FRENCH (FREN)

Basic Language Courses

SM 110. Elementary French I. (C) For students who have never studied French or who have had very little exposure to the language. Most students with previous French should be in French 121 (elementary French for "false beginners"). All students who have already studied French elsewhere are required to take the placement test. Class work emphasizes the development of speaking and listening comprehension, reinforced by work in reading and writing. Course includes an introduction to French and Francophone culture. Out-of-class homework requires work with workbook, audio materials, in addition to frequent writing practice.

SM 112. Accelerated Elementary French. (A) An intensive two-credit course covering the first and second semester of the elementary year. See descriptions of French 110 and 120. Students must have departmental permit to register.

SM 116. Elementary Haitian Creole. (C) Contact the Penn Language Center.

SM 120. Elementary French II. (C) Prerequisite(s): French 110. The continuation of French 110.

SM 121. Elementary French for "False Beginners". (A) An intensive one-semester language course for students who have had some French before but can benefit from a complete review of elementary French. The course will provide a re-introduction of the basic structures of French with intensive work on speaking, writing and listening designed to prepare students to take Intermediate French. Course includes an introduction to the culture of France and Francophone Europe. Out-of-class homework requires work with online, workbook, and audio materials, in addition to frequent writing practice.

SM 130. Intermediate French I. (C) Prerequisite(s): Completion of French 120 or 121, or placement into third-semester French. The first half of a two-semester intermediate sequence designed to help students attain a level of proficiency that should allow them to function comfortably in a French-speaking environment. Students are expected to have already learned the most basic grammatical structures in elementary French and will review these independently outside of class. This course will build on existing French skills and increase students' confidence and ability to read, write, speak and understand French. The course will additionally introduce students to more complex grammatical structures and more challenging cultural material. Out of class homework includes work with online, workbook and audio materials in addition to frequent writing practice.

SM 134. Accelerated Intermediate French. (B) An intensive two-credit course covering the first and second semester of the intermediate year. See descriptions of French 130 and 140. Students must have departmental permit to register. Also offered in the summer Penn-in-Tours program in France.

SM 140. Intermediate French II. (C) Prerequisite(s): Completion of French 130 or placement into fourth-semester French. The second half of an intermediate-level sequence designed to develop functional competence in the four skills. Students are expected to have already learned the most basic grammatical structures in elementary French and will review these outside of class. The course focuses on the study and discussion of history and culture of the Francophone world through film, literature and music.

SM 180. Advanced French in Residence. (E) Corequisite(s): Residence in Modern Language House. Open only to residents in La Maison Francaise. Participants earn 1/2 c.u. per semester.

Undergraduate-Level Courses

SM 202. Advanced French. (C) Prerequisite(s): Open to students who have completed the language requirement. 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 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.

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 youth-related issues (such as upbringing and education, television, unemployment, racism, etc.). The class touches upon issues of identity in France as well as in the Francophone world, in the context of immigration and colonization.

SM 211. French for the Professions I. (C) Prerequisite(s): An intermediate to advanced level of French. The class is conducted entirely in French. This content-based language course, taught in French, introduces economic, business and professional terminology through the study of the following topics: the French economy and monetary policy (transition to the Euro); financial institutions (banking and postal services, stock market and insurance); specificity of the French fiscal system; business practices (business letters and resumes); advertising and the internal structure and legal forms of French companies. France's atypical system of industrial relations as well as cultural differences and their impact on the business world will also be explored. On completion of the course, students will have the opportunity to take the Certificat Pratique de Francais Commercial et Economique, administered by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Paris.

SM 212. Advanced French Grammar and Composition. (C) 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.

SM 214. Advanced Conversation and Composition. (C) Prerequisite(s): French 212. This course is designed to improve writing, reading and speaking skills and develop an awareness of style. Selections from literary and non-literary texts will be studied as models for both reading and writing and will be used as the basis for composition and conversation. Students will be asked to write short compositions and there will be the opportunity for rewrites. Various strategies for analyzing literary and non-literary texts will also be used and techniques for "explication de texte" will be examined. The oral component will enable students to increase their conversational skills in discussions and presentations based on the texts studied. Students should have a good knowledge of French grammar and should either have completed French 212 or be taking it concurrently with French 214.

SM 217. French Phonetics. (C) Designed to provide students with a solid foundation in French phonetics and phonology. Part of the course will be devoted to learning how to produce discourse with native-like French pronunciation, rhythm and intonation. The second half of the course will be devoted to improving aural comprehension by examining stylistic and dialectical differences in spoken French.

