FREN 3031-003 — Finding Your Voice 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 work.  

Engaging with diverse voices from France and the francophone world through short literary texts, documentary 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 and opinions 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. 

 Pre-requisite: Completion of FREN 2020 or placement in 3031 by appropriate AP or UVA placement test score. 

FREN 3031 is a Pre-requisite for all undergraduate French courses at a higher level.  

MWF 12:00PM – 12:50PM (James) 

FREN 3031 – Finding Your Voice in French

This course offers an opportunity for students to 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 have a chance to develop their own potential for self-expression. They will develop greater confidence in their communicative skills, command of grammar, and ability to revise and edit their own work. The course is conducted entirely in French.

Pre-requisite: Completion of FREN 2020 or 2320; exemption from FREN 2020 by the UVA Placement Test; or a score of 3 on the AP French Language Exam. FREN 3031 is a Pre-requisite for all undergraduate French courses at a higher level.

MWF 1:00 PM – 1:50 PM (Hall)

FREN 3031 – On air! Finding your voice in French: Podcast edition

In French the words voix (voice) and voie (way) are homonyms. Keep that in mind as you set out to find your voice in French, because as you become more fluent in the French language, you will discover new ways of experiencing the world and new pathways for personal and academic growth. This course will offer you the opportunity to explore and develop your voice in written and spoken French through the creation of a podcast. You will cultivate your own sense of style, tone, creativity, and expressiveness by drawing on a variety of cultural artifacts as inspiration for a series of writing and recording activities. Whether it means starting to feel more like yourself when you write and speak in French, or enjoying sounding wonderfully different from yourself, this course will encourage you to deepen your appreciation for the profound and transformative process of starting to think in French and to think of yourself as a Francophone person.  

Pre-requisite: Completion of FREN 2020 or 2320; exemption from FREN 2020 by the UVA Placement Test; or a score of 3 on the AP French Language Exam. FREN 3031 is a Pre-requisite for all undergraduate French courses at a higher level.

TR 5:00 PM – 6:15 PM (Simotas)

FREN 3031 – Finding Your Voice in French

Students in this course co-construct the syllabus, based on their own interest, by assigning and leading discussion of articles in French. They practice listening skills with songs, podcasts, and other audio sources. They explore visual culture via the discussion of films and works of art. Students practice both creative writing and more formal genres (a film review, a persuasive essay) during in-class writing workshops and individual assignments. Integrated in all activities, a semester-long grammar review guides students to better understand how form and meaning work together.

Prerequisite FREN 2020 or AP3 or equivalent placement.

TR 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM (Krueger)

FREN 3032 – Image, Text, Culture

In this course, students will discover and engage critically with a broad sampling of French and Francophone cultural production representing a variety of periods, genres, approaches, and media. Students will learn how to become more sensitive observers of French and Francophone culture, attuned to the nuances of content and form. They will read, watch, write about, and discuss a range of works that may include poetry, painting, prose, music, theater, films, graphic novels, photographs, essays, and historical documents. They will also make significant progress in their oral and written comprehension and communication in French. The course is conducted entirely in French.

Pre-requisite: French 3031. FREN 3032 is a Pre-requisite for all French undergraduate courses on a higher level.

TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM (Ogden)

TR 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM (McGrady

TR 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM (Ferguson)

MW 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM (Tsien

FREN 3034 – Advanced Oral Expression in French

This advanced course in oral expression has two main objectives: to provide students an occasion to practice their oral French skills in a variety of communicative contexts; and to offer them the opportunity to learn and reflect on various aspects of French culture of interest to their French-speaking contemporaries. Topics for discussion will be determined largely by student interests but will likely include aspects of French education and family life; the arts (French music, architecture, museum exhibitions, dance, theatre, haute couture . . . ); Franco-American relations; immigrant contributions; sports; and business culture. All class resources (including articles from French newspapers and magazines, journals, videos, TV and radio) will be available online. Students will be graded on their

engaged involvement in class discussions, their in-class presentations (individual and group), a final oral reflective exam, and an audio and/or video class project or contribution to a class web-journal. FREN 3034 is the only course on offer to emphasize exclusively the skill of speaking French (spontaneously and fluently).

