French and Francophone StudiesFrench 110
Elementary French I
Staff
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French 110 is the first semester of the elementary level sequence designed to develop functional proficiency in the four skills and gain familiarity with French and Francophone culture. The primary emphasis is on the development of the oral-aural skills, speaking and listening. Readings on topics in French culture as well as frequent writing practice are also included in the course.
As in other French courses, class will be conducted entirely in French. You will be guided through a variety of communicative activities in class which will expose you to a rich input of spoken French and lead you from structured practice to free expression. You will be given frequent opportunity to practice your newly acquired vocabulary and grammatical structures in small group and pair work which simulate real-life situations. The course will introduce you to French and Francophone culture through authentic materials including written documents, simple articles, songs, films, videos, and taped conversations between native speakers. Out-of-class homework will require practice with CDs as well as regular writing practice. The course will also invite you to explore the Francophone world on the Internet.
French 112
Elementary French: Accelerated
Staff
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French 112 is an intensive elementary language course covering the equivalent of French 110 and 120 in one semester. Students must have departmental permit to register. The course is normally open only to students who have no previous knowledge of French, and who have already fulfilled the language requirement in another language.
French 120 Elementary French II
Staff
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French 120 is the second semester continuation of the elementary level sequence designed to develop functional proficiency in the four skills and gain familiarity with French and Francophone culture. The primary emphasis is on the development of the oral-aural skills, speaking and listening. Readings on topics in French culture as well as frequent writing practice are also included in the course.
As in other French courses, class will be conducted entirely in French. You will be guided through a variety of communicative activities in class which will expose you to rich input of spoken French and lead you from structured practice to free expression. You will be given frequent opportunity to practice your newly acquired vocabulary and grammatical structures in small group and pair work which simulate real-life situations. The course will introduce you to French and Francophone culture through authentic materials including written documents, simple articles, songs, films, videos, and taped conversations between native speakers. Out-of-class homework will require practice with CDs as well as regular writing practice. The course will also invite you to explore the Francophone world on the Internet.
French 121
Elementary French
Staff
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French 121 is an intensive one-semester language course for students who have had some French before but who can benefit from a complete review of elementary French. Students with an SATII score between 380 - 440 or a placement score between 18 - 29 should enroll in French 121. This course will provide a re-introduction of the basic structures of French with intensive work on speaking and listening designed to prepare students to take Intermediate French. Due to the nature of the course, the first half will progress rapidly with much more difficult material being presented after the midterm period.
As in other French courses, class will be conducted entirely in French. You will be guided through a variety of communicative activities in class which will expose you to rich input of spoken French and lead you from structured practice to free expression. You will be given frequent opportunity to practice your newly acquired vocabulary and grammatical structures in small group and pair work activities which simulate real-life situations. The course will introduce you to French and Francophone culture through authentic materials including written documents, simple articles, songs, films, videos, and taped conversations between native speakers. Out-of-class homework will require frequent practice with audio and video material, and will include daily written assignments. The course will also invite you to explore the Francophone world on the Internet.
French 130
Intermediate French I
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French 130 is the first half of a two-semester intermediate sequence designed to help you attain a level of proficiency that should allow you to function comfortably in a French-speaking environment. You are expected to have already learned the most basic grammatical structures in elementary French and you will review these on your own in the course workbook. This course will build on your existing skills in French, increase your confidence and ability to read, write, speak, and understand French, and introduce you to more refined lexical items, more complex grammatical structures, and more challenging cultural material.
As in other French courses at Penn, class will be conducted entirely in French. In addition to structured oral practice, work in class will include frequent communicative activities such as role-plays, problem-solving tasks, discussions, and debates, often carried out in pairs or small groups. Through the study of authentic materials such as articles, poems, songs, films, videos, you will deepen your knowledge of the French-speaking world. Daily homework will require listening practice with audio and video material, in addition to regular written exercises in the workbook and frequent composition practice.
