Basic Intensive French

Professor: Odile Chilton and Eric Trudel

Course Number: FREN 106

CRN Number: 10111

Class cap: 22

Credits: 8

Schedule/Location:

Mon Tue Wed Thurs Fri   8:50 AM - 9:50 AM Olin Languages Center 120

AND

Mon Tue Wed Thurs Fri   10:10 AM - 11:10 AM Olin Languages Center 120

Distributional Area:

FL  Foreign Languages and Lit   

This course is designed for students who wish to acquire a strong grasp of the French language and culture in the shortest time possible. Students with little or no previous experience of French will complete the equivalent of three semesters of college level French. The semester course meets ten hours a week, using a variety of pedagogical methods, and will be followed by a four week stay at the Institut de Touraine (Tours, France). There the students will continue daily intensive study of the French language and culture while living with French families (successful completion of the course in France carries 4 extra credits). Students will also meet an extra hour a week in small conversation groups with the French tutor. Students must consult with Prof. Odile Chilton before on-line registration

French Intermediate III

Professor: Odile Chilton  

Course Number: FREN 203

CRN Number: 10112

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

Mon Tue  Thurs    10:10 AM - 11:10 AM Olin 107

Distributional Area:

FL  Foreign Languages and Lit   

In this continuation of the study of French civilization and culture, students will be able to reinforce their skills in grammar, composition and spoken proficiency, through the use of short texts, newspaper and magazine articles, as well as video. Students will meet the French tutor for one extra hour during week for workshops

French Conversation and Composition

Professor: Gabriella Lindsay  

Course Number: FREN 270

CRN Number: 10113

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

  Wed  Fri   11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Olin Languages Center 120

Distributional Area:

FL  Foreign Languages and Lit   

This course is primarily intended to help students fine-tune their command of spoken and written French. It focuses on a wide and diverse selection of writings (short works of fiction, poems, philosophical essays, political analysis, newspaper editorials or magazine articles, etc.) loosely organized around a single theme.  The readings provide a rich ground for cultural investigation, intellectual exchange, in-class debates, in-depth examination of stylistics and, of course, vocabulary acquisition.  Students are encouraged to write on a regular basis and expected to participate fully to class discussion and debates.  A general review of grammar is also conducted throughout the course.

Class Matters: Vocabularies of Contempt from Balzac to Ernaux

Professor: Marina van Zuylen  

Course Number: FREN 321

CRN Number: 10114

Class cap: 15

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

    Fri   12:30 PM - 2:50 PM Olin Languages Center 118

Distributional Area:

FL  Foreign Languages and Lit   

Crosslists: Literature

In a rather shocking statement from Le Peuple (1846), the French historian Michelet proclaims that almost all those who benefit from social mobility end up betraying the character and originality of their initial class.  "The hard thing," he writes, "is not [so much] to ascend, but while ascending, to remain oneself."  What is gained in culture and knowledge, he adds, is lost in "originality and authentic distinction." This seminar will scrutinize novels and essays for their insights about the ways in which various cultural and socio-economic mutations shape and undermine the complex link between distinction and authenticity.  It will single out questions of ambition, snobbery, and exclusion through the vocabulary of flattery and contempt.  We will examine the psychodynamics of prestige and acceptance, success and failure, as they are crystallized in the deeply antagonistic class relations from Stendhal's Julien Sorel to Eribon's Voyage à Reims.  We will examine the symbolic violence that marks social cleavages, dwell on Saint-Simon's utopian triad-- avoir/savoir/pouvoir—and use as our model and anti-model the battle between Bourdieu's Habitus and Rancière's dissensus.  Readings: Stendhal, Le Rouge et le noir (must be read before classes begin); Balzac, Le Père Goriot and excerpts from Illusions perdues; Maupassant, Bel Ami; Zola, Au Bonheur des dames ; Némirovsky, David Goldner, Ernaux, La Place ; Eribon, Voyage à Reims. Taught in French.

The Rebel: How the Literature and Philosophy of Albert Camus Can Teach Us to Live, Love and Die

Professor: Thomas Williams  

Course Number: HR 398

CRN Number: 10304

Class cap: 15

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

 Tue      12:30 PM - 2:50 PM Olin 301

Distributional Area:

MBV  Meaning, Being, Value   

Crosslists:

French Studies

French Philosophy around 1968: A Structuralist Existentialism

Professor: Archie Magno  

Course Number: PHIL 279

CRN Number: 10350

Class cap: 22

Credits: 4

Schedule/Location:

Mon  Wed     11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Olin 310

Distributional Area:

SA  Social Analysis   

Crosslists: French Studies