FRENCH 159: French Kiss: The History of Love and the French Novel (FRENCH 256, HISTORY 236F)
The history of the French novel is also the history of love. How did individuals experience love throughout history? How do novels reflect this evolution of love through the ages? And, most significantly, how have French novels shaped our own understanding of and expectations for romantic love today? The course will explore many forms of love from the Ancien Regime to the 20th century. Sentiment and seduction, passion and desire, the conflict between love and society: students will examine these themes from a historical perspective, in tandem with the evolution of the genre of the novel (the novella, the sentimental novel, the epistolary novel, the 19th-century novel, and the autobiographical novel). Some texts will be paired with contemporary films to probe the enduring relevance of love "a la francaise" in the media today. Readings include texts by Lafayette, Prevost, Laclos, Dumas fils, Flaubert, Colette, Yourcenar, and Duras. This is an introductory course to French Studies, with a focus on cultural history, literary history, interpretation of narrative, thematic analysis, and close reading. Undergraduate students should enroll for
FRENCH159, while graduate students may enroll for
FRENCH256. Readings and discussion in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Edmondson, C. (PI)
FRENCH 175: CAPITALS: How Cities Shape Cultures, States, and People (COMPLIT 100, DLCL 100, GERMAN 175, HISTORY 106E, ILAC 175, ITALIAN 175, URBANST 153)
This course takes students on a trip to major capital cities at different moments in time, including Renaissance Florence, Golden Age Madrid, colonial Mexico City, imperial Beijing, Enlightenment and romantic Paris, existential and revolutionary St. Petersburg, roaring Berlin, modernist Vienna, and transnational Dakar. While exploring each place in a particular historical moment, we will also consider the relations between culture, power, and social life. How does the cultural life of a country intersect with the political activity of a capital? How do large cities shape our everyday experience, our aesthetic preferences, and our sense of history? Why do some cities become cultural capitals? Primary materials for this course will consist of literary, visual, sociological, and historical documents (in translation). No prerequisites.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
FRENCH 213E: Culture and Revolution in Africa (AFRICAAM 213, COMPLIT 213, GLOBAL 213, HISTORY 243E)
This course investigates the relationship between culture, revolutionary decolonization, and post-colonial trajectories. It probes the multilayered development of 20th and 21st-century African literature amid decolonization and Cold War cultural diplomacy initiatives and the debates they generated about African literary aesthetics, African languages, the production of history, and the role of the intellectual. We will journey through national cultural movements, international congresses, and pan-African festivals to explore the following questions: What role did writers and artists play in shaping the discourse of revolutionary decolonization throughout the continent and in the diaspora? How have literary texts, films, and works of African cultural thought shaped and engaged with concepts such as "African unity" and "African cultural renaissance"? How have these notions influenced the imaginaries of post-independence nations, engendered new subjectivities, and impacted gender and generational dynamics? How did the ways of knowing and modes of writing promoted and developed in these contexts shape African futures?
Last offered: Winter 2025
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
FRENCH 243: Letter Writing in 17th - and 18th - Century France: A Media Revolution (HISTORY 243F)
This interdisciplinary course examines the evolution of letter-writing practices in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France through the lens of a media revolution, and highlights the historical roots of contemporary media issues. We will read primary sources such as epistolary manuals, letters by notable early modern letter writers (Sévigné, Voltaire, and Catherine the Great), and epistolary novels, as well as secondary scholarship from the fields of cultural history, literary studies, and media studies. Topics include, but are not limited to, innovations to the postal system, the rise of social norms of letter writing, image management, the Republic of Letters and the Enlightenment, social activism through letter writing, the birth of media celebrities, surveillance, and privacy. Readings and discussions in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2024
| Units: 3-5
FRENCH 256: French Kiss: The History of Love and the French Novel (FRENCH 159, HISTORY 236F)
The history of the French novel is also the history of love. How did individuals experience love throughout history? How do novels reflect this evolution of love through the ages? And, most significantly, how have French novels shaped our own understanding of and expectations for romantic love today? The course will explore many forms of love from the Ancien Regime to the 20th century. Sentiment and seduction, passion and desire, the conflict between love and society: students will examine these themes from a historical perspective, in tandem with the evolution of the genre of the novel (the novella, the sentimental novel, the epistolary novel, the 19th-century novel, and the autobiographical novel). Some texts will be paired with contemporary films to probe the enduring relevance of love "a la francaise" in the media today. Readings include texts by Lafayette, Prevost, Laclos, Dumas fils, Flaubert, Colette, Yourcenar, and Duras. This is an introductory course to French Studies, with a focus on cultural history, literary history, interpretation of narrative, thematic analysis, and close reading. Undergraduate students should enroll for
FRENCH159, while graduate students may enroll for
FRENCH256. Readings and discussion in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Edmondson, C. (PI)
FRENCH 289: Liberte, Egalite, Laicite: French Political Myths and Concepts (FRENCH 389)
Liberte, egalite, fraternite, but also "laicite," "diversite," "parite," "universalisme" or "galanterie": over the last two centuries, the French have forged key political concepts that have shaped the political consciousness, aspirations, and current debates of what has been called "the most political nation in the world." Along with mythologies such as the People, the Nation, the providential Leader, or the "enemy from within," they are at the centre of semantic and political battles, tugged over by the Left, the Right, populist movements, activists and countercultures. How did they emerge? How do they apply today? How does theory compare to practices, principles to day-to-day realities? This course is an introduction through case-studies, literary works, films, paintings, cartoons, and texts from political theory, history, politics and literature.
