Courses

FREN B001 Elementary French

Fall 2024

The speaking and understanding of French are emphasized particularly during the first semester, and written competence is stressed as well in semester II. The work includes intensive oral practice sessions. The course meets five hours a week in non-intensive sections. This is a year-long course and students must register for both semesters.

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FREN B001IN Intensive Elementary French

Fall 2024

French 001 Intensive Elementary is the first half of a two-semester beginning sequence designed to help students attain a level of proficiency to function comfortably in a French-speaking environment. This course allows students to: major, minor, and be able to do their JYA in a French-speaking country. It is both speaking-intensive (through pair work, group work, and drills) and writing-intensive (through blogs and essays). In TA sessions, students develop the ability to speak and understand increasingly well through songs, skits, debates, and a variety of activities. The course meets nine hours per week.

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FREN B002 Elementary French

Spring 2025

The speaking and understanding of French are emphasized particularly during the first semester, and written competence is stressed as well in semester II. The work includes intensive oral practice sessions. The course meets in non-intensive (five hours a week) sections. This is a year-long course.

Course does not meet an Approach

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FREN B002IN Intensive Elementary French

Spring 2025

The second half of a two-semester beginning sequence designed to help students attain a level of proficiency to function comfortably in a French-speaking environment. It is both speaking-intensive (through pair work, group work and drills) and writing-intensive (through blogs and essays). In drill sessions, students develop the ability to speak and understand increasingly well through songs, skits, debates, and a variety of activities. Class meets nine hours per week.

Course does not meet an Approach

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FREN B003 Intermediate French

Fall 2024

The emphasis on speaking, understanding, and writing French is continued; texts from French literature and cultural media are read; and short papers are written in French. Students regularly attend supplementary oral practice sessions. The course meets in non-intensive (three hours a week) sections that are supplemented by an extra hour per week with an assistant. This is a year-long course. Prerequisite: FREN B002 or placement required.

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FREN B004 Intermediate French

Spring 2025

The emphasis on speaking, understanding, and writing French is continued; texts from French literature and cultural media are read; and short papers are written in French. Students regularly attend supplementary oral practice sessions. The course meets in non-intensive (three hours a week) sections that are supplemented by an extra hour per week with an assistant. This is a year-long course.

Course does not meet an Approach

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FREN B005 Intensive Intermediate French

Fall 2024

The emphasis on speaking and understanding French is continued; literary and cultural texts are read and increasingly longer papers are written in French. In addition to three class meetings a week, students develop their skills in group sessions with the professors and in oral practice hours with assistants. Students use internet resources regularly. This course prepares students to take 102 or 105 in semester II. Open only to graduates of Intensive Elementary French or to students placed by the department or recommended by their instructor from 002 regular. Two additional hours of instruction outside class time required. Additional meeting hours on Tuesday and Thursday will be scheduled according to students availability. Prerequisite: FREN B002IN (intensive) or Placement exam. Approach: Course does not meet an Approach

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Counts Toward Africana Studies

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FREN B101 Textes, Images, Voix I

Fall 2024

Presentation of essential problems in literary and cultural analysis by close reading of works selected from various periods and genres and by analysis of voice and image in French writing and film from female and male authors in Metropolitan France, Africa, and other Francophone regions. Participation in discussion and practice in written and oral expression are emphasized, as are grammar review and exercises. This is a writing intensive course. Prerequisites: FREN B004, placement, or permission of instructor.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

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FREN B102 Textes, Voix, Images, II

Spring 2025

Continued development of students' expertise in literary and cultural analysis by emphasizing close reading as well as oral and written analyses of increasingly complex works chosen from various genres and periods of French and Francophone works in their written and visual modes. Readings include theater of the 17th or 18th centuries and build to increasingly complex nouvelles, poetry and novels of the 19th and 20th centuries. Participation in guided discussion and practice in oral/written expression continue to be emphasized, as is grammar review. Prerequisite: FREN 005 or 101.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Counts Toward International Studies

