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.

McLaughlin, Mairi

Readings:
Posner, R. (1996) The Romance Languages, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Course Description:
This course explores the development of the Romance language family from its origins in Latin through to the contemporary varieties. Although the development of languages such as French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese is a major focus of the course, attention is also paid to lesser-known varieties such as Sardinian, Rumanian and the so-called Romance-based Creoles. The aim of the course is to develop a broad understanding of the linguistic changes that led to the development of the modern Romance languages. Central questions include the factors (both internal and external) that led to linguistic change, and the genetic relationships between the languages.

There are two main components to the course: first, the study of the linguistic evolution of the Romance languages, considered at four levels (phonology, morphology, syntax and lexis) and second, the analysis of a variety of Romance texts from the 1st century BCE to the 21st century. The wealth of documentation from Latin and early Romance through to the present day makes this language family an ideal testing ground for linguistic theory.

Prerequisites:
Knowledge of at least 2 Romance languages (this could include Latin or less frequently-studied Romance varieties such as Sardinian & ‘Romance-based’ Creoles)

Additional information:
This course is required of all students in the Romance Languages and Literatures PhD program. Also listed as Italian Studies C201 and Spanish C202.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Hult, David

Readings:
La Chanson de Roland, ed. I. Short; Le Roman de la Rose, ed. Strubal; Chrétien de Troyes, Romans; Tristan et Iseut, ed. P. Walter; Kibler, Introduction to Old French

Course Description:
Introduction to the study of medieval French language and literature of the 12th and 13th centuries. Through a careful analysis and critical interpretation of certain canonical works (La Chanson de Roland; Béroul and Thomas, Tristan; selected lais of Marie de France; selected romans of Chrétien de Troyes; Le Roman de la Rose) we will study Old French language and some main dialects; verse and prose composition; theories of the oral tradition; editorial problems; and the material aspects of the manuscript work (including some work on codicology and paleography). Class will be conducted in English.

Additional information:
No previous knowledge of Old French language or literature is expected. This course fulfills the Medieval Literature component of the historical coverage requirement.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Hampton, Timothy

Readings:
Joachim du Bellay, Les Regrets (NRF “Poésie”); Pierre de Ronsard, Les Amours (Garnier-Flammarion); Pierre de Ronsard, Discours, derniers vers (Garnier-Flammarion).

Course Description:
In this seminar we will study the work of the first avant-garde movement in French literature. This is the so-called “Pléiade,” the group of poets that came to prominence in the middle years of the sixteenth century and redefined French culture as a secular, imperial enterprise. We will devote much of our time to the work of Ronsard and Du Bellay, the two best-known members of this group, but we will want to look as well at lesser-known figures such as Baïf, Belleau, and Tyard, who aimed, not merely to reinvent French poetry and poetics, but to revise orthography, metrics, and the relationship between literature and the other arts. We will use our reading of these authors to discuss a number of literary historical topics relevant to the study of avant-garde literature more generally. Among the topics to be discussed: how do literary movements define their “grouphood”? What constitutes a literary “generation”? How does one go about breaking with literary tradition or “overthrowing the past”? How does literary modernity intersect with political modernity? How does gender figure into the invention of a “modern” poetry? What is the role of different genres or artistic forms (including music and the visual arts) in the establishment of a “modern” poetics? What is the relationship between literary vanguardism and new media (in this case, the new medium of printing)? We will also use the seminar as a workshop to help develop our critical writing. The course should offer both an introduction to the Renaissance in France and an investigation of the development of French poetry at one of its most dynamic and experimental moments.

Additional information:
Readings will be in French; class discussion in English.

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Blocker, Déborah

Readings:
Georges de Scudéry, Apologie du théâtre (1636), D’Aubignac, Pratique du théâtre (1657) (extraits) ; Pierre Corneille, Polyeucte et Théodore vierge et martyre ; Jean Rotrou, Le Véritable Saint Genest ; Molière, Tartuffe et Don Juan et les textes des querelles qui suivirent; André Rivet, Instruction chrestienne touchant les spectacles publics des comédies et tragedies (1639); Jean-François Senault, Le Monarque ou les Devoirs du souverain (1661) (sous réserve); Pierre Nicole, Traité de la Comédie (1667); Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, Maximes et réflexions sur la comédie (1690-1694); Pierre Le Brun, Discours sur la comédie (1694); Jean Racine, Esther et Athalie.

Course Description:
Le siècle dit ‘classique’ est souvent associé, dans l’histoire littéraire de la France, avec l’apogée du genre théâtral. Ce qu’on sait souvent moins c’est que la pratique du théâtre fut, dès avant le XVIIe et jusqu’à la fin de l’Ancien Régime, une pratique contestée, tout particulièrement de la part de ceux qu’on appelait alors les ‘dévots’, c’est-à-dire par variété d’acteurs sociaux ayant pour point commun de présenter leurs prises de positions comme une expression de leur foi (protestants, jansénistes, oratoriens, mais aussi catholiques se revendiquant d’une étroite orthodoxie). Le fait que ces conflits sur les spectacles n’opposent pas seulement ‘le théâtre’, d’un côté, et ‘l’Église’, de l’autre, mais engagent étroitement la monarchie elle-même, est aussi fréquemment négligé. Or le théâtre, comme ensemble de pratiques sociales, ne s’est en réalité vu légitimé dans la France du premier XVIIe qu’au travers d’une série d’actions conduites par des individus qui servaient le pouvoir royal. Et il ne s’agissait pas seulement là d’actions s’efforçant de favoriser le développement d’un ‘art’, mais bien aussi d’interventions par lesquels leurs auteurs espéraient contrôler le théâtre, afin de mieux le mettre au service d’une monarchie toujours plus soucieuse des représentations qu’elle donnait d’elle-même.

