TERM I

FREN 25 - Le siècle des lumières
 An introduction to 18th-century French literature, focusing on the critical spirit of authors such as Diderot, Graffigny, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Charrières; the objects—morals, social institutions, literary genres—and modes of their critique; and their idealized alternatives, which helped to lay the foundations for Romantic thought.

FREN 39C - Négritude, Antillanité et Créolité
 A study of the concept of Negritude, Caribbeaness and Creoleness in the works of writers from Africa and the Caribbean.  Course examines the writers’ challenge of the concept of a global black identity posited by the proponents of the Negritude school and their articulation of plural and locational black identities in the postcolonial era.  Readings from authors such as Léopold Sedar Senghor, Aimé Césaire, Camara Laye, Maryse Condé,
Edouard Glissant, Patrick Chamoiseau, and Raphael Confiant.

FREN 22 - Cours de Civilisation: la France et la Francophonie
 A study of cultural, social, political, and economic developments in France and the Francophone world from the French Revolution to the present.  Insights into the ways in which France has influenced and continues to influence Francophone cultures worldwide and how they in turn tend to shape French society in various domains.  Readings are complemented by selected films.

FREN 38H - L’autobiographie
 An exploration of French autobiographical writings spanning the Renaissance and contemporary times.  Selected works from such authors as Montaigne, Sévigné, Rousseau, Cardinal, Barthes, and Kofman.  Discussion of some of autobiography;s defining issues including misrepresentation, constructions of identity, and mortality.

FREN 32 - Le roman québecois
 An introduction to the 20th-century Québecois novel, with readings from the works of representative novelists such as Gabrielle Roy, Gerald Bessette, Marie-Claire Blais, Claude Jasmin, Rejean Ducharme, Louky Bersianik, and Yves Beauchemin.  Course examines the writers’ depiction of French-speaking Canadian society and their treatment of political, feminist, and literary themes.

FREN 38F - Le théâtre français du 20eme siècle
 A survey of modern and post-modern French plays that examines their role in French culture.  From the importance of Catholicism in Claudel to the celebration of "perverse" sexuality in Genet, from the theater of cruelty to the theater of the absurd, these plays challenge notions of French cultural identity during the 20th century.  Other playwrights include Giraudoux, Sartre, Beckett, Ionesco, and Duras