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FREN B105 Directions de la France contemporaine

Spring 2025

Ce cours a pour objet les dynamiques et les tensions qui structurent ou déstructurent la France contemporaine. Dans quelle mesure la France a-t-elle profité de la colonisation et de l'esclavage pour devenir la France ? Le modèle républicain est-il mis à mal par ce qu'on appelle les "communautarismes", ou n'est-il lui même qu'un déguisement du communautarisme de la majorité ? Quel est ce "séparatisme" qui menacerait la cohésion nationale et les valeurs universalistes de la France ? Pourquoi la laïcité est-elle en crise aujourd'hui ? L'État de droit peut-il demeurer un État de droit face au djihadisme ? L'arbitrage impossible entre priorité sanitaire et priorité économique montre-t-il que le pouvoir politique est devenu impuissant ? Les travaux à rendre vous permettront de vous exprimer dans des formats innovants (podcast, présentation vidéo, réalisation de pages Internet) et de perfectionner vos compétences à l'oral aussi bien qu'à l'écrit. Prerequisite: FREN 005 or 101.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Counts Toward Gender/Sex Studies (Min/Conc)

Counts Toward Museum Studies

Counts Toward Visual Studies

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FREN B201 Le Chevalier, la Dame, et le Prêtre: études de femmes, de classes sociales et d'ethnies

Not offered 2024-25

Using literary texts, historical documents and letters as a mirror of the social classes that they address, this interdisciplinary course studies the principal preoccupations of secular and religious female and male authors in France and Norman England from the eleventh century through the fifteenth. Selected works from epic, lais, roman courtois, fabliaux, theater, letters, and contemporary biography are read in modern French translation. Prerequisite: FREN 102 or 105.

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FREN B204 Le Siècle des lumières

Not offered 2024-25

Representative texts of the Enlightenment with emphasis on the development of liberal thought as illustrated in the Encyclopédie and the works of Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau. Prerequisites: FREN 102 or 105 or French Placement Exam (200-leverl or higher).

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FREN B207 Ouvrir la voix: Introduction aux études francophones

Not offered 2024-25

This course provides students with an overview of foundational concepts, methods and texts relevant to Francophone Studies. We will engage with past and present debates relating to identity, diversity, nation and empire in the colonial and postcolonial contexts and explore the specificity of Francophone Studies with regards to the field of postcolonial studies. While focused on literature, the course will also explore other forms of cultural production (movies, graphic novels, political speeches, etc.) from sub-Saharan Africa, the Maghreb, the Caribbean and Vietnam. The course will train students in literary analysis and develop their ability to speak and write critically in French. Prerequisites: FREN 102 or 105.

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FREN B208 La diversité dans le cinéma français contemporain

Spring 2025

Until the closing years of the 20th century, ethnic diversity was virtually absent from French cinema. While Francophone directors from Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa debunked colonialism and neocolonialism in their films, minorities hardly appeared on French screens. Movies were made by white filmmakers for a white audience. Since the 1980's and the 1990's, minorities have become more visible in French films. Are French Blacks and Arabs portrayed in French cinema beyond stereotypes, or are they still objects of a euro-centric gaze? Have minorities gained agency in storytelling, not just as actors, but as directors? What is the national narrative at play in the recent French films that focus on diversity? Is it still "us against them", or has the new generation of French filmmakers found a way to include the different components of French identity into a collective subject? From Bouchareb to Gomis, from Kechiche to Benyamina and Jean-Baptiste, this course will map out the visual fault lines of the French self and examine the prospects for a post-republican sense of community. This course will be taught in French. Open to non-majors. There will be a weekly screening on Sunday, 7:00pm-9:00pm.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Power, Inequity, and Justice (PIJ)

Counts Toward Africana Studies

Counts Toward Film Studies

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FREN B211 The Arts and Healing: The Many Facets of West Africa

