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71 - 80 of 123 results for: FRENCH

FRENCH 248: Literature, History and Memory (COMPLIT 250)

Analysis of literary works as historical narratives. Focus on the relationship history, fiction, and memory as reflected in Francophone literary texts that envision new ways of reconstructing or representing ancient or immediate past. Among questions to be raised: individual memory and collective history, master narratives and alternatives histories, the role of reconstructing history in the shaping or consolidating national or gender identities. Readings include fiction by Glissant, Kane, Condé, Schwarz-Bart, Djebar, Perec, as well as theoretical texts by Ricoeur, de Certeau, Nora, Halbwachs, White, Echevarrîa. Taught in French.
Last offered: Winter 2013

FRENCH 249: The Algerian Wars (CSRE 249, HISTORY 239G)

This course offers to study the Algerian Wars since the French conquest of Algeria (1830-1847) to the Algerian civil war of the 1990s. We will revisit the ways in which the wars have been narrated in historical and political discourse, and in literature. A special focus will be given to the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962). The course considers the continuing legacies surrounding this traumatic conflict in France and Algeria and the delicate re-negotiation of the French nation-state that resulted. A key focus will be on the transmission of collective memory through transnational lenses. We will examine how the French and Algerian states, but also civil societies (Pieds-Noirs, Arabs, Kabyles, Jews, veterans, Harkis, "suitcase carriers") have instrumentalized the memories of the war for various ends, through analyses of commemorative events and monuments. Readings from Alexis de Tocqueville, Albert Camus, Frantz Fanon, Mouloud Feraoun, Rachid Mimouni, Wassyla Tamzali, Germaine Tillion, Pierre Nora, Benjamin Stora, Todd Shepard, Sarah Stein, Pierre Vidal-Naquet, James Lesueur. Movies include "The Battle of Algiers," "Indigènes," and "Viva Laldjérie." Taught in French.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors: Ulloa, M. (PI)

FRENCH 251: Writing, Memory, and Self-Fashioning (ITALIAN 251)

Writing is not a mere recording of the past, but a selection and reinvention of our experiences. We will look at how writing is central to the philosophical project of fashioning the self, even as it reveals that much of what we call the self is a fictional construct. Materials include fiction and memoirs (Primo Levi, Michel Tournier, Melania Mazzucco, Jonathan Littell), and theoretical works in philosophy (Bergson, James, Freud, Jung, Derrida, Wyschogrod, Nehamas), psycholinguistics, and neuroscience. Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2013 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum

FRENCH 253: Honoré de Balzac (COMPLIT 253)

Working through a selection of novels by the author widely considered as a founder of western (19th-century) "Literary Realism." Balzac's will be contextualized within his life and the French culture and literature of his time. We will also approach, from a philosophical point of view, the emergence and functions of "Literary Realism." Another focus will be Balzac's work as exemplary of certain traditions within Literary Criticism (particularly Marxist Literary Criticism). Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2013

FRENCH 255: How To Think About The Charlie Hebdo Attacks : Political, Social and Cultural Contexts (CSRE 252, FRENCH 355, SOC 212, SOC 312)

On January 7th and 9th, 2015, two Islamic terrorist attacks claimed 17 deaths in the heart of Paris. On January 11th, more than 4 million people marched to uphold France's «Republican values» and freedom of expression. How can we understand the unfathomable? Can the social sciences help us understand the context, causes and consequences of these events for France's model of secular democracy? Materials include newsreels, films, novels (Houellebecq), and essays (Fassin, Morin, Badiou, Zemmour, Finkielkraut). Readings in English and French. Discussion in English.
Last offered: Spring 2016 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI

FRENCH 256: Literature and Death: An Existential Constellation in its Historical Unfolding (COMPLIT 257A, COMPLIT 355A, ITALIAN 255)

