Courses
FALL 2026
Above: The main reading room at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Site Richelieu) in Paris
Course Sequencing
Beginning in Fall 2026, the usual course sequence--after students have satisfied the language requirement--is FREN 3031 followed by any 3000-level course at or above 3140 (formerly 3040), then any 4000-level course (most all courses at the 4000 level require at least one course above FREN 3140). Students may also choose to enroll in one or more applied language French courses numbered 3030 to 3099 (including, for example, 3030 - Phonetics; 3034 - Conversation; 3035 - Business French; 3036 - Translation) at any time after they have satisfied the language requirement, even before taking FREN 3031.
Students entering UVa with strong French skills, including heritage speakers and those with near-native or native fluency, may ask the course instructor and the DUP of French (dup-french@virginia.edu) for permission to waive pre-requisites for advanced courses if they feel they have attained the necessary level of competency elsewhere.
5000-level courses are intended for students admitted to the graduate program. However, undergraduates who have received an A in a 4000-level course may request permission to enroll from the instructor.
Writing Requirements
The following writing requirements apply to most courses from 3030-3140: 10-15 pages, typically divided among 4 to 5 papers. Peer editing is introduced during class and practiced outside.
3100-3999 level literature, culture, and civilization courses: 10-15 pages, typically divided among 2 to 4 papers. The content is relatively less sophisticated than at the 4000-level. Peer editing outside of class may be offered to students as an option or it may be required.
4000-level literature, culture, and civilization courses: 15-20 pages, typically divided among 2 to 4 papers. The content is relatively more sophisticated than at the 3000-level. Peer editing outside of class may be offered to students as an option or it may be required.
In all courses, the quality of students' written French (that is, the degree to which their use of grammar and vocabulary is correct and appropriate) affects the grades they receive on their papers, since it affects how comprehensible, persuasive, and impressive their writing is. As students move from 3000- to 4000-level courses, they are expected to show greater sophistication in sentence structure, grammar, and use of idioms.
You can declare a major or a minor in French here!
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns about enrolling in a French class this semester. We want to hear from you!
FREN 3030 Phonetics
This course is designed for beginners in French phonetics: you will dive into the world of French sounds, mastering everything from vowels to the famously tricky "r." You will also get hands-on experience with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), helping you perfect your pronunciation. Through engaging exercises and interactive practice, you will gain confidence and speak French more clearly and naturally. Prerequisite: FREN 2020.
TR 11:00AM - 12:50PM (Rey)
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FREN 3031- 001 Finding Your Voice in French
In this course, students explore and develop their own "voice" in written and spoken French. Through reading and viewing a variety of cultural artifacts in French, and completing a series of individual and collaborative creative projects, students will improve their skills in grammar, communication, self-expression and editing. Prerequisite: FREN 2020, 2320, or the equivalent, or appropriate AP, F-CAPE, or SAT score.
***Finding Your Voice in French Contemplatively – This particular section of 3031 will explore how contemplative practices can help increase our attentiveness to others and to ourselves, leading to greater confidence both in comprehension and in self-expression.
MWF 11:00AM - 11:50AM (Ogden)
CAB 283
FREN 3031- 002 Finding Your Voice in French
Engaging with diverse voices from France and the francophone world through short literary texts, film clips, songs, social media sites, and other contemporary media, we will explore how language is used to express identity, narrate the past, communicate opinions about the world’s great challenges, and persuade others to take action. Building on insights from these sources, you will practice both creative and more formal genres of writing (a persuasive essay, for example) with the support of in-class collaborative workshops. Through an informal blog, you will share your individual interests and discoveries with your classmates and establish a regular habit of communicating your thoughts, opinions, and reflections in French. Integrated in all these activities, a semester-long grammar review will guide you to better understand how form and meaning work together in the process of expressing yourself in French.
This course offers you the opportunity to develop your own voice in written and spoken French while gaining confidence in your command of grammar for effective communication and your ability to revise and edit your own written work. Finding your voice doesn't happen overnight, though—not in the language(s) we have been speaking since we were children, and not in a foreign language. Beyond your progress this semester, the main goals of this course are to guide you on this life-long journey, to help you become aware of your own best practices for learning French, and to consider how acquiring advanced proficiency in French intersects with and contributes to other personal, academic, and professional interests and goals.
Prerequisite: FREN 2020, 2320, or the equivalent, or appropriate AP, F-CAPE, or SAT score.
TR 11:0AM - 12:15PM (Geer)
CAB 291
FREN 3031- 003 Finding your Voice in French
Engaging with diverse voices from France and the francophone world through short literary texts, film clips, songs, social media sites, and other contemporary media, we will explore how language is used to express identity, narrate the past, communicate opinions about the world’s great challenges, and persuade others to take action. Building on insights from these sources, you will practice both creative and more formal genres of writing (a persuasive essay, for example) with the support of in-class collaborative workshops. Through an informal blog, you will share your individual interests and discoveries with your classmates and establish a regular habit of communicating your thoughts, opinions, and reflections in French. Integrated in all these activities, a semester-long grammar review will guide you to better understand how form and meaning work together in the process of expressing yourself in French.
