Fall 2020

Reading and Composition (R&C)

Immigration and its Representation in Contemporary France
R1B (section 1) : English Composition through French Literature in Translation
Fall 2020
Class No: 21793
remote, synchronous
TuTh
P. Lyons
9:30-11
Readings/Films:

Leila Sebbar – The Seine Was Red (1999)

Alain Mabanckou – Blue White Red (1998)

Fatou Dimoe – The Belly of the Atlantic (2003)

Mati Diop – Atlantics (2019)

Plus an e-reader (available in print upon request) of secondary materials.

Course Description:

In this course we will examine a series of artworks and cultural artifacts that explore various figurations of ‘illegality’ in France. Set in part against the backdrop of French immigration politics from the 1990’s forward, we will investigate how and why certain individuals become ensnared within frameworks of illegality, the practical and material effects it takes upon the quality of their lives, and various resistant practices that allow them to work against the law to carve out provisional spaces of endurance and persistence. In part, this course will question whether being ‘illegal’ is the same as being ‘outside of the law,’ and what types of racial, moral, or national presuppositions determine how we imagine ‘illegality’ as a concept.

We will begin in the immediate present by considering the work and writings of the activist group, the ‘Black Vests,’ a radical collective agitating for the rights of the undocumented in France under the shadow of COVID-19. The words of the Black Vests on race, exclusion and heightened exposure to violence and contagion will provide us with indispensable vocabulary as we begin to think about what it means for persons to be decreed illegal. From here, we turn back in time to Leila Sebbar’s The Seine was Red: October 1961 (1999), which explores the police massacre of several hundred Algerians during an illegal protest in Paris, breaking a police-curfew. Sebbar’s novel poses important questions about the limits of legality, martial, and colonial law.

We will then turn forward historically to the sans-papiers movements of the 1990’s, and the immigration law developments that precipitated them. Our first novel will be Alain Mabanckou’s Blue White Red (1998), which deals with the lives of undocumented immigrants working in Paris. Mabanckou’s depiction of the legal frameworks surrounding immigration, clandestine life, and expulsion will provide us with a first occasion to reflect on literature as a mode of critically staging the production of illegality. Our final novel will be The Belly of the Atlantic (2003) by Fatou Diome, which will invite us to consider stories of both successful and failed clandestine immigration to France from Senegal. It will be accompanied by a screening of Mati Diop’s Atlantics (2019), which confronts the same issue, by means of a ghost story.

We will conclude the course by going on a virtual tour of the recent art exposition When Home Won’t Let You Stay (2020), whose artworks confront themes of immigration, illegality, and expulsion. Each student will be asked to pick an artwork to research further and present to the class.

Additional information:

French R1B fulfills the second half of the Reading and Composition Requirement in the College of Letters and Science. Classes conducted in ENGLISH.

Fiber Optics: Textile Practice in French Literature and Art
R1A (section 1) : English Composition through French Literature in Translation
Fall 2020
Class No: 34431
remote, synchronous
TuTh
V. Bergstrom
9:30-11
Readings/Films:

To be announced in course syllabus.

Course Description:

In this course, we will be investigating the place of textile practice in (predominantly French) literature and art. In the first half of the course, we will read texts in which practices of weaving, stitching, knitting and knotting feature prominently. In the visual arts, we will focus on how textile work gets situated within and in exclusion from fine art contexts. Taking full account of the gendered and often racially-charged intersection of “arts and crafts” and fine art (domestic sphere vs. worldly sphere, indigenous practices as aesthetic objects), we will trace the relevance of the fiber arts to representations of female simplicity/complexity and to the material horizons for expression and recognition for women and racialized Others. In addition to this thematic work, the second half of the course will transform our awareness of textile practices into reading strategies that will help us analyze texts and films whose complex structures can be productively approached through ideas of weaving, patching, pleating, etc.

This course is designed to fulfill the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement. The primary goal of this course is to develop students’ reading and writing skills through a series of assignments that will provide them with the opportunity to formulate observations made in class discussions into coherent argumentative essays. Emphasis will be placed on the refinement of effective sentence, paragraph, and thesis formation, keeping in mind the idea of writing as a process.

