier, and François Villon, as well as some anonymous works reflecting the growing importance of a bourgeois economic and literary sensibility: the satiric Quinze Joyes du mariage and the brilliant Farce de Maître Pierre Pathelin. Class discussion and readings in French.

Prerequisites:
French 102 or consent of the instructor. No previous knowledge of Medieval French is required or expected, though we will read some works in the original.

Additional information:
This course satisfies one Historical Period requirement in the French major. Satisfies L & S breadth requirement in Arts and Literature.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Blocker, Déborah

Readings:
Honoré d’Urfé, L’Astrée (extraits); Saint-Amant, Oeuvres (extraits); Descartes, Discours de la Méthode, Corneille, Le Cid et quelques extraits de la querelle qui suivit (Scudéry, Guez de Balzac et Chapelain) ; Molière, Les Femmmes Savantes, Mme de Lafayette, La Princesse de Clèves et quelques extraits de la querelle qui suivit (Fontenelle, Valincour , Charnes) ; Fontenelle, Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes.

Course Description:
Ce cours est une introduction aux pratiques littéraires du XVIIe siècle français. Son présupposé premier est que la « littérature » n’est pas une réalité intemporelle mais un ensemble de pratiques culturelles dont il est possible d’acquérir une compréhension historique – avec pour hypothèse complémentaire que le XVIIe siècle français a constitué, dans l’invention de ce que nous appelons aujourd’hui « littérature », un moment-clé.
 Le propos invite donc les étudiants à s’interroger, dans le cours de ce siècle, sur les modalités de l’institution sociale et politique d’un ensemble de manières d\'écrire et de lire qui sont encore pour partie les nôtres. L\'attention des étudiants est en particulier attirée sur les moyens textuels par lesquels les littérateurs s\'efforcèrent alors de définir leurs fonctions dans l\'espace social ainsi que sur les mécanismes par lesquels leurs textes tentèrent de circonscrire des publics. Les enjeux sociaux et politiques de ces pratiques textuelles sont parallèlement analysées, notamment au travers d’une étude des formes de patronage des gens de lettres. Enfin, une attention toute particulière est accordée aux polémiques lettrées, en tant qu’espaces d’interlocution où surgirent des manières de penser la « littérature ». Pour se donner les moyens de saisir l’émergence de pratiques d’écriture et de publication qui seraient spécifiquement « littéraires » sans partir d’une définition a priori de la « littérature » , la démarche ne se limite pas aux registres fictionnels mais s’ouvre à des textes de contenu philosophique et scientifique.  Enfin, l’accent est mis aussi souvent que possible sur la présentation matérielle des textes dans leurs éditions du XVIIe siècle. Les étudiants sont ainsi introduits à l’histoire du livre, qui permet souvent de préciser les modalités de circulation des textes étudiés.
Ce cours ne demande aucune connaissance préalable de la littérature du XVIIe siècle français. Il mettra par ailleurs l’accent sur l’apprentissage sur deux types de savoir-faire académiques: 1) celui de l’exposé oral, 2) celui de la composition écrite (avec notamment des exercices de <i>peer-editing</i> et de réécriture).

This course is designated as a “W” (Writing-intensive) course in the French major sequence.

Prerequisites:
French 102 or consent of Instructor.

Additional information:
This course satisfies one Historical Period requirement in the French major. Satisfies L & S breadth requirement in Arts and Literature.  Priority enrollment for declared French majors.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Sanyal, Debarati

Readings:
Primary Texts:

Victor Hugo, Le Dernier jour d’un condamné and selected poems;
Balzac, La Fille aux yeux d’or;
Charles Baudelaire, “Tableaux parisiens” in Les Fleurs du mal, Le Spleen de Paris;
Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary;
Short stories by Maupassant, Zola, Barbey d’Aurevilly, Rachilde

Course Description:
De la vaporisation et de la cristallisation du moi. Tout est là.

Paris change! Mais rien dans ma mélancolie
N’a bougé.

Charles Baudelaire


This course is an inquiry into constructions of identity and desire in nineteenth-century French literature. How do the enchantments and disenchantments of modernity produce new visions of selfhood and its projections into the world? In what distinctive ways does an “I” emerge from the crossroads of the modern city? How are passions for experience, people and things shaped by the horizon of modernization, including patterns of consumption, the fascination for fashion and commodities, the acceleration of time, the dissemination of print literature? How does the literary experience become a site for experimenting on identity and desire? We will pursue these questions through close readings of Balzac, Hugo, Baudelaire, Flaubert and others.

Prerequisites:
French 102 or consent of the instructor.

Additional information:
Satisfies L & S breadth requirement in Arts and Literature.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

McLaughlin, Mairi

Readings:
Hervey, Sándor and Ian Higgins. Thinking French Translation, 2nd edn

Course Description:
The discipline known as ‘translation studies’ is a relatively new field and yet it has much to offer the practicing translator. This course brings together aspects of translation theory and translation methodology in order to develop our skills as translators. During the course we will translate both from French into English and from English into French, paying particular attention to the linguistic differences between the two languages that pose problems for translators. One of the main theoretical and methodological questions addressed by the course is how the practice of translation varies according to genre: from the translation of poetry, through scientific translation to subtitles and dubbing in film.

Prerequisites:
French 102 or consent of the instructor.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Kern, Richard

Readings:
Léon, P., & Bhatt, P. Structure du français moderne: Introduction à l’analyse linguistique, 3e édition; Kerbrat-Orecchioni, Catherine. La conversation.

Course Description:
Ce cours est destiné aux étudiant(e)s qui désirent se familiariser avec les bases de la linguistique française. Aucune expérience en linguistique n’est requise, mais une bonne connaissance du français parlé et écrit s’impose. Le cours abordera les domaines principaux de la linguistique : la phonétique et la phonologie, la morphologie, la syntaxe, la sémantique, et la pragmatique, ainsi qu’une briève introduction à la sociolinguistique. Le but sera de présenter des concepts et des outils essentiels qui permettront une exploration ultérieure plus approfondie. Nous commencerons par un bref survol historique pour encadrer la discussion de notions telles que « langue », « langage », « signe », « mot », « phrase » et « grammaire ». Ensuite nous explorerons les sous-disciplines indiqués ci-dessus, avec des exercices pratiques pour concrétiser les principes présentés en classe et dans le manuel. Nous considérerons les différences (considérables !) entre le français parlé et le français écrit, nous étudierons la langue dans le contexte de son emploi dans la communication, et nous finirons par appliquer des approches linguistiques à l’analyse de la conversation.

Prerequisites:
French 102 or consent of the instructor.

Additional information:
Satisfies L & S breadth requirement in Social and Behavioral Sciences.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Smock, Ann

Readings:
Kaplan, Leslie. Depuis maintenant; Miss Nobody Knows; Ndiayé, Marie. Rosie Carpe;
Bessora. 53 cm; Quintane, Nathalie. Antonia Bellivetti; Angot, Christine. Le marché des amants

Course Description:
In this course we will take an exploratory look at the fiction that is coming out now in France. Our tactic will consist in selecting five recent novels, each by a woman. All the authors live and write in France; one was born in the U.S., one in Gabon; one, born in France, is of Senegalese parentage.

One of the works is by a writer usually thought of as a poet (Nathalie Quintane): she says her novel is written for youth, meaning not that it’s for youthful readers (on the contrary), but that it’s for the young—it takes their side in life. Another of the novels (the one by Leslie Kaplan) bears on the events of May ’68. Another (by Bessora) is a satirical ethnography of French society and culture conducted by an immigrant in quest of a carte de séjour. Christine Angot, the author of the fourth novel we’ll read, became famous upon the publication in 1999 of L’inceste . A sharp writer among her contemporaries, Mathieu Lindon, says of Angot that she means to mix her life and her books together more than anyone has ever managed to do before. Of Marie Ndiayé, the fourth writer we’ll encouter, Lindon writes that for her characters, being born doesn’t suffice to bring them into the world. Not that they are ghosts. But they ask the world in vain to give them a transfusion of normality.

In addition to short writing assignments, the work for this course will involve searching current media for as much and as varied information as possible about one particular author, and compiling a useful packet of this material.

Prerequisites:
French 102 or consent of the instructor

Additional information:
Satisfies L & S breadth requirement in Arts and Literature.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Britto, Karl

Readings:
See course description.

