French and Francophone Studies
FREN 101 - French I
Emphasizing the active use of the language, this course develops the fundamental skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It includes an introduction to the cultural background of France and the Francophone world. Class sessions are supplemented by weekly small group meetings with a French graduate assistant. For students with no previous work in French. ALL COURSES ARE TAUGHT IN FRENCH UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED.
Frequency: Every fall.
FREN 102 - French II
This course continues the development of the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, with increasing emphasis on the practice of reading and writing. It includes introduction to the cultural background of France and the Francophone world. Class sessions are supplemented by weekly small group meetings with a French graduate assistant. ALL COURSES ARE TAUGHT IN FRENCH UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 101 with a grade of C- or better, placement test or permission of instructor.
FREN 111 - Accelerated French I-II
This course develops fundamental skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It includes introduction to the cultural background of France and the francophone world. It is designed for students who have had some French prior to enrolling at Macalester or who want to review basic structures. The course prepares students for French III and includes two lab. Sessions. ALL COURSES ARE TAUGHT IN FRENCH UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED.
Frequency: Every semester.
FREN 194 - Topics Course
Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.
FREN 203 - French III
The aim of this course is to bring students to a point where they can use French for communication, both oral and written. At the end of this course students should be able to read appropriate authentic materials, write short papers in French and communicate with a native speaker. It consolidates and builds competencies in listening, speaking, reading and writing and includes study of the cultural background of France and the Francophone world. Class sessions are supplemented by weekly small group meetings with a French graduate assistant. ALL COURSES ARE TAUGHT IN FRENCH UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED.
Frequency: Every semester.
FREN 204 - Text, Film and Media
This course presents a study of the contemporary language and culture of France and the Francophone world through authentic materials including the French press, the internet, television, literature and film. At the end of this course students should have attained a more sophisticated level of communication in French, the ability to use their skills in French for a variety of purposes including research in other disciplines, and a full appreciation of the intellectual challenge of learning a foreign language and its cultures. ALL COURSES ARE TAUGHT IN FRENCH UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 203 with a grade of C- or better, placement test or permission of instructor.
FREN 294 - Topics Course
Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.
FREN 305 - Advanced Expression: Communication Tools
This course is an intensive training in oral expression and corrective phonetics. Materials include news broadcasts from French TV, films and articles from the French and Francophone press. Grammar patterns that enhance communication will be studied. Class sessions are supplemented by small group meetings with French assistants and small conversation groups with Francophone tutors. Taught in French.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 204, placement test or permission of instructor.
FREN 306 - Introduction to Literary Analysis
This course is designed to develop the necessary skills for interpreting literature and for writing effectively in French. Students learn to do close reading and analysis of a variety of literary works and to compose critical essays. The course also includes a study of selected grammatical patterns and stylistic techniques. ALL COURSES ARE TAUGHT IN FRENCH UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 204 or placement test or permission of instructor.
FREN 308 - From Lascaux to 1789: The Evolution of French Civilization
This course traces the cultural, philosophical, literary and sociological works and movements that move France from the early period of Lascaux to the French revolution 1789. It explores the multi-facets of each century through 1789. The reading list includes early documents on Lascaux, Charlemagne, Jeanne d'Arc, Catherine de Médicis, Rabelais, Montaigne, Descartes, Me de Scudéry, the diaries of Louis XIV, Voltaire, Diderot, movies on French Revolution and French art from the early period to 1789. Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
FREN 309 - Contemporary France: History, Culture and Current Events
This course is designed for students who want to understand contemporary events and issues in France. The course includes a review of essential historical events that have shaped modern France, in particular the legacy of the French Revolution, the colonial empire, WWII and the French-Algerian War. These events have shaped all contemporary debates (i.e. the recent law regarding wearing religious symbols in schools, the October 2005 suburb riots, recent immigration laws, and many other topics). The course also studies the place of France in relationship with the United States and the European community. Some units focus on the production of French culture and various intellectual/artistic movements through a variety of up-to-date authentic materials: newspaper articles, films, ATV news, websites. Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
FREN 310 - Passerelles: Introduction to French and Francophone Studies
This course is a topics course designed to introduce students to the diversity of French and Francophone Cultures. Through the means of diverse medias: images, music, films, and texts, students will engage with different approaches to the cultural productions of several areas. The course includes aspects of French culture as well to cover how France and the Francophone World engage with each other. Units will include: The transformations of Paris (May 1968, immigration, Paris and its periphery); The Tunisian Revolutions (from one Tunisia to the next); West Africa (modern cultures; emigration; riches); Central Africa (identity; languages; survival); Algeria (web documentaries on several generations, gender, rural/urban); Morocco (youth, tales of women, performances of human rights); Island multiculturalism (Mauritius cosmopolitanism, Caribbean diversity, Haitian riches, French Polynesian artists, Madagascar youth and history); Quebec (identity; language; diversity). The course will be conducted as a seminar. The goals of the course are to introduce students to a rich cultural transnational world in multiple relations with France, French language, changed by this relation and changing France and French as well, through various media. Films will be screened out of class. Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 204
FREN 311 - Francophone Cultures of/in America
This course is an introduction to the multiple facets of francophone cultures and heritage, old and new, in the Western Hemisphere. It explores historical connections between France and the United States; Quebec, Acadia and Louisiana; Louisiana, Haiti and creole cultures, from the Caribbean to the Twin Cities; French, Franco-American and Metis heritage and communities in the Midwest and along the Mississippi. The course also explores connections between francophone cultures and the Americas (Hmong, Vietnamese, African and North American). The textbookHéritages francophones: Enquêtes Interculturelles is supplemented with authentic materials (visual, musical, filmic, and print). Visits to different sites and opportunities to meet with different communities of francophone heritage in the Twin Cities are built into the course. Work includes presentations, opportunities to develop small digital projects in French, and short essays.
