11 - 20 of 108 results for: FRENCH

An intellectually intense, document-based approach to the identity of French culture, made palpable through five moments in the history of Paris (which, more perhaps than any other capital in the western world, has been the center and focus of that nation's productivity. Readings and subsequent discussions will focus on the following contexts in Paris's past: 12th/13th century: the University of Paris as a center of Christian spirituality, intellect, and passion; 17th century: the performance of tragedy on the stages of the city; comedies at the Court of Versailles; 1794: the moment of Terror in the French Revolution and a turning point towards a new form of political life; 1889: Eiffel Tower and World Expo, Paris as the first City of Modernity; 1958: Général de Gaulle assumes power: de-colonization, Existentialism, and France's new identity within Europe. Offered as a part of the Gateways to the World program. Taught in English.

Survey course on religion, the self, and society in 20th-century French novels and film. Readings may include: Gide, Camus, and Bernanos for the novels, and films by Robert Bresson and others. Taught in French.

This course applies a humanistic and social scientific approach to economic processes. We will study works of fiction from Francophone Africa: novels, films and comics, which show how fiction provides socio-cultural interpretations of economic phenomena. We will also look at the economy as an elaborate fictional construct that has a direct impact on the real world. Finally, we will look at the conflict between economic development and social justice in postcolonial societies. nThemes include: postcolonialism, modernity, African socialism, capitalism, neoliberalism, globalization, the sacred, immigration, hip hop, social justice etc. Selected texts and films from: Ousmane Sembène, Frantz Fanon, Djibril D. Mambety, Aminata Sow Fall, Fatou Diome, Alphonse Mendy, Jean Joseph Goux, Gayatri Spivak, Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Jean and John Comaroff, Zein-Elabdin and Charuscheela etc. Taught in French.

Why is French culture so often associated with love and romance? This course examines romantic love--from the earliest romances written in French in the Middle Ages to its cinematic representations in the 21st century. We'll focus on the most passionate and controversial stories, exploring the problems posed by religion, class, race, and sexual orientation. We'll also look at the ways in which romantic love can be a trope in French culture, or a rhetorical instrument used to re-imagine personal awakenings, political situations, or one's relationship to the spiritual or to art. The approach is inter disciplinary, and students will study novels, theater, opera, and cinema. As this course is a gateway for French studies, special emphasis will be placed on oral proficiency. Taught in French.

French intellectual and political culture has often been associated with revolutionary attempts to break free from the hold of tradition. Indeed, the concept of "revolution" has itself become a French tradition of sorts. Over the last 500 years, these revolutions have taken place in a number of arenas. In philosophy, René Descartes challenged all traditional learning and defined new principles that were central to the so-called ¿Revolution of the Mind.¿ In religion, Enlightenment thinkers not only advocated the toleration of different faiths but also questioned the veracity of Christianity and of all theistic worldviews. In politics, the French Revolution redefined the very concept of a political revolution and set the stage for modern conceptions of sovereignty. French socialist thinkers of the 19th century, in turn, reshaped the ways their contemporaries thought about socio-economic arrangements. Finally, 20th-century existentialists have attempted to rethink the very purpose of human existence. In this course, we will explore these and other seminal revolutionary moments that not only transformed French society, but that also had implications for European and, indeed, global culture. Taught in English, readings in English.

¿The Don Draper of Existentialism¿ for Adam Gopnik, ¿the ideal husband of contemporary letters¿ for Susan Sontag, and ¿the admirable conjunction of a man, of an action, and of a work¿ for Sartre, Camus embodies the very French figure of the ¿intellectuel engagé,¿ or public intellectual. From his birth in 1913 into a poor family in Algeria to Stockholm where he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957, from the cafes of Saint Germain-des-Prés to his predilection for Provence, Camus captured the quest for universalism, for the politics of justice and beauty, and engaged in the great ethical battles of his time, from Communism to the use of the death penalty for Nazi collaborators, to colonialism and the Algerian war (and his silence over the war).

Introduction to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The birth of a national literature and its evolution. Literature as addressing cultural, philosophical, and artistic issues which question assumptions on love, ethics, art, and the nature of the self. Readings: epics (La Chanson de Roland), medieval romances (Tristan, Chrétien de Troyes' Yvain), post-Petrarchan poetics (Du Bellay, Ronsard, Labé), and prose humanists (Rabelais, Montaigne). Taught in French. Prerequisite: FRENLANG 124 or consent of instructor.

The literature, culture, and politics of France from Louis XIV to Olympe de Gouges. How this period produced the political and philosophical foundations of modernity. Readings include Corneille, Molière, Racine, Lafayette, Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, Beaumarchais, and Gouges. Taught in French. Prerequisite: FRENLANG 124 or consent of instructor.

This course will explore several of the most important texts of 19th- and 20th-century French literature. The aim of the course will be understanding stylistic and thematic experimentation in its historical/cultural context, with a focus on the theme of transgression : moral, political, and social. We will read works in all major literary genres (poetry, prose, and drama) and will discuss prominent movements such as Realism, Romanticism, Symbolism, Decadentism, and Existentialism through the works that best define them. Readings include Constant, Balzac, Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Rimbaud, Flaubert, Maupassant, Jarry, Gide, Apollinaire, Breton, Yourcenar, Sartre. All readings, discussion, and assignments are in French.