2007-2008 Graduate Courses in French
| AUTUMN | WINTER | SPRING |
|---|---|---|
| 30400 Cours de perfectionnement | 30400 Cours de perfectionnement | 30400 Cours de perfectionnement |
| 30600 Phonétique et phonologie | 30500 Ecrire en français | 30500 Ecrire en Francais |
| 31201 Balzac, Illusions perdues | 32200 L'Autobiographie au XXe siècle | 31500 La Stylistique |
| 35800 MA Seminar | 35400 L'Age des lumières: Diderot et l'Encyclopédie | 32000 Poésie et Récit au Moyen Âge |
| 42100 Readings and Research | 35900 MA Seminar II | 36400 Novels of self-discovery: Stendhal, Flaubert, Fontane |
| 37601 Débats et querelles littéraires au Moyen Age | 42100 Readings and Research | 37000 Aesthetics of French Classicism |
| 37800 L'Égotisme littéraire et philosophique | 42700 Montaigne | 38301 La Comédie classique |
| 42100 Reading and Research |
Graduate Course Descriptions
30400. Cours de perfectionnement. This course is designed to help students attain high levels in reading, writing, speaking, and listening through readings and debates on various issues of relevance in contemporary French society with emphasis on summarizing textual and oral documents. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.
30500. Ecrire en français. The goal of this course is to help students achieve mastery of composition and style through the acquisition of numerous writing techniques. Using a variety of literary and nonliterary texts as models, students examine the linguistic structures and organization of several types of written French discourse and are guided in the acquisition of the rules underlying each discourse type. This course is strongly recommended for Paris Program-bound students. Staff. Winter, Spring.
30600. Phonétique et phonologie. This course involves a systematic study of the French phonological system, placing equal emphasis on the recognition and the production of French sounds in context. Students also examine the relationships between the French sound system and French orthographic norms and grammatical distinctions. Classroom exercises and homework include examining authentic spoken discourse representing a variety of discourse styles and activities to promote the acquisition of spoken proficiency. Staff. Autumn.
30700. Introduction à la littérature française I. This course is designed to give a historical overview of French literature in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. There are close readings and discussions from representative works of this period. Among the authors studied are Rabelais, Ronsard, Montaigne, Descartes, Pascal, Corneille, Racine, Molière, La Fontaine, and Mme. de La Fayette. Daisy Delogu. Autumn.
31201. Balzac, Illusions perdues. PQ: Open to 3rd & 4th year undergrads only. We will read and interpret Honoré de Balzac's best-known novel, the story of a young poet who sacrifices his talent to his ruthless ambition. Starting from a close reading of the text, we will examine the moral and sociological implications of the novel. The course will be taught in French, but participants who are not French majors/minors or graduate students can use the English translation of the novel and write their assignments in English. Thomas Pavel. Autumn.
31500. La Stylistique. PQ: FREN 20400 or consent of instructor. This course focuses on linguistic and literary problems of textual analysis. It examines literary and stylistic techniques in poetry and prose with concentration on the explication de texte method of literary study. Alison James. Spring.
32000. Poésie et Récit au Moyen Âge. Ce cours examinera les capacités et les possibilités narratives de la poésie du Moyen Âge, ainsi que les rapports entre la poésie et la prose. Nous nous concentrerons sur le dit narratif, les textes à forme mixte, et les poèmes intercalés. Advanced undergraduates accepted with permission of instructor. D. Delogu. Spring.
32200. L'Autobiographie au XXe siècle. PQ: Advanced undergraduates accepted with consent of instructor. This course will trace the development of the autobiographical genre in the French literature of the twentieth century. We will consider such topics as truthfulness and fiction, the "autobiographical pact," chronology and causality, and the construction of the self. While focusing on key literary works, the course will also give an overview of critical approaches to autobiography. Authors studied will include Gide, Leiris, Colette, Sartre, Barthes and Sarraute. Classes conducted in French. Alison James. Winter.
35400. L'Age des lumières: Diderot et l'Encyclopédie. No author better represents the Age of Enlightenment in all of its complexity than Denis Diderot; no work did more to spread the ideology of the Enlightenment than the Encyclopédie. Mobilizing many of the great – and the not-so-great – philosophes of the eighteenth-century, this monumental work that undertook to organize and transmit the totality of human knowledge is also a very subversive work. We will look at the Encyclypédie in its context and explore such issues as the techniques of reading it implies, its notions of what constitutes truth, and some of the implications of the collective, dialogical nature of the enterprise. Readings will include miscellaneous works by Diderot, a selection of texts by him and others drawn from the Encyclopédie texts of other philosophes. There will be an oral presentation and a research paper. All work is done in French but exceptions will be made for students from other departments. R. Morrissey. Winter.
35800. MA Seminar I. Staff. Autumn.
35900. MA Seminar II. Staff. Winter.
36400. Novels of self-discovery: Stendhal, Flaubert, Fontane. PQ: Open to 3rd & 4th year undergrads only. A study of Stendhal's The Charterhouse of Parma, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, and Fontane's Effi Briest emphasizing the search for self-identity and the erratic pursuit of happiness. The course will be taught in English. French majors/minors and graduate students will read the French texts in the original and participate in a weekly French discussion group. Thomas Pavel. Spring.
37000. Aesthetics of French Classicism. Though "aesthetic" philosophy first developed as an autonomous field in the mid-eighteenth century, it has important roots in earlier eighteenth- and seventeenth-century debates concerning literature and the arts. In the wake of Cartesian rationalism, could reasoned method be reconciled with non-rational creativity, or decorous order with the unruly "sublime"? Just what kind of "truth" was revealed by poetry or painting? Readings will include Boileau, Racine, Bouhours, Perrault, Du Bos, Montesquieu, Voltaire and Diderot, as well as the French reception of British writings on the subject by Pope and Addison. Larry Norman. Spring.
37601. Débats et querelles littéraires au Moyen Age. Ce cours examinera le genre multiforme du débat littéraire. En premier lieu nous prendrons en considération la mise en scène des débats dans les tensos des troubadours, les jeux-partis, les jugements d'amour, et les débats du clerc et du chevalier. Ensuite nous examinerons quelques querelles littéraires bien réelles, notammant celles autour du Roman de la Rose et de la Belle Dame sans Merci. D. Delogu. Autumn.
37800. L'Égotisme littéraire et philosophique. Le cours examinera l'égotisme comme figure de discours. Il comportera une partie théorique : rhétorique janséniste (Pascal, Logique de Port-Royal), théorie linguistique des personnes grammaticales (avec en particulier une réflexion sur l'utilisation qui a été faite des idées d'Émile Benveniste sur la subjectivité linguistique et sur l'énonciation). Ces éléments de théorie seront mis à l'épreuve dans des lectures de textes littéraires classiques relevant du style égotiste. L'idée générale du cours sera de montrer l'abîme qui sépare l'égotisme comme forme littéraire de l'égotisme comme forme de discours philosophique sur l'ego ou le moi (self). Vincent Descombes. Autumn.
38301. La Comédie classique. PQ: Open to undergraduates who have completed French 20700, or with consent of instructor. Molière casts a broad shadow in literary history over his predecessors and immediate successors. Yet his work, revolutionary though it may be, is deeply situated in the theatrical and aesthetic context of an enormously successful genre in the seventeenth century. While devoting considerable attention to Molière, we will consider the Latin, Spanish and Italian roots of French classical comedy as well as the early comedies of Corneille and Rotrou. We will also consider the influence of Molière's work on later French classical comedy (through Marivaux), and on English Restoration comedy. Readings and class discussion in French. Larry Norman. Spring.
42100. Readings and Research. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.
42700. Montaigne. Montaigne's Essais represent one of the most important French Renaissance texts. We will read these essays from different perspectives: sociological, ideological, philological, feminist, psychoanalytical, etc. We will study the Moi Montaignien (and more generally, the "literary Moi" of the Renaissance) by contrasting it to a series of "others", e.g., books, women, cannibals, peasants, etc. Philippe Desan. Winter.