Frequency: Alternate years.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 204
FREN 320 - Francophone Theater of Exile and Immigration
This course is a survey of francophone theater and film from 1975 to 2014. The plays and films will cover three main topics: the development of colonial and post-colonial subjects, the act of writing and performing while living in exile, and the idea of the Other in francophone film and theater. We will study a variety of plays and films that were written in and take place in all parts of the francophone world, including Quebec, Lebanon, Algeria, Belgium, Cameroon, Senegal, Mali, Martinique, Romania, and France. The form of each work varies widely, from classical French dramatic techniques to minimalist contemporary staging and characterization. Students will study blocking and staging techniques and explore contemporary performance theory in addition to writing literary and cultural analyses. Authors and filmmakers studied include Abla Farhoud, Wajdi Mouawad, Edouardo Manet, Michel Azama, Michele Cesaire, Anca Visdei, Pierre Gope et Nicolas Kurtovithc, and Moussa Toure. Taught in French.
Frequency: Occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): One 300-level French course.
FREN 321 - Introduction to French Cinema
This course provides an introduction to French cinema in a selection of films by a diverse range of directors and that may include examples from the early experimentation of Louis Feuillade and the Lumière brothers through the classic period of Renoir, Cocteau, Buñuel, and Jacqueline Audry; the 1960s French Nouvelle Vague including Godard, Truffaut, Agnès Varda; Resnais and Marguerite Duras; and contemporary cinema from directors including Beineix and Jeunet though to Audiard, Haneke, Claire Denis, Mehdi Charef, and Abdellatif Kechiche. Our objective will be to analyze both the specificity of French cinema as a distinctive art and the way in which French filmmakers have used film to represent and critique various power relations, practices, and institutions in French society, whether in the domains of politics, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, or immigration. We will read some introductory film theory, pay attention to both the formal and thematic dimensions of the works we study, and develop skills in scene analysis and interpretation. The course will be taught in seminar format.
Frequency: Every year.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 204 .
FREN 330 - Towards a Postcolonial Pacific
This course is a comparative introduction to postcolonial literature (and some film) from the Pacific region, in particular from the so-called "Polynesian Triangle." The course examines recent works by major literary figures through a postcolonial prism, and focuses on literary representations of the political and social legacy of colonialism in these territories. For each country studied, we begin with a brief historical review of colonization in dialogue with a text written by a colonial visitor or settler. We then examine resistance to dominant colonialist discourse in the works of prominent contemporary "indigenous" authors, in dialogue with current political debates in each territory. Course themes include differing conceptions of race, ethnicity and indigeneity in each country, and their relation to the histories of British, French and U.S. imperialism in the Pacific; the rise of indigenous nationalist movements, and the question as to whether political independence defined in ethnic terms remains a feasible goal in an era of globalization; questions of language in a Pacific space still dominated by its colonial division into distinct "Anglonesian" and "Franconesian" spheres; and the island as a unit of political organization as opposed to alternative pan-Oceanic conceptions of inter-relation. Authors studied include Katherine Mansfield; Patricia Grace; Witi Ihimaera; Victor Segalen; Chantal Spitz; Célestine Vaite; Herman Melville; Mark Twain; Lee Cataluna; Lois-Ann Yamanaka.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
FREN 331 - Haiti: Culture, Human Rights and Humanitarianism
The January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti, that killed more than 250,000 people, brought a lot of attention to the country traditionally described as "the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere." This course aims to provide students interested in humanitarianism, human rights, the Caribbean, cultural studies, and French and Francophone Studies an introduction to Haiti and Haitian culture throughout its history, including pre-and post-earthquake culture. It also aims at providing a thoughtful critical frame to the extraordinary humanitarian situation after the earthquake and the responses it generated at the Haitian and international levels. Throughout the course, students will become more familiar with Haitian history, its rich cultural production, and the relevance of culture to human rights representations, abuses, and responses to abuses as well as its relevance to various humanitarian crises in Haiti, especially the post-earthquake daily situation. Students will also gain knowledge about Haitian society, local organizations working in human rights and humanitarianism, the geography of Human Rights, local IDP environment, and humanitarian distribution of resources, and they will acquire the critical tools necessary to understand, assess, and participate in the current debates about human rights and humanitarianism practices in Haiti (including issues related to health, gender, economic rights, education, and access to resources of any kind). This course will be taught in English. Students taking it for credit counting toward the French major or Minor will be able to read some of the material and conduct their research in French. Students interested in doing an internship with one of the many organizations in the Twin Cities linked with Haiti should speak to the instructor.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
FREN 332 - Immigration in Europe
Global media have long been fascinated with images of migrants from the South enduring perilous journeys in their attempts to enter Europe through land or sea. These images have produced series of standard narratives, especially since the 2010s, rather than a deep understanding. With the help of theorists such as Hannah Arendt, Giorgio Agamben, Achille Mbembe or Sarah Mekdjian, this course will analyze mass media images of immigration, juxtaposing them with more nuanced representations from European cinema and literature. Works from France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Spain will be examined to study specific issues (from detention camps in and out of the Schengen space to integration and citizenship of several generations, from cultural exclusions to hospitality, love, and success stories). Each of the major European countries has a different historical, geographical, and economic relationship with the migrants' countries of origin, and the course will proceed comparatively, seeking not just commonalities but also significant differences among the European countries receiving migrants. Questions of race, ethnicity, gender, race, religion and differences will be important concerns. The materials for the class are diverse. They include documents about the vocabulary, law, practices of migration, and refugee and migrant rights, written memoirs and fiction, films, graphic novels, critical essays, and interactive and creative maps. Starting with classics that deal directly with immigration such as Werner Fassbinder's Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), the course will carry its analysis forward to current fiction films. In addition, some documentary films such as Kal Touré's Victims of our Riches (2006), Fire at Sea (2016), and Welcome to Refugistan (2016) will be screened for background information. Narratives include short works by writers such as Igiaba Scego, Laila Lallami, Donato Ndongo-Bidyogo, Fatou Diome among others (materials for the course are regularly updated to remain current). The course features conversations with guests (human rights lawyers, community members, and artists) during the semester. The course functions as a discussion seminar. Student work includes presentations to the class and several short papers.
Frequency: Occasionally.
FREN 333 - The Language of Diplomacy
This interdisciplinary course, co-taught by faculty in Anthropology and French and Francophone Studies, will introduce students to the broad range of international institutions where French is one of the primary working languages. Language, as the basis for human cooperation, provides a vehicle for students to explore the connections between language, power, and human rights. To engage students from the outset with the lived experiences of those working in the larger diplomatic world, students will do a life-history interview with a professional to learn more about their career trajectory and the work that they do. We will further bring real-life scenarios into the classroom by watching and analyzing simulcast sessions in French from the International Criminal Court and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Throughout the course we will deepen our understanding of the historical and cultural dynamics within Europe over the past 150 years that gave rise to, maintain, and subvert the role of language in diplomacy.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 204 and application process.
Cross-Listed as: ANTH 333
FREN 370 - Art of Translation: Style, Grammar, and Translation
We will examine pieces of literature in English and in French and analyze the different modes of expression, the various styles and compare their styles. Theoretical material will enable students to determine stylistic changes geared to specific contexts. At the same time, exercises will concentrate on translation from English to French and French to English. The books we are using progress from the specific parts of speech to general and complex questions concerning the order of the words (ordre des mots) and la mise en relief. With the use of books, journals, newspapers etc... we will proceed to write in journals twice a week to achieve clarity and elegance in written French examining the literary (langue littéraire) to the colloquial (langue familière) and the formal French (langue soignée des gens cultivés). In addition to regular correction of journals, 4 papers will be rewritten after advice and suggestions of the instructor on content (introduction, conclusion presentation of arguments), vocabulary, stylistic and grammatical errors. Students will translate 4 short genres (literary, journalistic, theater and conversation pieces). As the topic relates to the cultural, economical, sociological and historical aspects of France, it addresses the diverse disciplinary areas well established in the French Department and the long term affiliation with the humanities, media and cultural studies, and women's and gender studies programs. Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
FREN 394 - Topics Course
Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.