Pre-requisite: FREN 3031 and either completion of FREN 3032 or concurrent enrollment in FREN 3032.

TR 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM (Saunders)

FREN 3037 – French for Global Development and Humanitarian Action

Designed for students seeking to develop advanced linguistic skills in oral and written French and cultural competence in preparation for careers related to global development and humanitarian action. Discussions and assignments revolve around case studies and simulated professional situations drawn from real-life global development and humanitarian aid initiatives, with a focus on francophone countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Cases and topics will encompass community health, education, economic development, and advocacy for human rights and gender equity.

Course pre-requisites: FREN 3031 and FREN 3032

(This course is not intended for students who are native speakers of French.)

MWF 10:00 AM – 10:50 AM (James)

FREN 3042 – French-Speaking World II: Expansion. Royalty and Revolution

During the Classical Era, Louis XIV built Versailles, France colonized Canada and the Caribbean, philosophers dared to challenge the Catholic Church, and in the end, the Revolution changed France forever. In the context of this tumultuous history, this course will provide an overview of the writings of this era, from the canonical works of Corneille, Molière, Voltaire, and Diderot to lesser-known but significant works that grapple with issues of slavery, gender roles, atheism, and foreignness. We will examine how writers used wit, emotion, and logic to persuade readers to accept their controversial ideas.

MW 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM (Tsien)

FREN 3043 – French-Speaking World III: Modernities Tradition and Innovation

In this course, we will reflect upon some of the key questions that arise when we engage in the process of literary, artistic, or intellectual creation. How do we make something new out of what is old? How do we nurture singular originality in the face of mounting societal pressures to conform? How can we learn from the past without becoming subservient to it? By examining the works of modern and contemporary writers, artists, and intellectuals who engage in explicit dialogue with their predecessors, we will explore different ways in which tradition gives birth to innovation. We will read the French writer Colette who, in writing a memoir of her parents, comes to discover how her identity is shaped by what she has inherited from each of them; the French-Chinese writer Cheng who, elected to the French Academy, writes in a French imbued with Chinese language and thought; the Belgian-Rwandan musician Stromae who rewrites and performs in the 21stcentury, the aria of Bizet’s 19th-century opera, which, in turn, was inspired by a short story published earlier by Mérimée; and the Belgian philosopher Despret who revisits the thesis of human exceptionalism that undergirds Descartes’ philosophy of the 17thcentury by reapproaching it from the perspective of the multiple ethical, feminist, and ecological exigencies of our own century.

TR 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM (Lyu)

FRTR 3559 – Black France Musicscape

This interdisciplinary course examines the impact of music and language use in the Black Francophone world. Students will explore, think critically, and discuss the importance of race, space, gender, and language in the formation of a Black France Musicscape in multilingual communities of West and Central Africa, the French Caribbean, and mainland France.

TR 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM (Lydner)

FREN 3559 - Students’ Choice: The Goncourt Book Club

A chance to discover what France is reading now, and to make a mark on the literary scene, through discussion of a selection of books nominated for one of France’s most prestigious literary awards. Students will evaluate six books short-listed by the French Embassy for the Choix Goncourt USA and will cast their vote in April for who will win this year’s prize. Reading and discussion in French. Prerequisite: FREN 3032 or equivalent placement 

1 credit

R 9:30 AM – 10:20 AM (Blatt & Krueger)

FREN 3584 – Topics in French Cinema: Introduction to French Cinema

This class provides an introduction to masterpieces of French cinema, from the earliest short films of the Lumière Brothers and George Meliès, to feature-length works by Godard, Marker, Truffaut, and Varda, as well as contemporary directors. Students will study film genres and movements (Poetic Realism, the New Wave) in relation to social, cultural and aesthetic trends. They will identify and analyze film techniques (camera angle, camera movement, montage, and more). They will discuss French cinema’s place in an international and transnational conversation about cinema, and explore questions such as: What is “French” about French cinema? What does it do well? Where has it failed? What has it taught us about France—about cinema—and about ourselves? Students will view approximately one film/week, outside of class, complete accompanying reading assignments, participate in class discussion, write analytical papers, and create original audiovisual material. Counts toward the French major or minor. All reading, writing, viewing, and discussion is in French.