SM 221. (COLL221, COML218) Perspectives in French Literature. (A) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. This 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 dicussion in French. French 221 has as its theme the presentation of love and passion in French literature. Majors are required to take either French 221 or 222.

SM 222. (COLL221, COML219) Perspectives in French Literature. (A) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. This 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. Special emphasis is placed on close reading of texts in order to familiarize students with major authors and their characteristics and with methods of interpretation. They are expected to take an active part in class discussion in French. French 222 has as its theme the Individual and Society. Majors are required to take either French 221 or 222, but students who have taken 221 may also take French 222 for credit.

SM 223. (FREN312) Modern France. (C) Distribution Course in Hist & Tradition. Class of 2009 & prior only. Among the many dramatic transformations that have marked French culture and society since World War II, the emergence of la jeunesse will be our reference point to examine the major trends of the period. By means of films, short novel and a basic historical text, we will consider the shifts in lifestyle, values, and identity among youth at critical moments in the history of the last 50 years. Conducted entirely in French, this course requires the student to view 7 films outside of class, 1 written mid-term in class, reaction paragraphs for each film, 3 of which will be expanded to relate the films to the required readings of Francois Sagan, Georges Perec and Rachid Djaidani. Students will also present to the class their research upon some aspect of youth culture or identity of their choice. The written part of that presentation will be integrated into the final exam paper.

SM 226. French Civilization, from the Beginnings to 1789. (A) History & Tradition Sector. All classes. An introduction to the social, political and historical institutions of France from the earliest times until the Revolution of 1789. Required for majors in French and also of particular interest to majors in history, international relations, Wharton students, etc.

L/R 227. Modern France, 1789-1944. (B) Humanities & Social Science Sector. Class of 2010 & beyond. French political, cultural and social history from the Revolution of 1789 to the liberation of Paris in 1944. Readings in secondary and primary sources, including political documents and speeches or letters as well as significant short stories, etc.; a weekly audio-visual component concerning each period. Required for majors, also of particular interest to majors in history, international relations, Wharton students, etc.

SM 228. Le Francais Dans Le Monde. (M) Distribution III. May be counted as a Distributional course in Arts & Letters. The course focuses on the history of the French language within France. The first part will look at the development of French as a national language and examine the question of linguistic diversity in France today with a focus on the status of regional languages and dialects. The course will consider the current changing nature of the French language and will conclude with a look to the future and the role of French as a world language, particularly in the context of the European Union. Emphasis will be put on the role of language in cultural and social identity as well as in political power and conflict.

SM 229. Le Francais Dans Le Monde II. (M) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. Le Francais Dans Le Monde II. An introduction to the role of the French language around the world. The course will explore the historical reasons for which French is spoken in many countries outside of France (including Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and the Far East), and examine its current status in those regions. Emphasis will be put on the role of language in cultural and social identity as well as in political power and conflict. Of interest not only to majors but to students in international relations, Wharton, etc.

L/R 230. (CINE245) Masterpieces of French Cinema. (A) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. 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.

SM 231. (AFRC231, AFST231) Cinema Africain Francophone. (M) This course will introduce students to recent films by major directors from Francophone Africa. While attention will be given to aesthetic aspects and individual creativity, the viewing and discussions will be mostly organized around a variety of (overlapping) themes: History; Tradition/Modernity; Urban Life; Gender and Sexuality; Politics. Class conducted in French.

SM 290. The French Short Story. (M)

SM 301. (CINE345) French Identity in the Twentieth Century. (C) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. The purpose of this course will be to explore the following issues: What is the specificity of women in French society-what distinguishes the "education" --both familial and institutional--which contributes to the formation of a distinctly feminine sense and self? How has this specificity contributed to the roles and functions played by women over the course of the century? And finally, how have women--individually and collectively--become aware of these forces, and sought to modify them in order to devise introduction to French culture and society. Authors include: de Beauvoir, Carles, Djebar, Duras, Ernaux, Kofman, Weil.

SM 313. French for the Professions II. (B) Prerequisite(s): FREN 211 or permission of instructor. This content course has four components: (1) Using a video method, based on interviews with 30 businessmen and women at seven French companies, students will have the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of authentic business situations by using the professional language acquired in French 211; (2) As culture and commerce overlap, students will explore the following topics and their impact on the French business world: communication styles (French notion of time and space); individualism and hierarchical structures; attitudes towards money and business; intellectual elitism and formality; educational system and training of managers; women in the workplace -- the new law on sexual harassment; study of a socio-professional category: the cadres; (3) The French model of socio-market economy will be analyzed, emphasizing the present debate on state-industry relationship and social protection (health care debate). Some key industrial sectors, such as the high-tech industry and French investments in the U.S., will also be discussed; (4) Finally, the role of France in the European integration (from Common Market to European Community and European Union) will be explored. Students will have access to the instructor's research library. Students taking both courses 211 and 313 are advised to take the CCIP exam on completion of the second course.