FREN 402 - Voices of the Francophone Mediterranean
This course focuses on Mediterranean francophone literatures and cultures, principally from the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania and Lybia) but also occasionally from the Machrek (Lebanon, Syria), and the French Mediterranean, from colonial times to current events, including the post "Arab Spring". The course contains units on orientalist representations, (texts, paintings, photographs and other critical material) diverse colonial and post-colonial European and North African representations of the regional cultures from multidirectional perspectives and theories, multiculturalism in North Africa, gender and sexualities, immigration, religion, and national/post-national cultural productions, including literature and cinema. Materials include texts of various genres from a variety of authors, classic and contemporary films, graphic novels, music and theoretical/critical materials. Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 306 .
FREN 403 - Voices from the Pacific Rim
This course is an introduction to colonial and postcolonial representations of the French territories in the South Pacific, including French Polynesia and New Caledonia, as well as the former French colonies of 'Indochine.' We will examine the process by which the colonized territories of the Pacific islands and South-east Asia are constructed as objects of desire and difference for a metropolitan French public, and link the formation of these colonialist ideologies to their political and economic underpinnings. We will also explore the interrogation, subversion and displacement of colonial ideology in contemporary postcolonial francophone literature and film by intellectuals in the Pacific and in the Indochinese diaspora. The course will begin with a introduction to the theory of ideology and an overview of the French colonial presence in the Asia-Pacific region. We will then move to examine the conceptualization of the Pacific as an 'antipodes' of Europe beginning in French thought in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, i.e. as an uncanny opposite or other characterized by its inversion of often corrupt metropolitan social, political and religious values and norms. This section of the course will conclude with a survey of recent work by Kanak and Polynesian writers that confront the realities of the troubled legacy of French colonialism in the Pacific. The last part of the course will begin with an examination of exoticized representations of French Indochina that draw on a long history of European stereotypes concerning the 'Orient.' The course will end with the study of recent work that thematizes the conflicts experienced by the descendants of those former Indochinese colonial subjects who immigrated to metropolitan France. The course bibliography will include texts and images by Rétif de la Bretonne, Pierre Loti, Paul Gauguin, Victor Segalen, Déwé Gorodé, Marguerite Duras, André Malraux, Linda Lê, and Régis Wargnier. Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 306 .
FREN 404 - Voices from Africa
In this course, students will be introduced to the great variety of texts written in Sub-Saharan West and Central Africa. Through the study of great pre-colonial Mandingue epics transcribed into French to post-genocide literature from Rwanda, students will become familiar with writers from Senegal, Mali, Cameroon, Rwanda, Ivory Coast as well as with other materials such as music, visual art and other art forms. The course will also expose students to the relationship between France and former African colonies from the first encounters to the current discourses and debates about the "FrançAfrique" as well as to post-colonial theory and to immigration literature from the African perspective. Each class will start with music. The course will also familiarize students with the francophone African communities in the Twin Cities. TIn this course, students will be introduced to the great variety of texts written in Sub-Saharan West and Central Africa. Through the study of great pre-colonial Mandingue epics transcribed into French to post-genocide literature from Rwanda, students will become familiar with writers from Senegal, Mali, Cameroon, Rwanda, Ivory Coast as well as with other materials such as music, visual art and other art forms. The course will also expose students to the relationship between France and former African colonies from the first encounters to the current discourses and debates about the "FrançAfrique" as well as to post-colonial theory and to immigration literature from the African perspective. Each class will start with music. The course will also familiarize students with the francophone African communities in the Twin Cities. Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 306.
FREN 405 - Voices from the Caribbean Islands
Haiti is the first Black Republic in the Western Hemisphere, it is the first island that Christopher Columbus colonized, it is also the first country to defeat the troops of Napoleon, an event that precipitated the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. In short, it is an important place to study as it is connected to North and South America, the Caribbean, France and other European countries, and the African continent. In this course, we will study the history of Haiti since pre-colonial times, through historical documents, history analysis and political documents and analysis from the colonial period to current events in Haiti. We will also examine the place of Haiti in relation to globalization, and its economy and how it went from practically supporting more than half of the French economy in the 17th-century to being the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. Haiti is one of the most productive places in terms of culture: paintings, literature, music, etc. The course emphasizes the introduction to Haitian culture with the study of its religions, languages and cultural productions. We will listen to various music that developed throughout history in Haiti. Offered occasionally. Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 306.
FREN 406 - Quebec Independence and Immigration
Québec is uniquely situated in the world: at a crossroads between European and North American cultures, a French-speaking province surrounded by English-speaking nations, and historically both connected and disconnected from its indigenous populations. It has also recently been a destination for émigrés from all over the world. This course examines the distinctive multicultural dimensions of the francophone province of Québec and its interactions with "les autres" (other cultures and peoples), through a study of recent literature published over the past 30 years. We begin with a brief overview of the history of Québec's multicultural identity, from the colonial era through the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s and up to 21st-century Quebec, including the 2012 assassination attempt on the new prime minister and the 2008 debates over the "reasonable accommodation" law that shocked the nation. The second section proceeds with an analysis of three of Québec's strongest cultural partners: the heritage of the French, the influence of the U.S., and the complicated interactions with First Nations. The third section of the course focuses on the relationships between Québécois "de souche" (citizens of French or British heritage) and recent immigrants. The texts and films studied in this section include characters originally from China, Haïti, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, and other countries around the world. We examine why they moved to Québec, why they chose French as their principal language of expression, and how they interpret their new homeland. Throughout the course, we explore issues of language, identity, exile, and memory to understand the complex negotiations between inhabitants of "la belle province." Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 306 .
FREN 440 - Science, Art and Literature in Cartography in the 16th Century
Maps are one of the oldest forms of human communication, they ultimately express the many ways we attempt to understand the world and be part of it. The class will expose the different interactions between art, maps, explorers, and writers from Antiquity to present. Readings will include Ptolémée, Apian, Jean de Lery, Oronce Finé, Theodore de Bry, Rabelais, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Madame de Scudéry (Carte du Tendre), Delacroix, Victor Hugo, Apollinaire, Sophie Calle, and Andrée Chedid. One of the great problems in the history of cartography - and indeed, in the intellectual history of early modern Europe - is the sudden emergence and success of production of maps in Europe starting in 1600. This change, which amounted to a revolution in the European way of ''seeing'' the world, no doubt emerged from a variety of causes that we will study through maps, paintings, diaries, novels, aesthetics and economical pamphlets. The role of the Renaissance and the fashionable admiration for Antiquity was exemplified by the rediscovery of Ptolemy. His Geography circulated in many editions in 1477 and spread rapidly all over Europe changing the role of the mapmaker and the viewer. Another strand leading to the development of a new map consciousness can be followed back into the artistic developments of the 15th and 16th century. Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 306 .
FREN 441 - Images of the World from the 16th Century to the 21st Century
Maps tell us much more than merely how to get from here to there. One of the oldest forms of human communications, they ultimately express the many ways we attempt to understand the world and be part of it. The explorers, their itineraries, and their diaries offer a complex view of this world, too. This course will expose the different interactions between maps, explorers, and writers from Antiquity to present. During the Renaissance and later explorations, colonization also ushered a significant challenge to Christian and Muslim accounts of their travels. The indigenous peoples of Africa and the Americas offered ways for the explorers and cartographers to express their consternation or their enthusiasm and to subvert what was ordered by kings or queens. Our class will explore the ways that Egyptians and Greeks (Aristotle, Plato, Ptolémée) influenced the thought of travelers of the Middle Ages (Marco Polo). We will discuss French Renaissance exploration and travel writing (Verrazano, Cartier, Thevet, Léry, Lescarbot, Christine de Pizan, Montaigne) and artists/cartographers (Leonard de Vinci, Michel Angelo Dürer, Alberti). We will read about the influences of 17th and 18th century mapmakers (Champlain, Finé, Roccoco and Baroque art/maps) through diaries of Hennepin, Nicollet, Champlain, la Carte du tendre. The 19th century will bring many diaries and maps from utopian discourse (Villemart, Gustave Raulin, Charles-Albert Gauthier) to romantic travels (Victor Hugo, Jules Vernes). The study of contemporary diaries (Ruffin, Le Clezio, Amélie Nothomb and Sophie Calle) and their maps of the world will be studied through discussion and will show the changing dynamics of identity and the other in the Modern world. These concepts and ideas will be debated through the study of journals, maps, and philosophical and literary texts of the time. Students will visit the Ford Library, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Walker Art Center for studies of maps, their philosophical concepts (Aristotle, Plato, Erasmus, Machievelli, Descartes, Kant, Foucault, Didi-Huberman, Jean Luc Nancy, Greenblatt, Onfray) and their conceptualizations from late Sixteenth century to present. Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered spring semester.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 306 .
FREN 442 - France from the Renaissance to the 17th Century
What were the important facts happening during this period in France? What are the movements in art, history, philosophy and literature that influenced the everyday life of women, children, and men during this time? What pleased the people, the court, the king? More than understanding events as explanatory reports attached to an historical timeline, we will analyze supporting media that configure the events and view the formalized representations that they induced. The facts themselves sometimes are less important than the system of textual representation which recorded the phenomenon. We will adopt complementary perspectives; taking into account the events and its media representation on one hand and review the forms of writing claiming historical testimony on the other hand. How can we deduce the evolution or non-evolution of the role of the women during these periods? What is the conception of raising kids, or a king? What are the different representations of the economy or the war during these periods? What is the concept of the ''other'' in those centuries? How do the explorations influence the court, the socio and economic system? How is the daily life conducted? How is the concept of ''human'' taken into account? How will it affect the centuries after? We will center our attention in questioning these facts relative to the affirmation of monarchical power (acts of wars, Newspapers, compte-rendus, philosophical treaties, diaries of kings or writers, maps, invasions, explorations, plays, diagrams, etc.) discuss their impact on the economic, sociological issues and intellectual trends of the period. We will also study the complex problem of the construction of the political, intellectual and sociological events and examine their interpretations through the study of texts, archives, films, chronicles, travel logs, exemplary stories, critics of the times, archived commentaries, debates, class discussions an d 3 visits outside Macalester (visits to MIA and visits to James Ford Library Special Collections). Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 306 .