Not offered 2024-25

This course will borrow from Achille Mbembe's views of Africa in which it is decolonization that ushered a temporal rupture which made possible a wide array of futures for the continent. After an introduction on the history of the region (background, French influence and gender relations), the 360 students will be able to examine local and global knowledge and their potentialities on the ground through a variety of approaches that include healing practices related to well-being in various areas of life, through the arts, literature, music and film. It is this exchange with both diasporic and local artists and thinkers, through lectures, readings and workshops at Bryn Mawr and in Senegal that students will be able to find some of the answers this cluster is raising. They will investigate the consequences of decolonization into the present through a series of modules and examine the differences, consequences and overlap of all the knowledge.s, creativity and futures that exist on and for the continent.

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FREN B213 Theory in Practice:Critical Discourses in the Humanities

Fall 2024

By bringing together the study of major theoretical currents of the 20th century and the practice of analyzing literary works in the light of theory, this course aims at providing students with skills to use literary theory in their own scholarship. The selection of theoretical readings reflects the history of theory (psychoanalysis, structuralism, narratology), as well as the currents most relevant to the contemporary academic field: Post-structuralism, Post-colonialism, Gender Studies, and Ecocriticism. They are paired with a diverse range of short stories (Poe, Kafka, Camus, Borges, Calvino, Morrison, Djebar, Ngozi Adichie) that we discuss along with our study of theoretical texts. The class will be conducted in English with an additional hour in French for students wishing to take it for French credit.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

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FREN B214 French Theater Workshop

Not offered 2024-25

How do we best learn a language? By speaking it and by being completely immersed in it. We also learn best when we play. When we have fun and are creative. This workshop will immerse the students in a French only speaking class and they will practice French on their feet. Students will be invited to improvise in French, to create little scenes in French and finally to work on a scene or a monologue from the French repertoire. The class will start with teaching very specific theatrical skills to push the students not only in their ability to speak French but also to act! This will enhance their confidence in speaking, thinking and performing in French, which will lead them to a better mastery of the language.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

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FREN B215 Etudes théâtrales

Section 001 (Fall 2023): Résistance(s)

Not offered 2024-25

Ce cours est destiné à l'étude du théâtre français et francophone. Le sujet est variable. Prerequistie: FREN 102 or FREN 105

Critical Interpretation (CI)

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FREN B221 Femme sujet/Femme objet

Fall 2024

An in-depth examination of how women authors from selected periods conceive of their art, construct authority for themselves, and, where appropriate, distinguish themselves from male colleagues, of whom several who have assumed female voices/perspective will be examined as points of comparison. It introduces students to the techniques and topics of selected women writers (as well as theoretical approaches to them) from the most recent (Djebar and M. Duras) to late Medieval authors. This course is taught in French. Prerequisite: FREN 102 or 105

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward Gender/Sex Studies (Min/Conc)

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FREN B224 Racisme et antiracisme en France

Not offered 2024-25

Co-constructed with students, this course considers the genealogy of French racism as a socio-political construct and as a system of domination. We will analyze how racism "made in France" was designed, theorized, and deployed, but we will also study how its legacy is deconstructed and questioned by contemporary artists whose work focuses on the French colonial history. Art will be examined as a response to the violence of racism and discrimination - a process by which creators find their agency, their voice, and their strength, emancipating the person from the victimization framework. The class will be taught in French and will include interactions with the artists.

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FREN B225 Hidden Trajectories: a Global Simulation from Old World to New

Not offered 2024-25

Borrowing from Francis Debyser's Global Simulation (GS) approach, this course aims to create a framework immersing students in historical moments, allowing them to create stories based on culture and context of the time period studied. The course will incorporate the theoretical content of the other 2 courses (dealing with narratology and biology) to recreate and unearth those hidden or lesser known stories. Global Simulation is a protocol that allows a group of learners (a whole class here) to create a universe of reference: a town in this case. In this world, participants create characters and simulate all of the cultural, socio-political and historical context that this made-up world may need. They will describe the world they live in, tell their life-story, describe their profession, live a daily life made of human interactions and issues relevant to the period. In preparation for the trip, students will be introduced to relevant French vocabulary and will be paired with French speakers to work on basic grammar and vocabulary. They will also learn relevant terminology and create a French-English lexicon for plants. With this pedagogical hypothesis, the universe invented by students of all levels is one of the best ways to learn and "GS accommodates the variety of interests, personality types, and learning styles in any given group of learners." (Levine 2004). Students will start working on the various stories at the beginning of the semester and discover more stories on the ground when we travel to the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. We will focus on the connections between the Old and the New World with stories dealing with: port-city life, the story of Marguerite de Navarre, the Acadian Line, Claire de Duras and her travels to Philadelphia, the story of when New York was called Angoulême to name of few places, people and time frames.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

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FREN B229 Monstres et Merveilles

Not offered 2024-25

Sous leurs dehors simples, les contes merveilleux ont fasciné les critiques littéraires comme les spécialistes du folklore. Ces derniers ont tenté de définir leur structure primordiale et de les classer selon des motifs universels. Nous nous inspirerons à la fois de l'analyse structurale et de l'analyse symbolique pour réenchanter des contes devenus parfois trop familiers. Pour y voir plus clair, nous lirons plusieurs versions d'un même conte. A la fin du cours, vous pourrez répondre à ces questions : quel est le rapport entre Cendrillon et les cendres ? Pourquoi le chaperon du Petit Chaperon Rouge est-il rouge ? Le devoir final sera un conte que vous écrirez vous-même.

Writing Attentive

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

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FREN B262 Débat, discussion, dialogue

Fall 2024

Despite their differences, all countries face similar problems. Examples of challenges include humanitarian aid international justice, the environment, economic inequalities, invisibility and access to health and food. What can we learn from each other in order to find solutions to shared problems? In this course, students will develop the skills necessary to debate and deal with international/global issues. Everyone will expand their vocabulary in areas such as: politics, commerce, human rights, cultural diplomacy to name only a few key areas. We will gain in-depth knowledge of a particular region of the Francophone world as we explore shared themes. Each student will choose a francophone country and speak from that region, using the local press as reference. This will require independent research; including developing a bibliography pertaining to your country for each of the themes we study. Students will regularly share your expertise with others in formats ranging from reports to debates.

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FREN B298 Junior Seminar

Spring 2025

Junior Seminar is designed to introduce the knowledge and skill-set expected of our rising seniors: a certain familiarity with the more broadly used critical references of our discipline; a capacity to read and interpret critically a "text" (whether literary, cinematographic, historical, social, etc.) in detail and in a sustained fashion; knowing how to formulate an argument and present it coherently to peers and professors (whether orally or in written form); knowing how to conduct research efficiently in a pre-determined amount of time; and knowing how to cite this research effectively in an argument and in a manner that follows the rules of the discipline. Prerequisites:: 2 (200-level) courses, with exceptions for students who have had fewer courses.

Writing Intensive

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

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FREN B302 Le printemps de la parole féminine: femmes écrivains des débuts

Not offered 2024-25

This study of selected women authors from Latin CE-Carolingian period through the Middle Ages, Renaissance and 17th century-among them, Perpetua, Hrotswitha, Marie de France, the trobairitz, Christine de Pisan, Louise Labé, Marguerite de Navarre, and Madame de Lafayette-examines the way in which they appropriate and transform the male writing tradition and define themselves as self-conscious artists within or outside it. Particular attention will be paid to identifying recurring concerns and structures in their works, and to assessing their importance to women's writing in general: among them, the poetics of silence, reproduction as a metaphor for artistic creation, and sociopolitical engagement. Prerequisite: two 200-level courses or permission of instructor.