This course offers you the opportunity to develop your own voice in written and spoken French while gaining confidence in your command of grammar for effective communication and your ability to revise and edit your own written work. Finding your voice doesn't happen overnight, though—not in the language(s) we have been speaking since we were children, and not in a foreign language. Beyond your progress this semester, the main goals of this course are to guide you on this life-long journey, to help you become aware of your own best practices for learning French, and to consider how acquiring advanced proficiency in French intersects with and contributes to other personal, academic, and professional interests and goals.
Prerequisite: FREN 2020, 2320, or the equivalent, or appropriate AP, F-CAPE, or SAT score.
MWF 12:00PM -12:50PM (Ice)
CAB 183
FREN 3034 Advanced Oral Expression in French
A focus on speaking, listening, and pronunciation. Activities include guided conversation practice, discussion leading, and other oral activities related to authentic materials in French. Work may include quizzes, presentations, reports, interviews, exams , and projects. Prerequisite: FREN 2020 or equivalent. Not intended for students who are native speakers of French or whose secondary education was in French schools.
MWF 09:00AM - 09:50AM (Ice)
Nau Hall 242
FREN 3035 Business French
In this course, students will learn about the major industries, organizational structures, and the primary positions within French and francophone businesses. They will gain experience in business research, will hone their oral and written French for use in a business-setting, will have practice job interviews, and will learn the practical aspects of living and working in French. Prerequisite: FREN 2020 or equivalent.
MW 03:30PM - 04:45PM (Simotas)
Nau Hall 242
FREN 3048 Filmmaking in French: An Introductory Workshop
This workshop, taught in French, introduces students to the basics of film as a visual and narrative medium. Students will master both theoretical and practical skills through writing, directing, shooting and editing their own film. Students will bring fresh materials and ideas, and workshop the script as in a "writers room" situation. A hands-on class, students will learn to use the camera, lighting, sound recording, and editing software. Prerequisite: FREN 2020 or equivalent.
T 03:30PM - 06:00PM (Dia)
CAB 368
FREN 3140 Introduction to French Studies
An introductory survey of French and Francophone cultural production representing a variety of periods, genres, approaches, and media. Students will read, view, discuss, and practice interpreting and writing critically about a range of works that may include poetry, painting, prose, music, theater, films, graphic novels, photographs, essays, television shows, podcasts, and historical documents.
TR 12:30PM - 01:45PM (Hall)
CAB 389
**Please note that as of Fall 2026 FREN 3140 replaces FREN 3040. Students who have already taken FREN 3040 are NOT eligible to take FREN 3140 (they are effectively the same class).
FREN 3150 History and Civilization of France: Middle Ages to French Revolution
You love France and are intrigued by its long and rich history? This course offers you the opportunity to explore your interests and deepen your knowledge of the major events, political figures, and the artistic, cultural, and intellectual movements, prior to the Revolution, that have shaped France as we know it and whose legacy is seen and felt to this day. Setting the stage with a survey of prehistoric and Roman Gaul, we will focus on the thousand-year period known as the Middle Ages, followed by the Renaissance, the Classical Age, and the Enlightenment. Subjects will be discussed in terms of both their original historical context and their evolving significance – often contested – to later and present generations. Films, visual images, and primary documents will supplement readings from secondary historical texts. Assignments will include group projects, in-class presentations, written papers, and quizzes.
Satisfies the French Department pre-1800 period requirement. Pending final administrative approval, this course will be taught by a very special visiting professor (and scholar of the early-modern period) from France.
MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM (TBD)
Nau Hall 241
**Please note that as of Fall 2026 FREN 3150 replaces FREN 3050. Students who have already taken FREN 3050 are NOT eligible to take FREN 3150 (they are effectively the same class).
FREN 3882 Loving Words: A Poem a Day in French
In this course we will read poems in French from a variety of writers and time periods, taking into account their stylistic features, emotional impact, and cultural resonance. Each day will be structured around the close reading of one key poem. Through in-class readings of related poems, collaborative writing workshops and related works, we will explore how poetry brings us closer to words, language, knowledge, sensations, emotion, ourselves, and others.
Prerequisite: FREN 3031 or equivalent
This course counts toward the French major and minor
This course fulfills the post-1800 requirement for the French major and minor.
TR 02:00PM - 03:15PM (Krueger)
Nau Hall 242
FREN 4520 Advanced Topics in Renaissance Literature: The Global French Renaissance
This course—which might also be called "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the French Renaissance but Were Afraid to Ask"—is a sweeping examination of the culture, art, history, and society of the French Renaissance and, importantly, the impact, influence, and implications of its global reach. Pending final administrative approval, this course will be taught by a special visiting professor, and scholar of the sixteenth-century (among other things) from France.
This course fulfills the pre-1800 requirement for the French major and minor.