FREN 445 - How to Start a Revolution
The French Revolution is often viewed as the founding event of the modern French state, but also as an event of world-historical significance that profoundly shaped human social and political history. In this course, we will explore the causes and consequences of the Revolution and its ongoing relevance in 2016. Questions we will consider include: What is a Revolution? What were the main causes of the French Revolution - ideas; economics; politics? What did the Revolutionaries hope to achieve, and where did they fall short? What was the legacy of the Revolution, in Europe, Asia, and beyond, from Mao and Che, to Tiananmen and Tahrir Square? What is "living" and what is "dead" in the concept of Revolution today? We will also examine how the French Revolution shaped our culture and understanding of human rights; our competing conceptions of liberty, equality, solidarity, and secularism; and our sense of the legitimacy of political violence and terror. Readings will include texts by Montesquieu, Rousseau, Diderot, De Gouges, Marat, Robespierre, Burke, Marx, Lenin, Arendt, Fanon, and Žižek. Taught in French.
Frequency: Alternate years.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 306 .
FREN 446 - The Animal and the Human in the French Enlightenment
A diverse array of contemporary thinkers from Jacques Derrida to Peter Singer has sought to reevaluate the animal/human distinction and related topics including animal rights, but the relation between the animal and the human also gave rise to crucial and controversial debates during the French Enlightenment. This course will consider the ethical, political, and aesthetic significance attributed to the relation in literary and philosophical texts by authors including Descartes, Rousseau, Diderot, and Sade. Themes to be discussed include nature and "sauvagerie," language, reason and the passions, sex and bestiality, cruelty and vivisection, and vegetarianism. Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 306 .
FREN 450 - Money and the Marketplace in the 19th Century
French culture and society underwent sweeping changes with the rise of capitalism and the industrial revolution in the 19th century. With these changes, new narratives emerged that we continue to see even in today's culture. They asked questions such as: why do two people fall in love? Why does an individual strive for a better social standing? Is empathy possible in a capitalist society? The answers to these questions are complex, and often relate to what is known as "mimetic desire," a term coined by French theorist Rene Girard in his book Deceit, Desire and the Novel (Le mensonge romantique et la verite romanesque). We will examine the relationships of deceit and desire to money and the marketplace in 19th-century France, and, in the process, learn more about our own society. This course offers a survey of 19th century French literature (novels, plays, short stories, and poetry) linked to the theme of the course, including works by Audouard, Balzac, Desbordes-Valmore, Flaubert, Hugo, Sand, Zola, and others. It will cover several major 19th-century literary movements and styles (Romanticism, Realism, and Naturalism). Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 306 .
FREN 451 - Environmentalism in the 19th Century
Nature is a temple where living columns sometimes emit confused lyrics - Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal
To hell with civilization, long live nature and poetry ! - Théodore Rousseau, peintre
The Industrial Revolution and the rise of Capitalism had a major impact on the environment in France during the nineteenth century, as it did in other European countries and the U.S. In what ways did the French respond to the environmental crisis in the nineteenth century and how did that set the stage for later developments? In 1854, the same year that Thoreau published Walden, the French created the Société Nationale de la Protection de la Nature. And in 1861 the first Réserve Naturelle was created by the French government to protect the forests of Fontainebleau from clear cutting, due in large part to the well-written petitions by writers and artists such as Victor Hugo, George Sand, and others. In this course, we will look at a number of literary, cultural, and political texts written during the nineteenth century that focus on nature, the environment, and issues related to the rapid urbanization and industrialization of France. We will also study artworks by the Barbizon school, and by later artists including the impressionists of the later part of the nineteenth century. Texts will include works by well-known authors such as Honoré de Balzac, George Sand, and Emile Zola, but also less well-known writers Olympe Audouard and Marceline Desbordes-Valmore among others. We will also study a variety of
contemporary critical theories on the subject, from Claude Brosseau's Romans-Géographes and Bertrand Westphal's La Géocritique to Blanc, Pughe et Chartier's works on l'écopoétique.
In the end, we will try to answer the question of why and how the green movement developed in France and why it has been so different (some would say "behind") the ecology movements of other western nations in Europe and in North America. Taught in French.