TR 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM (Levine)

FREN 3585 – Topics in Cultural Studies: Americans in Paris

Paris has always attracted Americans. This course (inspired by David McCullough’s book, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris) studies the remarkable experiences of celebrated, as well as forgotten Americans (inventors, artists, writers, diplomats, medicals, etc.) who traveled to Paris in search of professional betterment, and their interactions with the people, the city and the cultural changes going on around them. Strong emphasis placed on oral communication skills. Requires active class participation and research. Readings from the McCullough book will be in English, but other assigned readings, discussions, lectures, oral presentations, films and writing will be in French. A day trip to the National Gallery of Art in Washington to view the celebrated work of one of America’s finest sculptors (who developed his exceptional talent during his stay in Paris) is planned. Course conducted in French.

TR 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM (Saunders)

FREN 3585 Topics in Cultural Studies: Suspense

An exploration of suspense stories in a variety of text and film genres, with a focus on how narrative elements (pace, perspective, foreshadowing, plot structure, cliffhangers) and the manipulation of sound and images create expectation and tension. How does suspense work, and how does solving the puzzles of detective stories, true crime podcasts, and historical mysteries relate to coping with uncertainty and ambiguity in real life? Assignments include short essays, in-class presentations, online postings, and a final creative writing or multi-media project.

Pre-requisite FREN 3032 or equivalent

TR 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM (Krueger)

FREN 4585 – Advanced Topics in Cultural Studies: Animals in a Posthuman World

This course presents students with a number of leading contemporary French thinkers who, through their innovative, posthuman, ecocritical reassessment of the human-animal relationship, challenge the long-standing Western bias of human exceptionalism. In the first part of the course, we will investigate how Western culture has come to proclaim the idea of human exceptionalism. How does the West construct the difference between humans and nonhuman animals? What parts do religion, philosophy, and science play in constructing models of human-animal divide and/or closeness? In the second part of the course, we will explore the limits of the Western perspective: first, by examining non-Western approaches to human-animal relation; and second, by reflecting on how climate change and the pandemic bankrupt such an anthropocentric worldview and situate us in a posthuman world. We will examine works in a wide range of fields (anthropology, history, philosophy, animal studies, literature, film, art, children’s literature) and practices (domestication, training, farming, experimentation, zoo, rescue/rehabilitation) in order to embark on a collective exploration as to how we can shift from an anthropocentric to an ecological worldview and practice a more equitable posthuman way of sharing our fragile life with all species on the Earth. Authors may include Baratay, Derrida, Descartes, Descola, Despret, Haraway, Hearne, Heidegger, Latour, Pennac, Porcher. In addition to films, we will also look at youtube videos/ podcasts on dog and horse training.

TR 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM (Lyu)

FREN 4585 – Advanced Topics in Cultural Studies: Love, Sex, Marriage, and Friendship in Renaissance France

If passions and emotions are part of human nature, the forms they take and the ways in which they are and can be expressed vary greatly over time and between cultures. How were love, sex, marriage, and friendship understood and lived in sixteenth-century France – in each case between members of the opposite sex and the same sex? How did they evolve in this pivotal period of transition between the Middle Ages and the modern world? How were they inflected by intellectual, social and cultural movements such as the Reformation, Humanism, developing notions of the individual, and ongoing debates about the nature of women? Through the study of a combination of contemporary texts and modern films, we will explore a fascinating culture, at once similar to and different from our own – one whose stories (like that of Romeo and Juliet) still speak to us today and with whose legacy we live and continue to grapple.