MW 03:30PM - 04:45PM (TBD)
Nau Hall 241
FREN 4585 Advanced Topics in Cultural Studies: Portraits
An exploration of human portraits in France from prehistoric cave art to the selfie. Students will examine a variety of genres and media including painting, drawing, film, photography, autobiography, autofiction, poetry, essays, and journals. We will focus in particular on narrative believability (in text and image), on the creation of self-image and public persona, and on the mediated self. Coursework includes a final autobiographical, auto-fictional, or biographical audio-visual project.
Pre-requisite: FREN 3031 (or equivalent) and at least one French course numbered 3040-3999
This course counts toward the French major and minor
This course fulfills the post-1800 requirement for the French major and minor
TR 12:30PM - 01:45PM (Krueger)
Pavilion VIII 102
FREN 4854 Life in Colonial Cities
This course is about imagining life and sensory experiences of colonized subjects witnessing a changing urban environment. For some cities, imagining its past is naturally inscribed in a continuation meticulously informed. For cities that have been victim of a colonial experience, this haunted past needs to be revived to recreate a perception of historical continuity in the space and a sense of spatial belonging.
This course fulfills the post-1800 requirement for the French major and minor.
TR 09:30AM - 10:45AM (Boutaghou)
Nau Hall 142
FREN 5011 Old French
Introduction to reading Old French, with consideration of its main dialects (Ile-de-France, Picard, Anglo-Norman) and paleographical issues. May be taken in conjunction with FREN 5510/8510 or independently. Weekly reading exercises, a transcription and translation exercise, and a final open-book paper exam. Prerequisite: good reading knowledge of modern French, Latin, or another romance language. Taught in English.
M 01:00PM - 01:50PM (Ogden)
French House 100
FREN 5510 / 8510 Topics in Medieval Literature - About Suffering
Taking Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts” (1939) as its starting point, this course will explore how medieval French culture grappled with suffering and how modern thinkers grapple with medieval approaches to suffering. We will study various sources of pain—injury, injustice, grief, and mortality—as they appear in some of the most influential works of the 12th and 13th centuries. In counterpoint, we will examine how modern literary critics, theorists, and historians have struggled to understand a world separated from us by centuries of changes to religious beliefs and to medical knowledge and technologies. As a bridge between these perspectives, we will read foundational texts of modern palliative care that aim to offer hope and alleviate suffering in the face of inevitable pain. Could Auden be right that “About suffering they were never wrong/ The Old Masters…”?
Undergraduates who wish to enroll must have completed at least one 4000-level FREN course with a grade of B+ or better.
MW 02:00PM - 03:15PM (Odgen)
French House 100
FREN 5540 / 8540 Topics in Eighteenth-Century Literature - Revolts and Revolutions in the Francophone World
French history has been periodically transformed by violent popular political upheavals. We are familiar with the biggest of these -- the French Revolution of 1789. In the seventeenth century, the nobles revolted against the monarchy during the Fronde and their defeat led Louis XIV to entrench himself in Versailles in an absolutist, centralized surveillance state. Over the centuries, provinces like Brittany and Corsica tried to break away; colonies like Haiti, Vietnam, and Algeria won independence; medieval peasants and colonial slaves rioted and were massacred; university students revolted in May 1968 and changed their society.
In this seminar, we will compare a number of popular political upheavals in the history of the French Empire, including the French and Haitian Revolutions. We will collectively focus on political theories of the eighteenth century, such as those by Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Raynal that justified the conditions on which one could "fight the power," in the words of Public Enemy. Each student will focus on one major upheaval, explain its history and discuss literary works (poems, plays) inspired by the event.
R 03:30PM - 06:00PM (Tsien)
CAB 389
FREN 5584 / 8584 Topics in Cinema - French Cinema, Then and Now
This graduate seminar aims to introduce students to the rich history of French cinema, from its origins in the birth of photography and other proto-cinematic technologies in the nineteenth century, to the advent of digital film at the dawn of the twenty-first. The course seeks to provide a broad overview of key movements and genres, as well as concurrent trends in film theory and criticism. Students will be invited to reflect closely on film form and to consider each film in light of the socio-historical context within which it was produced. We will also consider best practices for undergraduate film course design and delivery with an eye toward preparing graduate students, regardless of their field of specialization, to teach undergraduate seminars on French cinema. Syllabus may include, but is not limited to, works by Lumière, Méliès, Feuillade, Gance, Buñuel/Dalì, Vigo, Carné, Renoir, Godard, Marker, Truffaut, Varda, Resnais, Chabrol, Tavernier, Besson, Pialat, Ozon, Kechiche, Besson, Cantet, Audiard, Asseyas, Breillat, Desplechin, Jeunet, and Triet. Course taught in primarily English, depending on enrollment patterns, and open to students from other programs and disciplines. Advanced undergraduates must request permission from the instructor.
F 09:15AM - 11:45AM (Blatt)
French House 100
FREN 7040 Theories and Methods of Language Teaching
Introduces the pedagogical approaches currently practiced in second-language courses at the university level. Critically examines the theories underlying various methodologies, and their relation to teaching. Assignments include development and critique of pedagogical material; peer observation and analysis; and a final teaching portfolio project.
TR 02:00PM - 03:15PM (James)
CAB 066