To hell with civilization, long live nature and poetry ! - Théodore Rousseau, peintre
The Industrial Revolution and the rise of Capitalism had a major impact on the environment in France during the nineteenth century, as it did in other European countries and the U.S. In what ways did the French respond to the environmental crisis in the nineteenth century and how did that set the stage for later developments? In 1854, the same year that Thoreau published Walden, the French created the Société Nationale de la Protection de la Nature. And in 1861 the first Réserve Naturelle was created by the French government to protect the forests of Fontainebleau from clear cutting, due in large part to the well-written petitions by writers and artists such as Victor Hugo, George Sand, and others. In this course, we will look at a number of literary, cultural, and political texts written during the nineteenth century that focus on nature, the environment, and issues related to the rapid urbanization and industrialization of France. We will also study artworks by the Barbizon school, and by later artists including the impressionists of the later part of the nineteenth century. Texts will include works by well-known authors such as Honoré de Balzac, George Sand, and Emile Zola, but also less well-known writers Olympe Audouard and Marceline Desbordes-Valmore among others. We will also study a variety of
contemporary critical theories on the subject, from Claude Brosseau's Romans-Géographes and Bertrand Westphal's La Géocritique to Blanc, Pughe et Chartier's works on l'écopoétique.
In the end, we will try to answer the question of why and how the green movement developed in France and why it has been so different (some would say "behind") the ecology movements of other western nations in Europe and in North America. Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 306 .
FREN 471 - Literature and Cinema of Immigration in France
The course explores the diversity of France through its immigrant population. The course introduces the history and composition of immigration in different areas of France through the study of several generations of immigrants, taking into account gender, race, class, and language among other relevant categories -- especially in the 20th-21st century, from the first foreign workers to the youth riots of 2005 and beyond to examine contemporary issues. The course includes classic migrant texts such as the Poets of the Negritude movement as well as fiction and essays by West African, North African, Caribbean and Asian authors. Course materials include texts, films, music, radio, newspapers, manifestos, law articles, visual art, graphic novels and ads. The course functions as a discussion seminar with class presentations. Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 306 .
FREN 473 - Contemporary Art in France and Francophone Countries
In this class we will study the question of contemporary art in France and some Francophone countries and see how the diverse world movements in politics, philosophy, economy and environment affect the realm and the space of art in those countries. Particular points that have been seen as marking a change in art styles include the cold war, the mass production/consumption in the early 1960's, the enormous influence of New York and London as well as new underground styles. Movements such as "decolonization" and "marginaliztion" and "anachronisms" will be examined. The term "contemporary art" will be questioned and debated. There will be interviews of curators and artists and visits to museums to help discussions and debates. Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 306.
FREN 475 - Parisian Women, 1730-2010
In this course we examine the lives of "Parisiennes" - women who have lived in or come from the city of Paris from 1730 to the present. We begin with the powerful salonnières of the aristocratic 18th century, intersections of sexism, racism, and colonialism, and the peasant women's march on Versailles during the French Revolution of 1789. For the 19th century, we examine women's roles during the industrial revolution and the modernization of Paris, and the activists of the first wave of French feminism. In the first half of the 20th-century, we study women artists and writers in Paris, including some Americans who lived in Paris during that time. For the second half of the 20th century, we look at changing roles for Parisian women, including the second wave of French feminism, women in politics, and the changing attitudes toward women in French law and society during the 1970s and later. Readings include Claire de Duras' Ourika (1823), Colette's La Vagabonde (1910), excerpts of Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex (1949), and Christiane Rochefort's Children of Heaven (1962). We also study recent works by francophone women writers living in Paris today, and view several recent films that focus on the lives of Parisian women. Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 306 .
FREN 477 - African and French Cinema in Dialogue
This course has for objective to introduce students to French and African Cinema through the prism of colonial cinema and the intimate relationship between colonization and cinema as medium and to establish connections between various well-known French and African filmmakers such as Jean Rouch, René Vautier, Jean-Luc Godard (Swiss), Chris Marker, Alain Resnais, Ousmane Sembe, Djibril Diop Mambety, Safi Faye, Jean-Pierre Bekolo, Med Hondo, and Trinh-Minh-Ha. How were African cultures represented in French film before the new Wave and the Independences of the francophone African countries? How did French filmmakers of the New Wave respond to the emergence of African Cinema? And how do African filmmakers pioneer in film techniques and content while dialoguing and commenting on French (as well as US and world) cinema? Students should come out of this course with a good understanding of the French and African cinema industries, main trends in cinema since the 1890s up to now, and a good understanding of colonial/postcolonial cinema. Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 306 .