Prerequisite: At least one literature or culture course beyond FREN 3032. May be taken for elective credit for WGS.

TR 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM (Ferguson)

FREN 4585 – Advanced Topics in Cultural Studies: Getting Medieval on the Movies

Why isn’t Jamie Foxx cast as Robin Hood, or Zoe Saldana as Lancelot, or Michelle Yeoh as Merlin? When we’re dealing in myths, why do some ideas of “historical realism” seem to matter... and how sure are we that we know what medieval European society really looked like? When we imagine the world of over a thousand years ago, why do 1950s (or even 21st-century) race and gender dynamics so often structure it? Why does it matter how we retell important myths in popular culture anyway?

Writers and artists of the Middle Ages often didn’t share our worries about historical accuracy in representation and gave us the lasting legacies of a white Jesus and a pink-cheeked Virgin Mary—even if regional alternatives in fact existed with various degrees of cultural (in)sensitivity. What legacies are we passing down to future generations in our retellings of stories about Robin Hood, the Holy Grail, and Lancelot’s illicit love for Guenevere? Who benefits from perpetuating a singular image of the Middle Ages? Is there a future for different ways of using these stories, as in the work of French rapper Black M or American artist S. Ross Browne?

This class will look at such stories as told in medieval French texts (in modern French translation) and modern stage and screen adaptations, such as the 2012 musical “Robin des Bois” and classics like Rohmer’s 1964 Perceval. For cultural contrast, we’ll also examine a few Anglo adaptations (like Monty Python and the Holy Grail / “Spamalot,” Black Knight, and the 2018 Robin Hood).

No previous study of film required.

TR 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM (Ogden)

FREN 4838 – French Society & Civilization: La France Contemporaine

Developing cultural literacy is an integral part of becoming an educated citizen of the world. The attainment of cultural literacy includes understanding social norms as well as politics and current events in a particular country. In France, cultural literacy is particularly valued in professional life, where the expectation is that you will be able to converse on a wide range of topics outside your field of specialization. This course is designed to provide you with some tools for developing cultural literacy in the French context. Through an introduction to the politics, culture, and society of present-day France, you should come away from this class with a deeper understanding of social norms and institutional structures, as well as the ability to follow and understand French media coverage of events as they unfold in France. In your future travels in the US or abroad, you should feel comfortable discussing and debating social, political, and cultural issues and current events relating to France. To achieve those goals, we will study the evolution of French society, politics, and culture from the end of the Second World War until the present. We will study major social problems facing contemporary France: the role of women, education, immigration, race, religion, public health as well as France's status in the European Union. Throughout the course, emphasis will be placed on readings from the French press, the televised news, and other visual sources. Prerequisite: one 3000-level course beyond FREN 3032

TR 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM (Horne)

FRTR 2580 – Topics in French and Francophone Culture

Introduces the interdisciplinary study of culture in France or other French-speaking countries. Topics vary from year to year, and may include cuisine and national identity; literature and history; and contemporary society and cultural change. Taught by one or several professors in the French department.

TuTh 11:00-12:15 (Paige Tierney)

French House 100

FREN 3031- ON AIR! Finding Your Voice in French: Podcast Edition

Are you looking for a class that is focused on making things and doing creative projects in French?? Ready to put on your headphones and discover the thrilling new voices and perspectives within the French-speaking world of podcasts??  This course will offer you the opportunity to explore the world of French podcasts while also developing your voice in written and spoken French through the creation of your own podcast episode. Over the course of the semester, you’ll tell stories, conduct field recordings and interviews, and find your way through important questions about language, identity, power, and politics.  Come for the podcasts, and stay for the ways you’ll cultivate your own sense of style, tone, creativity, and expressiveness in French!  Whether it means starting to feel more like yourself when you write and speak in French, or enjoying sounding wonderfully different from yourself, this course will encourage you to deepen your appreciation for the profound and transformative process of starting to think in French and to think of yourself as a Francophone person. 

TR 11:00-12:15 (Geer)

MWF 10:00-10:50 (Simotas)

MWF 11:00-11:50 (Simotas)

FREN 3031-  Finding your Voice in French

Finding your voice doesn't happen overnight. Not in the language(s) we have been speaking since we were children, and not in a foreign language. The main goals of this course are to guide you on a life-long journey of self-expression, and to help you become aware of your own best practices for learning French. You will be encouraged to take reflective notes in class on your reactions and thoughts about the materials with which you interact. Who are you when you read, speak, listen, and write in French? What are your strengths? How can you convey your ideas in French without translating your words directly from English or other  languages you already know? How does improving your writing in French help you to better understand how you write in English? How does engagement with French influence your connections in other courses and in the world around you?

Students in this course co-construct the syllabus, based on their own interests, by assigning and leading discussion of articles in French. They hone listening skills with songs, podcasts, and other audio sources, and explore visual culture via works of art and advertising images. Students practice both creative writing and more formal genres ( a film review, a persuasive essay) during in-class writing workshops and individual assignments. Integrated in all activities, a semester-long grammar review guides students to better understand how form and meaning work together.

Prerequisite: FREN 2020 or equivalent placement

TuTh 2:00-3:15 (Krueger)

FREN 3032 – Image, Text, Culture

In this course, students will discover and engage critically with a broad sampling of French and Francophone cultural production representing a variety of periods, genres, approaches, and media.  Students will learn how to become more sensitive observers of French and Francophone culture, attuned to the nuances of content and form. They will read, watch, write about, and discuss a range of works that may include poetry, painting, prose, music, theater, films, graphic novels, photographs, essays, and historical documents. They will also make significant progress in their oral and written comprehension and communication in French.  The course is conducted entirely in French.

Pre-requisite: French 3031. FREN 3032 is a Pre-requisite for all French undergraduate courses on a higher level.

TuTh 12:30-1:45 (Lydner)

TuTh 9:30-10:45 (Boutaghou)

MW 2:00-3:15 (Lyu)

FREN 3032 001 – Writing Black Francophone Literature and Performances.

This section looks at the literary, political, and artistic works of Black francophone writers, theorists, and performers. Together, we will read and discuss how Black people across the francophone world express themselves through poetry, theatre, novels, comics, film, and music. Students will develop interpretative and analytical skills with broad applicability and practice writing in French in a clear and persuasive manner. 

TuTh 12:30 - 1:45  (Rashana Lydner)

FREN 3032-002 - Sharing Human Experience

In this course, we will examine various cultural and artistic productions of the French and Francophone worlds to gain insights into how they attest to the depth of human experience, both joyful and painful, fleeting and enduring. We will query, and appreciate, the inventiveness, thoughtfulness, courage, and craft that shape a broad selection of works in poetry, theater, prose, and film from the medieval to the modern and contemporary periods. Our aim, in doing so, is to learn how to make the qualities that inform these works become part also of our own practice of the French language in both written and oral forms.

MW 2:00-3:15 (Lyu)

FREN 3034  Advanced oral expression in French

This advanced course in oral expression has two main objectives:  to provide students an occasion to practice their oral French skills in a variety of communicative contexts; and to offer them the opportunity to learn and reflect on various aspects of French culture of interest to their French-speaking contemporaries.  Topics for discussion will be determined largely by student interests but will likely include aspects of French education and family life; the arts (French music, architecture, museum exhibitions, dance, theatre, haute couture . . . ); Franco-American relations; immigrant contributions; sports; and business culture. All class resources (including articles from French newspapers and magazines, journals, videos, TV and radio) will be available online.  Students will be graded on their engaged involvement in class discussions, their in-class presentations (individual and group), a final oral reflective exam, and an audio and/or video class project or contribution to a class web-journal. FREN 3034 is the only course on offer to emphasize exclusively the skill of speaking French (spontaneously and fluently).   Pre-requisite: FREN 3031 and either completion of FREN 3032 or concurrent enrollment in FREN 3032. 