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FREN B306 Libertinage et subversion

Not offered 2024-25

The libertine movement of the 18th century has long been condemned for moral reasons or considered of minor importance when compared to the Enlightenment. Yet, the right to happiness ('droit au bonheur') celebrated by the so-called 'Philosophes' implies a duty to experience pleasure ('devoir de jouir'). This is what the libertine writers promoted. The libertine movement thus does not confine itself to literature, but also involves a dimension of social subversion. This course will allow you to understand Charles Baudelaire's enigmatic comment: "the Revolution was made by voluptuaries." Prerequisite: two 200-level courses or permission of instructor.

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FREN B312 Advanced Topics in Literature

Spring 2025

This is a topics course. Course content varies. Prerequisites: two 200-level courses.

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FREN B325 Topics: Etudes avancées

Section 001 (Fall 2024): La France du Roi-Soleil

Fall 2024

An in-depth study of a particular topic, event or historical figure in French civilization. This is a topics course. Course content varies. The seminar topic rotates among many subjects: La Révolution française: Histoire, littérature et culture; L'environnement naturel dans la culture française; Mal et valeurs éthiques; Le Cinéma et la politique, 1940-1968; Le Nationalisme en France et dans les pays francophones; Étude socio-culturelle des arts du manger en France du Moyen Age à nos jours; Crimes et criminalité; Ecrire la Grande Guerre: 1914-10; Le "Rentrée Littéraire"; Proust/Baudelaire; L'Humain et l'environnement.

Current topic description: À la fois fantasmé et décrié, le règne de Louis XIV a laissé une marque indélébile sur l'histoire de France. En effet, derrière le faste du château de Versailles, de l'avènement de la galanterie et de la préciosité se cachent la fermeté et la rigueur de la monarchie absolue de droit divin. Néanmoins, ces aspects en apparence contradictoires constituent des marqueurs de l'ambition démesurée et de la soif d'autorité d'un monarque qui a façonné le XVIIe siècle à tous les niveaux. Ce cours se propose d'étudier le règne de Louis XIV sous ses différentes manifestations : de la centralisation politique à la réglementation de la culture et de la langue, jusqu'aux innovations en matière d'ingénierie, d'architecture et d'urbanisme. Il s'agira de mettre en lumière l'étendue du pouvoir exercé par le roi sur son royaume, mais également de ses limites par l'étude de sources littéraires et critiques. Auteurs étudiés : Jean de la Fontaine, Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, Molière, La Rochefoucauld, Blaise Pascal, René Descartes, Saint-Simon, Louis XIV, etc.

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FREN B326 Etudes avancées

Section 001 (Spring 2024): Aux armes, citoyennes!
Section 001 (Spring 2025): Aux armes, citoyennes!

Spring 2025

An in-depth study of a particular topic, event or historical figure in French civilization. This is a topics course. Course content varies.

Current topic description: Olympe de Gouges, une des actrices de la Révolution française et pionnière du féminisme en France, reste encore méconnue de beaucoup. En effet, ses combats et son œuvre ont été dénigrés, ignorés et passés sous silence pendant près de deux siècles. Or, lorsque nous constatons qu'à l'époque contemporaine, le droit des femmes à disposer de leur corps est menacé et que les inégalités entre les individus ne cessent de croître, les messages d'Olympe de Gouges prennent tout leur sens, et méritent d'être examinés en profondeur. Ce cours aura pour objectif de familiariser les étudiant.e.s avec les combats d'Olympe de Gouges, à travers ses prises de position concernant l'éducation des femmes, les inégalités liées au mariage, ainsi que l'esclavage. Nous explorerons tant ses écrits politiques - dont la Déclaration de la femme et de la citoyenne - que ses textes dramatiques, comme L'esclavage des noirs. Nous étudierons ces œuvres dissidentes en parallèle avec des évènements majeurs de la Révolution, des expériences personnelles de l'autrice, et des phénomènes contemporains. Ce cours sera enseigné en français.

