Friendship is a precious relationship often wrongly regarded as less vital, intense, or transformative than love. It encompasses a wide range of social bonds, from playground companionship and wartime camaraderie to Facebook links. Most friendships have a lasting impact in people’s lives and trajectories. Some are toxic and so passionate that they can become dangerous. Others are fragile, sometimes fake, or easily endangered by selfish motives. Through novels and movies this seminar investigates the ethics, aesthetics, and politics of the liberating and alienating dynamics of friendship within an array of relationships: political, inter-gender, inter-racial, inter-religious and inter-generational friendships, as well as the mentor-disciple dynamic.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022.

A study of the basic forms, structures, and vocabulary in the context of the French-speaking world. Emphasis on the four communicative skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Three class hours per week and one weekly conversation session with teaching assistants, plus regular language laboratory assignments. Primarily open to first- and second-year students.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019.

A study of the basic forms, structures and vocabulary in the context of the French-speaking world. Emphasis on the four communicative skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. A study of the basic forms, structures, and vocabulary in the context of the French-speaking world. Three class hours per week and one weekly conversation session with assistant.

Prerequisites: FRS 1101 or Placement in FRS 1102.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2020.

Vocabulary development and review of basic grammar, which are integrated into more complex patterns of written and spoken French. Active use of French in class discussions and conversation sessions with French teaching fellows.Three class hours per week and one weekly conversation session.

Prerequisites: FRS 1102 or Placement in FRS 2203 or Placement in FRS 2203/2305.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019.

Continued development of oral and written skills; course focus shifts from grammar to reading. Short readings form the basis for the expansion of vocabulary and analytical skills. Active use of French in class discussions and conversation sessions with French teaching fellows. Three class hours per week and one weekly conversation session.

Prerequisites: FRS 2203 or Placement in FRS 2204.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2020.

An introduction to film analysis. Conversation and composition based on a variety of contemporary films from French-speaking regions. Grammar review and frequent short papers. Emphasis on student participation including a variety of oral activities. Three hours per week plus regular viewing sessions for films and a weekly conversation session with French teaching fellows.

Prerequisites: FRS 2204 or Placement in FRS 2305 or Placement in FRS 2203/2305 or Placement in FRS 2305/2400 level.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Spring 2020, Fall 2019.

Conducted in English and with all the readings and discussions in English, this course is nonetheless a comparative and multilingual study (English, Spanish, French, Lingala, and Kikongo) of African, African American, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Latin American literatures and their intersections with religion. Building on the Gambian historian of religions Lamin Sanneh’s work (Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture) showing that Christianity is a “translated” religion, the course explores, through the theory of critical translation and the radical imagination of Africana indigeneity, how African, African American, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Latin American writers (Mudimbe, Oyono, Ndongo-Bidyogo, Vera, Adichie, Condé, Laferrière, Montero, Zapata Olivella, and Walker) use the polyglossial space of the novel to “conjure” up individual, social, and ecological healing, and thus push the boundaries of the conventional understanding of “religion” and of “Christianity." (Same as: AFRS 2387, LACL 2387)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022, Spring 2022.

An introduction to the cultures of various French-speaking regions outside of France. Examines the history, politics, customs, cinema, and the arts of the Francophone world, principally Africa and the Caribbean. Increases cultural understanding prior to study abroad in French-speaking regions. (Same as: AFRS 2407, LACL 2407)

Prerequisites: FRS 2305 or higher or Placement in FRS 2400 level or Placement in FRS 2305/2400 level.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2020.

An introduction to contemporary France through newspapers, magazines, television, music, and film. Emphasis is on enhancing communicative proficiency in French and increasing cultural understanding prior to study abroad in France.

Prerequisites: FRS 2305 or higher or Placement in FRS 2400 level or Placement in FRS 2305/2400 level.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2020.

Examines oral and written traditions of areas where French is spoken in Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and North America from the Middle Ages to 1848. Through interdisciplinary units, students examine key moments in the history of the francophone world, drawing on folktales, epics, poetry, plays, short stories, essays, and novels. Explores questions of identity, race, colonization, and language in historical and ideological context. Taught in French. (Same as: AFRS 2409, LACL 2209)

Prerequisites: FRS 2305 or higher or Placement in FRS 2400 level or Placement in FRS 2305/2400 level.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2020, Spring 2020, Fall 2019.

Examines questions of power and resistance as addressed in the literary production of the French-speaking world from the nineteenth through the twenty-first centuries. Examines how language and literature serve as tools for both oppression and liberation during periods of turmoil: political and social revolutions, colonization and decolonization, the first and second world wars. Authors may include Hugo, Sand, Sartre, Fanon, Senghor, Yacine, Beauvoir, Condé, Césaire, Djebar, Camus, Modiano, Perec, and Piketty. Students gain familiarity with a range of genres and artistic movements and explore the myriad ways that literature and language reinforce boundaries and register dissent. Taught in French.

Prerequisites: FRS 2305 or higher or Placement in FRS 2400 level or Placement in FRS 2305/2400 level.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2020, Spring 2020, Fall 2019.

Examines the fait divers, a news item recounting an event of a criminal, strange, or licentious nature, as a source for literary and cinematographic production. Traces the development of the popular press and its relationship to the rise of the short story. Explores how literary authors and filmmakers past and present find inspiration in the news and render “true stories” in their artistic work. Readings may include selections from Rosset, J-P. Camus, Le Clézio, Cendrars, Beauvoir, Duras, Genet, Modiano, Bon, newspapers, and tabloids.

Prerequisites: Two of: either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher and either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022.

Students read, analyze, and produce scenes from French plays. At the end of the semester, student groups produce, direct, and perform in one-act plays. Authors studied may include Molière, Marivaux, Beckett, Ionesco, Sartre, Camus, Genet, Sarraute, and Anouilh. Conducted in French.

Prerequisites: Two of: either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher and either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023.

Analysis of texts and images from early modern literary, philosophical, medical, ecclesiastical, and artistic sources from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, as well as of modern film, Web, and textual media, allows students to explore the conflicting roles of early modern bodies through several themes: birth and death, medicine and hygiene, gender and sexuality, social class, race, monstrosity, Catholic and Protestant visions of the body, the royal body, the body politic. Thoughtful comparison and examination of the meanings of the body today encouraged throughout. Conducted in French.

Prerequisites: Two of: either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher and either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2021.

A study of memoir novels, epistolary novels (letters), and autobiography. What does writing have to do with love and desire? What is the role of others in the seemingly personal act of “self-expression”? What is the truth value of writing that circulates in the absence of its author? These and other related issues are explored in the works of the most popular writers of eighteenth-century France: Prévost, Graffigny, Laclos, and Rousseau. Conducted in French.

Prerequisites: FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher or FRS 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2020.

History has retained the names of great male Caribbean heroes and freedom fighters during slavery such as the Haitians, Mackandal or Toussaint Louverture, the Jamaican, Cudjoe or the Cuban Coba. Enslaved Africans who rebelled against oppression and fled from the plantation system are called maroons and their act, marronage. Except for Queen Nanny of the Jamaican Blue Mountains, only male names have been consecrated as maroons. Yet, enslaved women did fight against slavery and practice marronage. Caribbean writers have made a point of bringing to memory forgotten acts of marronage by women during slavery or shortly thereafter. Proposes to examine the fictional treatment French-speaking Caribbean authors grant to African or Afro-descent women who historically rebelled against slavery and colonization. Literary works studied against the backdrop of douboutism, a conceptual framework derived from the common perception about women in the French Caribbeanwhich means strong woman. Authors studied may include Suzanne Dracius (Martinique), Fabienne Kanor (Martinique), André Schwart-Bart (Guadeloupe), Maryse Condé (Guadeloupe), Evelyn Trouillot (Haiti). Conducted in French. (Same as: AFRS 3211, GSWS 3211, LACL 3211)

Prerequisites: Two of: either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher and either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2021.

Since the eighteenth century, France has developed a seemingly endless list of literary prizes, the Prix Goncourt being the most famous. There are over 3,000 prizes awarded every year -- being awarded one of these prizes represents an official consecration meant to underline the writer’s unquestionable worth. Who serves on the juries for all of these prizes? Is it really the best works that are acknowledged? In recent years, scandals have erupted with accusations of influence peddling by publishers. What does this teach us about French culture and society? What is the relation between literary prizes and the promotion of French culture more broadly? In the context of globalization, what political statement is being made? What is exactly the type of culture, themes, and discourse promoted via this literature given the new makeup of the French population? Immigration has considerably changed the face of France. How does the culture of literary prizes take this into account? Students read four recent prizewinners. Each of these prizewinners created controversy that directly addresses the questions above. Primary readings include works by: Houellbecq, Le Clezio, Paule Constant, Alain Mabanckou.

Prerequisites: Two of: either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher and either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2021.

Aesthetics -- the critical reflection on art, taste, and culture; as much as beauty, the set of properties of an object that arouses pleasure--are central to all aspects of society-building and human life and relationships. Examines the notions of aesthetics and beauty, from pre-Colonial to contemporary times in cultures of the African and Western civilizations as expressed in various humanities and social sciences texts, as well as the arts, iconography, and the media. Considers the ways Africans and afro-descendants in the New World responded to the Western notions of aesthetics and beauty. Authors studied may include Anténor Firmin, Jean Price Mars, Senghor, Damas, Césaire, Cheick Anta Diop, Fanon, Glissant, Chamoiseau, Gyekye Kwame, Socrates, Plato, Jean-Baptiste du Bos,Diderot, Le père André, Baumgarten, Kant, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Hugo. (Same as: AFRS 3213, LACL 3213)

Prerequisites: Two of: either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher and either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2019.

Seminar. Provides insight into contemporary film production from the Maghreb (Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco). Explores questions of gender and sexuality, national identity, political conflict, and post- and neo-colonial relationships in the context of globalization and in conditions of political repression and rigid moral conservatism. Examines how filmmakers such as Lakhdar Hamina, Férid Boughedir, Moufida Tlatli, Nedir Moknèche, Malek Bensmaïl, Lyès Salem, Hicham Ayoub, and Leyla Bouzid work in a challenging socio-economic context of film production in consideration of setbacks and obstacles specific to the developing world. Taught in French. (Same as: CINE 3352, MENA 3216)

Prerequisites: Two of: either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher and either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2020.

Examines ideas about gender and sexuality and emerging conceptions of race and their relationship to science in early modern France and its North American and Caribbean colonies. Through reading and discussion of literary, testimonial, scientific, artistic, legal, and proto-ethnographic works produced by authors and artists from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, as well as critical work drawn from several disciplines, students explore how scientific ideas about human difference served to justify mechanisms of inequality, control, and violence that continue to have a devastating legacy today. Emphasis is also placed on analyzing responses and resistances to dominant structures and norms by Native Americans, Sub-Saharan Africans, French women, and gender-nonconforming men. Conducted in French.

Prerequisites: Two of: FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LACL 2209) and FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LACL 2210).

Previous terms offered: Spring 2022.

An introduction to the main contemporary intellectual production emanating from the French Caribbean such as Haitian indigénisme and Martinican Négritude, Antillanité, and Créolité. Examines theoretical and literary texts by Jean Price-Mars, Jacques Roumain, Frantz Fanon, René Maran, Aimé Césaire, Rene Mesnil, Joseph Zobel, Edouard Glissant, or Patrick Chamoiseau. Addresses questions of collective identity, ethnicity, and cultural autonomy. (Same as: AFRS 3219, LACL 3259)

Prerequisites: Two of: either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher and either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2020.

Explores the ways in which authors refer to history, geography, and most particularly to other literary texts in order to form a community of voices that constitutes a body of expression unique to Francophone Canada. The literature of French Canada evokes a history of displacements, conflicts, triumphs, oppressions, and liberations that play out in relationship to “others” to whom texts respond. We will read essays, novels, plays, and poems from Francophone Canada and familiarize ourselves with events, texts, and places that will help us deepen our understanding and appreciation of the literary traditions of Canada, with an emphasis on Québécois and Acadian authors. Readings may include texts by Marie-Claire Blais, Roch Carrier, Herménégilde Chiasson, Evelyne de la Chenelière, Madeleine Gagnon, Claude Gauvreau, Anne Hébert, Dany Laferrière, Michèle Lalonde, Robert Lepage, Antonine Maillet, Gaston Miron, Wajdi Mouawad, Émile Nelligan, Gabrielle Roy, and Michel Tremblay.

Prerequisites: Two of: either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher and either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2019.

Analyzes the depiction of the Algerian War of Independence in Algerian and French novels and films, drawing on trauma, postcolonial and decolonial theories. The Algerian War of Independence lasted nearly eight years (1954–62), cost between one million and one and a half million lives, saw atrocities like the use of torture by the French army and remained an obscure part of the national history of both Algeria and France. Algerian and French writers and filmmakers depict this war differently. Adopting a chronological and comparative approach to the representations of the conflict in Algeria and France, this seminar follows the various phases behind the construction of the collective memory of the Algerian War of Independence in each country. From state censorship, trauma, melancholic renderings of the past and nationalist appropriations of history, Algerian and French writers and filmmakers confront distinct problematics. (Same as: MENA 3223)

Prerequisites: Two of: FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LACL 2209) and FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LACL 2210).

Previous terms offered: Spring 2022.

Deaccessioning—the process of removing a work of art from a museum—brings up important issues in the art world: rethinking provenance or ownership, appropriation, the permanence of collections, and memory. Through that lens, this course explores the current/long-standing debates over the restitution of African art work and the decolonization of museums. The class focuses on how museums shape discourse around colonialism and influence the reception and circulation of African cultural productions. Students will study the history of ethnographic collecting practices, colonial exhibitions, the creation of a foreign market for African art in France, and the postcolonial politics of contemporary museums such as the Quai Branly. Students will study literature, film, and art that reimagine the curatorial space. Students will visit museums and meet with private collectors, artists, and curators. Students will become more informed and critical readers of museum spaces. Conducted in French. (Same as: AFRS 3224)

Prerequisites: Two of: FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LACL 2209) and FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LACL 2210).

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022.

This course focuses on sub-Saharan Francophone African texts and postcolonial translation studies. In this advanced seminar, students read major canonical novels and become familiar with translation theory, while also developing a translation practice. Students analyze fictional representations of translators, study the circulation and reception of translations, and consider the politics of translation for certain case studies. Students evaluate different translations of a text, compose their own translation, and write a critical translator’s preface in which they explain their stylistic choices. Students meet with literary translators, publishers, and writers throughout the semester. (Same as: AFRS 2415)

Prerequisites: Two of: FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LACL 2209) and FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LACL 2210).

Explores Mediterranean crime fiction or “noir” (novels, short stories, graphic novels, films) whose events describe and question the society in which the crime has taken place and that actively engage with the idea of otherness. The course examines how fiction fosters questions about a paradigm of thinking and solving crimes. Does a different provenance make a difference in how one approaches crime and evil? Writers and filmmakers may include: Jean-Claude Izzo, Costa Gavras, Driss Chraïbi, Camilleri, Massimo Carlotto, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán and Alicia Giménez Bartlett. Conducted in English, with students reading works in the original language or in translation as appropriate. Includes a fourth discussion hour in either French, Italian, or Spanish, with the respective professors to be scheduled following registration. (Same as: ITAL 3300, HISP 3300)

Prerequisites: Two of: either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or either HISP 2409 (same as LAS 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LAS 2410) or either ITAL 2305 or ITAL 2408 and either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or either HISP 2409 (same as LAS 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LAS 2410) or either ITAL 2305 or ITAL 2408.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2020.