Curriculum 2012

The Institut's curriculum includes general and advanced courses in French language, literature, history and economics. The plan of study is designed to accomplish two main purposes. The first is to provide work in French language of such a nature that each student will make appreciable progress in fluency, comprehension and writing. The second is to provide courses covering material pertinent to the understanding of modern France and the appreciation of French culture. Students also attend a series of lectures given by visiting speakers and are expected to participate in supplementary discussions. Individual drill in French phonetics is available for students who need to do remedial work in French pronunciation. Students are encouraged to take advantage of the listening and recording equipment available at the Palais du Roure.

Each student must enroll in two courses, for a total of two units of academic credit. Attendance at all class meetings is required. Courses are organized so as to include student participation in classroom discussion.
 
The student who wishes transfer credits should make the necessary arrangements with the appropriate officer of his/her own college or university.

 

Undergraduate Courses

French S 201
COURS AVANCÉ DE LANGUE FRANÇAISE
A general review of grammar and style with the goal of improving written and oral skills in French. (M. Giraud)

French S 203
ATELIER DE PHONÉTIQUE
This course is a non-credit course which is offered to all students wishing to feel more comfortable in expressing themselves orally in the French language. (T.A.)

French S 206

LITTÉRATURE DES MIGRATIONS

This course will consider various forms of artistic expression in French emanating from global migration.  What does it mean to move to a new location, and how do artists portray their positions in their host societies?  The first half of the course will focus on writing from various historical moments of migration (from Voltaire and Chateaubriand through the early Caribbean and African authors Aimé Césaire and Léopold Senghor); the second half will focus on the cultural and geographic questions informing the artistic production of different migrant populations in France today (including authors and filmmakers such as Yamina Benguigui, Alain Mabanckou and Linda Lê).  (K. Kleppinger)

French S 208

LE THÉÂTRE MODERNE: COURS ET ATELIER DE JEU THÉÂTRAL

A study of major visions and techniques in modern theater (theater of the absurd, new concepts in stage direction and stage design, forms of parody, contemporary Francophone drama), and a workshop with training in voice projection, diction, memorization, staging and acting.  Excerpts from plays by authors such as Cocteau, Ionesco, Genet, Koltès, Fréchette will be staged and presented to the public.  (P. Osmalin) 

French S 209

MOLIÈRE 

a. A close reading of some of Molière's most famous plays (among them Le Tartuffe, Le Misanthrope, Le Malade imaginaire), focusing on theatrical representation of comic effects, as well as a number of key issues addressed in the plays, such as marriage, sexual and social dynamics, honesty and deceit.  (B. Hoefer)

b. A study of the interaction of the playwright with his critics.  This part of the course will focus on different forms of criticism as well as on the theatrical representation of critics in some of Molière’s plays, such as La Critique de L'École des femmes, L'Impromptu de Versailles, Les Femmes savantes, and in Donneau de Visé’s Zélinde.(M. Chihaia)

The course will allow students to explore the texts in performance during the Avignon Theater Festival.

French S 214

SPORT, IMMIGRATION ET VIE URBAINE DANS LA FRANCE CONTEMPORAINE

If one observes either the “Tour de France” or the exceptional repercussions of the Bleus’ victory in the 1998 Football World Cup, one will see to what a large extent sports shed light on certain traits of French society.  By studying the history of sports, this course will aim to show how revealing it is to understand contemporary France, both in its cohesion and the rifts and contradictions it faces.  (M. Fontaine)

Economics S 201

L'Économie et la civilisation de l'Europe

A study of contemporary French economic policies in the context of political institutions of the European Union, with particular emphasis on the anthropological and philosophical motivations at work in the development of these policies.  The course will include a number of field trips to businesses in the region so that students may observe the practical results of what we will have studied in terms of the adaptation of local commerce to increasingly globalized markets.  (J.-R. Alcaras)

Graduate Courses

NOTE: Courses on the 500-level carry graduate credit. Qualified undergraduates may be admitted to these courses with the consent of the Director.

French 301/501

ATELIER D'ÉCRITURE

Advanced training in grammar, stylistics and written expression (funding permitting)

French S 505

SUBVERSION ET PERVERSION AU SIÈCLE DES LUMIÈRES

For a long time the Enlightenment was considered within a teleological view of history as a subversive phase necessarily leading to the outbreak of the French Revolution.  Thanks to the work of historians such as Robert Darnton, we are able to reconsider and explore what « subversion » really means for writers of the period, by examining this concept through specifically 18th-century categories as they apply to different literary genres.  This contextualizing approach will allow us to reavaluate what is at stake in libertinage,  and whether subversion and perversion were interchangeable notions.  (R. Le Menthéour)

French S 502

VARIATIONS LITTÉRAIRES SUR LES GÉANTS : LE MOYEN AGE ARTHURIEN ET RABELAIS

a.  Quand les géants arpentaient la (Grande-)Bretagne

The first inhabitants of Britain were giants, and the main task of the first Kings of the land was to eradicate this scourge of giants.  Arthur, Tristan, Gawain are all giant-killers; while Merlin, in a last-ditch attempt to protect the realm of Arthur, creates from the blood and nails of the Arthurian adultery couple, Lancelot and Guenevere the ancestors of Rabelais’ own giants.  Through excerpts from the Roman de Brut, La mort le roi Artu and Perceforest, and the complete texts of Des Granz Geanz and Les Chroniques Gargantuines, we will study the construction of medieval giant-mythology and its theoretical implications.  (A. Berthelot)

b. Quand les géants arpentaient l’utopie humaniste

The purpose of the seminar is to acquaint the participants with the works of François Rabelais (1483?-1553) within the intellectual and cultural context of the Renaissance, and to read theoretical or critical approaches that may be useful for interpreting his works. Among the critical problems to be studied are: intertextuality and authorship, popular and learned cultures, orality and écriture, narratology and vraisemblance, realism and symbolism, allegory and ideology, as well as topics more closely related to the specific nature of Rabelais' text: the printing press, religious controversies, the age of humanism, royal patronage and the rise of the absolute monarchy, the status of the vernacular, laughter and medical theory, parody, satire and the humanistic agenda.  (F. Rigolot)