FALL 2024
The usual sequence is 3031, 3032, any higher-level 3000 course, then any 4000-level course. Some courses, such as 3034, 3035, and 3036 have a prerequiste of only 3031, not 3032. In other cases, students can ask the course instructor and Prof. Tsien at dup-french@virginia.edu for permission to waive pre-requisites.
5000-level courses are intended for students admitted to the graduate program but undergraduates who have received an A in a 4000-level course may request permission to enroll from the instructor.
The following writing requirements apply to courses in which the authorized enrollments do not exceed 20 (French 3031 and 3032) or 25 (literature and civilization courses beyond French 3032): FREN 3031 and 3032: 10-15 pages, typically divided among 4 to 5 papers. Peer editing is introduced during class and practiced outside.
3000-level literature 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 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 3031- 001 Finding Your Voice in French
In French the words voix (voice) and voie (way) are homonyms. This is perhaps a happy linguistic coincidence. Or, perhaps, it reminds us that finding your way in the world is often also a process of finding your voice. Keep this homonym 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.
Course conducted in French.
MWF 10:00AM - 10:50AM (Simotas)
CAB 107
FREN 3031- 002 Finding your Voice in French
In French the words voix (voice) and voie (way) are homonyms. This is perhaps a happy linguistic coincidence. Or, perhaps, it reminds us that finding your way in the world is often also a process of finding your voice. Keep this homonym 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.
Course conducted in French.
MWF 11:00AM - 11:50AM (Simotas)
CAB 107
FREN 3031- 003 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.
TR 02:00PM - 03:15PM (Krueger)
CAB 107
FREN 3031- 004 Finding your Voice in French
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 11:00AM - 12:15PM (Geer)
CAB 291
FREN 3032 – 001 Text, Image, 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 read, view, write about and discuss a range of works that may include poetry, painting, prose, music, theater, films, graphic novels, photographs, essays, and historical documents. Prerequisite: FREN 3031..
TR 11:00AM - 12:15PM (Ice)
NAU 242
FREN 3032 - 002 Text, Image, 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 read, view, write about and discuss a range of works that may include poetry, painting, prose, music, theater, films, graphic novels, photographs, essays, and historical documents. Prerequisite: FREN 3031.
MW 02:00PM - 03:15PM (Lyu)
Gibson Hall 142
FREN 3032-003 Text, Image, 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 read, view, write about and discuss a range of works that may include poetry, painting, prose, music, theater, films, graphic novels, photographs, essays, and historical documents. Prerequisite: FREN 3031.
TR 03:30PM - 04:45PM (Overstreet)
NAU 242
FREN 3034 Advanced oral expression in French- Au cinéma: Film, Culture, Conversation
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 3031 or concurrent enrollment in FREN 3031. Not intended for students who are native speakers of French or whose secondary education was in French schools.
TR 09:30AM - 10:45 (Rey)
WIL 244
FREN 3036 Introduction to Translation
This course will provide a practical and theoretical introduction to methods of translation from French to English and from English to French. Topics covered may include an introduction to translation studies, application of translation tools and practices, grammar review, and cross-cultural analysis of a variety of both literary and non-literary texts. Pre-requisite: FREN 2020 or FREN 2320 or equivalent placement.
MW 02:00PM - 03:15PM (Hall)
CAB 407
FREN 3043 French-Speaking World III
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 colonial novel, La jalousie ; Georges Perec's critique of consumer society in the 1960s (Les Choses); and Maylis de Kerangal's mesmerizing, polyphonic novel about love, loss, and the rhythms of our beating hearts (Réparer les vivants). We might also end our semester with an "extremely contemporary" novel published during the last several years.
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 or three short, analytical essays. Course conducted entirely in French. Prerequisite: FREN 3032.
TR 12:30PM - 01:45 (Blatt)
NAU 142
FREN 3585 : 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?
No previous knowledge of French history is required. This course will introduce students to the long history of French colonialism around the world. We will take a chronological approach: beginning with the settlement of Canada and continuing to Napoleon's attempts to conquer Egypt, then the French power plays in African and Asia.
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 (including paintings, films, and songs), 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.
TR 02:00PM - 03:15PM (Tsien)
WIL 244
FREN 4560 - Entre pensée et émotion: sensibilité dans le romantisme français
Ce cours vous invite à explorer la triple quête––du moi, de la sensibilité authentique et du bonheur––dans laquelle s’engage la jeunesse romantique française de la première moitié du 19ème siècle où de nombreux facteurs culturels, sociaux, historiques et politiques (y compris la tombée de Napoléon Ier) concourent à façonner un courant artistique et littéraire à la fois complexe et contradictoire.
