Mary Jane Cowles

Intensive Introductory French

FREN 111Y

This is a yearlong course offering the equivalent of three semesters of conventional language study. This course includes required practice sessions with an apprentice teacher (AT), which will be scheduled at the beginning of the semester. Class meetings and AT practice sessions are supplemented with online activities and written homework. Work in class focuses primarily on developing listening comprehension and speaking skills while reinforcing vocabulary acquisition and the use of grammatical structures. Written exercises, short compositions and elementary reading materials serve to develop writing and reading skills and promote in-class discussion. This course is intended for students who have had no prior experience with French or who are placed in FREN 111Y–112Y on the basis of a placement exam administered during Orientation. Students enrolled in this course will automatically be added to FREN 112Y for the spring semester. Offered every fall.

Intensive Introductory French

FREN 112Y

This course is a continuation of the first semester of intensive introductory French. During the second semester, students further the study of the fundamentals of French including literary and cultural materials, introduced with a view toward increasing reading comprehension and writing ability, expanding vocabulary, and enhancing cultural awareness. This course includes required practice sessions with an apprentice teacher (AT), which will be scheduled at the beginning of the semester. Prerequisite: FREN 111Y or permission of instructor. Offered every spring.

Intermediate French

FREN 214Y

This course is the continuation of the first semester of intermediate French and includes a comprehensive grammar review and short cultural and literary readings, which will serve as points of departure for class discussion. This course includes required practice sessions with an apprentice teacher (AT), which will be scheduled at the beginning of the semester. Attendance at a weekly French table is strongly encouraged. Prerequisite: FREN 213Y or placement or permission of instructor. Offered every spring.

Advanced Composition and Conversation

FREN 321

This course is designed to provide advanced students with the opportunity to strengthen their abilities to write, read and speak French. The conversation component of the course will focus on the discussion of articles from the current French and Francophone press, films and web sites, with the aim of developing students' fluency in French and their performance of linguistically and culturally appropriate tasks. Through the composition component, students will seek to improve their ability to write clearly and coherently in French. In order to foster these goals, the course also will provide a review of selected advanced grammatical structures and work on literary excerpts. Prerequisite: FREN 213Y–214Y or equivalent. Offered every year.

Approaches to French Literature I

FREN 323

In this course, we will examine representative texts — lyric poems, plays, short stories and novels — from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution. In addition to gaining a greater understanding of French literary history and of related social and philosophical trends, students will develop skills necessary for close reading, explication de texte and oral discussion. We will read complete texts rather than excerpts whenever possible. It is especially recommended for students with little or no previous exposure to French literature. FREN 321 is recommended. Prerequisite: FREN 213Y–214Y or equivalent. Offered every year or alternating with FREN 324.

Approaches to French Literature II

FREN 324

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the study of three major literary genres — poetry, theater, and the novel — from the French Revolution to the 21st century. Readings will include the works of authors such as Hugo, Baudelaire, Lamartine, Balzac, Mallarmé, Colette, Cocteau, Camus and Sartre. Students will gain a deeper understanding of French literary history and of its relationship to major social and philosophical movements. In addition to exploring certain themes, we will see how the literature reflects important societal and intellectual debates of the time. The course will continue the development of the skills of literary analysis, guided discussion and essay writing in French. FREN 321 is recommended. Prerequisite: FREN 213Y–214Y or equivalent. Offered every year or alternating with FREN 323.

Contes et Nouvelles: Exploring French Short Fiction

FREN 325

Many of the best-loved and most original writers in French — Voltaire, Flaubert, Maupassant, Camus, Yourcenar, to name a few — experimented with short forms of fiction while simultaneously cultivating other literary genres. This course will focus on short works of fiction as a means of exploring both the French literary tradition and the parameters of the short-story genre. It will include examples of the folktale, the fairy tale, the philosophical tale, the realist short story, the fantastic tale, the existentialist short story, the fragmentary narrative in the style of the "nouveau roman," and more recent Francophone fiction. Selections from theoretical works, such as Propp's "Morphology of the Folktale" and Todorov's "Introduction à la littérature fantastique," will also help guide our understanding of the genres of short fiction. FREN 321 is recommended. Prerequisite: FREN 213Y–214Y or equivalent. Generally offered every third year.

French Drama Workshop

FREN 337

This course is designed to build on the oral and written skills of students at the advanced level. Students will undertake critical writing, creative writing and performance activities. Coursework also will include attention to pronunciation, with the goal of increasing sensitivity to phonetics, intonation and expressiveness in French. Students will regularly perform improvisations, short scenes they write themselves and scenes from authors such as Molière, Ionesco, and Camus. The largest single component of the course will be the analysis, interpretation and staging of a French play or series of scenes in the original. The course will be conducted in French. FREN 321 is recommended. Prerequisite: FREN 213Y–214Y or equivalent. Generally offered every third year.

Myth and Meaning of the French Revolution

FREN 353

Few events in world history were as cataclysmic as the French Revolution. The purpose of this course is to acquaint students with the basic events of the revolution and to expose them to the conflicting interpretations of those events, particularly as they are portrayed in literature and film. In so doing, the course will explore different authors' visions of history and the creation of a mythology surrounding the Revolution. Discussion of fictional narratives will be enriched by allusions to revolutionary art and music in order to elucidate the role of symbol in political ideology. Readings will include selected essays and excerpts from historical narratives, as well as major works by Beaumarchais, Balzac, Hugo and Anatole France. We also will discuss major feature films by directors Renoir, Wadja, Gance and others. FREN 321 is recommended. Prerequisite: FREN 213Y–214Y or equivalent. Generally offered every third year.

Individual Study

FREN 493

This course offers an opportunity to study on an individual basis an area of special interest — literary, cultural or linguistic — under the regular supervision of a faculty member. It is offered primarily to candidates for honors, to majors and, under special circumstances, to potential majors and minors. Individual study is intended to supplement, not to take the place of, regular courses in the curriculum of each language program. Staff limitations restrict this offering to a very few students. To enroll in an individual study, a student must identify a member of the MLL department willing to direct the project and, in consultation with them, write up a one page proposal for the IS which must be approved by the department chair before the individual study can go forward. The proposal should specify the schedule of reading and/or writing assignments and the schedule of meeting periods. The amount of work in an IS should approximate that required on average in regular courses of corresponding levels. It is suggested that students begin their planning of an IS well in advance, so that they can devise a proposal and seek departmental approval before the registrar's deadline. Typically, an IS will earn the student 0.25 or 0.50 units of credit. At a minimum, the department expects the student to meet with the instructor one hour per week. Because students must enroll for individual studies by the end of the seventh class day of each semester, they should begin discussion of the proposed individual study preferably the semester before, so that there is time to devise the proposal and seek departmental approval before the registrar’s deadline.

ST: Amorous Liaisons

MLL 291