(Courses taught above the Intermediate level)
(Fall 2002 - Winter
2003, Sabbatical)
ADA 150 / ATH 127, Staging Explorations in Theater and Dance
Cours based on the multi-disciplinary arts of the early twentieth century in France that will offer students an immersion into important devlopments in Western performative expresions. Will study this dynamic era of the French avant-garde, its historical background, and principal creators in theater, dance, visual arts, and cinema. This influential period will be explored through discussion and lectures, studio work, and collaborative creation. The theater/dance collaboration will be produced and performed at the Yulman Theater during the Winter Dance Concert.
Subtitled: "Scandale!"
Texts:
Camus, Albert. L'etranger.
Colette. Le pur et l'impur.
Darrieussecq, Marie. Truismes.
Duras, Marguerite. L'Amant.
Gide, André. L'Immoraliste.
Vian, Boris. J'irai cracher sur vos tombes.
Course:
This course will explore significant writings from twentieth-century France that have been considered scandalous and scandal-making. As we examine these novels' particular blendings of content and form, we will interrogate the various reevaluations of identity and expression that they ask us - readers of a young twenty-first century - to engage in. These novels set in play questions of class, race, nationality, species, sex, and gender that we will work to tease apart and confront.
For us best to do our work, this course will expect you, at a minimum: 1) to read and absorb a significant number of pages per night, 2) form engaged reactions as expressed during class, in your reading journals, and via email, and 3) write engaging essays.
This seminar will provide a forum in which a French or Francophone topic of current interest and importance is explored in depth. Students will gain experience in giving oral presentations and critically evaluating the written work of both established scholars and fellow students, and they must submit a paper to fulfill the senior writing requirement.
French 304, Studies in the French Caribbean
This course examines the French-speaking Caribbean islands with a particular focus on Martinique. In the Caribbean, with its multiplicity of cultural, social, and political influences, the question of identity is complicated by a syncretistic mixture of African, European, and Amerindian meanings and languages. in this course, we study those complexities by considering some of the French Caribbean's world-renown authors, including Aimé Césaire, Mayrse Condé, and Patrick Chamoiseau, through a variety of genres, including film, poetry, short stories, and political essays. All students --including those who will participate in the three-week mini-term in Martinique -- will come to see Martinique through a lens that is not that of a tourist but rather than of a culturally proficient student of the French Caribbean
French 148B / ADA 13 / WST 148B: History of Dance / Dance of History
Examination of Western European dance and dance texts as revelatory of broader historical and cultural patterns, with special analyses of dance as a key tool of nation-building (as with the court of Louis XIV) and/or a central medium of artistic creation (as in 1920s Paris). Primary focus on France as creator, user, and potential abuser of dance's power, but some attention given other European models (Berlin, St. Petersburg, London). Readings from theoreticians, historians, and dance littérateurs (Molière, Gautier, Cocteau).
Your writings, to include three major papers and a reading/viewing journal, will help you develop an awareness of the power of dance and its many expressions. You will see that dance has played an essential role not only in the development of Western artforms but also in the creation and reinforcement of Western gender roles.
Dances studied in their entirety will include La Fille mal gardée, Giselle, Coppélia, and l'Après-midi d'un faune. Texts studied in their entirety will include le Bourgeois gentilhomme. Many other literary excerpts will nourish the course, including certain letters of Noverre, the waltz scene from Madame Bovary, and the Senegalese dance in Ourika; among the many other dance moments explored will be archives concerning Le Ballet comique de la reine and video of Maguy Marin's Cendrillon.
French 151, Senior Thesis
This seminar will provide a forum in which a French or Francophone topic of current interest and importance is explored in depth. Students will gain experience in giving oral presentations and critically evaluating the written work of both established scholars and fellow students, and they must submit a paper to fulfill the senior writing requirement.
This year's course produced several theses exploring a rich variety of material, including
Charles de Gaulle as persona and as leader
French governmental actions dealing with integration of North African immigrants
French intelligence agencies, their successes, and their failures
Emile Zola and Mark Twain as engaged writers
Bandes dessinées as cultural actors and artefacts
French theater as a stage of anxiety
A term devoted to language teaching
French 139, Identifying Desire, Desiring Identity: French and Francophone Non-Narrative Literature
Texts:
Molière, Le Tartuffe
de Musset, On ne badine pas avec l'amour
Césaire, La Tragédie du Roi Christophe
Other texts in the course coursepack
Course:
This course will explore French and Francophone texts of poetry and theatre, often through the twin lenses of desire and identity. How does one create or find an identity? How does one create or find desire? How might the two drives be linked?
French 145, Studies in French Theater
Subtitled: "Amours et Amitiés,
à l'endroit et à l'envers"
Texts:
Racine, Phèdre
Molière, Le Tartuffe
(examined in conjunction with the Yulman Theater's production: of Tartuffe)
Beaumarchais, Le Mariage de Figaro
Marivaux, Le Triomphe de l'amour
Ionesco, La Cantatrice chauve
Genet, Les Bonnes
Reza, "Art"
French 136A, Readings in Contemporary French and Francophone Culture
Representative Authors:
Didier Daeninckx
Serge Gainsbourg
MC Solaar
Philippe Delerm
Anatole LeBraz
Raymonde Carroll
French 147B, The Twentieth-Century French Novel
Subtitled: "Scandale!"
Texts:
Camus, Albert. L'etranger. Folio # 2. 2-07-036002-4
Colette. Le pur et l'impur. Poche. 2-2539-3318-X
Darrieussecq, Marie. Truismes. POL, 1996. 2-86744-527-2
Duras, Marguerite. L'Amant. Editions de minuit. 2-7073-0695-9
Gide, André. L'Immoraliste. Folio # 229. 2-07-036229-9
Vian, Boris. J'irai cracher sur vos tombes. Editions 10/18. 2-264-00561-0
Course:
This course will explore significant writings from twentieth-century France that have been considered scandalous and scandal-making. As we examine these novels' particular blendings of content and form, we will interrogate the various reevaluations of identity and expression that they ask us - readers of a young twenty-first century - to engage in. These novels set in play questions of class, race, nationality, species, sex, and gender that we will work to tease apart and confront.
For us best to do our work, this course will expect you, at a minimum: 1) to read and absorb a significant number of pages per night, 2) form engaged reactions as expressed during class, in your reading journals, and via email, and 3) write engaging essays.
Textes:
Documents divers. Je proposerai surtout des articles de journal ou de revue, des informations télévisées, des films, des sélections de livres de référence, etc.
Cours:
Dans ce cours, nous allons étudier des aspects de la vie politique, économique, sociale, et culturelle de la France contemporaine en analysant les aspects de la vie quotidienne ainsi que les changements survenus au cours des dernières années. Pour chaque thème traité, nous allons étudier plusieurs textes récents, ce qui formera la base de notre travail en cours. Nous ferons aussi, parfois, des comparaisons avec les mêmes structures sociales et intellectuelles aux Etats-Unis pour compléter notre étude.
Dans la mesure du possible, nous allons développer un vocabulaire spécifique correspondant aux thèmes traités ce trimestre.
Dans la mesure du possible, une bonne partie du cours du vendredi sera consacré à l'étude et à l'analyse des informations télévisées de la semaine. Vous serez donc obligé(e) de visionner vous-même cette programmation à travers la télévision câblée ou les cassettes tenues en réserve à la bibliothèque avant de venir en cours.
Devoirs, rédactions, exposés: 1) Un petit exposé, 2) Plusieurs comptes-rendus ou rédactions, 3) Plusieurs quizzes, et 4) Un projet final, basé sur un thème que vous allez suivre tout au long du trimestre. Notez que vous allez présenter ce projet sous forme de présentation PowerPoint à la fin du trimestre, et que vous allez me donner un dossier écrit qui correspond à vos recherches.
French 133, Advanced French
French 133 is an intensive, advanced-level language course designed to help you perfect your four language communication skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening). It is also designed to stimulate your thinking and analytical skills as you express yourself in this second language. This course will be conducted entirely in French. For the course to be a success, you must be prepared to work. Class meets twice a week, but you will probably find that you manage better if you divide your assignments over five or six week-nights.
You will spend significant amount of time in the language laboratory, exploring French-language edu-cultural CD-ROMs, phonetics tapes, and audio-cassettes presenting up-to-date news and cultural information. Your written and oral work will help you increase your accuracy while experiencing a variety of contemporary French media.
(a Blackboard course)
Examination of Western European dance and dance texts as revelatory of broader historical and cultural patterns, with special analyses of dance as a key tool of nation-building (as with the court of Louis XIV) and/or a central medium of artistic creation (as in 1920s Paris). Primary focus on France as creator, user, and potential abuser of dance's power, but some attention given other European models (Berlin, St. Petersburg, London). Readings from theoreticians, historians, and dance littérateurs (Molière, Gautier, Cocteau).
Your writings, to include three major papers and a reading/viewing journal, will help you develop an awareness of the power of dance and its many expressions. You will see that dance has played an essential role not only in the development of Western artforms but also in the creation and reinforcement of Western gender roles.
Dances studied in their entirety will include La Fille mal gardée, Giselle, Coppélia, and l'Après-midi d'un faune. Texts studied in their entirety will include le Bourgeois gentilhomme. Many other literary excerpts will nourish the course, including certain letters of Noverre, the waltz scene from Madame Bovary, and the Senegalese dance in Ourika; among the many other dance moments explored will be archives concerning Le Ballet comique de la reine and video of Maguy Marin's Cendrillon.
French 151, Senior Thesis
This seminar will provide a forum in which a French or Francophone topic of current interest and importance is explored in depth. Students will gain experience in giving oral presentations and critically evaluating the written work of both established scholars and fellow students, and they must submit a paper to fulfill the senior writing requirement.
This year's course produced ten senior theses exploring a rich variety of material:
The new 35-hour work-week in France
The historical and literary relationships between the Harlem Renaissance and the Négritude movement
Islam in France
The debates around the role and place of creole and créolité in Martinique
The tensions between forces of regionalization and globalization, with Martinique as a case study
The ideologies behind the introduction of the euro in France
The new law of parité in French political life
Social, cultural, and political forces at work in the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS in Cameroon
Renault's role in the US automobile market
A comparative study of Moroccan and Tunisian political development
French 136A, Readings in Contemporary French and Francophone Culture