SM 322. France and the European Union. After a brief history of European integration and a description of the Community's institutions, common programs, and single market, a series of debates on the following topics will be addressed: Federal Europe vs. Europe of Nations; A wider vs. a deeper Community; From an economic and monetary community to a political community? Relations between France, Europe, and NATO (Eurocentrism vs. Atlantism); The cultural and social European Model and its future vs. American liberalism (the unemployment problem); Is there a European citizen? (education and training); Europe and its relations with the rest of the world (Euro vs. dollar and yen). After a video presentation of each topic, two students will lead the discussion. The rest of the students will contribute to the debate by preparing question and comments.

SM 325. (COML324) Advanced French Translation. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): French 212 and 214 or equivalent. This course is designed to help foster an awareness of the differences between French and English syntactical and lexical patterns. It will introduce students to some of the theoretical problems of translation although the primary emphasis will be on improving the students' mastery of French. Both literary and non-literary texts will be included.

SM 330. Medieval Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. An introductory course to the literature of the French Middle Ages. French literature began in the 11th and 12th centuries. This course examines the extraordinary period during which the French literary tradition was first established by looking at a number of key generative themes: Identity, Heroism, Love, Gender. All readings and discussions in French.

SM 340. French Renaissance Literature. (C) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. This course introduces a diverse and fascinating era, which marks the beginning of the early modern period. It examines the political, historical, and social context of France and investigates how contemporary writers and poets translated the discoveries of Humanism into their works. Authors to be studied include the poets Clement Marot, Maurice Sceve, Louise Labe, Pernette Du Guillet, Ronsard and Du Bellay. In addition, a number of stories from Marguerite de Navarre's rewriting of the "Decameron" (L'Heptameron), as well as Rabelais's comic work "Pantagruel" and some essays of Montaigne will be analyzed

SM 350. 17th Century French Literature. (C) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. We will read a number of the masterpieces of the Golden Age of French literature, including works by Moliere, Racine, Lafayette, and La Fontaine. We will place special emphasis on the social and political context of their creation (the court of Versailles and the most brilliant years of Louis XIV's reign).

SM 360. (FREN250, GSOC360) French Literature of the 18th Century. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Throughout the 18th Century, the novel was consistently chosen by the philosophes as a forum in which to present political ideas to a broad audience. French novels of the Enlightenment are therefore often hybrid works in which fictional plots, even love stories, co-exist with philosophical dialogue and with more or less fictionalized discussions of recent political events or debates. We will read novels by all the major intellectual figures of the 18th century -- for example, Montesquieu's "Lettres Persanes," "Contes" by Voltaire, Diderot's "Le Neveu De Rameau"-- in order to examine the controversial subject matter they chose to explore in a fictional format and to analyze the effects on novelistic structure of this invasion of the political. We will also read works, most notably Laclos' "Les Liaisons Dangereuses," that today are generally thought to reflect the socio-political climate of the decades that prepared the French Revolution of 1789. In all our discussion, we will be asking ourselves why and how, for the only time in the history of the genre, the novel could have been, in large part and for most of the century, partially diverted from fictional concerns and chosen as a political vehicle.

SM 370. French Literature of the 19th Century. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Topic changes each semester.

SM 379. Short Narratives in Fantastic Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. This course will explore fantasy and the fantastic in short tales of 19th and 20th century French literature. A variety of approaches - thematic, psychoanalytic, cultural, narratological - will be used in an attempt to define the subversive force of a literary mode that contributes to shedding light on the dark side of the human psyche by interrogating the "real," making visible the unseen and articulating the unsaid. Such broad categories as distortions of space and time, reason and madness, order and disorder, sexual transgressions, self and other, will be considered.

Readings usually include "recits fantastiques" by Merimee, Gautier, Nerval, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Maupassant, Breton, Jean Ray, Mandiargues and others.

SM 380. (COML381) Literature of the Twentieth Century. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. This course, the theme of which changes from semester to semester, provides an introduction to important trends in twentieth century literature.

