Spring 2021

Reading and Composition (R&C)

Alternative Realities: Queer Melodramatics and the Hegemony of Realism
R1B (section 1) : English Composition through French Literature in Translation
Spring 2021
Class No: 22219
remote; synchronous
TTh
T. Blakeney
12:30-2pm
Readings/Films:

J.-J. Rousseau, Julie; H. de Balzac, “Preface to the Comédie humaine;” Max Ophuls, Lola Montès; Jacques Demy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg; François Truffaut, The 400 Blows; J.-L. Godard, Breathless; 2gether (2020); Mad Men

Course Description:

In this course, we will explore the history of realism (understood as a representational ideology that privileges works of art that seek to represent the “truth” of the world) and its other, melodrama (understood not as a genre but as a quality; that which is too emotional, not psychological, not realistic). Particularly, we will trace the ways in which this binary was used at different points in history and in different genres to enforce distinctions between “good” and “bad” art, and the ways in which this binary helped enforce gender and sexual norms by erecting cishetero male experiences as “true” while denigrating the experiences of queers and women as “melodramatic.”

Additional Information:

French R1B satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition Requirement. Classes conducted in ENGLISH. Enrollment is limited to 17 students.

Attendance is mandatory the first two weeks of classes. This includes all enrolled and wait listed students. Students who do not attend all classes during the first two weeks may be dropped. Students attempting to add this class during weeks 1 and 2 who did not attend the first day will be expected to add themselves to the wait list and attend all class meetings thereafter. If space permits, they may be enrolled from the wait list.

Unfinished Stories: Self, Cosmos, and Eternity in a Revolutionary Age
R1B (section 2) : English Composition through French Literature in Translation
Spring 2021
Class No: 22220
remote; synchronous
MWF
T. Sanders
11am-12pm
Readings:

Percy Bysshe Shelley: The Triumph of Life
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Reveries of the Solitary Walker
Novalis: Heinrich von Ofterdingen
Nerval: Aurélia
Chrétien de Troyes: Perceval, The Story of the Grail

Description:
The Storming of the Bastille in 1789 continues to serve as an important symbolic emblem of the historical imagination. It marked the beginning of a violent revolutionary decade that ended with Napoleon Bonaparte’s coup d’état in 1799. This event would usher in another tumultuous period of war across Europe that ended at the legendary Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The language of old struggled to make sense of these unprecedented events—the world had been turned upside down. Against this backdrop, Romanticism emerged, reinventing the language of the past to chart a path forward into the future. In particular, the Romantics looked to the symbolic language of religion to decipher human history. Collectively, they fashioned a creative and eclectic vision of past, present, and future—one that radiates infinitely in every direction.

In this course, we will enter the mystery of Romantic philosophy by reading a selection of unfinished stories, lyrical fragments of transformation and renewal. We will encounter its dynamic poetic imagination and its sparkling contemplation of the beautiful. We will explore themes of exile and return, division and unity, individuality and collectivity, death and rebirth, being and becoming—self, cosmos, and eternity. We will conclude our journey with a return to the misty medieval past of Arthurian legend and the quest for the Holy Grail.

Additional Information:

French R1B satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition Requirement. Classes conducted in ENGLISH. Enrollment is limited to 17 students.

Attendance is mandatory the first two weeks of classes. This includes all enrolled and wait listed students. Students who do not attend all classes during the first two weeks may be dropped. Students attempting to add this class during weeks 1 and 2 who did not attend the first day will be expected to add themselves to the wait list and attend all class meetings thereafter. If space permits, they may be enrolled from the wait list.

Undergraduate Courses 

Surfing the French New Wave
24 : Freshman Seminar
Spring 2021
Class No: 26412
remote; synchronous
Thursdays
N. Paige
2-3pm
Readings/Films:

Films discussed include works by Godard, Truffaut, Varda, Rohmer, and Resnais, just to name a few.

Course Description:

The goal of this seminar is to introduce students to a number of representative films of the French New Wave, perhaps the most important and emblematic moment in modern cinema. 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 selected and 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; masculine anxiety and new roles for women; the documentary image; the subversion and pastiche of genre; the ideology of form. All films will be subtitled and available for streaming to your devices.

Additional Information:

Course taught in ENGLISH. Students will be able to stream subtitled versions of the films on their own schedules. No knowledge of French is expected. Priority enrollment for Freshmen.