TuTh 11:00-12:15 (TBD)

FREN 3041  The Francophone World I: Origins

Globalization.  Love and friendship.  Encounters with other cultures and peoples.  Separation of Church and State.  Bourgeois values.  Law and justice.  Where did these features of modern life come from and—more importantly—what other forms might they have taken or might they still evolve into?  And how might the way we tell the histoire of the Francophone world limit or expand our options now and in the future? 

Virtually visiting the Louvre Museum (our case study of one famous way of presenting Francophone history) and exploring a variety of readings that nuance and even challenge that history outright, we will seek to understand the prevailing story of the Francophone world’s origins, the reasons that story developed, and the alternative histories that have been set aside.  With evidence from historical readings—tales of quests for adventure and powerful women, bawdy ballads and soulful sonnets—we will then imagine new exhibits to tell a fuller picture of the Francophone past and its importance to the present.

Assignments will be appropriate both for students coming directly from FREN 3032 and for more advanced students who want to hone their analytical/persuasive skills in French. Readings in the course will be in modern French translation.

MWF 11:00-11:50 (Ogden)

FREN 3048 – Filmmaking in French

This course introduces students to the basics of filmmaking with a focus on writing, directing, shooting and editing. We will start with fresh materials brought by students and workshop students’ scripts as in a “writers’ room”. It will be a hands-on class where students will learn to use a camera, lighting, sound recording and editing. Each student will have the chance to develop their own script and serve in a different position including writing, directing, filming, acting and editing. We will watch selected clips and sample works, which will exemplify specific aspects of filmmaking and offer inspiration to the shooting, editing styles and theme of each film. By the end of the semester, you will have a fully-finished script and one edited scene.

M 3:30-6:00 (Dia)

FREN 3585 – (Topics in  Cultural Studies): Beasts and Beauties

Werewolves, vampires, phantoms, and fairies: these are some the creatures who inhabit the eerie space of French fiction. In fables, legends, fairy tales, short stories, novels, and film, outer beauty is associated sometimes with virtue, often with inner monstrosity. We will study the presence of menacing fictional creatures in relation to physical and moral beauty, animality, and evocations of good, evil, comfort, fear, kindness, familiarity and the uncanny. For their final project, students in this course write their own supernatural short stories.

Prerequisite: FREN 3032 or concurrent enrollment

TuTh 3:30-4:45 (Krueger)

FREN 3585 - Cultures of Protest

A multi-layered crisis, economic, political, environmental has motivated French citizens in the recent years to take to the streets. In fact, an earthquake of social unrest has shaken France with movements such as "Nuit debout," "Gilets jaunes," the movement against the pension reform, but also various ZAD, and Les Soulèvements de la Terre. While the fires are still smoldering and the clouds of tear gas are far from settled, police violence has already left an indelible mark in many people's lives and bodies.  

In this course, we will read essays, chronicles, pamphlets, as well as fiction and we will watch movies and documentaries all offering an insider's look or taking stock of the situation. In a spirit of collaborative investigation, we will discuss what's happening today in France, and we will make connections with social movements in other parts of the world such as Arab Spring and Occupy.  

MWF 1:00-1:50 (Simotas)

French House 100

FREN 3585-004 The History of French Colonialism

Québec, Haiti, Louisiana, Vietnam, Tunisia, Algeria, Sénégal, Madagascar: at some point or another, these places and many others were part of the French empire. What motivated France to occupy these lands: was it conversion to Catholicism, the lucrative sugar industry that relied on slavery, or military rivalry with other European empires? And what effects did colonialism have on the people of these lands?

This course is a survey of the long history of French colonialism around the world, from early incursions into Canada to present-day debates about commemorating the past. We will take a chronological approach: we will study, first, the exploration of various parts of the world and the establishment of colonies in the Americas before Napoleon's reign, second, the post-Napoleonic incursions into the African and Asian continents, and third, the independence movements that fought against French control. We will discuss the political and cultural legacies that remain in our post-colonial era, such as how the French republic addresses past atrocities and how hybrid cultures and languages have emerged from resulted from the mixture of populations.