Students having completed French 120, or with an SATII score of 450 - 540 or a placement score between 30 and 35 should enroll in this course.
French 140
Intermediate French II
Staff
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French 140 is the second half of a two-semester intermediate sequence designed to help you attain a level of proficiency that should allow you to function comfortably in a French-speaking environment. You are expected to have already learned the most basic grammatical structures in elementary French and will review these on your own in the course workbook. This course will build on your existing skills in French, increase your confidence and ability to read, write, speak, and understand French, and introduce you to more refined lexical items, more complex grammatical structures, and more challenging cultural material.
This course focuses on the culture of French-speaking countries beyond the borders of France. Along with your classmates, you will explore the cities of Dakar, Fort-de-France and Marrakesh, investigating the diversity of the francophone world through film, literature and music. As in other French courses at Penn, class is conducted entirely in French. In addition to structured oral practice, work in class will include frequent communicative activities such as problem-solving tasks, discussions, and debates, often carried out in pairs or small groups. Daily homework will require researching in the library and on the Internet, listening practice with video-clips, in addition to regular written exercises in the workbook.
French 180
Advanced French in Residence
Staff
Open only to residents in La Maison Francaise
French 202
Advanced French
Staff
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French 202 is a one-semester third-year level French course. It is designed to prepare students for subsequent study in upper level courses in French and francophone literature, linguistics, civilization, cinema, etc. It is required for students who have completed 140 and recommended for those with an equivalent level, wishing to continue in more advanced French courses or preparing for study abroad. Exceptions can be made with permission of undergraduate chair.
It is also the appropriate course for those students who have time for only one more French course and wish to solidify their knowledge of the language by continuing to work on all four skills - speaking, listening, reading and writing. Students’ work will be evaluated both in terms of progress in language skills and of ability to handle and engage in the content areas.
This course does not include a systematic review of French grammar (that is done in French 212). Nevertheless, through the diverse writing assessments (e.g. creative writing; essays), the various textual and visual references (e.g. novels; articles; films; clips), the communicative approach, the students will play an active role in their learning process and consequently will be led to consolidate and deepen their grammatical competence.
The class studies two thematic units dealing with a wide variety of magazine articles, literary texts, historical documents, movies, songs, etc. In the first dossier, students get a chance to expand their knowledge of French history, with one major focus on World War II and the German occupation of France. In the second dossier, students study contemporary France focusing on issues such as the modern family, education, pop culture. While touching upon issues of identity in France, the class engages the students into an intercultural dialogue which enables them to be more aware of the differences and similarities between the two countries.
French 211
French for Professions I
Prof. Ciesco
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This content-based language course, taught in French, introduces economic, business, and professional terminology through the study of the following topics: financial institutions (banking, stock market and insurance); business practices (business letters and resumes); trade and advertising; the internal structure and legal forms of French companies.
The course also emphasizes verbal communication through three components:
- In-class activities such as problem-solving tasks, discussions and debates.
- The study of authentic materials such as newspapers and magazines’ articles, video clips, and radio shows.
- A series of students’ presentations.
Finally, in order to use and practice the new economic and business terminology studied in this course, and to also further explore the structure, the management, and the operations of the French companies, students will work in pairs on a research project about a major French company of their choice.
One of the other goals of this course is to also prepare the students to take one of the exams offered by the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry: the Diplôme de Français Professionnel, Affaires, C1. This exam will be held on campus in April.
Prerequisite: FREN 202 highly recommended. No business background necessary.
French 212
Advanced French Grammar & Composition
Staff
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Intensive review of grammar integrated into writing practice. A good knowledge of basic French grammar is a prerequisite (French 202 or equivalent is recommended). Conducted entirely in French, the course will study selected grammatical difficulties of the French verbal and nominal systems including colloquial usage. Frequent oral and written assignments with opportunity for rewrites.
Articles from French newspapers and magazines, literary excerpts, and a novel or short stories will be used as supplementary materials in order to prepare students to take content courses in French in disciplines other than French.
French 214
Prof. Philippon-Daniel
Advanced French Composition and Conversation
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Entitled Contemporary French society through its media, this course is intended to improve speaking and writing skills by offering extensive practice in a variety of styles and forms. It will also help students better understand contemporary French culture, thought and modes of expression. The content is organized around current events and the themes of identity and art. Activities include the study, analysis and emulation of model texts as well as discussion and debates about events and social issues as covered by the French news media (television, print, internet sources). Students will practice oral skills in a variety of ways, including video blogs and group presentations on selected current events. Written practice will comprise reflective journals, essays and collaborative work on Web projects.
The goal of this course is to help students attain the Advanced level of proficiency in speaking and writing (by ACTFL standards). The specific language functions we will work on are narration, description, offering and soliciting advice and opinions, expressing feelings, critique and analysis, argumentation.
(Recommended for students who are planning to study abroad in France)
French 217
French Phonetics
Prof. Edelstein
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French 221-401
Love in France from the Middle Ages to the Present
Prof. Richman
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Representations of love, passion and desire furnish the reading matter for this course. Our goal is to trace a tradition from which contemporary culture continues to draw inspiration, as evidenced in recent songs and films also included in our panorama. Guiding our historical overview is the long-standing association between France and love. Did the French invent love---its conventions and language? What were the historical, social and cultural factors contributing to such a connection? Does it still exist today? Also included are comparisons with theoretical speculations, from Plato, Hegel, Freud and Lacan.
Texts include excerpts from Tristan et Iseut and from correspondence of Héloïse et Abélard, Phèdre, Le Jeu de l’amour et du hasard, Une passion dans le desert, l’Amant, some poems, clips from recent films.
Requirement: successful completion of either 212 or 214 or an AP equivalent.
French 221-402
Forbidden love
Prof. Moudileno
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Great love stories often gather their narrative and tragic energy from their illicit nature. Just as transgression is a prime erotic mover, forbidden passion has been an endless source of literary inspiration throughout the centuries and across genres. French literature is no exception. Rather the contrary. From Tristan et Iseult to Racine's Phèdre to Marguerite Duras's L'Amant, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's Paul et Virginie and Flaubert's Madame Bovary, the French canon teems with characters who embark on passionate affairs despite--or because of--cultural barriers of every possible type.
This course will critically assess the scope of these transgressions in a variety of contexts: within feudal society, among the aristocracy, in provincial bourgeoisie, or during the colonial period. Using fiction, poems, and plays from the Middle Ages to the Twenty-first century, the course will examine the particular codes and transgressions at play in each socio-cultural context, while trying to explain why these famous stories of love and passion retain a timeless hold on us.
French 221-403
Perspectives in French Literature
Prof. Francis
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French 226
French Civilization from Beginning to 1789
Prof. Peron
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Entitled La Fabrique de l’Histoire, this course anlyzes the construction of the so-called national memory through its places of memory (lieux de mémoire) , as well as its places of non-memory (lieux de non-mémoire), going from the Gauls to the Enlightenment.
Prerequisites : at least two 200-level courses beyond 202
The course is entirely conducted in French.
French 230
Masterpieces of French Cinema
Prof. Met
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Cross listed with: CINE 245
This course will introduce students to key films of the French film canon, selected over a period ranging from the origins of French cinema to the present. Students will also be introduced to the key critical concepts (such as the notion of the "auteur" film genre) informing the discussion of films in France. The films will be studied in both a historical and theoretical context, related to their period styles (e.g. "le realisme poetique," "la Nouvelle Vague," etc.), their "auteurs," the nature of the French star system, the role of the other arts, as well to the critical debates they have sparked among critics and historians. Students will acquire the analytical tools in French to discuss films as artistic and as cultural texts.
The lecture is conducted in English; students seeking French credit should register for the FREN 230-401 lecture and FREN 230-402 recitation; the latter is conducted in French. The CINE lecture (CINE 245-401) and recitation (CINE 245-403) are conducted in English.
French 250
Marriage and the Novel
Prof. Dejean
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Cross listed with: ENGL 260, COML 272, HIST 251
Historians have argued that early novels helped shape public opinion on many controversial issues. And no subject was more often featured in novels than marriage. In the course of the 18th and the 19th centuries, at a time when marriage as an institution was being radically redefined, almost all the best known novels explored happy as well as unhappy unions, individuals who decided not to marry as well as those whose lives were destroyed by the institution. They showcased marriage in other words in ways certain to provoke debate. We will both survey the development of the modern novel from the late 17th to the early 20th century and study the treatment of marriage in some of the greatest novels of all time.
We will begin with novels from the French and English traditions, the national literatures in which the genre first took shape, in particular Laclos’ Dangerous Liaisons, Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. We will then turn to works from other European traditions such as Goethe’s Elective Affinities and Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.
We will begin the course by discussing the novel often referred to as the first modern novel, The Princess de Clèves. The Princess de Clèves was also the first novel centered on an exploration of questions central to the debate about marriage for over two centuries – everything from the question of whether one should marry for love or for social position to the question of adultery.
French 301
Topics in French Cultural History and Film: “Women and Society 1944-2014”
Prof. Richman
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The primary goal for this advanced French course is to survey the dramatic transformations in French society since 1944. Its approach to the assessment of seventy years of frequently turbulent social, economic, and political history is to focus on the role and place of women. The specificity as well as diversity of la condition féminine will be considered according to a corpus that frequently shocked the French cultural and political establishment. Writers range from Simone de Beauvoir, Françoise Sagan, Pauline Réage, Georges Perec to Lolita Pille. Films anchor the course by beginning with Abdellatif Kechiche’s critically acclaimed 2013, “La vie d’Adèle, chapitres 1 et 2,” a graphic representation of an impassioned, if failed, love story between two women, that bears comparison with Jean-Luc Godard’s female allegorical figures of post-war consumer society. Agnès Varda’s 1985 milestone, “Sans Toit ni Loi” furnishes a daring panorama of French society, just as Gohra-Volta’s “Jeunesse Dorée” [2001] shows us a France frequently ignored by mainstream media. We conclude with François Ozon’s “Young and Beautiful” [2013] for our overview of the innovative texts and films that provide insight into the forces shaping France to make it a complex and frequently contradictory place for men and women today.
Requirements: at least two 200-level courses. View six films outside of class. Short papers and one exam.
French 322
France and the European Union
Prof. Philippon-Daniel
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This course aims to provide an understanding of the European Union as a complex entity: its history, institutions, challenges and future. After reviewing the history of European integration and describing the Community’s institutions, common programs and market, we will consider a wide variety of themes important to Europe: economics, business, science, education, immigration, the environment, social issues, national and European identity, a Federal Europe vs a Europe of nations, European social/cultural models vs American liberalism, relations between the EU and the rest of the world. Students will be responsible for pursuing substantive research on these and other topics and participating actively in debates. We will also follow and discuss current events that are pertinent to the EU in general and to France in particular.
This class will be conducted entirely in French and is designed to improve cross-cultural understanding and communicative skills in the presentational, interpretive, and interpersonal modes.
French 390
Postcolonial France
Prof. Moudileno
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As one of the major colonial powers of modern times, France has a long history of political, economic and socio-cultural domination over vast regions of the world. One of the consequences of the French imperial experience has been what scholars call “the colonial fracture,” that is, the profound transformation not only of colonized regions, but also of French society and culture. In this context, how does the Republic,with its set of ideals and corresponding legal structures, deal with this “fracture” ? How does civil society represent or deal with the reality of a postcolonial France?
This course is designed to provide an introduction to, or better understanding of, some of the most passionate debates on assimilation, difference and multiculturalism which have emerged in France in recent years.
Readings and class discussion in French.