Practical Phonetics and Listening Comprehension
35
Spring 2021
Class No: 30672
remote; synchronous
TTh
R. Weiher
12:30-2pm
Course Description:

This multimedia course concentrates on pronunciation and listening comprehension skills and provides a new understanding of the French language. Theoretical and practical concepts are taught as necessary, in order to familiarize students with the wide range of pronunciation systems that span the Francophone world, as attitudes and ideologies associated with them. While honing their own pronunciation, students are encouraged to critically evaluate what it means to “sound French.” This course is strongly recommended before study, work, or travel in French-speaking countries, particularly for Education Abroad Program students.

Prerequisites:

A passing grade in French 3 at UC Berkeley, or the equivalent. If you have questions about placement, see the Placement Guidelines on French Department website.

Additional information:

Course not open to native or heritage speakers of French.

The Cultural History of Paris
80
Spring 2021
Class No: 30363
remote; synchronous
TTh
N. Paige
11am-12:30pm
Readings:

See description

Course Description:

This class will offer students a historical exploration of the urban artifact that is Paris. Proceeding “forensically,” we will peel 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 historical and sociological studies), viewing a number of films, and looking at a lot of visual works (paintings, engravings, maps). A brief data science unit studying recent trends in gentrification will complete our semester.

Additional Information:

Course conducted in ENGLISH.

Reading and Writing in French (section 1)
102
Spring 2021
Class No: 22238
remote; synchronous
TTh
V. Rodic
9:30-11am
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 one course requirement in French major or French minor.

Reading and Writing in French (section 2)
102
Spring 2021
Class No: 22239
remote; synchronous
MWF
D. Hoffmann
9-10am
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 3)
102
Spring 2021
Class No: 26427
remote; synchronous
MWF
R. Shuh
10-11am
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.

New Feminisms
103B : Language and Culture
Spring 2021
Class No: 22240
remote; synchronous
TTh
E. Colon
9:30-11am
Readings: Excerpts of the texts and films below will be studied throughout the semester. Only one book, marked with an asterisk,* is to be purchased by students at the online bookstore of their choice.

Zahra Ali, Féminismes islamiques
Simone de Beauvoir, Le deuxième sexe
Nina Bouraoui, Garçon Manqué
*Fatima Daas, La petite dernière
Hélène Cixous, « Le rire de la méduse »
Virgine Despentes, King Kong Théorie
Assia Djebar, Femmes d’Alger dans leur appartement
Maïmouna Doucouré, Mignonnes
Anne Garréta, Sphinx
Laure Murat, Une révolution sexuelle ? Réflexions sur l’après-Weinstein
Beatriz Preciado, Testo Junkie
Céline Sciamma, Portrait d’une jeune fille en feu
Françoise Vergès, Pour un féminisme décolonial
Monique Wittig, « La marque du genre », Les guérillères, Le corps lesbien

Course Description:

In this course, we will read key texts in feminist theory and queer studies, study novels and autobiography, and analyze films, videos and songs by well-known French and Francophone critiques, writers, filmmakers and artists to explore how literature and film have intervened in the debates, questions and struggles that have participated in shaping the way “gender differences” and “gender inequalities” are approached today.

Throughout the semester, we will work through the following questions: what is the function of language in general, and literary language in particular, in the naturalization of categories such as the feminine, or femininity? How can we think through literature and film’s capacity to interrupt or reproduce, to weaken or reinforce, gender roles and representations? What can be the role of art, and theory in the creation of liberating relationships between gender and sexual identity? How have novels and self-writing contributed to elucidate the complex and changing relationships between gender, religion, race, and class?
The texts and films studied will be placed in dialogue with feminist theory and queer critique within their social context of emergence (the post-war period, decolonization, the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, islamophobia in postcolonial France, the French #MeToo movement, in particular).

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 1 course requirement in French Minor.

