French
Courses
FRN 1001/1002: Introductory French I and II (4 cr. each.)
An introduction to French language, grammar, and vocabulary, as well as, the reading of short dialogues and cultural texts, with the aim of developing the four skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Language laboratory drills. Prerequisite for Introductory French II: Introductory French I, or its equivalent. (Fall) (Spring)
FRN 2001/2002: Intermediate French I and II (3 cr. each)
Intermediate French I and II enhance students’ foundation in French helping them improve their ability to: listen, communicate orally, read fictional and non-fictional texts, and to express themselves in writing. Special stress on fundamentals of grammar. Prerequisite: Two or three years of high school French or its equivalent, or Introductory French I and II. (Fall) (Spring)
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FRN 2008: French Conversation (3 cr.)
The course will concentrate on improving speaking and listening skills in French. Students will learn the vocabulary and language structures that will help them converse in a number of specific situations – looking for a job, interviewing for a job, speaking about the future, the environment, global issues, advances in technology, and articulating points of view about the role of the media and advertising. They will also be introduced to current events in France and the Francophone world through newspaper articles, the Internet, video clips, films, and songs. In addition, students will practice using French in specific situations through mock job interviews and debates. Prerequisite: FRN 2002, or its equivalent. (Fall)
FRN 2009: Business French (3 cr.)
This intermediate-level French class will help students improve their command of French in order to conduct business in French or travel through French-speaking countries with greater ease. The course will introduce students to the vocabulary and structures of the French business world. Students will learn how to: engage in conversations over the telephone, arrange meetings, make travel plans and hotel reservations, look for jobs and write the curriculum vitae, interview, write business letters and e-mails, and make formal presentations. Students will also examine the economic challenges facing French businesses in the age of globalization. The course will offer extensive grammar review. Students will read articles related to business in French print and non-print media, and analyze authentic documents from the business world. Prerequisite: FRN 2002, or its equivalent. (Spring ’07)
FRN 2011: Advanced French Conversation (3 cr.)
The course is a continuation of FRN 2008, French Conversation. It will concentrate on improving speaking and listening skills. Students will learn the vocabulary and language structures that will help them converse in a number of concrete and abstract situations and will be introduced to current events in France and the Francophone world through newspaper and magazine articles, the Internet, video clips, films, and songs. In addition, students will practice using French in specific situations through class presentations, skits, and debates. Prerequisite: FRN 2008, French Conversation, or its equivalent. (Spring)
FRN 2055:French Cinema: From the Nouvelle vague to the cinéma de banlieue (3 cr.)
This course will conduct a thematic and stylistic analysis of French films from the late 1950s through the 1990s and examine the images of French society that emerge. Filmmakers to be studied will include François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Louis Malle, Bertrand Blier, Jean-Jacques Beineix, Colline Serreau, Medhi Charef, Mathieu Kassovitz, and Bertrand Tavernier. In English. (Fall ’07)
FRN 3003: Advanced French Language, Literature, and, Culture (3 cr.)
This course is designed for students who have completed FRN 2002, Intermediate French II, and who wish to improve their oral, reading, writing, and listening skills. In addition to an advanced grammar review, the course will expose students to French literature, literary history and culture from the Middle Ages through the 17th-century. Students will also read one literary work in its entirety. In addition, students will study French and Francophone culture through newspaper articles, web-related activities, songs, and films. Prerequisite: FRN 2002, Intermediate French II, or its equivalent. (Fall)
FRN 3012: The 19th-Century French Novel (3 cr.)
The course introduces students to key French novels of the 19th-century, paying particular attention to the social, political, and literary contexts of these fictional narratives. From the romantic novel of the early part of the century to the realist novels of Honoré de Balzac and Gustave Flaubert and the later naturalist novels of Emile Zola and Guy de Maupassant, this course will examine how these novels depict 19th-century French society. In addition to the novels, we will read critical and historical material on the 19th-century. Prerequisite: FRN 3024, Introduction to the Analysis of French Texts, or its equivalent. (Fall ’09)
FRN 3017: World Literatures in French (3 cr.)
The course examines literature written in French outside of France by writers from the Maghreb (North Africa), the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa. A strong emphasis will be placed on the condition of women, sexuality, religion, and the postcolonial status of Francophone countries including their relationship with France. The class will also define what constitutes Francophone literature, the use of language, and the notions of Négritude and créolité. Course material includes historical and critical texts, novels, short stories, poems, and films by writers and filmmakers such as Cheikh Hamidou Kane, Mariama Bâ, Maryse Condé, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Azouz Begag,and Ousmane Sembène, among others. Prerequisite: FRN 3024, Introduction to the Analysis of French Texts, or its equivalent. (Spring ’07)
FRN 3021: 20th-Century French Theatre (3 cr.)
