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Undergraduate Courses

Course Descriptions for the Fall 2009 semester

FREN 110 – ELEMENTARY FRENCH I     3 credits

An introduction to French with an emphasis on acquiring a basic level of proficiency in the language and an understanding of France and the Francophone world.  Speaking French from day one, students practice the language through listening comprehension/speaking activities, vocabulary and grammar exercises, meaningful readings, video segments, and Web activities devoted to French and Francophone language and culture.  Texts:  Voilà! (textbook/two audio CDs and workbook/lab manual, 5th edition), Heilenman, Kaplan, and Toussaint Tournier (Thomson/Heinle).

Requirements:  daily presence and participation, tests, compositions, and a final exam.

 FREN 120 – ELEMENTARY FRENCH II     3 credits

A second-semester elementary French course:  a continuation of FREN 110 with emphasis on acquiring basic level of proficiency in the language and understanding of the culture of France and the Francophone world.  Speaking French from day one, students practice the language through listening comprehension/speaking activities, vocabulary and grammar exercises, meaningful readings, video segments, and Web activities devoted to French and Francophone language and culture.  Texts:  Voilà! (textbook/two audio CDs and workbook/lab manual, 5th edition), Heilenman, Kaplan, and Toussaint Tournier (Thomson/Heinle).

Requirements:  daily presence and participation, tests, compositions, and a final exam

 FREN 126 – ELEMENTARY INTENSIVE FRENCH     6 credits

An intensive introduction to French with a focus on acquiring language proficiency and an understanding of the culture of France and the Francophone world.  This class meets every day, Monday-Friday.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays students meet in a large classroom for an interactive large-group lesson.  On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, students meet in small discussion groups of 12-15 students.  Speaking French from day one, students practice the language through listening comprehension/speaking activities, vocabulary and grammar exercises, meaningful readings, video segments, and Web activities devoted to French and Francophone language and culture.  Texts:  Voilà! (textbook/two audio CDs and workbook/lab manual, 5th edition), Heilenman, Kaplan, and Toussaint Tournier (Thomson/Heinle).  This intensive course is designed for highly disciplined and motivated language students who have a facility for language-learning.

Requirements:  daily presence and participation, tests, compositions, a final presentation, and a final exam.

FREN 230 - INTERMEDIATE FRENCH I     3 credits

Course taught in French. Students review grammar points learned in elementary French and study more complex grammatical structures. The course is designed to improve: (1) listening comprehension, through class lecture and discussion; (2) speaking proficiency, through exercises on vocabulary and pronunciation; (3) reading comprehension, through analysis of cultural readings; and (4) writing ability, through frequent assignments.

Prerequisite: FREN 120, 126, or 2-3 years of high school French.

FREN 240 – Intermediate French II: Four Skills     3 credits

Course taught in French. Practice with the four skills: reading, writing, understanding, and speaking. Readings of contemporary literary texts. Review of grammar as questions arise. Requirements:  compositions, quizzes, midterm and final. Prerequisite: FREN 230 or equivalent.  Suitable for students who plan to continue beyond the 240 level. This course completes the CHFA Language Requirement.

FREN 248 - INTERMEDIATE: Math & Sci 3 credits Prof. Nancy Lamb

Develops ability to read contemporary material (short articles, excerpts from books) drawn from various fields in natural and physical sciences (medicine, ecology, environmental, genetic engineering,alternative health care modalities, and other topics of current interest.). Prerequisite: FRENCHST 230 or equivalent or consent of instructor. This course completes the CAS and CHFA Language Requirement.

FREN 250 – LANGUAGE & LITERATURE   3 credits    Prof. Dianne Sears

Course taught in French. Four Skills course for students with four years of high school French or equivalent. Active and regular participation in class required. Introduction to literary analysis of short stories, plays, and poems. Review of grammar as questions arise. Requirements: written exercises, short papers, and hour exams.