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

Female Destinies: The Nineteenth-Century Novel on the Distaff Side/ Destinées féminines: le roman du XIXe au féminin
119B : Nineteenth Century Literature
Spring 2021
Class No: 30364
remote; synchronous
MWF
R. Shuh
12-1pm
Readings:

Texts :
• Claire de Duras, Ourika
• Balzac, Eugénie Grandet
• Sand, Indiana
• Stendhal, Lamiel
• Flaubert, Un cœur simple
• Zola, Nana
Film:
• Truffaut, L’Histoire d’Adèle H. (1975) ou Nuytten, Camille Claudel (1988)

Course Description:

Many of the classic and canonical French novels of the nineteenth century feature a male hero—from Stendhal’s Julien Sorel to Balzac’s Rastignac, up through Flaubert’s Frédéric Moreau and Zola’s leading men. Indeed, the novel’s claim to importance in the period depends in part on its connection to the “serious” disciplines of history and science, and thus on its heroes’ engagement in events and issues on the world historical stage. But what status can female protagonists claim? How do their “biographies” shape and inflect the genre as it comes to prominence? What challenges do authors—whether male or female—face when writing the lives of women?

We will investigate these questions of form, canonicity and representation along with others of gender, class and voice in reading a number of narratives from the early nineteenth century to its closing years. We will read Claire de Duras’ Ourika, Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet, Sand’s Indiana, Stendhal’s unfinished Lamiel, Flaubert’s Un Coeur simple, and Zola’s Nana. While exploring the ways in which these novelists give voice to their female leads, we engage in some creative life writing of our own, practicing some (necessarily shorter) pastiche, biography or autobiography in addition to typical interpretative essay writing.

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.

Assia Djebar: Beyond the Walls of National Identity
126 : Senior Seminar
Spring 2021
Class No: 24476
remote; synchronous
TTh
S. Tlatli
12:30-2pm
Course Description:

In our seminar, we will discuss the ways in which this major Algerian born author, Assia Djebar, attempted to break down the walls between colonial and post-colonial discourses, Western and non-Western feminism. We will focus on her literary, poetic, and cinematographic productions, as well as on her various historical texts depicting the struggle for independence from the colonial French Empire in North-Africa.

Prerequisites:

French 102 or equivalent.

Additional Information:

This course satisfies 1 “Literature/Genre” or 1 “Elective” course requirement in the French major. Satisfies one course requirement in French minor. Senior standing recommended, but not required.

Arts of the Border: Visions of Migration in Fiction, Film and Photography
141 : French Studies in an International Context
Spring 2021
Class No: 30368
remote; synchronous
MW
D. Sanyal
5-6:30pm
Course Description:

This course investigates the journeys and stories of refugees today through contemporary fiction and films that reconstruct aspects of a refugee’s flight across land and sea borders into Europe. We will pay particular attention to the forms of personhood that emerge or are put into crisis by experiences such as clandestine passage, detention, surveillance, encampment, deportation or asylum. How is the refugee currently imagined, in relation to, say, the migrant? What are the possibilities and limits of humanitarian approaches to refugees? Of human rights discourses on refugees? How does art serve as a sanctuary, or change the way we think about protecting refugees and representing their rights? These and other questions will be pursued through readings of literature and visual culture (photography, film, video installations).

Prerequisites:

no language prerequisites

Additional Information:

All reading, writing and discussion are in English. This course satisfies 1 "Culture" or 1 "Elective" course requirement in the French major. This course does not satisfy requirements for the French Minor.

Translation Methodology and Practice
148
Spring 2021
Class No: 31370
remote; synchronous
MWF
K. Levine
1-2pm
Readings:

Hervey, Sándor and Ian Higgins, (2002) Thinking French Translation (hard copy or e-book)

Course Description:

How do translators decide how to render texts accurately (and beautifully) into a different language? What makes one translation “better” than another? What can the act of translating teach us about French and English? This course brings together aspects of translation theory and translation methodology in order to develop our skills as translators and as readers. In this course, we will translate both from French into English and from English into French, paying particular attention to the formal and linguistic differences that can pose problems for translators. One of the main methodological questions we will address is how the practice of translation varies according to genre: from the translation of poetry, through scientific translation to subtitles and dubbing, as well as translation and new media.

Prerequisites:

French 102 or equivalent.

Additional Information:

This course satisfies 1 "Culture" or 1 "Elective" course requirement in the French Major. Satisfies one course requirement in the French Minor. Course conducted in French.

Second Language Acquisition in French
149 : French Language Acquisition
Spring 2021
Class No: 32419
remote; synchronous
MWF
R. Kern
10-11am
Readings:

Patsy Lightbown, Nina Spada, How Languages are Learned, 4th edition. Oxford University Press, 2013.

Course Description:

This course will introduce students to the field of second language acquisition, considering specific issues in learning (and teaching) French. What is "grammar" and how does it relate to our everyday use of language? What is the significance of language errors? How do norms of "spoken" and "written" expression differ, and how do the norms relate to the ways people actually use language? What roles do a learner's mother tongue, motivation, memory, and personality play in the learning of a new language? How do social factors affect language learning? What is the nature of the relationship between language and culture, and how can culture be learned through language itself? We will study models of second language acquisition, as well as a variety of approaches to the teaching of French as a foreign language. Students will learn how to observe language teaching and learning and will get practice in preparing and teaching a micro-lesson.

Prerequisites:

French 102 or equivalent.

Additional Information:

This course satisfies 1 "Culture" or 1 "Elective" course requirement in the French Major. Satisfies one course requirement in the French Minor. Course conducted in French.

Surrealism
172A : Psychoanalysis and Literature
Spring 2021
Class No: 30367
remote; synchronous
TTh
S. Tlatli
3:30-5pm
Course Description:

This course is an introduction to one of the most significant artistic movements in 20th-century France and Europe. We will focus on all the aspects of surrealist creativity: from poems, to novels, to paintings as well as films.

Prerequisites:

French 102 or equivalent.

Additional Information:

This course satisfies 1 "Culture" or 1 "Elective" course requirement in the French Major. Satisfies one course requirement in the French Minor.

French Language Cinema and the Collective
178A : Studies in French Film
Spring 2021
Class No: 30366
remote; synchronous
TTh
M. Sidhu
11am-12:30pm
Course Description:

French filmmakers such as Jean Renoir, Agnès Varda, and Céline Sciamma among others have used the medium of film as a tool to tackle larger issues of politics, class, and race. These directors have also worked with collectives as a form of political engagement aimed at transforming French society. In this course we will consider how film collectives such as: Ciné-Liberté, Les Insoumuses, and Le Collectif 50/50, aim to intervene into or disrupt traditional models of filmmaking.

Beyond fiction films, we will also consider documentaries and newsreels by political groups such as the feminist organization, La Femme Nouvelle. Alongside a weekly film screening, we will read essays, manifestos, and major works of theory that add context to the films and cast light on some of the questions they raise. This class is open to both French and Film majors, though a knowledge of French is required (Film students will not be assessed on their competency in French). Students counting this course towards the major or minor in French must submit all written work in French. Class discussions are in French.

Prerequisites:

French 102 or equivalent.

Additional Information:

This course satisfies 1 "Culture" or 1 "Elective" course requirement in the French Major. Satisfies one course requirement in the French Minor. Course conducted in French.

All films will be available for streaming.

Please note that students will watch films independently before class on Tuesday. The screening on Monday at 6 will not occur this semester.

Tutoring in French, First Year
197 : Field Studies (Section 1)
Spring 2021
Class No: 18469
remote; synchronous
TBD
D. Hoffmann in Charge
Course Description:

Tutors enrolled in this course 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)
Spring 2021
Class No: 18470
remote; synchronous
TBD
V. Rodic in Charge
TBD
Course Description:

Tutors enrolled in this course 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 declared in French major or minor preferred. Students must have a minimum 3.0 GPA in UCB French coursework. Completion of one semester of French-immersion study abroad is recommended but not required. Intended majors and eligible French minors may also enroll on a space-available basis.

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.

This course does not satisfy major or minor requirements.

Graduate Courses

Linguistic History of the Romance Languages
C202
Spring 2021
Class No: 30369
remote; synchronous
Thursdays
M. McLaughlin
1-4pm
Readings:

Recommended but not required:

Alkire, T. and C. Rosen (2010) Romance Languages: A Historical Introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

Harris, M. and N. Vincent (eds) (1988) The Romance Languages, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Maiden, Martin, John Charles Smith and Adam Ledgeway (eds.) (2011 – 2013) The Cambridge History
of the Romance Languages, 2 vols, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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

This course traces the development of the Romance language family from its origins in Latin through to contemporary varieties. Although the development of languages such as French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese is a major focus, attention is also paid to lesser-known varieties including Sardinian, Occitan and the so-called Romance-based Creoles. The course aims to provide a broad understanding of the major linguistic changes that have affected the family at three levels: phonology, morphosyntax and lexis. Central questions include which factors lead to linguistic change, how we should model the relationships between the different languages in the family and how well our theories account for the vast amount of variation that exists within each language in any given period.