Additional information:

French R1A fulfills the first half of the Reading and Composition Requirement in the College of Letters and Science. Classes conducted in ENGLISH.

Evil and the Satanic from Prometheus to Camus
R1B (section 2) : English Composition through French Literature in Translation
Fall 2020
Class No: 21794
remote, synchronous
TuTh
S. Rogghe
11-12:30
Readings/Films:

Books:

Goethe, Faust ISBN-10 019953621X

Dostoevsky, The Grand Inquisitor ISBN-10: 0872201937

Camus, The Stranger ISBN-10: 0679720200
Course Reader including excerpts from:

Euripides, The Bacchae

Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound

Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy

Nietzsche, Beyond Good & Evil

Rimbaud, A Season in Hell

Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil

Lautréamont, The Songs of Maldoror

Hannah Arendt, The Banality of Evil

+ Relevant critical essays

Course Description:

“… that power which eternally wills evil and eternally works good:” ~Goethe

In this course, we will look at different interpretations of “evil,” from the grotesquely Satanic to the mundanely banal. Starting with Greek Antiquity, we will see how man’s “animal nature,” as embodied by the god Dionysus, later becomes demonized, culminating in the image of Luciferian rebellion we find in the 19th century, and eventually turning into banality as we make our way into the 20th century.

In our encounter with the satanic, we will also consider it as an essential pole in the human struggle: moral dilemma, good versus evil, true knowledge versus blind obedience – these conflicts make up our human condition, and we will see how these contradictions recur in different forms in the texts we read. Alongside literary texts, we will read theoretical essays that help us think about key topics in these texts, expressing points of view we may argue against, agree with, or take as points of departure for our own, personal struggle with the complexity of good and evil.

Because this is a writing course, student writing will be examined and dissected in group discussions and in smaller peer review groups, as a way to provide constructive feedback and learn from each other’s writing. In addition, we will also address methods for doing critical research, including exercises devoted to library resources and bibliographical information.

Additional information:

French R1B fulfills the second half of the Reading and Composition Requirement in the College of Letters and Science. Classes conducted in ENGLISH.

Undergraduate Courses 

English Composition in Connection with the Reading of Literature (Session D)
FRENCH R1B
Fall 2020
Class No: 13688
Internet/Online
Mo, Tu, We, Th, Fr
10:00 am - 11:59 am
This course is designed to fulfill the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement. The primary goal of this course is to develop students' reading and writing skills; a series of assignments will allow them to formulate observations made in class discussions into coherent argumentative essays. Emphasis will be placed on the refinement of effective sentence, paragraph, and thesis formation, keeping in mind the notion of writing as a process. Other goals in this course are a familiarization with French literature and the specific questions that are relevant to this field. In addition, students will be introduced to different methods of literary and linguistic analysis in their nonliterary readings.

Freshman Seminar
24
Fall 2020
Class No: 28001
Th
2-3 pm

The History of French Cinema
24 : Freshman Seminar
Fall 2020
Class No: 33839
remote, synchronous
F
D. Young
2-3
In this freshman seminar, we will watch and discuss major works from the history of French-language cinema, a great rival to and influence on American cinema since the origins of the medium. While paying close attention to the aesthetic strategies of different film movements—spanning narrative, documentary, and experimental—we will approach cinema as one of the key cultural technologies of the twentieth century, shaping modern ideas and experiences of race, class, gender, sexuality, love, the family, the nation, friendship, and life under capitalism.

On the basis of a weekly screening, we will focus particularly on how cinema has both generated normative fantasies of gender, nation, and race, and been deployed in feminist, queer, and postcolonial struggle in the French-speaking world. Since all films are subtitled, knowledge of French is not required.

Additional Information:

Course limited to Fall 2020 first-year students. Weekly screening of films will be available for streaming.

43B : Aspects of French Culture
Fall 2020
Class No: 23922
remote, synchronous
TuTh
D. Sanyal
11-12:30
In this course we will follow the journeys of refugees attempting to cross borders into Europe. Using contemporary film, fiction, photography, the press, virtual reality platforms and other experimental forms of visual art, we will explore the experiences and stories of those on the move.

How are people fleeing violence trapped by land and sea borders? How do they confront and challenge these borders? How do their attempts to cross borders invent new ways of thinking about place and belonging? How is our view of the “refugee crisis” and the “immigrant threat” shaped by imagery in the media? How might artworks change these visions? We will also consider border technology, modes of surveillance, encampment and detention, the asylum process, resettlement and sanctuary.

Some but not all of the works we will study are from the French-speaking world. Readings include Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West, UC Berkeley’s featured book for On the Same Page (free copies for Fall 2020 Freshmen).

Films include Ai Weiwei, Human Flow, Philippe Lioret, Welcome, Crouzillat and Toura, The Messengers, Sidibé and Siebert, Those Who Jump, Audiard, Dheepan.

Additional Information:

Course offered in English; knowledge of French not required.

The Cultural History of Paris
80
Fall 2020
Class No: 26218
remote, synchronous
TuTh
E. Colon
9:30-11

Readings/Films:

See description.

Course Description:

This class will offer students an in-depth exploration of the urban artifact that is Paris. That is, rather than attending to a selection of events having transpired in Paris over its history, we will be proceeding “forensically,” peeling back what is visible to today’s observer in order to uncover the competing ambitions, economic pressures, and ideologies that have produced one of the most visited cities in the world. Thus, students can expect to gain knowledge of the city’s built environment and how and why it looks like it does. We will be reading a variety of texts (novels, plays, and memoirs or parts thereof; poems; ephemeral pieces; selections from architectural, historical and sociological studies), viewing a number of films, and looking at a lot of visual works (paintings, engravings, maps).

Additional Information:

Course taught in English; knowledge of French not required.

Advanced Reading and Writing Workshop (Session D -- 6 weeks)
102
Fall 2020
Class No: 15199
Online (synchronous via Zoom)
M-Th
Vesna Rodic
10:00 AM - 11:59 AM
Readings:
Course Reader; other readings as assigned by Instructor

Course Description:
French 102 is the gateway course to the upper division in French. Students build on the solid foundation in the language and culture acquired in French 1-4 by broadening and deepening their ability to read and write about French texts in an academic context.

Students read a selection of works from different media and genres including short stories, poems, plays, letters, essays, paintings and films. Through close reading, students develop their analytical ability in French, paying particular attention to the different kinds of choices that writers make, and how these choices contribute to the making of meaning. Students also develop their skills as writers of academic French, focusing both on the content of their written work and on its form.

By the end of the course, students are ready to meet the reading and writing requirements of upper division courses in the French department.

Prerequisites:
French 4 at UC Berkeley. Students who have taken the equivalent of a third-year college-level French course elsewhere may enroll in French 102, and should contact the French Undergraduate Advising Office at frendept@berkeley.edu to confirm placement.

Additional information:
French 102 is the sole prerequisite to all UCB French courses numbered 103 and above. Course open to non-native speakers of French only. Course conducted in French. Satisfies 1 course requirement in French major or French minor.

Reading and Writing in French (section 1)
102
Fall 2020
Class No: 21808
remote, synchronous
MWF
S. Maslan
10-11
Readings:

Course Reader; other readings as assigned by Instructor

Course Description:

French 102 is the gateway course to the upper division in French. Students build on the solid foundation in the language and culture acquired in French 1-4 by broadening and deepening their ability to read and write about French texts in an academic context.

Students read a selection of works from different media and genres including short stories, poems, plays, letters, essays, paintings and films. Through close reading, students develop their analytical ability in French, paying particular attention to the different kinds of choices that writers make, and how these choices contribute to the making of meaning. Students also develop their skills as writers of academic French, focusing both on the content of their written work and on its form.

By the end of the course, students are ready to meet the reading and writing requirements of upper division courses in the French department.

Prerequisites:

French 4 at UC Berkeley. Students who have taken the equivalent of a third-year college-level French course elsewhere may enroll in French 102, and should contact the French Undergraduate Advising Office at frendept@berkeley.edu to confirm placement.

Additional information:

French 102 is the sole prerequisite to all UCB French courses numbered 103 and above. Course open to non-native speakers of French only. Course conducted in French.

Reading and Writing in French (section 2)
102
Fall 2020
Class No: 21809
remote, synchronous
TuTh
M. McLaughlin
11-12:30
Readings:

Course Reader; other readings as assigned by Instructor

Course Description:

French 102 is the gateway course to the upper division in French. Students build on the solid foundation in the language and culture acquired in French 1-4 by broadening and deepening their ability to read and write about French texts in an academic context.

Students read a selection of works from different media and genres including short stories, poems, plays, letters, essays, paintings and films. Through close reading, students develop their analytical ability in French, paying particular attention to the different kinds of choices that writers make, and how these choices contribute to the making of meaning. Students also develop their skills as writers of academic French, focusing both on the content of their written work and on its form.

By the end of the course, students are ready to meet the reading and writing requirements of upper division courses in the French department.

Prerequisites:

French 4 at UC Berkeley. Students who have taken the equivalent of a third-year college-level French course elsewhere may enroll in French 102, and should contact the French Undergraduate Advising Office at frendept@berkeley.edu to confirm their placement level.

Additional information:

French 102 is the sole prerequisite to all UCB French courses numbered 103 and above. Course open to non-native speakers of French only. Course conducted in French.

Writing and Filming the French Empire
103A : Language and Culture
Fall 2020
Class No: 21819
remote, synchronous
MWF
S. Tlatli
11-12

Readings/Films:

A reader will be available at Copy Central.

Course Description:

This class is an historical and literary survey of French colonialism during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will first explore the main ideological aspects of French colonialism based on a reading of the anthology edited by Blanchard and Lemaire, Culture coloniale en France de la Révolution française à nos jours. We will then analyze a few literary texts such as L’amant by Duras, Le premier homme by Camus, and Oran Langue morte, by Djebar. We will also explore the importance of cinema in the resistance against colonialism, in films such as: “La Bataille d’Alger,” “Avoir vingt ans dans les Aures,” “Drawning by bullets,” and “Indigènes.”

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 1 “Elective” requirement in the French major. Satisfies course requirement in French Minor.

Course may be taken by students concurrently enrolled in French 102.

Poetry and Politics in Renaissance France, from Clément Marot to François de Malherbe (1530-1630)
116A : Sixteenth-Century Literature
Fall 2020
Class No: 31595
remote, synchronous
MWF
D. Blocker
10-11
Readings/Films:

Clément Marot, selections from L’Adolescence clémentine (1532) and other works; Joachim du Bellay, Les Regrets (1558), Le Poète courtisan (1559) and excerpts of La Défense et illustration de la langue française (1564); Pierre de Ronsard, selections from Les Amours (1552-1584) and Discours (1562-1563), Agrippa d’Aubigné, selections from Les Tragiques (1616 ; books 1, 2 and 5), Francois de Malherbe, selections from his Poésies (1630).

Course Description:

This class explores wide selections of the works of five major 16th century French poets (Clément Marot, Joachim du Bellay, Pierre de Ronsard, Agrippa d’Aubigné and François de Malherbe), examining both how they relate to power in their writings and in what ways their positions as court poets allowed them to work towards the renewal of French poetry more generally. Their poetry is read in modernized editions, with a focus on careful close-reading and contextualization, rather than on reading exhaustively.

Throughout the second half of the 16th century, the violence generated by the wars of religion consistently weakened the authority of the French kings, sometimes making it difficult for them to sustain around them a court. Yet the last Valois kings just as much as the first Bourbon monarch, Henri IV of France, consistently maintained, in their immediate entourage, court poets, whose poetry was for them a source of intellectual prestige, as well as a way to assert the unity and power of the French monarchy during a time of turmoil. These poets were often eager to serve their powerful patrons, but they were also desirous to develop new poetic language — and enthusiastic about experimenting creatively with poetic forms. Some of their efforts can seem to parallel, in the realm of language and poetry, the monarchy’s effort to stabilize France’s political and religious turmoil. But much of their poetry consisted in a systematic exploration of the power of their own voices, thereby leading to the development of new tools and tonalities for the crafting of lyrical poetry.

This class will please all lovers of poetry. But it will also interest students desirous to develop a contextualized understanding of French literary history. No prior knowledge of early modern French literature is necessary.

Prerequisites:

French 102 or equivalent.

Additional Information:

No prior knowledge of early modern French literature is necessary. This course satisfies one “Literature/Genre” or one “Elective” course requirement in the French major; satisfies one Historical Period requirement in French major. Satisfies 1 course requirement in French minor.