FREN 285 – Language Suite Conversation, 2 credits   Prof. Carolyn Shread

Thatcher House, By Arrangement  

This course improves French with an emphasis on oral skills and a focus on French and Francophone societies and cultures. Students make regular presentations in class, participate in role-play, improvisation, and other creative activities. We attend relevant events off-campus in the Five Colleges, as well as hosting the Fête des Crèpes and other cooking events, and an annual trip to Montreal In order to participate, students must usually be resident in the Thatcher House dorm and are required to take a 3 credit course in the French department. Honors Colloquium (FREN HO1) available

FREN 350 - FRENCH FILM 3 credits Prof. Donald Maddox

Course taught in English; no knowledge of French required.

Weekly film and video screenings, lecture, and discussion sections.

A survey of the development of French cinema, emphasizing works from the New Wave forward, and with special attention to younger contemporary filmmakers. Formal, stylistic, institutional, social, and ideological aspects of these film practices in relation to their antecedents in the French film tradition and with respect to issues of diversity and gender representation, with a focus on close readings of films in French with English subtitles.  Requirements:  mandatory attendance at lectures and discussion sections; response papers, short quizzes, final exam and a research paper.  A one credit Honors colloquium (FR350 HO2) conducted in French is offered by arrangement as a supplement to the course.

FREN 371 – Advanced Grammar      3 credits    Prof. Luke Bouvier/ Eva Valenta

Course taught in French.

Lec 1. The first of two consecutive courses devoted to grammar review and composition, (followed by French 473 the following semester).  All quizzes in this section are given on line as part of the OWL system. Extensive written practice with various grammatical structures. Three one-hour exams, final exam and bi-weekly compositions, many of which are based on the Internet. Text: Ollivier, Grammaire française and Petit Robert French-French Dictionary.

Lec. 2 The first of two consecutive courses devoted to grammar review and composition (followed by French 473 the following semester). Extensive written practice with various grammatical structures. Quizzes, one-hour exams, and compositions. Text: Ollivier and Beaudoin, Grammaire française (3rd edition).

FREN 384 - THEMES IN FRENCH LIT & INTLET HISTORY   3 credits   Prof. Dianne Sears

Course taught in French.

We shall study how different passions (sexual, religious, political, and others) intersect and often come into conflict with characters’ social positions in representative French novels, poems, and plays from the Middle Ages to the present.  Our study of these works will also include an analysis of the fundamental techniques of various literary genres, such as versification, dramaturgy, and narratology.  Readings include a poetry anthology; Molière, L’Ecole des femmes; Maupassant, Pierre et Jean; and others.  Requirements: active participation in class, two short papers, two major exams.  Although the course will be taught in French, students with majors other than French Studies may submit their papers in English.

FRENST 427- RENISSANCE POETRY   3 credits    Prof. Philippe Baillargeon

Course taught in French.

The purpose of this course is to examine, through a series of close textual analyses the attempts made by poets around 1550 to find modalities for self-expression in their quest for a new poetic language. Emphasis will be placed on the problematic nature of self-identity as a key to expressivity in the cultural and historical contexts when national literatures aim at reflecting and influencing major ideological and political changes We will also consider the role of gender in the shaping of poetic identities. Among the poets to be considered are Clément Marot, Marguerite de Navarre, Maurice Scève, Pernette du Guillet, Louise Labé, Joachim du Bellay, Pierre de Ronsard, and Agrippa d'Aubigné.

Requirements: Active participation in class, 15-minute exposé, 2 short essays, 1 term paper.

Prerequisite: Satisfactory performance in courses beyond the 240 level or permission of the instructor.

FREN 433- FRENCH CLASSICISM   3 credits    Prof. Patrick Mensah

Course taught in French.

A study of triumphs and tensions within the literature and culture of the Age of the Sun King. Topics include the comedies of Molière, women writers and the rise
of the novel, and commentaries on the human condition by writers such as La Rochefoucauld and La Bruyère.

