GRADUATE COURSES IN FRENCH

Fall 2008

(Course information subject to change)
(Cross-reference with Department Roster)

French 593
Studies in Francophone Literature
Prof. Koffi Anyinefa
(See Timetables for times)

La Révolution haïtienne : Histoire/Historiographie et imaginaire

What do we know about Haiti? Should we believe contemporary media, poverty, political violence and instability, voodoo rituals, etc, seem to be the lot of this Caribbean island. Only rarely do we know of the slave revolution that led to the birth of this nation.

After a short historical overview of the Haitian Revolution, and a query into its relative marginalization in historical discourse, we will focus on some of the sizeable number of literary texts it has inspired (Césaire, Glissant, Carpentier, Hugo, Mérimée, von Kleist).

French 630 / COML 630
Introduction to Medieval French Literature
Prof. K. Brownlee
(See Timetables for times)

Discourse, Authority, and Selfhood in Medieval French Literature

An introduction to Medieval French literature by close readings of key representative works from among hagiography, chanson de geste, romance, lyric, historiography, theater, and “autobiography.” The course will consider the creation and the functioning of these new generic forms in the French vernacular, with particular attention to questions of authority, "truth," and language. Focus will be on the first-person authorial subject, religious and socio-political contexts, and representations of gender. Texts to be studied include La Vie de Saint Alexis, La Chanson de Roland, Chrétien de Troyes's Lancelot, Christine de Pizan's Cité des Dames, and René d’Anjou’s Livre du Cœur d’Amour épris.

French 660
What Was the Enlightenment?
Prof. DeJean
(See Timetables for times)

We will read a number of the most influential texts of the Enlightenment, works that can be said to have shaped the social and political consciousness that we think of as characteristic of the age – works such as Rousseau’s Emile and his Confessions and the meditations on freedom of religious expression that Voltaire contributed to “affaires” such as the Affaire Calas. We will try to understand the structure of what may well be the most emblematic work of the Enlightenment: the Encyclopédie edited by Diderot and d’Alembert. We will ask why the novel played such an important role in the dissemination of Enlightenment ideas. To this end, we will read certain of the best-known 18 th-century novels, for example, Montesquieu’s Lettres persanes , Voltaire’s Candide, and Graffigny’s Lettres d’une Péruvienne. All our discussions will be guided by a central question: What was the bond between the Enlightenment and censorship?

French 680
Studies in the 20th Century
Prof. Prince
(See Timetables for times)

A study of the poetics of the French novel from the "Nouveau Roman" to the "Nouvelle Ecole de Minuit" and other manifestations of postmodern and contemporary fiction.