Readings and media will include French travelers' description of foreign populations, Native accounts of French interventions, literary and visual works inspired by the colonial situation, and key documents from various independence movements. A number of experts in the field will be invited to present their research to the students periodically.

TuTh 12:30-1:45 (Tsien)

Pavilion VIII 102

FREN 4410 – The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment, or Les Lumières, was one of the most important movements in Western intellectual history. Its proponents fought against superstition and a corrupt monarchy with notoriously witty essays and with fictions that seemed, on the surface, to be about sentimentality, sex, or exotic lands. In this course, we will consider how famous philosophes such as Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau brought France into a new era and inadvertently inspired the American and then the French Revolutions. We will examine how their writings treated issues such as: slavery, women's sexuality, blasphemy, the conflict between religion and science, and moral relativism among various countries. We will also focus on strategies used by the authors to hide their provocative ideas from government censors.

TuTh 2:00-3:15 (Tsien)

FREN 4585-001 – The City of Paris: Stories of a Living Legend

This course will explore Paris, both as a contemporary metropolis and a multilayered palimpsest of history, legends and myths.

Pre-requisite: FREN 3032 plus one additional 3000-level course in French. (N.B. Students who have previously taken FREN 3652: Modern Paris may not enroll for FREN credit in this course.)

This course will explore Paris, both as a contemporary metropolis and a multilayered palimpsest of history, legends and myths. A global city, Paris is today so much more than the capital of France; it holds meaning the world over. A real city of grit and struggle, it is also synonym of joie de vivre, as well as symbolic of lofty ideals. The principal theater of the French Revolution, it earned a reputation for insurrection and protest. A hotbed of artistic life and intellectual debate, it has been, and still is a magnet for talent, ambition, and dissent. How did Paris achieve such iconic status on the world stage? What myths and historical moments have defined it? Together, we will explore maps, paintings, and films that illustrate key features of the history, topography, architecture, and neighborhoods of Paris. We will discover the imagined city in art, literature and song. We will also interrogate the “American dream” of Paris, with a special focus on “Black Paris”, its promises and mirages. By the end of this course, Paris will be a familiar place. You will be able “to read” the city, unlock its codes —become a Parisian, even from a distance.

MW 3:30-4:45 (Roger)

FREN 4585-002 - The Good Life?

What is the good life, and what is a good life?  How should a person balance ethical responsibilities with comforts and pleasures?  Is sacrifice required for someone who wants to be good, and if so, how much and of what kind?  How do social expectations help and harm efforts to do the right thing?  We might think of saints as people who live perfectly good lives, but stories about them often grapple with all of these questions and don’t always provide clear answers, instead encouraging audiences to think deeply about their own lives in ways that go beyond any one religious or ethical system.  Above all, such stories can lay bare both how difficult it is to solve moral dilemmas (even for saints) and how closely extreme virtue can resemble appalling vice.  Looking at old and new stories of parent-child struggles, spectacular sinning and redemption, gender transformation, and daily moral predicaments, we will explore a variety of ways to understand what it means to live well.

MW 2:00-3:15 (Ogden)

FREN 4744 – The Occupation and After

While in 2014 the French spent a year commemorating the centenary of the start of the “Great War” (“la Der des Ders,” the so called “war to end all wars”), in the summer of 2015 the nation marked another important anniversary: namely, seventy years since the Liberation of Paris during World War II. The German occupation of France, which lasted from 1940 until 1945, was one of the most consequential periods in the nation’s history, one that left an indelible mark on the French national psyche that continues to rouse the country’s collective memory to this day. After an initial examination of the political and social conditions in France under the Nazi regime, this seminar proposes to explore the enduring legacy of those “Dark Years” by investigating how the complex (and traumatic) history of the Occupation has impacted French culture during the last half of the twentieth century and into the first decades of the twenty first. Discussions will focus on a variety of documentary and artistic sources—novels and films, mostly, though we will also explore photography and the graphic novel—that attest to what historians refer to as contemporary France’s collective “obsession” with the past.

Readings and films may include (but are not limited to) work by Némirovsky, Vercors, Perec, Duras, Modiano, Salvayre, Daeninckx, Claudel, Sartre, Clouzot, Melville, Resnais, Ophüls, Berri, Malle, Chabrol, and Audiard. Course conducted in French. Prerequisite: At least one 3000-level FREN course above 3032.

TuTh 11:00-12:15 (Blatt)

FREN 7040 - Theories & Methods of Language Teaching

An introduction to pedagogical approaches currently practiced in second-language courses at the university level. Students will examine critically the theories behind various methodologies and the relation of those theories to their own teaching experience and goals. Assignments include readings and case studies on the teaching of French, development and critique of pedagogical materials, peer observation and analysis, and a portfolio project for collecting, sharing, and reflecting on teaching methods.

Required for all GTAs teaching French at UVa for the first time. Restricted to Graduate Teaching Assistants in French. 3 credits. Students will register for the graded (letter grade) option in the SIS. Graduate exchange instructors will take the course as auditors.

MW 2:00-3:15 (Hall)

FREN 7500 - Literary Theory: Classic Thoughts, Modern Texts, Contemporary Debates

This course serves as an introduction to theoretical texts we encounter most frequently in the discourses of literary criticism. Our aim is to gain a deeper understanding of how literature has been thought and debated as well as how literary criticism has been practiced over time.

In the first part of the course, we will read key texts of the critical tradition from antiquity to the early twentieth century. In the second part of the course, we will survey the major theoretical movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries such as formalism/ structuralism/ deconstruction, reader response theory, psychoanalysis, feminism/ gender studies/ queer theory, eco-criticism/ animal studies. (Due to time constraints, we will not cover post-colonial theory and its variations in the francophone context, given that several seminars in the department treat the subject.)

M 3:30-6:00 (Lyu)

FREN 5585/8585-001 – The Violence of Literature

Literature entertains a strong and paradoxical relationship to violence. In the Western (Greek) tradition, the prevailing genres, tragedy and the epic, deal with violent deaths and wars, while at the same they interrogate the meaning of hostility, revenge or cruelty, and suggest ways out of a world dominated by injustice and brutality. Literature since then has never ceased to explore the mystery, and iniquity, of violence through its staging, exposition, or denunciation. Taking clues from texts ranging from Homer to contemporary novelists and playwriters, we will explore the intertwined histories of violence in literature, and literature as violence.

We will scrutinize literary genres that put violence at their core: the epic; prophecies, pamphlets, libelles; tragedy, melodrama, théâtre de la cruauté.

We will pay special attention to gendered violence: literary representations of sexual violence; literature as a forum of discussion about the war between sexes.

All along our readings, we will ask ourselves: “Should it hurt?”. Should literature be ridden of violence, or is violence a defining component of literature? We will thus be able to discuss, in an informed way, controversial issues such as: should literature aim at “healing” —and how? Is “transgressive” literature the only “good literature”? Can literature be used as a weapon, or should it devote itself to caring, and “repairing”? Should disturbing texts be “cancelled”, or praised (and studied) precisely as disturbing?

T 3:30-6:15 (Roger)

FREN 5585/8585-002 – Questioning the Archive in Postcolonial Studies 

This course will question nineteenth century archives in postcolonial francophone studies and their impact in writing cultural history. Colonialism destroyed cultural archives partly or completely. To understand the writing of cultural history in postcolonial contexts, it is urgent to have a better understanding of where the archives are and how we can explore them to write a decolonized cultural history. How do we think the foundation of the archive? What kind of periodization can we imagine? What are the specific questions scholars need to ask when confronted to period of History lacking cultural resources? How can we then fill the gaps left by colonization? 

F 9-11:30 (Boutaghou)