Professor: O. Chilton
CRN: 92452
Distribution: D
Time: M Tu Th 9:20 am - 10:20 am LC 118
A course designed for students who have completed Basic French or two years of high-school French. The emphasis will be placed on building vocabulary and reinforcing familiarity with grammar. Through the reading of short texts, students will be encouraged to express themselves with confidence and accuracy on a variety of topics both in speaking and in writing.
Professor: O. Chilton
CRN: 92453
Distribution: D
Time: M Tu Th 10:30 am - 11:30 am LC 118
For students who have completed three to five years of high-school French or who have already acquired a solid knowledge of elementary grammar. In this course, designed as an introduction to contemporary 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.
Professor: A. Aciman
CRN: 92622
Distribution: B/D
Time: M W 11:00 am - 12:30 pm LC 120
Intended to help students fine-tune their command of French and develop a good sense for the most appropriate ways of communicating ideas and facts in French, this course emphasizes translation both as an exercise as well as a craft in its own right. The course will also address grammatical, lexical and stylistic issues. Translation will be practiced from English into French, and vice versa, with a variety of texts drawn from different genres (literary and journalistic). Toward the end of the semester, students will be encouraged to embark on independent projects.
Professor: M. Van Zuylen
CRN: 92624
Distribution: B/D
Time: Tu Th 1:20 pm - 2:50 pm OLIN 310
This course introduces students to the major schools of twentieth-century French thought. The syllabus will draw from a selection of texts that have had particular significance for philosophy, psychoanalysis, linguistics, literary theory, and sociology. Close readings from Saussure, Barthes, Breton, Lacan, Merleau-Ponty, Derrida, Deleuze, Lyotard, Bourdieu. For those students less proficient in French, it will be possible to work on shorter texts excerpted from larger works (i.e., Derrida's Grammatologie, Deleuze's Anti-Oedipe, or Lacan's �crits). More advanced students will have the option of concentrating more extensively on authors of their choice. Readings and discussions in French. Possibility for an extra hour of discussion in English.
Professor: A. Aciman
CRN: 92632
Distribution: B/D
Time: M W 1:20 pm - 2:50 pm OLIN 308
Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time tells of an elaborate, internal journey, at the end of which the narrator joyfully discovers the unifying pattern of his life both as a writer and human being. Famed for its style and its distinctive view of love, art, and memory, Proust's epic remains a dominant and innovative voice in the literature of self-exploration. This seminar, which is designed for all students as well as creative writers who wish to understand the complex nature of the modern novel, will examine how Proust's epic has challenged and redefined not just the art of writing, but the art of reading as well. The course will be taught in translation, but students able to read the original French are encouraged to do so.
Professor: M. Van Zuylen
CRN: 92623
Distribution: B/D
Time: M 1:20 pm - 3:20 pm LC 118
This course surveys major trends in twentieth-century French poetry. It documents the evolution of poetic language from Rimbaud's subversive poetics in the nineteenth century to Yves Bonnefoy, perhaps the greatest living French poet. This survey will provide students both with the opportunity to practice close readings (for that it will provide an introduction to French versification), and to investigate the broader aesthetic undertakings of these poets. Particular emphasis will be placed on the triple axis of poetry, philosophy, and art history. We will begin analyzing Appollinaire's [sic] writings on art, and the subsequent impact these texts have had on comparative aesthetics (American and English in particular). Emphasis will be placed on the pivotal role of Surrealism; the Surrealists' parlor games, their interest in the working of the unconscious (�criture automatique), and lastly, their deep connection to the plastic arts. The connection between poetry and painting, and especially the development of Avant-Garde aesthetics, will be central to the course. Figures like Eluard, Breton, Aragon, and Desnos will be studied alongside painters like Dali, Ernst, Duchamps, and Balthus. The course will draw on the role of French and German philosophy in the aesthetic development of Ren� Char, Francis Ponge, and Yves Bonnefoy. Other readings include Joyce Mansour, Saint-John Perse, Victor Segalen, Catherine Pozzi, and Philippe Jaccottet. There will be a special section on twentieth-century Francophone poets. The class will be led in French; students will be expected to do close readings of the poems as well as give oral presentations.