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Department of Modern Languages & Linguistics | Florida State University |
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French | Faculty | Courses | Graduate | Undergraduate | Scholarships | Institute | Events | |
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Undergraduate Program In French
Graduate courses available to advanced undergraduates:
Completes University language requirement for baccalaureate degree.
May not be taken by native speakers. Rapid review of basic French structures
and introduction of some of the finer points of French grammar. May not
be taken concurrently with FRE 1120 and/or 1121. Prerequisite: FRE2200
or equivalent
Through readings about contemporary issues facing French society-such
as the evolving role of women, unemployment, immigration, economic change
in the new Europe and urban renewal-this course aims at developing oral
communication skills in a broad cultural context. Prerequisite FRE 2220,
and 3420 or 3421.
Prerequisite FRE 2200 or its equivalent. An in-depth study of French
grammar emphasizing some subtleties of written expression.
Prerequisite FRE 3420 or its equivalent. Further study of the subtleties
of written expression in the French language.
Develops language and correspondence skills appropriate to business
transactions in such areas as sales, finance, transportation, management,
etc.
Based on contemporary materials, this course is intended to develop
near-native fluency. Prerequisite FRE 3421 or equivalent.
This course spans the two world wars. It concentrates on the institutions
of the Fifth Republic, the evolution of ideas since May 1968, the development
of sciences and technology and the artistic movements since the end of
World War II. It also emphasizes the role of France in the European community.
Prerequisite FRE 3420
This course will address issues of race, gender and class in a selection of works originally written in French by women writers of different historical periods and geographical areas (metropolitan France, French colonies, and territories like the Caribbean). All works will be read in translation. This course satisfies the multicultural requirement (category y), the Liberal Studies credit in humanities and the Gordon rule. Although this course may not be taken for major credit in French Literature, it does count toward the minor in French. Students in this course will be made aware of women writers' place in
the historically masculine institution of literature and will be able to
identify the strategies (recurrent plots, motifs and narrative techniques)
women writers adopt to express their difference.
This course will introduce you to a selection of well-known works of French Literature and their cultural contexts. Most of the readings chosen exemplify the modern appeal of the exotic. From the development of colonialism in the eighteenth-century to colonization in the mid-twentieth-century, modern French writers have explored their encounters with different cultures in their writings. This course will be taught in French. By reading, writing and
participating in French, you will therefore increase your comprehension
and oral proficiency in the language. Although there will be a few
key lectures in this class, most of the time we will discuss the readings
in French. It is essential that you do the assigned readings and
come to class prepared to discuss them.
Love and Friendship in French Literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance French literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance is particularly
important for understanding Western concepts of love and friendship. Texts
from this period are ideal for studying the numerous nuances, differences,
similarities and sometimes tensions that exist between these two feelings.Within
a socio-historical framework, we will study the repertoire of feelings
and values that were associated with these two terms. We will follow the
changes that they underwent throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance,
from the first lyrical poetry of the troubadours to the chapter “On Friendship”
in Montaigne’s essays. In our readings, we will seek answers to such questions
as: What types of love and friendship do these texts present? What is the
relationship between these feelings and the institution of marriage, the
love of God, adultery, etc.? What images of women are presented in the
texts? What can be said about the interaction between the sexes? To what
extent are love and friendship at the foundation of religious and political
communities? In detailed readings, we will focus on the “textualization”
of love and friendship. We will try to identify which literary genres lend
themselves more easily to this theme and how these genres changed throughout
time. How do these texts try to “teach” something to the reader? What can
be said about their rhetoric? Supplementary to the readings, this course
will try to re-establish the cultural framework of the works by means of
musical excerpts, slides and films.
The Romance languages (Catalan, French, Italian, Occitan, Portuguese,
Rhaeto-Romance, Romanian, Sardinian, Sicilian & Spanish) make up one
of the most widely spoken language families in the world. But, how
did they come to exist as we know them today? What linguistic developments
fostered the change from Latin to these “new” languages? Can we still
see their common history in the present forms of all members of the Romance
family?
This course will make use of contemporary critical theory, most notably
American and European feminist writings and cultural approaches pioneered
by Michel Foucault to explore forms of sexual victimization as the appear
in Western fiction.This is not a course in male-bashing, but it does show
some of the ways in which sexual identity affects the way people function
in society. What is proposed is neither a historical nor a sociological
study; it is an analysis of the ways literary works, demonstrate both the
existence and persistence of sexist attitudes in Western societies that
are otherwise all too quick to proclaim themselves enlightened. Among the
themes that will emerge are:
The novels chosen for this course focus to a large degree, upon the
ways individual characters are victimized because they are women, homosexuals,
or people whose sexual preferences do not fall into socially coded erotic
categories.