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FREN B333 Nature and Freedom

Not offered 2024-25

When referring to Rousseau's political theory, the conjectural state of nature first described in his Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1755) has frequently been identified with native societies as observed in America since 1492. Many scholars have been opposing this primitivist interpretation of his second discourse and showed that Rousseau might instead be considered the father of all 'social construct' theories. But in spite of this scholarly consensus, Graeber and Wengrow still tend to assume Rousseau's state of nature is mostly inspired by the encounter of Europeans with native people. Why is this confusion still informing the way we read Rousseau? How did considerations on the so-called 'noble savage' taint his political theory? How can we assess the role an 'indigenous critique' played in defining Rousseau's state of nature? And incidentally: how 'indigenous' is this 'indigenous critique'? Answering to Graeber and Wengrow's (mis)reading of Rousseau will allow us to cast a new light not only on Rousseau's 'unnatural' anthropology, but also on Graeber & Wengrow's broader claims on human nature and political freedom. Our end goal is not to offer a scholarly take on either Rousseau's discourse of Graeber and Wengrow's book, but to answer this pressing question: should/could we discard the very notion of nature to regain political agency here and now? Authors include: Léry, Montaigne, Hobbes, Rousseau, Lévi-Strauss, Serres, Graeber and Wengrow.

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FREN B350 Voix médiévales et échos modernes

Not offered 2024-25

A study of selected 19th- and 20th-century works inspired by medieval subjects, such as the Grail and Arthurian legends and the Tristan and Yseut stories, and by medieval genres, such as the roman, saints' lives, or the miracle play. Among the texts and films studied are works by Bonnefoy, Cocteau, Flaubert, Genevoix, Giono, and Gracq.

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FREN B398 Senior Seminar

This weekly thesis development workshop examines French and Francophone literary texts and cultural documents from all periods, and the interpretive problems they raise. Close reading, complemented by extensive secondary readings from different schools of interpretation, prepare students to analyze other critical stances and to develop their own.

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FREN B400 Thesis Advising

Weekly or bi-weekly meetings with your thesis advisor will allow you to write your senior thesis efficiently and to prepare for a successful defense.

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FREN B403 Supervised Work

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FREN B650 Voix médiévales et échos modernes

Not offered 2024-25

A study of selected 19th- and 20th-century works inspired by medieval subjects, such as the Grail and Arthurian legends and the Tristan and Yseut stories, and by medieval genres, such as the roman, saints' lives, or the miracle play. Among the texts and films studied are works by Bonnefoy, Cocteau, Flaubert, Genevoix, Giono, and Gracq.

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FREN B701 Supervised Work

Not offered 2024-25

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COML B217 Lovesick

Not offered 2024-25

Love has often been compared to some kind of sickness. In this class, we will explore this traditional discourse on love from different angles: how sick is love? What kind of sickness are we talking about? Is there a cure to love? Is love always delusional? Is there always a touch of sacrifice in love? In order to answer these questions, we will read books, a graphic novels, and watch movies belonging to a variety of cultures and times. Authors include: Ovid, Mme de La Fayette, Charles Burns.

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ITAL B213 Theory in Practice: Critical Discourses in the Humanities

Not offered 2024-25

What is a postcolonial subject, a queer gaze, a feminist manifesto? And how can we use (as readers of texts, art, and films) contemporary studies on animals and cyborgs, object oriented ontology, zombies, storyworlds, neuroaesthetics? In this course we will read some pivotal theoretical texts from different fields, with a focus on race&ethnicity and gender&sexuality. Each theory will be paired with a masterpiece from Italian culture (from Renaissance treatises and paintings to stories written under fascism and postwar movies). We will discuss how to apply theory to the practice of interpretation and of academic writing, and how theoretical ideas shaped what we are reading. Class conducted in English, with an additional hour in Italian for students seeking Italian credit.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Counts Toward Africana Studies

Counts Toward Gender/Sex Studies (Min/Conc)

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