FREN 473 – COMPOSITION   3 credits  Prof. Nancy Lamb

The second of two consecutive courses devoted to advanced grammar review and composition (following French 371). Extensive written practice with various grammatical structures.  Three one-hour exams, plus chapter quizzes on-line through the OWL system.  Three longer compositions with rewrites, plus numerous shorter writing assignments.  Text: Ollivier and Beaudoin, Grammaire française (fourth edition). Course taught in French.

FREN 498Y – Language Suite Conversation, 2 credits   Prof. Carolyn Shread

Thatcher House, By Arrangement  

This is a practicuum course designed as an apprenticeship for students interested in teaching and mentoring their peers and taking a leadership role in the residential Thatcher House French community. Eligible students must be proficient in French beyond the 300 level, ideally with native or near-native speaking, reading and writing ability. In peer group tutoring sessions, undergraduate TAs help fellow students with various areas including conversation, vocabulary, grammar, literary and cultural assignments. They are also responsible for facilitating joint projects such as the annual Thatcher Conference presentations, Photostory digital narration, cultural events such as the Fête des Crèpes and annual trip to Montreal.  Honors Colloquium (FREN HO3 – 1 credit) available

FREN 511 - INT MEDIEVAL FRENCH STUDIES  credits 3   Prof. Donald Maddox

Course taught in French

This course offers graduate students and advanced undergraduates an opportunity to master the fundamentals of Old French and to learn how to read texts from the French Middle Ages.  The basics of Old French and certain dialectal features are covered systematically using a textbook, exercises and short passages from medieval French texts.  Readings and analyses of texts representing the principal literary genres (epic; romance; lay; fabliau; lyric poetry; drama; and chronicle) are combined with study of historical and cultural perspectives.  Students in all fields of the Humanities are welcome.  The course will be given in French, though no prior knowledge of Old French is necessary.

FREN 584 - FRENCH CANADIAN LITERATURE   credits 3    Prof. Philippe Baillargeon

 Contemporary Canadian poets, novelists, and dramatists writing in French. Prerequisite: Satisfactory performance in courses beyond the 240 level.

FREN 597L- ST ROSSEAU: ENLIGHTENMENT  3 credits   Prof. Patrick Mensah

Course taught in French. This course is open to undergraduates.

At first sight, the work of J-J. Rousseau appears to be marked by generic diversity and myriad self-contradictions, seemingly reflecting the multifaceted intellectual career of the man who composed it: the adventurer, dreamer, bel esprit, cultural theorist and critic, philosopher, antiphilosopher, literary artist, anti-artist, moralist, immoralist, feminist, anti-feminist, musician, political theorist, misanthrope, pessimist, idealist, and so on.  But does this diversity render all questions of a unified vision impertinent? Broadly speaking, the weaving together in one corpus of political theory and instances of "pure" literary invention, of metaphysical speculations on the origins and destiny of human society and institutions, and complex nd usually moving accounts of his own personal, unique, if problematic, involvement in that destiny: these factors act in concert to give Rousseau's work its enduring challenging and stimulating quality.  It is hardly surprising then that his work continues to engage the attention of some of the most prominent minds--structuralists (e.g. Levi-Strauss), philosophers (Gouhier, Derrida), literary theorists (De Man, Starobinski),and feminist critics (Kofman, Irigaray), to name only a few--in the human and social sciences today.  More interestingly for our purposes, the work combines a theory and radical critique of language and representation in general with an unrelenting "existentialist" reflection on issues of political and social ethics.  How do these two movements interact?  Adopting a primarily "literary" approach to this corpus, we shall attempt--through readings selected from both theoretical and fictional works--to arrive at an understanding of how the two challenge and/or complement each other.  We shall also attempt to trace the extent of their involvement with the French Enlightenment movement in its ideological struggle with the Ancien Regime, and identify ways in which they bear on theoretical issues in our contemporary literary culture.  Each attending student would be required do one oral presentation and a 15-20-page term paper.

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