Last offered: Winter 2025
| Units: 3-5
FRENCH 389: Liberte, Egalite, Laicite: French Political Myths and Concepts (FRENCH 289)
Liberte, egalite, fraternite, but also "laicite," "diversite," "parite," "universalisme" or "galanterie": over the last two centuries, the French have forged key political concepts that have shaped the political consciousness, aspirations, and current debates of what has been called "the most political nation in the world." Along with mythologies such as the People, the Nation, the providential Leader, or the "enemy from within," they are at the centre of semantic and political battles, tugged over by the Left, the Right, populist movements, activists and countercultures. How did they emerge? How do they apply today? How does theory compare to practices, principles to day-to-day realities? This course is an introduction through case-studies, literary works, films, paintings, cartoons, and texts from political theory, history, politics and literature.
Last offered: Winter 2025
| Units: 3-5
GERMAN 124: German Jews: Thought, Race, and Identity (CSRE 124B, JEWISHST 124)
This course offers an introduction to German Jewish thought from the 18th century to the present day. We will explore the way Jews in the German-speaking world understood their identities in the face of changing cultural and political contexts and the literary and philosophical works they produced in the face of antisemitism, discrimination, and genocide. This course covers the major themes and events in German-Jewish cultural history, including the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), fin de si'cle Vienna, Zionism, exile and migration, the Holocaust, and the modern German Jewish renaissance, with readings from Moses Mendelsohn, Karl Marx, Franz Kafka, Hannah Arendt, Max Czollek, and more. We will pay special attention to the way the German Jewish experience challenges our understanding of identity categories such as race and religion, as well as concepts of whiteness, Europeanness, and the modern nation state.
Last offered: Spring 2024
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
GERMAN 140: German Sports Culture and History
The course highlights specificities and societal contexts of sports in Germany and thus provides a unique point of access for understanding German culture in past and present. Concepts of competition and performance will be examined, as well as the relationships between sports and politics in different periods of modern German history. Special attention will be given to soccer but other spectator sports (cycling, gymnastics (Turnen), etc.) will be studied as well. Materials will include theoretical, literary and journalistic texts in English and German, media representations of athletic contests. To improve writing skills students can write a weekly essay on related themes. Language: German, requirement: one year of college German or equivalent.
Last offered: Autumn 2022
| Units: 3-5
GERMAN 175: CAPITALS: How Cities Shape Cultures, States, and People (COMPLIT 100, DLCL 100, FRENCH 175, HISTORY 106E, ILAC 175, ITALIAN 175, URBANST 153)
This course takes students on a trip to major capital cities at different moments in time, including Renaissance Florence, Golden Age Madrid, colonial Mexico City, imperial Beijing, Enlightenment and romantic Paris, existential and revolutionary St. Petersburg, roaring Berlin, modernist Vienna, and transnational Dakar. While exploring each place in a particular historical moment, we will also consider the relations between culture, power, and social life. How does the cultural life of a country intersect with the political activity of a capital? How do large cities shape our everyday experience, our aesthetic preferences, and our sense of history? Why do some cities become cultural capitals? Primary materials for this course will consist of literary, visual, sociological, and historical documents (in translation). No prerequisites.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI