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 (F-Cape) Placement Test; a score of 3 on the AP French Language Exam; or a score of at least 660 on the SAT exam. FREN 3031 is a Pre-requisite for all undergraduate French courses at a higher level.

MWF 10:00 AM – 10:50 AM (Ogden) This 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. 

TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM (Levine)

TR 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM (Levine)

MW 3:30 PM – 4:45 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of works that may include poetry, painting, prose, music, theater, films, graphic novels, photographs, essays, and historical documents.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.

MW 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM (TBD)

MW 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM (Lyu)

TR 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM (Ferguson)

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 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM (Saunders)

FREN 3035 - Business French

Dans ce cours, vous développerez un ensemble de compétences linguistiques et culturelles adaptées au monde contemporain des affaires dans le monde francophone. Vous pratiquerez la communication professionnelle orale et écrite, et vous l’utiliserez, afin d’accomplir une variété de tâches spécifiques à l’entreprise. Vous explorerez les principales industries du monde francophone et vous étudierez leur structure organisationnelle. Enfin, vous préparerez votre dossier de candidature pour la demande d’un emploi, et vous passerez un entretien d’embauche. Si vous cherchez une carrière dans le monde francophone, ce cours est un bon point de départ !  

TR 5:00 PM - 6:15 PM (Simotas)

FREN 3036 - Introduction to Translation

Comment dit-on… ? Que veut dire… ? This course will provide a practical and theoretical introduction to methods of translation. We will translate literary and non-literary texts such as news articles, ads, songs, essays, poems, and short stories from French to English and from English to French. Classes will be in the form of workshops as we take on the role of the translator and collaborate on translation projects using different practices and methods of translation, all while undertaking a comparative review of French (and English!) grammar and analyzing various cultural topics.

**Students who have already taken FREN 4035 “Tools and Techniques of Translation” may not enroll in this course.

Pre-requisite: FREN 2020 or FREN 2320 or equivalent placement

MWF 10:00 AM - 10:50 AM (Hall)

FREN 3043 -  French Speaking-World III: Modernities - “Great Books”

Rather than focus on any single theme, movement, motif, or overarching problematic, this seminar will examine a few of the most admired and influential novels in the history of modern French literature. Special attention will be paid to the potential uses (and to the ultimate uselessness) of literature. How might reading fiction (and learning how to read it well) inform our understanding of the world and our place in it? Texts may include, but are certainly not limited to: Balzac’s tale of a young law student’s drive to make it in the big city in Le Père Goriot; Flaubert’s portrait of the original desperate housewife in Madame Bovary; Robbe-Grillet’s scandalously puzzling La jalousie ; Georges Perec's critique of consumer society in the 1960s (Les Choses); Maylis de Kerangal's mesmerizing, polyphonic novel about love, loss, and our beating hearts (Réparer les vivants); and David Diop's harrowing portrayal of Senegalese soldiers fighting for the French during World War II.

Required work may include: active participation in class discussion, weekly ruminations on the readings posted to a forum on Collab, an oral presentation, and two analytical essays. Course conducted entirely in French. Prerequisite: FREN 3032.

TR 9:30 AM - 10:45 AM (Blatt)

FREN 3048 - Filmmaking in French

Introduction to filmmaking: this course introduces students to the basics of film as a visual and narrative medium. By the end of the semester students will gain both theoretical and practical skills through writing, directing, shooting and editing their own film. We will start with fresh materials and ideas brought by the students to then workshop the script as in a “writers room” situation. As a hands- on class, students will learn to use the camera, lighting, sound recording and editing software. Each student will have the chance to work on a project in a group as a crew member serving in a different role for each film from writing, directing, filming, acting and editing. Throughout the semester we will watch clips that will serve as inspiration to the creative process, while learning about editing styles and narrative structures. As such, in each class theoretical learning and practice will go hand-in-hand. By the end of the semester each student will have a 3 to 5mn short film script. Students will be exposed to world cinema. 

M 3:30 PM - 6:00 PM (Dia)

FREN 3051 - Histoire et civilisation de la France contemporaine

Beginning with a study of the French Revolution and ending with World War Two, this course focuses on the cultural and historical influences that have shaped Modern France. We will explore the relationship between culture and political power, the changing role of government, and how ordinary men and women experienced social change. Readings will be drawn from primary documents, memoirs and secondary historical texts. Visual elements will be incorporated in this course as well as selected films. Core readings in this course will be done in French; contextual readings will occasionally be in English. All lectures, discussions, and writing will be done in French.  Pre-requisite: FREN 3032

TR 2:00 PM - 3:15 PM (Horne)

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 often 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, the uncanny, kindness and familiarity,

Prerequisites: FREN 3031 and 3032  (or equivalent courses/placement)

MW 2:00 PM - 3:15 PM (Krueger)

FREN 3585 - Topics in Cultural Studies - Heroes and Villains

This course turns to artistic treatment of past villains, hero(in)es to explore the fears and ideals they represent and how they speak to pressing cultural and social issues. The material studied will focus on enduring archetypes and will range from medieval romances to modern comics. From King Arthur and Joan of Arc to giants, monstrous women and devils masquerading as humans, the medieval  period gave birth to some of the best known and most (in)famous heroes and villains of world culture. We will study romances of “knights in shining armor” and their daring damsels, villains-turned-heroes and vice versa, and the exploits of fairies, transfigures, and wily part beast/part human creatures. What ideals and fears do these characters embody? Does gender play a role in constructing archetypes of good and bad? What do they say about society and the individual, community and the outsider? What can these archetypes teach us about modern definitions of good and bad, constructions of the “Other,” and our own societal fears? Readings in modern French from the past will be combined with modern French films and comics that revive medieval hero(in)es. Course conducted in French.