FREN 478 - Science and Technology in Film and Literature
In this course we will analyze French fiction, graphic novels and film associated with the genre of science fiction and taking as their principal themes speculation on technology, travel in time and space and utopian or dystopian representations of the future. The primary question guiding our discussions will be whether science fiction should be understood as a form of projection, wish-fulfillment or a "journey into fear" that only reflects the anxieties of the dominant ideologies of the society and historical situation in which it is produced; or instead, whether it can amount to a real form of thinking on the limits of politics and history and on the possibilities for radical social transformation. We will also consider whether it is possible to identify any cultural specificity of French science fiction writing or a French attitude to technology in the works we discuss. Our discussions will be informed by readings of theorists including Frederic Jameson, Donna Haraway, Bruno Latour, and Pierre Macherey. Texts and films studied will include a small number of early works such as Cyrano de Bergerac's L'Autre Monde (1657) and Mercier's 1771 novel L'An 2440; the fiction of Jules Verne; and films including Meliès's 1902 Le Voyage dans la lune; La Jetée (1962); Godard's Alphaville (1965); Laloux's La Planète sauvage (1973); and Franju's classic take on plastic surgery and mutilation Les Yeux sans visage (1960). Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 306 .
FREN 479 - French Intellectuals in/and the World
This seminar presents an overview of French culture, theory and philosophy from the Middle Ages to today. It focuses on how French intellectuals have engaged across time with issues such as gender, class, race, language, and the public and the private, among other issues. The course studies how French intellectuals use their critical thinking, and theoretical and creative writing to propose ideas, take ethical positions (or not), and through writing and acting, engage in solidarity work. Readings include Christine de Pizan on the role of intellectual women in the public sphere, Montaigne on colonialism, Pascal and Descartes on religion and science, Voltaire and Beccaria on torture and prisons, Michel Foucault on enlightenment, Victor Hugo on capital punishment, Pierre Bourdieu on "the organic intellectual" and more recent notions of commitment and civic engagement with war and peace, immigration, and postcolonial cultural history through the works of various contemporary artists, writers, and public intellectuals such as André Breton, Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault, Assia Djebar and Boubacar Boris Diop. Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 306 .
FREN 480 - French Avant-Gardes in the 20th and 21st Centuries
The course will expose students to some of the most important writers, poets, playwrights, and thinkers of the twentieth-century. It will serve both as a survey of the most important literary, artistic, and intellectual movements and as a sampling of the most brilliant and innovative prose, poetry, and performance. The objective of the course is to familiarize students with some of the cultural productions that have been strongly influenced by scientific, linguistic, psychoanalytical, colonial, anti-colonial, post-colonial, racial, and gender-based theories of the century. Virtually all literary and artistic genres were affected by the ruptures caused by various wars. Academic rules were subverted, and new forms of expression emerged - several times. Moving images were but one of the technological inventions that allowed people to attempt to restore their identities, national and individual. Through the study of Surrealism, the use of social realism narratives, the Absurd, Negritude, Existentialism, the New Wave and the New Novel, structuralism, post-structuralism and deconstruction, the impact of feminism on language, the course will expose students to readings of texts and images that represent the long lasting effects of the twentieth-century ruptures on writers and artists. Taught in French.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): FREN 306 .
FREN 488 - Senior Seminar
The course is intended primarily for advanced students who have studied in a French-speaking country, and is a requirement for all majors. The themes and theoretical approaches of the seminar will vary depending on the faculty teaching the course. ALL COURSES ARE TAUGHT IN FRENCH UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor.
FREN 494 - Topics Course
Varies by semester. Taught in French. Recent offerings have included: Child Soldiers through Texts and Films, Quebec and Others, From the Far East to the Antipodes: Francophone Representations of Asia and the Pacific, and The Animal and the Human in the French Enlightenment.
Frequency: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite(s): One 300 level course is required depending on content of French 494.
FREN 601 - Tutorial
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
FREN 602 - Tutorial
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
FREN 603 - Tutorial
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
FREN 604 - Tutorial
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
FREN 611 - Independent Project
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
FREN 612 - Independent Project
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
FREN 613 - Independent Project
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
FREN 614 - Independent Project
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
FREN 621 - Internship
Study abroad is strongly recommended. The internship does not count toward the major.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Four courses in French among those designated for the completion of a major. Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office.
FREN 622 - Internship
Study abroad is strongly recommended. The internship does not count toward the major.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Four courses in French among those designated for the completion of a major. Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office.
FREN 623 - Internship
Study abroad is strongly recommended. The internship does not count toward the major.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Four courses in French among those designated for the completion of a major. Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office.
FREN 624 - Internship
Study abroad is strongly recommended. The internship does not count toward the major.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Four courses in French among those designated for the completion of a major. Permission of instructor. Work with Internship Office.
FREN 631 - Preceptorship
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs.
FREN 632 - Preceptorship
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs.
FREN 633 - Preceptorship
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs.
FREN 634 - Preceptorship
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Work with Academic Programs.
FREN 641 - Honors Independent
Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
FREN 642 - Honors Independent
Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
FREN 643 - Honors Independent
Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.
FREN 644 - Honors Independent
Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project.
Frequency: Every semester.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor and department chair.