Below are Graduate
courses available to Advanced Undergraduates
This course introduces major critical theories and their relationship
to the reading of world literatures. The seminar format will enable students
to discuss these theories collectively in class discussion, as well as
individually in an independent project. A general background in theory
and critical thought is an essential component of any graduate student's
preparation for a career in the fields of language and literature today.
Exposure to various methods of analysis not only makes for a more critical
reader but also facilitates the writing of papers, articles, theses, and
dissertations. Readings will introduce you to some of the major twentieth-century
critical theories including Formalism, Structuralism and Post-Structuralism,
Reception and Reader-Response Theories, Deconstruction, theories of Gender,
Cultural studies and New Historicism, and Postcolonial and Postmodern theories.
Designed to present structures of the French language and vocabulary
to prepare graduate students majoring in other disciplines to read learned
journals, books, and monographs written in French useful for the student's
research in humanities, natural or social sciences.
During the first half of the semester, we study the language from a diachronic point of view, i.e., how the language evolves and develops over time. For this part of the course, we will refer to the fourteen chapters of Peter Machonis's book, Histoire de la langue: du latin à l'ancien français. During the second half of the semester, we study the language from a synchronic point of view; i.e., we concentrate on the language at a particular moment of its history, the period of Old French (end 9th century-end 13th century). This is covered in the first 15 chapters of Kibler's book An Introduction to Old French, which also contain translation exercises based upon a lai (a short narrative work) by the twelfth-century writer, Marie de France. Please note: This course will be continued in the Spring 2003 semester as FRW
5756 (Readings in Old French Literature) : Romance and the Book: Gender,
Poetry, and Politics in a Mid-Thirteenth-Century Manuscript Collection,
which students are advised to take in succession. Our own present-day digital
revolution clearly shows that the means of transmission of knowledge has
an enormous effect on the mentality of a culture. The transmission
of the written word, whether in hand-written manuscripts or in the printed
book, had a similar effect on the mentality of earlier ages. "Romance
and the Book" is a seminar directed at students interested in the question
of the transmission of literature in manuscript form in the Middle Ages.
The object of our study will be Chantilly MS 472, a collection of eleven
texts copied and assembled in Flanders around 1270. The manuscript
is currently housed in the library of the beautiful château de Chantilly,
located outside of Paris. Guest lectures will enlarge the scope of
our inquiry. Professor David Johnson of the FSU English Department
will discuss the new image of the French knight Gauvain when he reappears
recast as Walewein in a Middle Dutch collection of texts very similar to
Chantilly MS 472. The two languages of the course will be French
and English. The eleven texts in the manuscript on which we will
concentrate our attention will be available, whenever possible, in Old
French, modern French translation and English translation. Students
and professor will jointly determine whether each student will complete
the class exercises in French or in English. Qualified and well-motivated
undergraduates are welcome to participate in the seminar.
If theater was the most important art form in 17th century France. It
is arguably because the notion of theater was a metaphor for society at
large. So much of 17th century life was predicated on show, on displaying
oneself to the best possible advantage, on wearing the social mask appropriate
to the occasion, and positioning oneself to be the main character in a
drama of one’s own creation. An obvious example of the way this self-conscious
social theatricality displays itself in 17th century drama is the frequent
use of the “play within a play,” wherein characters deliberately turn to
dramatic techniques to resolve dilemmas. The fascination with theater is
also apparent in the carefully “staged” paintings of artists like Poussin,
as well as in architecture. Long before Mickey and Donald got around to
it, French intellectuals had created the first theme park at Versailles.
The role of theater, both on the stage and in relation to society at large,
will be the primary focus of this course.
The readings for this course will be as follows: Montesquieu. Lettres persanes
International migration from former colonies has brought a new cultural vibrancy to France. This course focuses on the hybrid cultural practices being forged in France by new generations of writers, film-makers and musicians mixing elements from African, Caribbean, French, American and other sources. Particular attention is given to artists emerging from among France’s largest post-colonial minority, whose origins lie in the Maghreb, i.e. the North African states of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The course is taught in French, their main language of expression. It explores their participation in a variety of cultural spaces and seeks to identify the extent to which these new voices are being marginalized or incorporated into the mainstream of French culture. Among the works studied are novels, autobiographies and films by writers and directors such as Azouz Begag, Mehdi Charef, Soraya Nini and Malik Chibane. |
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