In this course students read and analyze French plays by 20th-century dramatists including Jean Anouilh, Samuel Beckett, Aimé Césaire, Marguerite Duras, Jean Giraudoux, Eugène Ionesco, and Jean-Paul Sartre. The approach to the texts will center on the social, political, and cultural contexts of the plays as well as representations of class, gender, and the role of language. Prerequisite: FRN 3024, Introduction to the Analysis of French Texts, or its equivalent. (Fall ’08)
FRN 3024: Introduction to the Analysis of French Texts (3 cr.)
This course refines the skills acquired in FRN 3003: Advanced French Language, Literature and Culture. The class will continue to review French grammar and read, analyze, and write about French literature from the 18th- through the 21st-century, including literature in French written outside of France. The class will also read one literary work in its entirety, and continue with the study of French and Francophone culture through newspaper articles, web-related activities, songs and films. Prerequisite: FRN 3003, Advanced French Language, Literature, and Culture, or its equivalent. (Spring)
FRN 3027: French Comedy (3 cr.)
This course studies the development of French comedy from the medieval period to the 20th-century. Plays to be read will include the medieval farce Maistre Pathelin and Ionesco’s absurd play La Cantatrice Chauve, as well as comedies by Molière, Marivaux, Beaumarchais, Musset, and Ionesco. In addition to the study of character, style and themes, the class will examine how the playwrights used comedy to reflect on their particular historical periods while commenting on the social and political situation of their times. Prerequisite: FRN 3024, Introduction to the Analysis of French Texts, or its equivalent.
FRN 3029: The Exotic Other in the 18th-Century French Novel (3 cr.)
In the 18th-century, certain French novels and short stories showed outsiders, exotic others, from Africa, Persia, Turkey, Siam, China, Peru, and the Americas visiting Europe and commenting on what they observed there. Other works were based on accounts of actual foreigners with whom the writers came into contact through travel narratives. In this course, the class will examine the figure of the exotic other, both real and imaginary, in novels and short stories from Montesquieu’s Lettres persanes (1721) to Voltaire’s L’Ingénu (1767) and analyze their role within the social and political context of 18th-century French society. Prerequisite: FRN 3024, Introduction to the Analysis of French Texts, or its equivalent.
FRN 3031: French and Francophone Culture through Literature and Film (3 cr.)
In this course, the class will examine contemporary French and Francophone culture through literature and film. The literary works and films to be analyzed will revolve around five themes: family and childhood, women, cities, immigration, and urban alienation. The class will read works by Annie Ernaux, Gisèle Pineau, and Tahar Ben Jelloun, among others, and watch films by Bertrand Tavernier, Cédric Klapisch, Mathieu Kassovitz, Colline Serreau, and Claire Denis, among others. Prerequisite: FRN 3024, Introduction to the Analysis of French Texts or its equivalent. (Spring ‘09)
FRN 3035: Writing in French
This course will concentrate on improving students’ written expression in French. Students will explore and practice different forms of writing in French – descriptions, narrations, essays, portraits, l’explication de texte, and correspondence. Students will learn how to describe, narrate, persuade, express and defend opinions, and hypothesize and synthesize arguments in their written assignments. To help with the writing process, students will read texts that will serve as models for different kinds of writing. (Prerequisite: FRN 3024 or its equivalent). (Fall ‘07)
FRN 3122: City of Light: Paris Through the Ages (3 cr.)
Paris has been the center of art and literature, culture and politics from the Middle Ages to the present. Through an examination of historical and literary texts, as well as painting and film, this course will follow its progress from a medieval town to an urban conglomerate that typified modernity in the 19th-century and internationalism in the twentieth. The focus will move from the narrow cobbled streets of the medieval period to the glittering salons of the 18th-century Enlightenment; from the great boulevards of Baron de Haussman to the pleasure palaces of the fin de siècle; from the intellectual and revolutionary hothouse of the 1950s and the 1960s to the multicultural crucible that it is today. This interdisciplinary course that will use literature and history as a primary lens but will also draw upon the academic disciplines of art, history, architecture, music, film, and sociology. (Spring’08)
FRN 4495: Independent Study (3 cr.)
For majors only, with permission of the department.