Ce séminaire propose dès lors aux étudiants d’analyser les rapports complexes qu’ont entretenu, dans le XVIIe siècle français, la monarchie, les spectacles qu’elle favorisait ou proposait, et les hommes et femmes qui contestaient ouvertement la pratique du théâtre. À cette fin, seront examinés une grande variété de textes et de documents, que nous lirons avec la même attention, quoiqu’ils soient de statuts différents : pièces sacrées, pièces de ville, pièces de cour, mais aussi écrits de poétique et textes polémiquant contre le théâtre. Et, dans nos discussions, les considérations d’histoire littéraire voisineront sans cesse avec un effort de contextualisation ancré dans l’histoire sociale et politique.

On se demandera notamment : 1) qu’est-ce qui peut expliquer la quasi-disparition de la tragédie sacrée de la scène française après la Fronde ? ; 2) comment comprendre que les adversaires du théâtre soient si peu actifs dans la première moitié du siècle alors que, dans la seconde moitié, deux polémiques majeures ont éclaté (1664-1669 et 1690-1694) ? ; 3) quelles sont les motivations de cet ensemble de personnalités disparates qui s’attaquent au théâtre – et s’attaquent-ils en fait seulement au théâtre ? 4) plus généralement, comment comprendre les liens qui existaient entre le pouvoir monarchique et la pratique du théâtre au XVIIe siècle, et en quoi avoir une meilleure idées de ces liens pourrait-t-il nous aider à mieux appréhender la production théâtrale de ce temps ?

Ce séminaire aura lieu en français. Il ne demande aucune connaissance historique préalable, mais les étudiants en profiteront mieux s’ils sont désireux d’apprendre à inscrire les textes qu’ils abordent dans une histoire ou, sans doute plus exactement, dans des histoires. Par, ailleurs, parce que certains des auteurs mis au programme figurent sur la liste des lectures exigées pour l’examen de maîtrise, le séminaire apportera une aide non négligeable à ceux qui doivent préparer cet examen dans les semestres qui viennent. Enfin, l’accent sera mis sur l’apprentissage d’une variété de techniques d’analyse et recherche, avec la production d’un essai de fin de semestre.

Additional information:
This course fulfills 1 of the 3 early modern components of the historical coverage requirement.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Tlatli, Soraya

Readings:
Nous lirons donc, parmi d’autres, les récits de Flaubert, Nerval, Hugo, Maupassant, Fromentin et Djebar, ainsi que les textes théoriques de Mbembe, Spivak, Balibar et Amselle.

Course Description:
Ce séminaire sera organisé selon trois axes conceptuels et littéraires. Dans un premier moment, nous lirons les récits fondateurs de la littérature orientaliste qui, conjointement avec la peinture, a contribué à façonner l’imaginaire occidental sur l’Orient. Nous analyserons ensuite un ensemble de théories postcolonialistes et en particulier L’Orientalisme d’Edward Said qui s’est appuyé en partie sur ces récits orientalistes pour illustrer ses concepts : nous confronterons ainsi la litterature orientaliste à la théorie postcoloniale. La question qui guidera nos analyses littéraires et théoriques sera de situer les lignes de résistance de la fiction orientaliste face à ces diverses conceptualisations. Finalement, nous procéderons à une analyse comparée des significations diverses ou même divergentes de la notion de postcolonialisme en France et dans le monde anglo-saxon, aussi bien a travers les textes littéraires que leurs interprétations critiques. Tandis qu’en France la question du postcolonial se ramène souvent à une tardive confrontation de la République avec son héritage colonial, liée à des enjeux de mémoire, elle signifie plutôt outre-atlantique une remise en cause radicale des modèles idéologiques issus de la rationalité occidentale.

Additional information:
This course fulfills 1 of the 3 modern components of the historical coverage requirement.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes

Lucey, Michael

Readings:
We will accompany our reading of theoretical and critical works with the reading of a set of literary texts, mostly drawn from the French Department's MA Reading list, probably including Flaubert's Madame Bovary and L'éducation sentimentale, Sartre's La Nausée, Sarraute's L'usage de la parole and Césaire's Cahier d'un retour au pays natal. Critical and theoretical readings by Saussure, Jakobson, Lévi-Strauss, Genette, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, Geertz, Darnton, Bourdieu, etc.

Course Description:
We will spend the first half of the semester beginning to form an acquaintance with two of the major intellectual currents in 20th-century French thought, Structuralism and Phenomenology. In particular, we will be investigating their relevance to the study of literary and other cultural objects. In the second half of the semester, we will examine a number of different intellectual currents that could all loosely be called ""post-structuralist"" (not a particularly useful term overall, it should be pointed out), or perhaps even ""post-phenomenological"" (probably not that useful either) and that, making use of elements drawn from the structuralist and/or phenomenological traditions, have to do with methods for grappling with a literary object's historical and cultural context, or with different ways of thinking about the text/context dyad.

Additional information:
This course fulfills the Literary Criticism requirement.

section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes