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 one-semester language course for students who have not studied French, but who have met the language requirement in another foreign language. This course will provide a 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 the more difficult material 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 that will expose you to a rich input of spoken French and lead you from structured practice to free expression. You will have frequent opportunities to practice your newly acquired vocabulary and grammatical structures in small group and pair work that simulate real-life situations, so please prepare each day’s lesson attentively. See “Preparation for each class” below for additional details. The course will introduce you to French and Francophone culture through authentic materials including written documents, simple articles, songs, films, videos, and conversations between native speakers. Homework will consist of aural comprehension exercises in the online SAM as well as regular writing practice. The course will also invite you to explore the Francophone world by completing an engaging, interactive project in the final stage of the semester.
By the end of this course, you should be able to meet a variety of day-to-day needs in a French-speaking setting and to handle a range of basic travel transactions. You will be able to engage in simple conversations on familiar topics such as family, lodging, daily routines, leisure activities, etc. You will begin to be able to speak and write in the past, present, and the future, make comparisons, and describe people and things in increasing detail. You will develop reading skills that should allow you to get the gist of simple articles and you will more readily discern information when you hear native speakers talking in a simple fashion about topics familiar to you.
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 studied French before but who can benefit from a complete review of elementary French. 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 more difficult material 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 that 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 that simulate real-life situations, so please prepare each day’s lesson attentively. See “Preparation for each class” below for additional details. The course will introduce you to French and Francophone culture through authentic materials including written documents, simple articles, songs, films, videos, and conversations between native speakers. Out-of-class homework will consist of aural comprehension exercises in the online SAM as well as regular writing practice. The course will also invite you to explore the Francophone world by completing an engaging, interactive project in the final stage of the semester.
By the end of this course, you should be able to meet a variety of day-to-day needs in a French-speaking setting and to handle a range of basic travel transactions. You will be able to engage in simple conversations on familiar topics such as family, lodging, daily routines, leisure activities, etc. You will begin to be able to speak and write in the past, present, and the future, make comparisons, and describe people and things in increasing detail. You will develop reading skills that should allow you to get the gist of simple articles and you will more readily discern information when you hear native speakers talking in a simple fashion about topics familiar to you. French 130 Intermediate French I
French 130 Intermediate French I
Staff
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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.
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 Advanced French Composition and Conversation: Contemporary French Society Through Its Media
Prof. Philippon-Daniel
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This course is intended to improve communicative skills through extensive practice in a variety of styles and forms. It aims toenhance student understanding of contemporary French culture, thought and modes of expression by promoting both cross-cultural understanding and critical thinking and developing students’ communicative abilities (in the presentational, interpretive, and interpersonal modes).The specific language functions we will focus on are: narration; description; offering and soliciting advice and opinions; expressing feelings; critique and analysis; argumentation.It is organized around the themes of current events, 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). The oral work will include video blogs and group presentations on selected topics and current events. Written practice will comprise reflective journals, essays and collaborative work on Web projects. On completing this course, student will feel more confident and be able to speak and write effectively on a range of contemporary issues.
(Recommended for students who are planning to study abroad in France).
French 217 French Phonetics
Prof. Edelstein
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French 225-301
History, Memory and Writing: France During the German Occupation and its Non-Places of Memory
Prof. Peron
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This course explores the history of the dark years of the French collaboration with Nazi Germany during WWII. In the first part, it examines the rise of the myths of an “eternal France” and the “true French” promoted by Maréchal Pétain’s National Revolution, as well as the myth of the resistance fighters that arose after the Liberation. The Holocaust and the holes left in national memory will hold a pivotal place in our reading of the national narrative. The second part of the course is dedicated to the study of literary works written by post-memory writers or survivors of the Holocaust who tried to fill in the blanks and confronted the linguistic challenge posed by Auschwitz. Paris will play a connecting role, as both witness to history and as tangible trace of the forgotten. This study of French history, its silences and (non-) memory will shed light on the legacy of the Occupation for contemporary France.
Assessment consists of a semester-long creative writing project and a final oral exam.
Reading assignments include works by Pierre Assouline, Marcel Cohen, Georges Didi-Huberman, David Foenkinos, Sarah Kofman, Marceline Loridan-Ivens, Patrick Modiano, Georges Perec.
French 226 French History & Culture Until 1789
Prof. Peron
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History & Tradition Sector. Prerequisite(s): Two advanced courses beyond French 202 taken at Penn or equivalent. Required for majors in French.
This civilization course presents the fabric | fabrication 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. As the course tells the story of the rise and fall of the French monarchy, one is encouraged to envision it as a palimpsest and to become aware of the roles played by myths and legends. It helps see how French history has been manipulated by the collective memory, how retrospection often redefines, fabricates events and people depending on the needs of the moment.
The course is taught in French.
FREN 228 Contemporary France
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This course focuses on the major cultural and political events that have transformed French society from 1945 to the first decades of the new millennium. Using a wide range of print, visual, and online media, this class allows students to examine and research contemporary France by way of the main issues, movements and debates that have marked the last decades. Among these are: France’s postwar International relations; Memory and national identity; Migration, immigration and multiculturalism; Religion and/in the Republic; Civil society; Intellectual movements and cultural productions.
FREN 230-401 Masterpieces of French Cinema
Prof. Met
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Cross listed with: CINE 245
The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to the history and scope of French cinema all the way to the present time through the analysis of key works of the French film canon.
Particular attention will be paid to successive period styles (“le réalisme poétique”, “la qualité française”, “la nouvelle vague”, “le film de banlieue”, etc.) as well as various genres (war, drama, comedy, crime, etc.) and the notion of auteurism. A variety of critical lenses will be used (psychoanalysis, socio-historical and cultural context, politics, esthetics, gender…) to better understand the specificities and complexities of these films.
This course will help you enhance your analytical skills through the in-depth study of key scenes. You will learn to identify the formal techniques specific to the film medium and inscribe their relevance within both a historical and theoretical context.
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 taught in English.
FREN 231-401 Perspectives in French Literature
Prof. Goulet
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The basic course in literature provides an overview of French literature and acquaints students with major literary trends through the study of representative works from each period. Students are expected to take an active part in class discussion in French. French 231 has as its theme the peresentation of love and passion in French literature.
FREN 231-402 Perspectives in French Literature (Love)
Prof. Francis
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We tend to think of love when we think of France, as in the iconic 1950 photograph of the “baiser de l’Hôtel de Ville.” But when we look at how love and its corollary, friendship, are represented in French and Francophone literature, we realize that we cannot take these concepts as givens. Is love compatible with social responsibilities like marriage? How do people form ideas of perfect love, marriage, or friendship, and to what extent are their ideas shaped by stories, myths, and books? Why do poets write about love, and how do their motivations change or stay the same from the pre-modern to the modern era? What do love and sexual attraction tell us about attitudes toward religion and race? What is the difference between love and friendship, and which is stronger?
This course will answer these questions by examining a range of genres and authors, both male and female, from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. We will see how ideas of love, marriage, and friendship evolve over time, and we will study the literary and rhetorical strategies used to communicate them in the works we study. Students will acquire the critical tools to analyze, discuss, and write about literary texts and films while perfecting their oral and written expression in French.
Authors studied include Marie de France, Marguerite de Navarre, Pierre de Ronsard, Louise Labé, Michel de Montaigne, Molière, Denis Diderot, Charles Baudelaire, and Gustave Flaubert. We will also watch and discuss René Clair’s Sous les toits de Paris.
FREN 231-403
Prof. Dougherty
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Ce cours portera sur les représentations diverses de l’amour, de la passion et de l’érotisme dans la littérature française et francophone du Moyen Age au 21e siècle. Est-ce que la représentation de ces phénomènes faite par des écrivains diffère de celle des écrivaines ? Quels changements pouvons-nous discerner à travers les âges ? Nous étudierons plusieurs formes d’amour, y compris : l’amour inassouvi ; l’amour idéalisé ; l’amour tragique ; l’amour illicite, et bien sûr, le coup de foudre ! Nous examinerons aussi la transformation de l’amour et de la passion en jalousie, en obsession et en haine.
Ce cours vous familiarisera avec certains auteurs principaux et les mouvements littéraires français et francophones en vous aidant à acquérir les concepts et la terminologie nécessaires à la communication de vos idées sur la littérature ; à apprendre différentes approches d’interprétation d’un texte littéraire ; à comprendre ce que le lecteur apporte au texte et comment le sens en est généré ; et à développer votre compréhension orale et votre capacité d’écrire en français.
FREN 231-404
Prof. Prince
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This course is designed to provide students with a knowledge of major aspects of the French literary tradition from the Middle Ages to the present and, at the same time, to unify a broad variety of works under the rubric of textual eroticism and romance. Texts will include prose narratives (Tristan et Iseut, Manon Lescaurt, L’Amant), plays (Phedre, On ne badine pas avec l’amour), and poetry (by Ronsard, Hugo, Baudelaire, Apollinaire). All readings and class discussion in French.
French 301-401 Women, Film, and Society in France since 1944
Prof. Richman
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The overall impetus for this course is to explore the history and diversity of women in postwar France. It draws primarily, if not exclusively, on innovative works by or about women in philosophy, literature, and film. Often deemed scandalous at the time of their appearance, they have since acquired the status of classics and garnered a world-wide following. Whether Simone de Beauvoir’s Second Sex or Agnès Varda’s film, “Vagabond”, Dominique Aury’s Story of O or Françoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse, Godard’s “Masculin /Feminin” and “2 or 3 things I know about her,” Kechiche’s Blue is the warmest color, or Ozon’s Young and Beautiful, these works offer nuanced vehicles to explore the inner life of women in the new world of modernized France. The material and social transformations of French society during the “Trente Glorieuses” and the economic crises since 1974 will be charted, with special emphasis on controversial turning points such as legalized contraception, abortion, civil, and same-sex marriage.
CONDUCTED ENTIRELY IN FRENCH. Recommended: at least two 200-level courses or more. Requirements: To read, write and comment on course material.
French 310 France and the Far East
Prof. Zhuo
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This course explores the symbolic or phantasmatic construction of the “Other” in Franco-Asian literature of the twentieth-century. The first part of the course focuses on representations of the Far East (mainly China, Vietnam and Japan) in novels and proses written by “classic” French authors; the second part reverses this perspective and looks at the representations of France in novels and films of Asian Francophone writers. We will examine themes such as the Romantic “Orient,” exoticism, spiritual and aesthetic quest, colonization, political and avant-garde fantasy, and immigration, as well as feelings of inner exile and strangeness.
The course is a 300-level one, so it will be instructed in French, with readings and assignments in French.
French 313 French for Professions II
Prof. Ciesco
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French 322 France & 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 learning about the Community’s institutions, common programs and market, we will consider a wide variety of themes important to Europe: economics, 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. Considering the acute and ongoing challenges facing the European community, we will focus on current events and discuss issues that are critical to the EU in general and to France in particular. Students will be responsible for pursuing substantive research on these and other topics and participating actively in debates. 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 360 The Enlightenment
Benjamin Franklin Seminar
Prof. DeJean
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Books have many powers. All too rarely, however, do they shape public opinion and change history.
The greatest works of the Enlightenment are perhaps the most striking exception ever to this rule. Our seminar will attempt to understand what the Enlightenment was and how it made its impact. We will read above all the works of the three individuals who, more than anyone else, defined the age of Enlightenment: Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau. We will see, for example, how Voltaire used his works to teach Europeans to believe in such concepts as brotherhood and the fraternity of man. We will retrace Rousseau’s invention of autobiography and his redefinition of education. And we will explore the construction of perhaps the most characteristic of all Enlightenment masterpieces, the Encyclopédie edited by Diderot and d’Alembert.
We will pay particular attention to the risks each of these authors ran in making such controversial works public: they were constantly threatened by censorship from both church and state; Voltaire was exiled; Diderot was sent to prison. The seminar will meet on the 6th floor of Van Pelt Library so that we can have access during our meetings to the original editions of many Enlightenment classics. We will thus be able to discuss both ways in which these works were shaped by the fear of censorship and techniques devised by their authors to elude censorship.
We will also consider topics such as what the Enlightenment meant for women and the Enlightenment’s global influence in the 18th century, particularly on the founding fathers of this country. We will thus read works by the greatest women authors of the age, as well as the most read author in the colonies, Montesquieu.
The seminar will be taught in English. Students who wish to receive French credit will do the reading in French.
French 370-301 Crime and Punishment: Hugo's Les Misérables in Context
Prof. Goulet
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Long before the revolutionary ardor of Marius and the innocent longing of Cosette graced Broadway stages and Hollywood screens, the characters of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables (1862) tugged at the heartstrings of readers all over the world. Through this blockbuster novel, Hugo combined his Romantic aesthetics with political critique by exposing the ways in which French society oppressed its downtrodden members, the “misérables” of the title; he also called for a recognition that a noble spirit could inhabit unlikely figures like the prostitute and the ex-convict. In this class, we will read Les Misérables in its entirety, along with a few related texts on crime and punishment. We will ask questions such as these: how can literature contribute to debates about penal reform and the death penalty? What is divine justice? How does crime connect (or not) to political, collective forms of violence? How can we map the urban topographies of hygiene and violence in post-Revolutionary Paris? How does Hugo’s novel relate to the sordid faits divers, gazette entries, and criminal memoirs whose lurid illustrations and sensationalism fascinated the nation’s “respectable” citizens? Students will also be given the opportunity for guided original research on criminality and the popular press of 19th-century France, using online resources and the holdings of Penn's Rare Books and Manuscript library.
French 537 Marriage and the Novel
Prof. DeJean
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Historians have argued that early novels helped shape public opinion on many controversial issues. And no subject was more often presented in novels as a matter of controversy than marriage. In the course of the 18th and the 19th centuries, at a time when all across Europe 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 begin the course by discussing the novel often referred to as the first modern novel, The Princess of Clèves. The Princess of 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.
Whenever possible we will put the debates staged in these novels in dialogue with the debates about the institution of marriage taking place at the same moment in actual law courts and legal treatises. Thus, in conjunction with our reading of The Princess of Clèves we will discuss the issue central to all legal considerations of marriage in France between 1670 and the mid-18th century, the struggle between church and state for control over the institution.
On several occasions, we will also juxtapose novels and archival evidence: we will compare, for example, actual 18th-century cases of domestic violence and the treatment of this issue in a contemporary novel.
Each week, we will discuss the changing definitions of the word “marriage” in various European languages, in order to measure the ways in which linguistic usage and therefore public perception of the institution were evolving.
Juxtaposing various types of historical evidence and contemporary novels will never make it possible to decide whether fiction influenced history or mirrored it. But it will allow us to gain a sense of the problems related to marriage that became collective societal obsessions at various moments -- from the menace of divorce to the threat of the adulterous woman.
All readings will be in English.
Open to advanced undergraduates with the permission of the instructor.