Spring 2022

Spring 2022 French Courses

Undergraduate Courses

FRE 001 Elementary French

  • Sec 001 CRN 44307
  • Sec 002 CRN 44308
  • Sec 003 CRN 44309

FRE 002 Elementary French

  • Sec 001 CRN 44310
  • Sec 002 CRN 44311

FRE 003 Elementary French

  • Sec 001 CRN 44312
  • Sec 002 CRN 44313
  • Sec 003 CRN 44314
  • Sec 004 CRN 44315

FRE 021 Intermediate French CRN 44316

FRE 022 Intermediate French CRN 44317

FRE 023 Intermediate French

  • Sec 001 CRN 44318
  • Sec 002 CRN 44319

FRE 100 Composition  in French
Professor Toby Warner

Lecture—3 hour(s); Term Paper. Prerequisite(s): FRE 023. Instruction and practice in expository writing in French, with emphasis on organization, correct syntax, and vocabulary building. GE credit: AH, WC, WE.

The primary goal of French 100 is to introduce students to the study of literature in French, which consists of two related introductions: to literature written in French and also to the critical study of literature. This is where French class becomes a literature class (i.e., the focus will be on literature and thus its language, but not on the foreignness of the language). Together we will read and discuss a variety of works, including novels, poetry, comics, essays and films. Students will develop interpretative and analytical skills with broad applicability and practice writing in French in a clear and persuasive manner. We will encounter a variety of expository and analytical writing styles, and emphasize organization, correct syntax, and vocabulary building.

FRE 122—French & Francophone Film
Professor Jeff Fort

Lecture/Discussion—3 hour(s); Extensive Writing; Film Viewing—3 hour(s). Prerequisite(s): FRE 100; or Consent of Instructor. French and Francophone film from the Lumière Brothers to the present. Topics may include analysis of film form and narrative, major filmmakers and filmic traditions, and film theory. May be repeated up to 1 time(s) when topic differs. GE credit: AH, VL, WC, WE. Effective: 2007 Fall Quarter.

FRE 124 Post-colonial & Francophone Literature: Introduction to Francophone Literatures
Professor Toby Warner

Lecture/Discussion—3 hour(s); Term Paper. Prerequisite(s): FRE 100; or Consent of Instructor. Post-Independence Black African and/or Caribbean and/or North African literatures written in French. Selected topics include: identity & subjectivity, the role of the intellectual, women's voices, languages & oral literatures, cultural syncretism, theories of post-colonialism. May be repeated up to 1 Time(s) with consent of major advisor & instructor; when content differs; for example, when the geographical focus (West Africa, North, African or Caribbean) or theme is substantially different from previous iterations.

This course will serve as an introduction to francophone literature and film. Together we will explore a variety of 20th-century works (fiction, poetry, film) from different geographical locations (including the Caribbean, the Maghreb, and sub-Saharan Africa). How did francophone artists working in the colonial period try to imagine new forms of belonging, and make new claims on notions of rights, citizenship, and autonomy? How have francophone works engaged with the history of how non-European peoples have been depicted in French literature and art? How have postcolonial francophone texts and films sought to reopen the question of who can speak for the nation, and in what terms? The goal of this course is to familiarize students with some of the major authors, works and movements of francophone literature and film, while cultivating through a variety of assignments the necessary vocabulary for critical reading, viewing and writing.
 

FRE 128 Topics French Culture: Gender in Historical Perspective
Professor Noah Guynn

Lecture—3 hour(s); Extensive Writing. Prerequisite(s): FRE 100; or Consent of Instructor. In-depth study of a particular topic in French culture. May be repeated up to 1 Time(s) when topic differs. GE credit: AH, WC, WE.

This course will examine gender history as it might be told from the margins. Our focus will be on real people and fictional characters who deviated from social expectations in the shapes and features of their bodies, the ways they dressed, the ways they performed their gender identity, and/or the ways they expressed their sexual desires. In part, the course will focus on works of medieval and early modern literature and theater that exhibit tremendous flexibility in their conception of gender roles. Among other things, we will deal with transgender knights, female monks, boy actresses, same-sex marriages, and masculine pregnancies. In part, the course will focus on the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, looking at the ways in which binary notions of sexual difference have been imagined and enforced in modernity but also at the ways in which individuals have claimed alternative identities by queering gender itself. We will read a famous short story by Balzac about a castrato, a male singer who was castrated in childhood so he would retain a soprano voice in adulthood, as well as excerpts from the memoirs of Herculine Barbin, a nineteenth-century "hermaphrodite" whose birthday is now observed as Intersex Solidarity Day. We will also discuss contemporary films, including Ma vie en rose (1997) and Tomboy (2011), both of which tell the stories of prepubescent children whose culturally assigned gender differs from their self-identified gender. Throughout the quarter, and especially with these two films, we will consider how families, communities, and societies can work to humanize and/or dehumanize individuals who fail or refuse to conform to prevailing norms.

Graduate Courses

FRE 204 Medieval Literature: Old French Language and Literature
Professor Noah Guynn

Seminar—3 hour(s); Term Paper. Prerequisite(s): Consent of Instructor. Graduate standing. Study of Medieval French literature, focusing on a particular period, milieu, literary movement, genre, or theoretical approach. May be repeated for credit when topic differs.

This course will offer an introduction to the study of Old French language and literature.  Our aims will be to master the basic elements of Old French morphology, grammar, and syntax and to develop skills in the philological and formal analysis of medieval literature.  Students will be asked to do regular translation assignments and close readings.  Class sessions will be structured as workshops and will require active, informed participation from all students.  Course requirements include a translation exam at midterm and a final ten-page paper on a topic the student chooses in consultation with the professor.  The course will be taught in English, however a reading knowledge of Latin and/or a modern Romance language is required.  Written work may be submitted in either French or English.

FRE 207A 18th Century Literature Philosophy 
Professor Julia Simon

Seminar—3 hour(s); Term Paper. Prerequisite(s): Consent of Instructor. Graduate standing. Not a course in philosophy, but an examination of the role of philosophy in the design and context of literary works. Study of one or more authors. May be repeated for credit.