Literature & Colonialism
120B : Twentieth-Century Literature
Fall 2020
Class No: 31596
remote, synchronous
MWF
K. Britto
2-3

Readings/Films:

Texts considered will likely include: René Maran, Batouala; Albert de Teneuille and Truong Dinh Tri, Bà-Dầm; André Malraux, La voie royale; Albert Camus, L’étranger; Marguerite Duras, Un barrage contre le Pacifique; Mongo Beti, Le pauvre Christ de Bomba; Ferdinand Oyono, Une vie de boy.

Course Description:

In this course we will read a number of twentieth-century novels published in the last decades of the French empire, all of which are set in colonized territories. Produced in a variety of modes and genres (autobiographical fiction, roman d’aventures, philosophical novel, quasi-ethnography, journal novel), these novels emerge out of a variety of cultural situations and geographic locations (including Southeast Asia, the Maghreb, and sub-Saharan Africa), and were written by authors positioned differently with respect to the opposition between colonizer and colonized. In our discussions, we will consider the historical specificity of each text while remaining open to insights made possible by reading comparatively; in other words, our goal will be to analyze individual texts while attempting to be attentive to common textual strategies, formal elements, and practices of representing colonial space, dynamics of power, and cultural difference.

Prerequisites:

French 102 or consent of Instructor.

Additional Information:

This course satisfies 1 “Literature/Genre” or 1 “Elective” course requirement in the French major. Satisfies one course requirement in the French minor.

140D : French Literature in English translation
Fall 2020
Class No: 33714
remote, synchronous
TuTh
N. Paige
9:30-11
This course will introduce students to a number of classic films of the French New Wave, perhaps the most important and emblematic moment in modern cinema, and still a point of reference for filmmakers ranging from Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese to Alfonso Cuarón and Wong Kar-Wai. Along the way, we will look at the theoretical and cultural factors that help explain this extraordinary flowering of filmmaking talent in the late 1950s and early 1960s; and we will also be reading some important short essays from the period that will help bring the films’ originality into focus.

General points to be explored include: France and American popular culture; post-war economic transformations and consumerism; changing norms of sex and gender; the documentary image; the subversion and pastiche of genre; the ideology of form. Movies studied will include works by Truffaut, Godard, Varda, Demy, Rohmer, Marker, and others. All films will be available for streaming.

Prerequisites:

Knowledge of French not required. Taught in English. Films in French with English subtitles

Additional Information:

This course satisfies 1 “Literary/Genre” or 1 “Elective” course requirement in the French major. Satisfies 1 course requirement in French minor with approval.

Introduction to French Linguistics
146A
Fall 2020
Class No: 24054
remote, synchronous
MWF
R. Kern
1-2

Readings:

Léon, P., & Bhatt, P. (2017). Structure du français moderne: Introduction à l’analyse linguistique, Quatrième Édition. Canadian Scholars Press. ISBN-10: 1551309602

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 brève 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 indiquées 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 (y compris la communication en ligne), et nous finirons par appliquer des approches linguistiques à l’analyse du discours et de la conversation.

Prerequisites:

French 102 or equivalent.

Additional Information:

This course satisfies 1 “Culture” or 1 “Elective” requirement in the French major. Satisfies 1 required course for the French minor.

Introduction to French Cinema
170 : French Film
Fall 2020
Class No: 33715
remote lecture; optional in-person screenings TBD
MWF
D. Young
3-4
This class introduces students to the history of French-language cinema. Since the first public projection in the Grand Café in Paris in 1895, French cinema has played a key role in defining the artistic possibilities of the medium. In this course, we will watch influential works from each decade, spanning narrative, experimental, and documentary forms, as well as films that challenge these distinctions. Each screening will be accompanied by critical and theoretical readings that place the films in their social, political, artistic, and intellectual contexts.

Topics include early cinema, Occupation-era and postwar cinema, the French New Wave, the rise of feminist film-making, French queer cinema, postcolonial cinema, and cinema in the age of digital media. While emphasizing formal analysis, we will approach cinema as one of the key cultural technologies that has shaped our contemporary ways of imagining race, class, gender, sexuality, love, the family, the nation, friendship, and life under capitalism. Screenings on Monday nights are required.