Nous découvrirons l'épreuve de l'âme sensible qui, en essayant de se libérer des contraintes et d'aspirer à un idéal, bute contre le réel et erre sans répit entre l’émotion et la pensée, la mélancolie et l'exaltation, le spleen et l'idéal. Nous dégagerons la pertinence de l'expérience romantique du passé pour notre époque contemporaine tout aussi préoccupée par le moi (ou son image), la mélancolie (ou la dépression) et le bonheur (ou le succès). Ce faisant, nous évaluerons les vestiges de la perspective romantique envers la nature, la conquête du "nouveau monde", la figure de Napoléon et la question du genre dans les soucis majeurs du 21ème siècle—par exemple, le réchauffement planétaire, le traitement des peuples indigènes, le débat sur l’héritage de Napoléon et le mouvement "Me Too"—pour apprécier la distance et la proximité entre l'époque romantique et la nôtre. Une étude approfondie des poèmes, récit, roman et traités/ manifestes nous permettra de mener ensemble un projet collectif de concevoir et de bâtir un Musée du Romantisme..
MW 03:30PM - 04:45PM (Lyu)
French House 100
FREN 4585 - 002 Adv Topics 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 paintings, drawings, film, photography, autobiography, autofiction, poetry, essays, and journals. We will focus in particular on narrative believability (in text and image), on the e creation of self-image and public persona, and on the mediated self. Coursework includes a final autobiographical, autofictional, or biographical audio-visual project.
TR 03:30PM - 04:45PM (Krueger)
CAB 107
FREN 4585 - 003 Adv Topics Cultural Studies - Life in Colonial Cities
Who did not project him/herself in a city when reading a history book or a fiction representing the city in the past? For some cities, imagining its past is naturally inscribed in a continuation meticulously informed by historians, art historians, creative writers, literary scholars, and archeologists. For cities that have been victim of a colonial experience, this haunted and traumatic past needs to be revived to recreate a perception of historical continuity in the space and a sense of spatial belonging, with a new reparative dimension. “Life in Colonial Cities” is mainly about imagining the life and the sensory experiences of colonized subjects witnessing a changing urban environment.
TR 09:30AM - 10:45AM (Boutaghou)
NAU 242
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 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
African saints. Trans saints. Saints’ Lives as media. Saints in material culture and literature and history.
Recent academic enthusiasm for medieval saints’ Lives has begun to uncover the usefulness of this genre for gaining deeper understanding of both medieval and modern attitudes toward a variety of topics, from sexuality and sentiments to materiality and foreign cultures. Reading Lives written between 880 and the late thirteenth century, together with the work of some of the most engaging scholars in the field of hagiography studies, we will investigate a variety of issues that resonate with current interests in the broader fields of medieval and French studies. Readings include the Lives of St. Mary the Egyptian (a courtesan turned hermit), St. Catherine of Alexandria (known for her wisdom), St. Alexis (who abandoned his family), St. Louis IX (king of France), St. Euphrosyne (a woman who became a male monk), and St. Moses the Ethiopian (a brigand turned abbot).
MW 02:00PM - 03:15PM (Ogden)
French House 100
FREN 5540/8540 Topics in 18th-Century Lit - Monarchy, Tyranny, Revolution
This course will cover some of the classics of Ancien Régime France, including Le Cid, Le Mariage de Figaro, and Candide, along with less canonical works by women writers and Haitian revolutionaries. These will be presented within their historical and political context, with an emphasis on the troubled relationship between writers and the king of France, in France and in the colonies.
W 03:30PM - 06:00PM (Tsien)
CAB 038
FREN 5585/8585 An Archipelagic approach to Postcolonial Theory
As we strive to articulate decolonial vocabularies that would enable us to think intersectionally and beyond linear divides, we are thus constantly confronted with a series of methodological questions: How does one conceive of non-essentializing mental, geographical and temporal networks that account for the overlapping of multiple histories and temporalities and for the crisscrossing of cultural folds connecting heterogeneous and wide continental territories like Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa or the Middle East, and oceanic systems, maritime regions and archipelagoes often thought of as more fluid and permeable spaces? Focusing on the multilingual, transcultural and multidimensional dynamics of the Francophone world, this Seminar draws on such questions of knowledge production, interpretive methodologies, epistemic justice, and academic ethics, in view of tackling some of the challenges which the persistent geographical and historical partitioning of the field has long kept invisible.
F 09:30AM - 11:30AM (Boutaghou)
French House 100
FREN 7040 Theories & Mthds of Lang Teach
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)
PV8 105