Course Description:
In this course, we will read a number of literary texts produced by authors writing from various geographic locations and cultural positions (including North and sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, and Canada, as well as colonial and postcolonial France). In our discussions, we will be particularly attentive to the ways in which these texts foreground the figure of the writer and explore different practices and forms of writing. As we read, we will try to understand how the authors under consideration position writing alongside other modes of transmitting stories and histories, and how an analysis of their texts can elucidate the complex ties that link writing to a range of intersecting topics: colonial and postcolonial violence, gender and sexuality, national and individual identity. Readings will include Ferdinand Oyono, Une vie de boy; Mariama Bâ, Une si longue lettre; Myriam Warner-Vieyra, Juletane; Gisèle Pineau, L’exil selon Julia; Driss Chraïbi, Les boucs; Azouz Begag, Le gone du Chaâba; Farida Belghoul, Georgette!; Michel Tremblay, Des nouvelles d’Edouard.

Prerequisites:
French 102 or consent of the instructor.

Additional information:

Satisfies L & S breadth requirement in Arts and Literature.

This course is designated as an ""R"" (Research-Oriented) course in the French major sequence.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Tlatli, Soraya

Readings:
See course description.

Course Description:
Un courant historique récent ne cherche plus seulement à expliquer la manière dont la France a établi et maintenu son empire colonial au cours des dix-neuvième et vingtième siècles. Il explique plutôt la manière dont l’identité idéologique de la République française a été transformée en profondeur par la création de l’empire colonial. La perspective change donc radicalement, car il ne s’agit plus d’étudier l’impact de la colonisation française sur son empire, mais plutôt l’influence de la colonisation sur l’identité collective de la France. Ce changement d’identité est perceptible aussi bien dans la définition même de la République française qui a été modifiée par les guerres de décolonisation, que dans la société française contemporaine à travers l’impact de la deuxième génération d’immigration maghrébine. La période historique que nous couvrirons s’étend du dix-neuvième siècle (avec un bref survol des conquêtes coloniales) jusqu’aux guerres de décolonisation en Afrique du Nord du milieu du vingtième-siècle. Enfin, nous nous arrêterons plus particulièrement à la récente critique contemporaine de l’empire français du point de vue de ses anciennes colonies. A travers ce schéma historique, les questions principales qui nous guideront seront les suivantes: quelles sont les raisons du motif du retour de la question coloniale dans les débats publics en France? Comment interpréter les transformations de l’identité nationale française? Nous lirons les extraits des textes historiques et sociologiques suivants: La guerre des mémoires : La France face à son passé colonial, de Benjamin Stora, Nègre je suis, nègre je resterai; Discours sur le colonialisme d’Aimé Césaire, La République coloniale, essai sur une utopie, de Nicolas Bancel, Pascal Blanchard, Françoise Vergès, Culture post-coloniale 1961-2006: Traces et mémoires coloniales en France, de Abdourahman-A Waberi, Banlieue, lendemains de révolte de Clémentine Autain, Stéphane Beaud, Alain Bertho. Parmi les textes littéraires que nous lirons: Le premier Homme, d’Albert Camus, et Le Maboul de Jean Pélégri. Nous étudierons aussi les déclarations et manifestes sur le “web” de groupements et comités tels que: “Les indigènes de la républiques”, “Ni P… ni Soumises”, “Les Indivisibles”, “Le Comité pour la mémoire de l’esclavage”.

Prerequisites:
French 102 or consent of the instructor

Additional information:
Satisfies L & S breadth requirement in Social and Behavioral Sciences or Historical Studies.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Dutoit, Ulysse

Readings:
Journot, Le vocabulaire du cinéma; Pinel, Le montage; Siety, Le plan

Course Description:
L'inverti: A quoi penses-tu, Geneviève?
Geneviève: Je pense à un mot de Chamfort que je considère presque comme un précepte.
L'inverti: Et que dit-il ton Chamfort?
Geneviève: Il dit que l'amour dans la société c'est l'échange de deux fantaisies et le contact de deux épidermes...
-- in La Règle du jeu, by Jean Renoir

This course will consider cinema as the art of movement, and violence and sensuality as manifestations of this movement. We will study the basic vocabulary of cinematographic language using films by Renoir, Vigo, Resnais and Godard. The interactions of the different mechanisms of film language will allow us to explore the creation of non-passive cinema. In addition to scheduled course meetings there is a weekly screening.

Prerequisites:
French 102 or consent of instructor. Film Studies students should consult the instructor about French language preparation and prerequisites.

Additional information:
Weekly film screening (required): Wednesdays 4-6 in B4 Dwinelle. Satisfies L & S breadth requirement in Arts and Literature.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes