French

 

Associate Professor:  Austin; Assistant Professor:  Etoke; Visiting Instructor:  Place; Professor Spencer, chair

 

The Major in French

 

The major consists of at least nine courses:  Course 327 and two courses from the group 203, 204, 326, 329; six 400-level courses including a seminar, and courses in three different “areas” i.e. periods, themes and/or genres.  No more than two courses in English may count toward the major.  Only four courses taken at an institution other than Connecticut College may be counted toward the major.  Two courses from a semester-long study abroad program in France or a francophone country may be counted toward the major; four courses from a year-long program may be counted.  Senior majors are expected to demonstrate proficiency in the language.

 

The Minor in French

 

The minor consists of at least six courses at or above the 200 level; three of these must be 400‑level courses.  No more than one course in English may count toward the minor.  Only two courses taken at another institution may be counted toward the minor.  One course from a semester-long study abroad program in France or a francophone country may be counted toward the minor; two courses from a year-long program may be counted.

                Students are strongly encouraged to increase their linguistic proficiency by working in the language lab and attending the French Table in Knowlton House.

 

Advisers:  J. Austin, N. Etoke, C. Spencer

 

Courses

 

French Language, Literature and Cinema (in French)

 

FRENCH  101, 102  ELEMENTARY FRENCH  Speaking, reading and writing; introduction to French culture.  Some reading of French literary texts.  Laboratory work.

                Open only to students with fewer than two years in French at entrance.  Enrollment limited to 20 students per section.  Offered every year.  J. Austin, A. Place

 

FRENCH  103  LOWER INTERMEDIATE FRENCH  For students with one or two years of secondary school French or the equivalent.  Review and progress in grammar.  Listening, speaking, reading and writing.  Laboratory work.

                Enrollment limited to 25 students.  Offered every year.  A. Place

 

FRENCH  113  INTERMEDIATE FRENCH I  Review of pronunciation and grammar; vocabulary building.  Practice in speaking and writing based on selected readings of literary and documentary texts concerning contemporary France.  Laboratory work.

                Prerequisite:  Two or three years of French at entrance and a College Board score of 470 or over, or Course 101, 102 or 103.  Enrollment limited to 15 students.  A. Place, C. Spencer

 

FRENCH  114  INTERMEDIATE FRENCH II  Practice in speaking and writing, with emphasis on the analysis and discussion of texts that explore literary, political and social values of modern France; grammar review; laboratory work.

                Prerequisite:  At least three years of French at entrance and a College Board score of 530 or over, or Course 113.  Enrollment limited to 15 students.  Offered every year.  J. Austin, A. Place

 

FRENCH  203  PENSEZ FRANCAIS I:  THE FRENCH CULTURAL EXPERIENCE  Conversation and composition based on contemporary texts and films about France and Francophone countries.

                Prerequisite:  At least four years of French at entrance and a College Board score of 570 or higher, or Course 114.  Enrollment limited to 15 students.  Offered every year.  C. Spencer

 

FRENCH  204  PENSEZ FRANCAIS II:  THE FRENCH LITERARY EXPERIENCE  Conversation and composition based on contemporary writings.

                Prerequisite:  At least four years of French at entrance and a College Board of 580 or higher, Course 114 or 203.  Enrollment limited to 15 students.  Staff

 

FRENCH  270  ANTHROPOLOGY OF FRANCE  This is the same course as Anthropology 270.  Refer to the Anthropology listing for a course description.

 

FRENCH  310  COLONIALISM, MEMORY OF SLAVERY AND IMMIGRATION IN FRANCE  This is the same course as Anthropology 310.  Refer to the Anthropology listing for a course description.

 

FRENCH  324  WORDS IN TRANSLATION  An initiation to French-English translation, with an emphasis on vocabulary building, syntaxical sequencing, and stylistical devices.  A. Place

 

FRENCH  326  CIVILIZATION THROUGH CONVERSATION  Stresses the improvement of oral skills by exploring various dimensions of contemporary French and Francophone culture.  Newspaper and magazine articles as well as French television programs will be reviewed.  This course will serve as a preparation for study abroad.  Not open to students who have studied in a French-speaking country.

                Prerequisite:  One 300-level course or permission of the department.  Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors.  Enrollment limited to 15 students.  Staff

 

FRENCH  327  INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY AND TEXTUAL ANALYSIS  Selected readings and contemporary French films aimed at developing an understanding of literary and cinematic techniques.

                Enrollment limited to 20 students.  Offered every year.  This course satisfies General Education Area 4.  C. Spencer

 

FRENCH  328  CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN FRANCOPHONIE  African (Maghrebian and West African), Canadian, and Caribbean authors.  Focusing on questions of independence, language allegiance, colonialism, identity, and belonging.

                Prerequisite:  Course 327 or permission of the department.  Enrollment limited to 20 students.  This course satisfies General Education Area 4.  N. Etoke

 

FRENCH  329  FRENCH CINEMA  A study of the major directors and orientations of the French cinema, starting with Lumière and Meliès and including Bunuel, Cocteau, Renoir and “la Nouvelle Vague.”  Special emphasis will be placed on the cinematic styles and techniques, and on their evolution during this period.

                Prerequisite:  Course 327 or permission of the department.  Enrollment limited to 20 students.  Offered every year.  This course satisfies General Education Area 4.  C. Spencer

 

Prerequisite for all 400-level courses except 403, 403T, 405, 406, 409, 409T:  Two 300-level courses, including Course 327.

 

FRENCH  403T  CITIES ON THE SCREEN:  CONSTRUCTING URBAN SPACE IN THE CINEMA  Additional weekly two-hour session, in which texts and movies will be discussed in French.  Students selecting Course 403T must concurrently register for French 403.  Open to students who speak and read French beyond the intermediate level.  Two credit hours.  The TOC section is required for students who wish to count the course toward a major/minor in French.  J. Austin

 

FRENCH  405  THE ART OF SPEAKING  Advanced conversation based on newspapers, magazines and contemporary movies; analysis of different levels of language including “argot.”

                Prerequisite:  One course at the 300 level, or permission of the department.  Enrollment limited to 15 students.  C. Spencer

 

FRENCH  406  THE ART OF WRITING  Advanced composition with an emphasis on style.  Samples for weekly practice of written expression taken from contemporary French newspapers and magazines.  No grammar review.

                Prerequisite:  One course at the 300 level, or permission of the department.  Enrollment limited to 15 students.  C. Spencer

 

FRENCH  409T  HISTORY/STORY:  ON THE GRAND AND THE INTIMATE IN FRENCH CINEMA  Additional weekly two-hour session, in which texts and movies will be discussed in French.  Students selecting Course 409T must concurrently register for French 409.  Open to students who speak and read French beyond the intermediate level.  Two credit hours.  The TOC section is required for students who wish to count the course toward a major/minor in French.  J. Austin

 

FRENCH  412  PERSONALIZING HISTORY:  A STUDY OF COLONIALISM AS REPRESENTED IN CONTEMPORARY FRENCH CINEMA  An examination of the ways in which contemporary French cinema has been refiguring France's colonial past, with emphasis on Indochina and Algeria.  Films include Le petit soldat (J. L. Godard), La bataille d'Alger (G. Pontecorvo), Le crabe tambour (P. Schoendoerffer), La guerre sans nom (B. Tavernier), L'amant (J. J. Annaud), and Indochine (R. Wargnier).

                Enrollment limited to 20 students.  C. Spencer

 

FRENCH  414  NEW WAVE FILM, THEN AND NOW  This course will examine the crucial New Wave movement in French cinema, as it is expressed as a historical moment or “school” and as it is conceived in less temporal terms as an attitude toward making and viewing film.  The Nouvelle Vague’s contribution to filmmaking as writing and as epistemological quest will be explored with reference to earlier filmmakers, and in relation to the parallel Rive Gauche group.  Special emphasis will be placed on contemporary French cinema as inheriting the auteur tradition.  Films by Bresson, Truffaut, Godard, Rohmer, Varda, Marker, Resnais, Beineix, Besson, Asseyas, Pool, Jeunet.

                Enrollment limited to 15 students.  J. Austin

 

FRENCH  419  COMING OF AGE IN NOVEL AND FILM  French novels and films will serve to examine the political, sexual, and familial dynamics of the coming of age narrative, and to shed light on the historical, political, and aesthetic contexts in which those narratives take place.  Special attention will be given to how temporality is represented in visual and textual narratives.

                Enrollment limited to 15 students.  J. Austin

 

FRENCH  422  BLACK BLANC BEUR CINEMA/LITERATURE  Black Blanc Beur/Bleu Blanc Rouge?  An examination of how the ethnic makeup of contemporary French society challenges its republican ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity.  The course employs literature, film, newspapers, and popular musical forms to reflect on issues such as integration, identity, urban violence, race, gender, and class.

                Prerequisite:  Two 300-level courses, including Course 327.  Enrollment limited to 16 students.  N. Etoke

 

FRENCH  424  ESPACES URBAINS:  LA VILLE AU CINEMA  The French city long has been defined in opposition to the countryside, and more recently, to the (dystopian) suburb.  This course will examine the cinematic construction of urban space in France, and in so doing interrogate the role of the urban/suburban dyad in the contemporary French social landscape.  Weekly screenings.

                Enrollment limited to 18 students.  J. Austin

 

FRENCH  493, 494  ADVANCED STUDY SEMINARS

                Prerequisite:  Open to juniors and seniors who have completed two 400‑level French courses or by permission of the department.  Enrollment limited to 15 students.

 

FRENCH  493K, 494K  TROLLOPS AND TRANSVESTITES:  PROSTITUTION AND THE THEATRICS OF TRANSVESTISM IN PREMODERN AND MODERN EUROPE  (FRANCE AND ENGLAND)  A study of the relation between theatre, transvestism and theatre from a literary, historical, social and political point of view.  Texts by A. Behn, Defoe, Marivaux, Zola among others.  Films by Almodóvar, Buñuel, B. Blier and B. Jacquot.  C. Spencer

 

FRENCH  493M, 494M  HEARING VOICES:  STUDY OF VOICE, THEATRICALITY AND PERFORMANCE  The course will explore the changing meanings and perceptions attached to voice in its relationship to contemporary issues such as identity, gender and sexuality.  Literary texts (L’Ecole des femmes by Molière, The Rover by Aphra Behn, Sarrazine by Balzac) and films (Singing in the Rain, The Law of Desire, The Bad Education).  Some incursions in opera, in particular Haendel and the vogue of castrati.  This is the same course as Gender and Women’s Studies 406.  C. Spencer

 

FRENCH  493N, 494N  SEDUCTION  A study of seduction in Ancient Regime literature and today's cinema.  Authors include:  Marivaux, Laclos, Balzac, Barbey d'Aurevilly, Truffaut, Deville and Almodovar.  Emphasis on theatricality, cross-dressing, the narrative contract and the body in performance.  Staff

 

FRENCH  493O, 494O  THE PROSTITUTE AND THE ARTIST  A study of the representation of prostitution in 19th Century French literature and art.  C. Spencer

 

In English

 

FRENCH  403  CITIES ON THE SCREEN:  CONSTRUCTING URBAN SPACE IN THE CINEMA  Focus on urban space as constructed on the screen and the interplay between architecture, sets, cultural memory, and film technologies.  Study of films from the French cinematic tradition and examples from the American, Russian, and European cinemas.  An additional weekly two-hour, two credit TOC session in French, 403T, will be offered to students who speak and read French beyond the intermediate level.  Students selecting Course 403T must concurrently register for French 403.  The TOC section is required for students who wish to count the course toward a major/minor in French.  This is the same course as Film Studies 403.

                Prerequisite:  Film Studies 101 or French 329; or permission of the instructor.  J. Austin

 

FRENCH  409  HISTORY/STORY:  ON THE GRAND AND THE INTIMATE IN FRENCH CINEMA  Two French cinemas have long existed:  one “big” cinema about the tumultuous political, cultural, and literary history of France, and one “small,” personal cinema about a few characters and their lives.  This course will examine what the differences in subject and scale mean for French film and culture.  An additional weekly two-hour, two credit TOC session in French, 409T, will be offered to students who speak and read French beyond the intermediate level.  Students selecting Course 409T must concurrently register for French 409.  The TOC section is required for students who wish to count the course toward a major/minor in French.  Weekly screenings.  This is the same course as Film Studies 409.

                Prerequisite:  Film Studies 101 or French 329; or permission of the instructor.  Enrollment limited to 15 students.  J. Austin

 

FRENCH  491, 492  INDIVIDUAL STUDY

 

FRENCH  497-498  HONORS STUDY