The course also places considerable emphasis on the external history of the languages and varieties that make up the Romance family. This means that we will adopt a socio-historical approach to the study of the history of Romance. This is a relatively new and very fruitful approach in historical linguistics. It has broadened the task of Romance historians who are beginning to look beyond the linguistic changes as structural events to get a better picture of the variation that existed in past states. Not only does this help paint a more realistic picture of the past, it also helps our understanding of language change. In this class, we will be particularly interested in topics such as multilingualism, language contact, language attitudes, standardization and genre-based variation.

Montaigne and the Arts of Reading
220A : 16th Century Literature
Spring 2021
Class No: 32420
remote; synchronous
Mondays
T. Hampton
2-5pm
Readings:

Books on Order:

Montaigne, Essais, 3 volumes (Garnier-Flammarion).

Course Description:

In this seminar, we will study Montaigne’s Essais in the context of early modern practices of reading and interpretation. Montaigne’s moment, like our own, was a moment of great anxiety over the authority of texts, over the nature of education, and over the role of knowledge for life. How to read? How to read the Bible? How to read the body? How to read events? How to read sexuality? How to read the weather? We will study Montaigne against writings by his models and near contemporaries (Seneca, Lipsius, Bacon, Bodin, Las Casas, Pascal), and in conversation with modern accounts of the problematics of reading texts and bodies.

In recent years, the Essais have re-emerged as important texts for our own cultural moment—both as sites for reflection on current problems, and as models of a post-humanist, post-narrative writing practice. This seminar will offer an opportunity to read them closely.

Class discussion will be in English. Reading knowledge of French is recommended.

Félix Fénéon and his World. Symbolism, Post-Impressionism, Anarchism
250A : Studies in 19th Century Literature
Spring 2021
Class No: 33193
remote, synchronous
Wednesdays
A. Smock
1-4pm
Course Description:

Félix Fénéon (1861-1944) was a key figure in the cultural and intellectual life of the Belle Époque: a big influence, a discriminating critic and judge, a networker—and also uncommonly discreet. An authority, and reticent. Well known and unknown. Scary, and mild. “Doux,” Valéry observed, “et impitoyable.”

This seminar will study the last thirty years or so of the 19th century from his perspective.

In the 1880’s when he was in his twenties, he had his hand in the lively proliferation of small avant-garde reviews that characterized the symbolist period in France. He introduced Verlaine in La Vogue, for example, and it was there that he published the first edition—his own—of Rimbaud’s Illuminations. A year earlier, in1885, Mallarmé, having published nothing for over six years, gave him “Prose (pour des Esseintes)” for the Revue indépendante, and then “Le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd’hui.” Fénéon contributed his own regular columns on new books and art exhibits to these journals and to several others; a little later, at the start of the 90s, he wrote about painting for anarchist journals like Le Père peinard. His favorites were “unexpected” young poets and painters: symbolists like Laforgue, post-impresionnist painters like Seurat and Signac. But his friendship with Mallarmé was deep.

After he lost his day job at the Ministry of War on account of his arrest and trial for anarchist activities, he was hired by the Revue blanche—cultural and intellectual headquarters of the period. It stood out, at a time when social critique was common in Parisian periodicals, for its regular publication of artists and intellectuals outspokenly unwilling to separate culture from politics. Fénéon remained its indispensable editorial secretary until it ceased publication in 1903. He published texts there by Moréas, Laforgue, Jarry, Apollinaire, Léon Blum; he got Debussy to contribute a regular column, and persuaded his colleagues to publish several “Divagations” by Mallarmé. He was friends with the painters closely linked to the Revue: Vuillard, Bonnard, Vallotton… He initiated reportages, notably on the Paris Commune, and on the “lois scélérates” (legal assaults on freedom of speech and of the press passed by the National Assembly at the height of the anarchist scare in 1893-94.

So, he is a kind of hub, for late 19th century culture and politics. This seminar will take his commitments, activities and style as a context for the study of individual writers (Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Verlaine, Laforgue), more general developments (the “crisis in verse,” pointillism in painting; the heightened importance of journalism; fashion; decorative arts); problems or questions regarding the relations between art and politics, high culture and labor. Primary materials will include texts by Mallarmé and other, younger poets (perhaps especially Mallarmé, though), and by Fénéon himself. Secondary materials will include critical essays by Rancière, Lacoue-Labarthe, J.-Cl. Milner, B. Marchal, as well as writing on Fénéon by Joan Halperin and Jean Paulhan. If possible, material from art books and catalogues will be made available.

Precarity / Care / Security
270A : Literary Criticism: Recent Work in French
Spring 2021
Class No: 30371
remote; synchronous
Tuesdays
É. Colon
1-4pm
Readings:

List of works (subject to minor modifications)

Critical and theoretical works (excerpts) by Lauren Berlant, Judith Butler, Alexandre Gefen, Franz Fanon, Michel Foucault, Nancy Fraser, Hi‘ilei Hobart & Tamara Kneese, Sandra Laugier, Caroline Merchand, Achille Mbembé, Precarias a la Deriva, Fréderic Worms, Joan Tronto, Caroline Yusoff.

Films by Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne (Rosetta), Mati Diop (Atlantique), Djibril Diop Mambéty (La petite vendeuse de soleil), Céline Sciamma (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu)

Literary texts (mostly excerpts) by Paul B Preciado (Testo Junkie) ; Patrick Chamoiseau (Texaco), Hervé Guibert (À l’ami qui ne m’a pas sauvé la vie or Le protocole compassionnel), Philippe Lançon (Le Lambeau), Antoine Volodine (Le post-exotisme en dix leçons, leçon onze)

Course Description:

In this seminar, we will explore how thinkers, writers, and filmmakers of these last two decades have thematically and formally engaged with the intricate interactions between precarity, care, and security. We will historicize and conceptualize these notions, retrace their recent emergence in critical discourses, and think through the differentiated experiences and practices they seek to describe. We will attend to aesthetic works that complicate both the theoretical frameworks used to delineate these terms and the discourses and measures through which they get socially activated, regulated, or dysregulated. The precarization of labor in the post-Fordist era, the “universalization of precarity” after 9-11, the neo-liberal privatization of care, the “humanitarian” repression of migrant bodies, the racializing weaponization of security for instance, will be among the contexts defined to account for how recent literature, film and critical discourses have responded to the social dys/regulations of the relationships between precarity, care, and security in the French and Francophone contexts. As we read texts and analyze films, we will ground our investigation in six figurative spaces: the post/colony, the prison, the hospital, the border, home (as an ecological and a domestic construct), and the body. Students will be encouraged to explore, should they want to do so, non-traditional forms of writing (especially auto-theory and creative non-fiction), instead or in addition to the usual academic essays. Readings in French. Seminar in English.

Teaching French at Berkeley: French 2 Inservice Training
302 : Teaching French in College -- Advanced First Year
Spring 2021
Class No: 22242
remote; synchronous
Fridays
R. Kern
2-4pm
Readings:

Kern, R. Literacy and Language Teaching. Oxford University Press, 2000.

Paesani, K., Allen, H. W., & Dupuy, B. (2016). A Multiliteracies Framework for Collegiate Foreign Language Teaching. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Course Description:

Provides an understanding of literacy-based language teaching and methods specific to the teaching of French 2, to help instructors effectively implement goals for the French language program at Berkeley. This course provides a forum for discussing theoretical and practical issues in language pedagogy, and experience in creating and adapting instructional materials and designing assessments for use in the UC Berkeley French language program. The course affords experience in analyzing and reflecting on one’s own and others’ teaching. GSIs are required to attend a pilot class on select dates and as indicated on the lesson plans.

Teaching in French, Advanced Level
303
Spring 2021
Class No: 22243
remote; synchronous
Tuesdays
V. Rodic
12-2pm
Readings:

Course Reader

Course Description

Provides an understanding of the teaching methods used in French 3 and 4, to help instructors effectively implement techniques specifically designed for the French language classroom at Berkeley. French 303 provides a forum for discussing issues in language pedagogy, and experience in creating and adapting instructional materials and designing tests for use in the UC Berkeley French language program. Also provides training in webdesign and preparation for the job market. One two-hour meeting per week.

Prerequisites:

French 301 and 302.

Additional information:

This course is required for all GSIs teaching French 3 or 4 for the first time in the Berkeley French Department.