This course is a prerequisite for French 177 and 178, though students who have taken French 177 or 178 may take this course.

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 (highly recommended): Mondays, 4-6 pm. Satisfies one “Culture” or one “Elective” course requirement in the French Major. Satisfies one course requirement in the French Minor.

Religious Fanatacism, Toleration, and "Laicité" in France from the Wars of Religion to the Terrorist Attacks of 2015-2016
171A : A Concept in French Cultural History
Fall 2020
Class No: 31597
remote, synchronous
MWF
D. Blocker
12-1
Readings/Films:

Agrippa d’Aubigné, Les Tragiques (book 1: “Les Misères”), Patrice Chéreau, La Reine Margot (1994) ; Voltaire, Traité sur la Tolérance ; Denis Crouzet and Jean Marie Le Gall, Au péril des guerres de religion (Paris, PUF, 2015) ; Jean Baubérot, Les sept laïcités françaises: le modèle français de laïcité n’existe pas (Paris, éd. de la MSF, 2015) ; Raphaël Liogier, Le Mythe de l’islamisation: essai sur une obsession collective (Paris, Le Seuil, 2012 and 2016) ; as well as excerpts from Gilles Kepel, Terreur dans l’Hexagone: genèse du djihad français(Paris, Gallimard, 2015) and La Laïcité contre la fracture (Paris, Privat, 2017).

Course Description:

When, in the course of 2015, Islamist terrorist attacks hit Paris twice, the French immediately contextualized what was happening to them within a century-long history. Historians, soon echoed by the media, started asking whether the country was experiencing a return to the wars of religion that had plagued France in the second half of the 16th century. Voltaire’s Traité sur la Tolérance (1763), which critiques religious fanaticism and advocates for the tolerance of Protestantism, was suddenly propelled to the top of the nation’s best-seller lists. This course investigates the cultural lens through which the French tried to make sense of the terrorist attacks of 2015-2016, by engaging in the historical exploration of three tightly intertwined concepts in French history: religious fanaticism, toleration, and laicity.

To do so, the class focuses on five formative historical moments in French culture: 1) the wars of religion (and in particular the massacre of the Saint-Barthélemy, in 1572), 2) the Edict of Nantes (1598) and its Revocation (1685), 3) the Enlightenment’s embracing of religious toleration (centered on a study of Voltaire’s position), 4) the French Revolution (which gave birth both to Terror and to laicity) and 5) the separation of Church and State (1905).

We will read literary works, see films, and study current essays. We will also read journalistic articles, view public television shows (one on l’affaire Calas and the other on the separation of Church and State), and listen to radio programs. The two main goals of the course are 1) to investigate France’s complex historical relationship to religion over four centuries, and 2) to examine whether this relationship can in any way explain why the country recently became a central ideological target for Islamic terrorism.

Prerequisites:

French 102 or consent of instructor.

Additional information:

This course satisfies one “Culture” or one “Elective” requirement in the French major. Course also satisfies one Historical Period Requirement in French Major. Satisfies 1 course requirement in French minor.

Appels, discours, manifestes -- l’écriture à l’état d’urgence
180D : French Civilization
Fall 2020
Class No: 26263
remote, synchronous
TuTh
E. Colon
12:30-2
Readings/Films:

Movements, artists, writers and thinkers studied will likely include the following: Dada, the Surrealists, the Négritude movement, the radical Feminists, Créolité, Post-Exoticism, the “Comité Invisible” the “Indigènes de la République.”

Details on the availability and the purchase of the assigned texts will be communicated to students at the beginning of the semester.

Course Description:

In this course, we will explore what happens to our ideas about language and our social imaginaries when artists, writers and thinkers respond to the exigencies of their contemporary moment. We will read texts and study cultural objects that have been crafted in response to the crises, transformations, and situations of emergency that have affected France and the Francophone world from the outbreak of WW1 to the COVID-19 outbreak.

As we move through the history of the 20th and 21st centuries, we will address the following questions: what constitutes an emergency? who can declare a state of emergency? under which conditions? Which medium-specific strategies, which interdisciplinary means have writers, thinkers and artists used to retort to the events and catastrophes that have shaped their time? How have artists thought through the relationship between destruction and creation in their attempts to aesthetically impact their environment? What can be the functions of intellectual creativity in times of crisis? In addition to writing a couple of essays during the semester, students will work on collaborative manifestos of their own.

Prerequisites:

French 102 or equivalent.

Additional Information:

Satisfies 1 “Culture” or 1 “Elective” requirement in the French major. Satisfies one course requirement in the French minor.

Field Studies
197 : Tutoring in French, First Year
Fall 2020
Class No: 18096
remote, synchronous
TBD
D. Hoffmann in Charge
TBD
Course Description:

Tutors enrolled in French 197 will be responsible for 2 hours per week of remote, drop-in tutoring for students enrolled in French 1 and French 2. Student tutors will also be responsible for attending meetings with the course supervisor and for maintaining regular email communication with their supervisor. 2 units.

Additional Information:

Students must have a minimum 3.0 GPA in UCB French coursework. Priority enrollment for students declared or intended in the French Major or Minor.

Students are encouraged to enroll by the end of Phase 2. Space permitting, eligible students may enroll in French 197 up through Friday of the first week of instruction.

Enrolled students will be contacted by the Instructor in Charge during the first 2 weeks of instruction to review program information and to set up tutoring and meeting schedules.

This course does not satisfy major or minor requirements.

Tutoring in French, Second Year
197 : Field Studies (Section 2)
Fall 2020
Class No: 18097
remote, synchronous
TBD
V. Rodic in Charge
TBD
Course Description:

Tutors enrolled in French 197 will be responsible for 2 hours per week of remote, drop-in tutoring for students enrolled in French 3 and French 4. Student tutors will also be responsible for attending meetings with the course supervisor and for maintaining regular email communication with their supervisor. 2 units.

Additional Information:

Students must have a minimum 3.0 GPA in UCB French coursework. Priority enrollment for students declared or intended in the French Major or Minor.

Students are encouraged to enroll by the end of Phase 2. Space permitting, eligible students may enroll in French 197 up through Friday of the first week of instruction.

Enrolled students will be contacted by the Instructor in Charge during the first 2 weeks of instruction to review program information and to set up tutoring and meeting schedules.

This course does not satisfy major or minor requirements.

Eng Comp with Fr. Lit
R1B.001
Fall 2020
Class No: 30722
263 Dwinelle
MWF
TBD
9-10am

Graduate Courses

Proseminar
200
Fall 2020
Class No: 21789
remote, synchronous
F
D. Sanyal
1-2
This course gives new graduate students a broad view of the French Department faculty, the courses they teach, and their fields of research. In addition, it will introduce students to some practical aspects of their graduate career, issues that pertain to specific fields of research, and questions currently being debated across the profession.

History of the French Language
201
Fall 2020
Class No: 32777
remote, synchronous
Tu
M. McLaughlin
2-5
Readings:

Required: Ayres-Bennett, Wendy (1996) A History of the French Language through Texts, London-New York: Routledge

Recommended:

Chaurand, J. (ed.) (1999) Nouvelle Histoire de la langue française, Paris: Seuil.
Cerquiglini, B. (2007) La Naissance du français, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Huchon, M. (2002) Histoire de la Langue Française, npl., Librarire Générale.
Lodge, R.A. (1993) French: From Dialect to Standard, London: Routlegde.
Posner, R. (1997) Linguistic change in French, Oxford: Clarendon.
Price, G. (1971) The French Language: Present and Past, London: E. Arnold.
Rey, A., F. Duval and G. Siouffi (2007) Mille ans de langue francaise: histoire d'une passion, Paris: Perrin.
Rickard, P. (1974/1989) A History of the French Language, London: Hutchinson & Co.
Course Description:

This course covers the history of the French language from its Latin roots through to contemporary usage. Both internal and external history will be considered so that students acquire a firm grounding in the linguistic evolution of the language, coupled with an understanding of its development in relation to a range of social and cultural phenomena. The course will be structured around our analysis of the wide range of texts from different genres presented by Ayres-Bennett (1996) and which date from 842 CE to the present day. We will use the relatively new historical sociolinguistic approach to try to capture what Anthony Lodge (2009) has called “une image multidimensionnelle de la langue du passé”.

The Literary Construction of Human Rights in France
240A : Studies in 18th Century Literature
Fall 2020
Class No: 31599
remote, synchronous
M
S. Maslan
1-4

Readings:

Primary readings will include: Montesquieu, Les Lettres persanes; Montesquieu, L’Esprit des lois (excerpts) ; J.-J. Rousseau, Discours sur l’origine de l’inégalité parmi les hommes ; Marivaux, « l’Ile des esclaves » and « La Colonie » ; Diderot, Supplément au voyage de Bougainville; Voltaire, Contes, Raynal, L’Histoire de deux Indes (excerpts).

In addition to canonical literary texts, we will read crucial primary and secondary historical texts and we will read a good deal of contemporary theoretical work on human rights by authors such as: Giorgio Agamben, Hannah Arendt, Alain Badiou, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Marcel Gauchet, Samuel Moyn, Jacques Rancière, and Slavoj Zizek.

Course Description:

In 1789 the revolutionary French National Assembly drafted and promulgated the world’s first formal declaration of Human Rights. In this course we will think about the status of literature in an era before the category of human rights had emerged, when, that is, rather than representing violations of human rights, literature plays a crucial role in the development of human rights thinking. We are accustomed, in the age of trauma studies, to think that the role of fiction is to make readers feel the suffering of others, and this is no doubt true. But I want to explore to what extent literature has a more fundamental role in the establishment of the categories that make Human Rights thinkable. I want to explore whether and in what ways literature may create the mental habits and the conceptual categories required for a culture of rights. In other words, we are not considering a question of reflection but of production.

This course will focus on a variety of literary constructions of the figures of the human and of the citizen and of the different ways in which these two figures were related to each other. We will also question the notion of rights as a remedy for suffering. We will pay special attention to specific literary forms and techniques (epistolarity; the tale; irony; sentimentality, etc.) and their relation to the construction of human rights. We will also study the relation between literary discourse and other competing discourses of the self and society, especially legal and economic discourses. We will consider non-human animals as potential subjects of rights; we will consider how critical categories such as the Anthropocene and biopolitics intersect with the construction of human rights in the early modern era.

The Surrealist Movement -- Literature, Psychoanalysis and Politics
265A : Modern Studies
Fall 2020
Class No: 31600
remote, synchronous
W
S. Tlatli
1-4
Readings:

See description

Course Description:

In this seminar we will consider the surrealist group as well as its poetic and political influence from the 1920’s to the 1960’s. We will first pay a particular attention to the relationship between literature and psychoanalysis as well as to the specificity of the surrealist image. We will read various texts such as Les Champs Magnétiques, (Breton, Soupault), Le Manifeste du surréalisme, Martinique, charmeuse de serpents (Breton, Masson.) We will then focus our attention towards the ongoing exchange between Freud, Lacan, Breton and Dali. We will also discuss the political importance of the surrealist group in the ideological struggle against French colonialism. Finally, we will turn our attention towards the influence of the surrealist movement on francophone writers such as Kateb Yacine (Nedjma), Mohammed Dib (Qui se souvient de la mer) and Aimé Césaire (Cahier d’un retour au pays natal).

Teaching French in College: First Year
301
Fall 2020
Class No: 19444
remote, synchronous
Th
V. Rodic
1-3
Course Description:

This course (1) provides participants with an understanding of basic principles of first- and second-language acquisition and the theoretical underpinnings of commonly used language teaching methods, and (2) offers inservice training in teaching, in creating and adapting instructional materials, and in designing tests for use in the Lower Division Program in French. The two-hour weekly meetings consist of a one hour lecture/discussion and a one hour practicum. GSIs are also required to attend a pilot class, taught by Seda Chavdarian, on select dates and as indicated on the lesson plans. Enrollment in this course is required for GSIs in their first semester of teaching in the French Department.

Additional information:

Attendance at the appropriate session (301 for French 1; 302 for French 2) is required of all instructors teaching French 1 and 2 for the first time. GSIs are also required to attend pilot class sessions, taught by Daniel Hoffmann, and as indicated on the lesson plans.

Individual Study
602
Fall 2020
Class No: 31612
Liesl Yamaguchi