TR 3:30 PM - 4:45 PM (McGrady)

FREN 4031 – Writing with Style and Precision

In this course you will review and extend your knowledge of French grammar and style, becoming more confident about how best to structure the French language and how to express yourself with clarity and concision. Regular short writing assignments will begin with the analysis of a model text. You will revise first drafts of compositions in response to feedback and through peer editing in order to produce a polished final version. Key aspects of grammar, such as tense use – especially the past tenses – the subjunctive, participles, and so on, will be studied systematically and in response to questions that arise through the collective writing process.

TR 3:30 PM - 4:45 PM (Ferguson)

FREN 4509 - Seminar in French Linguistics: L’individu bilingue / the bilingual speaker

Nearly half the people in the world speak more than one language every day; and in France, some 13 million speakers use regularly several languages. Yet, says expert (renowned psycholinguist) François Grosjean, “le bilinguisme reste méconnu et victime d’idées reçues” (especially in France where, historically, a linguistic policy of monolingualism has been promoted).   In this seminar, we shall explore the many facets of the bilingual and bicultural individual (focusing particularly on the two languages that everyone taking the course will speak: French and English).  Our guide will be Grosjean’s 2015 book, Parler plusieurs langues: le monde des bilingues (an excellent analysis of the complex field for the French audience).  Through our study of Grosjean and other sources, we will gain insight into some of the persistent myths about bilingualism and the bilingual individual.  We will acquire knowledge of the linguistic characteristics of the bilingual speaker (e.g., the phenomenon of code switching, the principle of complementarity, language dominance, mixed linguistic systems, accent retention, translating / interpreting difficulties).  We will advance our understanding of how one becomes bilingual in the first place (linguistic and psycholinguistic aspects).  We will observe how others (writers, translators, artists, teachers, etc.) speak about bilingual/bicultural individuals in their work, and much more.   Students will conduct fieldwork, record and analyze oral interviews, give oral presentations, and contribute daily to the in-class discussions on assigned readings and film clips.  The seminar will be taught in French.  Participants must feel comfortable speaking French in the classroom, as well as outside the classroom (some field projects will require the use of French).   FREN 4509 counts for major/minor credit in French as well as in Linguistics.

 TR 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM (Saunders)

FREN 4582 - Advanced Topics in French Poetry - “Beaudelaire et la modernite”

Nous lirons une sélection de textes de Baudelaire (Les Fleurs du mal, Les Petits poèmes en prose, Les Paradis artificiels, et les critiques d'art) pour apprécier l'ensemble de la production littéraire de l'un des poètes les plus célébrés dans la culture occidentale. Nous procèderons par des lectures et des analyses attentives et examinerons la sensibilité et l'esthétique de la modernité baudelairienne: le problème du mal et l'éthique de la poésie, la structure et la déstructuration de la forme poétique, et la question de l'inspiration et de la lucidité dans l'entreprise poétique. De façon plus générale, nous nous intéresserons à la nature et au pouvoir du langage poétique ainsi qu'à la relation entre la poésie et la vie.

MW 2:00 PM - 3:15 PM (Lyu)

FREN 4585 - Advanced Topics in Culture Studies - “Tour de France”

While most university departments of French offer at least one undergraduate course that delves into the history, culture, and ways of inhabiting Paris (UVa regularly offers two or even three!), very few offer students a chance to explore the diverse spaces and places outside the confines of the capital city where, in fact, the overwhelming majority of French people actually live. This new course proposes to do just that by inviting students on an expansive (though by no means exhaustive) tour of France through an eclectic mix of sources both literary and visual. Focusing primarily on the 21st century, we will study the representation of an array of sites, many of them off the beaten path, that make France “France” today. From the disaffected former mining region in the Nord-Pas de Calais (just a short drive from the town of Calais and a number of migrant refugee camps nearby) to the sun-drenched valleys of Provence in the south. And from the expansive peri-urban zones around the capital city that remind us that “Paris” is a region, too, to border regions marked by mountains and seas. Special attention will also be paid to works that engage the undiscovered and largely forgotten territories that make up the sparsely populated and often disregarded “empty diagonal” that crosses central France from the northeast to the southwest. Through our reading and discussion of novels, short stories, essays, films, photographic series, and television shows, this course ultimately seeks to demystify the usual clichés about France’s diverse topographies, which are often mistaken as mere setting, background, or décor. If we look closely enough, however, these places often reveal themselves to be potent actors capable of disorienting dominant conceptions about how life in the “Hexagon” is lived. More specifically, students will discover how contemporary French culture mobilizes place as a complex vector through which important conversations (about national identity, class, immigration and postcolonialism, gender, history and memory, and the changing environment, for example) converge.  

Required work may include an oral presentation, short writing assignments, exercises in place writing, regular participation in class discussion, and a final project. Course conducted entirely in French. Prerequisite: FREN 3032.

TR 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM (Blatt)

FREN 4585 - Advanced Topics in Cultural Studies - “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. 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, and explore the “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.

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.) 

MW 3:30 PM - 5:15 PM (Roger)

FREN 5584/8584 – Documentary Film: History, Theory, Practice

Documentary films tell different kinds of stories than fiction film. They have a different relationship to the real world. Or do they? Do documentarians have a different kind of moral imperative than fiction filmmakers? Do they have a different relationship to the truth? To their audience? What is a documentary film, actually? Students in this course will grapple with these and other fundamental theoretical questions about documentary while gaining a solid foundational knowledge of major works of French and Francophone documentary from the invention of cinema to the present. From the beginning, students will be asked to adopt the dual perspective of a scholar and a practitioner. They will be viewers, scholars and critics of a wide variety of documentary films. They will read widely in French film history and theory in order to explore questions about film, communication, truth, and reality. They will write several essays, prepare and deliver an oral presentation, and create original audiovisual material. All viewing, most reading, and all written, oral and audiovisual work is conducted in French.

W 3:30 PM – 6:00 PM (Levine)

FREN 5570/8570 – French Literature Now!

When I first taught an iteration of this course, in the early aughts, contemporary French literature seemed to be in crisis. In his incendiary rant La littérature sans estomac (2002), for example, Pierre Jourde lamented the lack of aesthetic standards in the production of contemporary French fiction, claiming instead that the market had been overrun by mediocrity. Similarly, Jean-Philippe Domecq created a stir when he attacked a certain cadre of literary critics who, he claimed, do nothing but elevate the vast array of livres de divertissement to the status of “high art.” Acclaimed (and highly provocative) author Richard Millet, in L’Enfer du roman: Réflexions sur la postlittérature (2010), issued a scathing critique of the contemporary novel, lashing out against its role in the degradation of the French language. And in one of the few articles on the state of the field to have ever appeared in the New York Times, Alan Riding pondered the curious state of “French” literature in 2006, a year in which not only were the winners of four of the country’s most esteemed literary prizes awarded to “foreign” authors (American Jonathan Littel, to cite one example, won both the Prix Goncourt and the Prix de l’Académie française for Les Bienveillantes), but one of the most popular novels of the year (in France as well as in the US) was actually written in the 1940s by a Russian-born émigré who would later disappear in the camps (Irène Nemirovsky, Suite française). All of which seemed to beg the question, as Riding asked: “Is French literature burning?”

Lately, however, after many years marked by the successes of the retour au récit (Echenoz, Toussaint…), signs of a new kind of creative and even socially-conscious dynamism have emerged. From the roman d’enquête and documentary-style exofictions to novels that exhibit a fascination for animots and a particularly Gallic iteration of eco-consciousness (I’m not sure whether to call it “nature writing” or not), the literary scene seems to have been enlivened by the inescapably present world in which authors—in which all of us—dwell. Rather than propose a definitive answer to Riding’s problematic and expressly provocative question, then, this survey of some of the most acclaimed and/or widely read prose works of the last 20 years (more or less) invites participants to ascertain the situation for themselves. Along with introducing participants to a number of essential and readily available resources for scholars and enthusiasts of contemporary French literature, including the major journals, anthologies, radio programs, websites, and blogs, the course will also seek to provide opportunities to read and, more importantly, critique cutting-edge criticism on the works under consideration. Consider this part of the seminar a practicum on critical writing about contemporary French writing.

While we will read all primary texts (and some critical analyses) in French, the course will be taught in both French and English.

T 5:00 PM – 7:30 PM (Blatt)

FREN 7559 - Premodern Francophone Worlds

This seminar is intended to introduce students to the premodern francophone world through a global perspective that recognizes French as a premodern lingua franca extending beyond the French kingdom to include England, Italy, the Mediterranean, the crusader states, and North America. Select primary materials, produced between 1100 to 1700, will range from song, romance and travel narratives to encyclopedias, religious and historical writings, and legal and medical treatises. These materials will serve to examine cultural networks of exchange that privilege cross-fertilization and the transfer of knowledge and traditions. This seminar is crosslisted with PMCC 6000, the required course for the Premodern Cultures & Communities graduate certificate, and in this context, the francophone tradition will be placed in conversation with the global premodern world. Several invited speakers from Arts & Sciences as well as outside guest speakers will lead sessions on topics ranging from travel and trade, the invention of race and the Atlantic Slave Trade, multilingualism and translation, the global book arts, gender and sexualities, and global religious practices. In addition to class presentations of primary and secondary scholarship, students will have the option of writing a traditional seminar paper on a French text that reflects the multidisciplinary approach modeled in the seminar or to produce non-traditional scholarship, whether in the form of a co-authored seminar paper, a digital project, or a collaborative podcast series.

R 5:00 PM – 7:30 PM (McGrady)