Fall 2017 Course Descriptions

French 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 200 Fantastic Voyage

Prof. Francis

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Tales of voyages to strange lands with strange inhabitants and even stranger customs have been a part of the Western literary tradition from its inception. What connects these tales is that their voyages are not only voyages of discovery, but voyages of self-discovery. By describing the effects these voyages have on the characters who undertake them, and by hinting at comparisons between the lands described in the story and their own society, authors use fantastic voyages as vehicles for incisive commentary on literary, social, political, and scientific issues.

In this course, we will explore the tradition of the fantastic voyage from Homer’s Odyssey, one of the earliest examples of this type of narrative and a model for countless subsequent voyage narratives, to science fiction, which appropriates this narrative for its own ends. We will determine what the common stylistic elements of voyage narratives are, such as the frame narrative, or story-within-a-story, and what purpose they serve in conveying the tale’s messages. We will see how voyagers attempt to understand and interact with the lands and peoples they encounter, and what these attempts tell us about both the voyagers and their newly-discovered counterparts. Finally, we will ask ourselves what real-world issues are commented upon by these narratives, what lessons the narratives have to teach about them, and how they impart these lessons to the reader.

Readings for this course, all of which are in English or English translation, range from classics like the Odyssey and Gulliver’s Travels to predecessors of modern science fiction like Jules Verne and H. G. Wells to seminal works of modern science fiction like Pierre Boulle’s Planet of the Apes, Karel Čapek’s War with the Newts, and Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris. Though this course is primarily dedicated to literature, we will also look at how films like the 1968 adaptation of Planet of the Apes and television shows like Star Trek and Futurama draw upon literary or cinematic models for their own purposes.

This course is meant not only for SF fans who would like to become better acquainted with the precursors and classics of the genre, but for all those who wish to learn how great works of fiction, far from being intended solely for entertainment and escapism, attempt to improve upon the real world through the effect they have on the reader.

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. Degat
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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

Prof. Martin

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In this course we will be exploring the transformations of French society since the Second World War and into the Millennium. From the legacy of decolonization to the multicultural fervor of the 1998 Soccer World Cup, from the May 1968 civil protests to the Republican marches of 2015, we'll be delving into the major historical and cultural movements that have marked the contemporary period. How did France recover from German occupation and cope with further wars in its colonial territories? How did unprecedented rates of urbanization and immigration change the face of the country over the ensuing decades? Who have been the major players on the historical stage? And what are the political, cultural, and socioeconomic challenges facing France at the outset of the 21st century? These are some of the questions that will guide our investigation into the past 70 years of French history, a period as turbulent as it is rich in cultural production, and as complex as it is fascinating.

Throughout the semester we will be especially attentive to images, in every sense of the word: the images of national identity that France projects to the world and to itself, but also pictorial representations of the country, its people and its territory. These images, and the stories they tell, will help us envision the kaleidoscopic portrait of a nation.

The course will be conducted entirely in French.

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 

Prof. Francis

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FREN 231-403

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.

FREN 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 identities, the debate over 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.

FREN 360 French Literature of the 18th Century

Prof. DeJean

Benjamin Franklin Seminar/Fren 360/History 211

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The seminar will be taught in English.  Students who wish to receive French credit will do the reading and the writing in French.

Books have many powers.  All too rarely, however, do they shape public opinion and change history. 

The greatest works of the French 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, the fraternity of man, and above all the necessity of religious tolerance.  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.  And we will end by reading Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography, to consider the ways in which the Enlightenment was present for major figures in this country’s early history.

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. 

FREN 371 Poe's French Legacies

Prof. Goulet

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Edgar Allan Poe was considered a vulgar hack by many of his fellow Americans, but in 19th-century France, he was touted as a misunderstood poetic genius, the original poète maudit.  Through the translations of Charles Baudelaire, who found in Poe a kindred spirit in the “goût de l’infini,” French intellectuals came to know the American writer as a fount of aesthetic wisdom, diabolical sensibility, and mystic mastery.  In this course, we will study Baudelaire’s poetry as well as the many literary and artistic movements in France that were directly inspired by Poe’s uncanny mix of the macabre and the methodical:  Symbolist poetry (Valéry, Mallarmé), the Scientific Fantastic (Maupassant, Villiers de l’Isle-Adam), fin-de-siècle Decadence (Huysmanns, Odilon Redon), Science Fiction (Verne), the detective novel (Gaboriau), and 20th-century Surrealism (Breton, Max Ernst). 

FREN 389 France and the New World: An Ethnographic Detour from the Renaissance to the Present

Prof. Richman

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A New York Times op-ed piece reminded Americans a few years ago that but for a twist of historical fate, we would all be speaking French. It is indeed frequently overlooked that the French were among the earliest explorers and settlers in the New World, possibly pre-dating the arrival of Columbus. More surprising are the great works generated by the shock of contact, when Amerindian peoples compelled the French to examine fundamental assumptions regarding the nature of their religion, social and sexual mores, and the State. The impressive results figure among the most challenging works of Western civilization, since they dare readers to an ethnographic detour into other cultures as the basis for a critical comparison with their own.

Within the geo-political framework of the French presence from Brazil to Canada, our focus will be on exemplars of what Claude Lévi-Strauss has described as anthropological thinking, the tradition emanating from Montaigne in the 16th century and central to the revolutionary ideas of the Enlightenment. Our diverse readings include Jean de Léry’s early account of his sojourn among the Tupis of Brazil as well as a proto-feminist epistolary novel by Graffigny. We also draw on cinematic re-creations of the French experience of cannibalism (How Tasty was my Frenchman) and Jesuit adventures in Canada (Black Robe). Excerpts from Tocqueville’s classic study of democracy in America will be followed by a contemporary Frenchman’s repeat of his 1830 investigation into the American penal system, updated by a visit to the local Eastern State Penitentiary that was considered the premiere prison system of the New World at the time of its construction.

Of interest to students in French studies, international relations, intellectual history, comparative studies, political thought.

Conducted in French.

FREN 550 French Women Writers of the Long 17th Century

Prof. DeJean

French 550/GSWS 550/Comp Lit 549/English

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This course will be taught in English; writing can be done in French or in English.  The course is open to advanced undergraduates with permission from the instructor.

The 17th century was the formative period for modern French literature, the so-called grand siècle that gave the French tradition the greatest number of works still considered classics of French literature.  The age from 1640-1715 was also the greatest moment ever for women’s participation in French intellectual life.  Women writers, for instance, both invented and dominated the production of the most important genre to trace its origins to the 17th century, the modern novel.  The first fairy tale was published by a woman; during the early decades of that genre’s existence, most of its important practitioners were women.  Women published major works in every significant literary form of the age, from tragedy to memoirs.  During no other century in the French tradition did women know anything like this kind of visibility.

All over Europe, from Italy and Spain to German, publishers took note of the success story of French women’s writing and began to translate best-selling works in French with a speed never heard of before – often the same year as their original publication.  And nowhere was this more true than in England, where even Scudéry’s immense novels quickly appeared in English.  Lafayette’s Princesse de Clèves was available in English and was even adapted for the London stage within a year of its first French edition.  As a result, these works by women writers became basic reading all over the European continent.  Novels by Scudéry and Lafayette were actively promoted all through that formative period for modern prose fiction, the 18th century. 

We’ll read a variety of works fictional and non-fictional – from novels and fairy tales, from memoirs to the periodical press.  And because translation into English was so widespread in the 17th century, students will be able to read all the works in English if they choose.

FREN 591 Francophone Postcolonial Studies

Prof. Moudileno

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