This seminar will pursue the intuition that literary texts, due to their status as ¿fiction,¿ have always been intensely related to Death as the ultimate horizon of individual existence, a horizon that is only available to our ¿imagination.¿ We will concentrate on this ¿ largely unexplored ¿ link as an existential constellation of concrete historical and of challenging philosophical complexity. The discussions will begin with a detailed analysis of the canonical passages in Martin Heidegger¿s ¿Being and Time¿ from 1927 that try to understand the difference between Death ¿as seen from outside¿ and Death in its ¿Jemeinigkeit,¿ that is Death as the absolute end-horizon of individual existence which necessarily causes ¿Angst¿ because it is followed by ¿Nothingness.¿nnOn this basis and supplemented by an introduction into several present-day theories and reflections on ¿imagination¿ as a distinct potential of the human mind, we will dedicate the weekly seminar sessions to specific historical moments and different literary (and perhaps artistic) forms that have articulated the connection between Death and Literature (with the final choice of texts and paradigms being open to the participants¿ interests and area of competence). Topics and textual materials may include:nn- fifth century Greek Tragedy,n- Roman Stoicism,n- Medieval Epic in the context of Christian cosmology,n- Death as a horizon of individual existence in early Modernity (¿Don Quijote¿),n- the invisible presence of Death in baroque artn- the bracketing of Death in the context of the Enlightenment mentality,n- Death and suicide as gestures of Romantic self-stylization,n- the presence of Death in Classical and Romantic conception of musicn- Death and ¿the absence of God¿ in nineteenth century novels and philosophy,n- the experience of World War I and a new intensity in the experience of Death,n- Death and grand abstraction in artn- Death in mid-twentieth century Existentialismn- Death and its place in the ¿¿Anthropocene¿ as an early twenty-first century frame of mind.nnEmphasizing weekly the reading assignments and intense participation in the seminar discussions, this course is laid out for two units (no final paper) but open for the participation of auditors (including undergraduate students with specific areas of competence) who are willing to work through the full range of philosophical texts, literary texts, and artworks on the syllabus. Students interested in this topic should begin with a reading of Heidegger¿s ¿Being and Time¿ and try to remember own readings and forms of experiences that seem pertinent to this topic. Contact with the instructor during the summer months is encouraged (sepp@stanford.edu).
Last offered: Autumn 2015

FRENCH 257: Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, and Adriana Cavarero (FRENCH 357, ITALIAN 257, ITALIAN 357)

What does it mean to say the personal is the political, or, in the case of Arendt, that the personal is not political, especially if you are woman? This course explores how De Beauvoir, Arendt, and Caverero contend with this question and how all three of them think, each in her own way, outside the box of philosophy, of political science, of ethics, and of feminism. Particular attention will be given to the role of art in directing social change and personal transformation, and to the enduring relevance of these women's thought today. Texts include The Second Sex, The Ethics of Ambiguity, The Human Condition, Between Past and Future, Stately Bodies, and Relating Narratives.
Last offered: Winter 2016

FRENCH 258: The Great War: WWI in Literature, Film, Art, and Memory (FRENCH 358, HISTORY 231C)

This course concerns how writers, artists, and other cultural producers understood and represented the traumas of the First World War and its aftermath. Rather than tracing a political or military history of the conflict, we¿ll focus on how the horrors of War (both in the trenches and on the home front) fostered broader social and cultural shifts, as people questioned the very foundations of European civilization. Most specifically, we'll explore the connections between the War and the emergence of post-War modernist movements, as writers and artists created new works to help them make sense of the catastrophe and the new world it wrought. Though France provides our starting point, we'll also travel beyond the Hexagon to incorporate other views and major works. Course readings will be in English, though students may elect to read works in French if they wish.
Terms: Aut | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
Instructors: Braude, M. (PI)

FRENCH 259: France Since 1900: Politics, Culture, Society (FRENCH 359, HISTORY 238, HISTORY 338)

This course explores how France experienced some of the most tumultuous episodes in modern history, including world wars, collaboration and genocide, wars of decolonization, globalization, immigration, and economic decline. Our sources will include a rich combination of novels, films, architecture, and memoirs, including many classics of their chosen genres.
Terms: Aut | Units: 4-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-SI
Instructors: Daughton, J. (PI)

FRENCH 260: Italy, France, and Postcolonialism (ITALIAN 260)

The starting point for our seminar is the question of how postcolonial thought enhances our possible understandings of Italy - as a nation, as a territorial unit coalescing cultural parts that remain disparate to this day, and as a population that has not come fully to terms with its fascist history, its crimes in World War II, or the atrocities it perpetrated as a colonizing state. The Italian case is unusual compared to others, in that the country's colonial past in north and east Africa is still being uncovered after a long period of public silence and government suppression; and what might be called the postcolonial Italian project has begun only recently, driven by a distinct minority of scholars, 'migrant' authors, and activists.nnFrench cultural politics and history are often taken as a point of reference from which to analyze Italian phenomena. In this case, we will make use of the French postcolonial tradition as a point of both comparison and differentiation. Among other things, we will focus on the different meanings of 'postcolonial' in a country that is strongly centralized (France) and another which is unremittingly fragmented (Italy). As just one example, we will scrutinize how Gramsci's work has been understood in Anglophone and Francophone criticism (cultural studies, Subaltern studies, and so on), as opposed to how it may be read in its original Italian context, where it concerned subalterns within the nation-state.nnAsking what is postcolonial, for whom, when, and where?, ultimately our goal is to discern the specific contours of Italy's postcolonialism by juxtaposing it with France's, and to simultaneously ask what light can be shed on French postcolonial particularities by placing it in this dialogue. Beginning with fundamental historical readings (Gramsci, Fanon, Memmi) and touching on some early Anglophone postcolonial critics (Said, Bhabha), the seminar will then be structured around key literary and theoretical readings from Italy and France. Ideally, readings will be in the original language, but as often as possible they will be selected such that they will be accessible in English translation as well. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
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