SM 382. (COML372) Horror Cinema. (C) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to the history and main themes of the supernatural/horror film from a comparative perspective. Films considered will include: the German expressionists masterworks of the silent era, the Universal classics of the 30's and the low-budget horror films produced by Val Lewton in the 40's for RKO in the US, the 1950's color films of sex and violence by Hammer studios in England, Italian Gothic horror or giallo (Mario Brava) and French lyrical macabre (Georges Franju) in the 60's, and on to contemporary gore. In an effort to better understand how the horror film makes us confront out worst fears and our most secret desires alike, we will look at the genre's main iconic figures (Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, etc.) as well as issues of ethics, gender, sexuality, violence, spectatorship through a variety of critical lenses (psychoanalysis, socio-historial and cultural context, aesthetics,...).

SM 384. The French Novel of the Twentieth Century. (M)

SM 385. Modern French Theater. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. A study of major movements and major dramatists from Giraudoux and Sartre to the theater of the absurd and its aftermath.

SM 389. France and Its Others. (M) A historical appreciation of the impact of the exploration, colonization, and immigration of other peoples on French national consciousness, from the 16th century to the present. Emphasis is on the role of the Other in fostering critiques of French culture and society. Readings include travel literature, anthropological treatises, novels, and historical documents. Oral presentations and several short papers are included in the course.

SM 390. (AFRC391, AFST390) Survey Francophone Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. A brief introduction about the stages of French colonialism and its continuing political and cultural consequences, and then reading in various major works -- novels, plays, poems -- in French by authors from Quebec, the Caribbean, Africa (including the Maghreb), etc. Of interest to majors in International Relations, Anthropology and African Studies as well as majors in French.

SM 393. (COML393) Africa & African Diaspora. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Taught in English. This course will take the form of an introductory seminar designed to provide undergraduate students an overview of significant themes and issues focusing on the historical, political and cultural relationships between Africans and their descendants abroad. It will encompass: a review of different historical periods and geographical locations, from Ancient Egypt to modern American, Caribbean and African states; a critical evaluation of social movements and theories that have developed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries among scholars of different origins in their attempt to reconstruct Africa as a center and the Diaspora as a specific cultural space; and, an exploration of representations of Africa and the Diaspora in canonical literary works and other forms of fiction like the visual arts.

SM 394. (AFRC293) Topics in Caribbean Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. This course will introduce students to the literature of the French-speaking Caribbean (West Indian Literature) in the context of literary history and modern culture. Select works will be examined individually and in relation to each other. We will explore the themes that link these works, comparisons and contrasts in literary techniques, and approaches to language.

SM 395. Topics in African Literature. (M) Topics vary from semester to semester.

499. Independent Study. (M)

Graduate Level Courses

SM 500. Proseminar. (M) This course will provide a forum for collective preparation for the Master's exam.

SM 512. History of Literary Theory. (M) An exploration of literary theory centering on a few concepts (tradition, textuality, interpretation, ideology, authority) and problematizing the ways in which we read literature.

SM 580. Studies in 20th-Century French Literature. (M)

SM 582. (COML589) Fantastic Literature 19th/20th Centuries. (M) This course will explore fantasy and the fantastic in short tales of 19th- and 20th-century French literature. A variety of approaches -- thematic, psychoanalytic, cultural, narratological -- will be used in an attempt to test their viability and define the subversive force of a literary mode that contributes to shedding light on the dark side of the human psyche by interrogating the "real," making visible the unseen and articulating the unsaid. Such broad categories as distortions of space and time, reason and madness, order and disorder, sexual transgressions, self and other will be considered. Readings will include "recits fantastiques" by Merimee, Gautier, Nerval, Maupassant, Breton, Pieyre de Mandiargues, Jean Ray and others.

SM 593. (AFRC593, AFST593) Studies in Francophone African Literature. (M) Topics will vary. Seminar will focus on one area, author, or "problematique" in Francophone studies. Examples of an area-focused seminar: The African Contemporary novel or Francophone Caribbean writers. Example of a single-author Seminar: The Poetry and Drama of Aime Cesaire: Examples of a thematic approach: writing and national identity, postcolonial conditions, autobiography.

SM 595. Travel Literature. (M) Within the context of the ill-defined, heterogeneous genre of the travelogue and of today's age of globalization, CNN and the Internet, this seminar will examine the poetics of travel writing based largely albeit not exclusively on travel notebooks, or journaux/carnets de voyage, spanning the XXth century from beginning to end. One of the principal specificities of the texts studied is that they all evince to a lesser or greater degree a paradoxical resistance both to the very idea of travel(ing) as such and to the mimetic rhetoric of traditional travel narratives. We will therefore look at how modern or postmodern texts question, revisit, subvert or reject such key notions of travel literature as exoticism, nostalgia, exile, nomadism, otherness or foreignness vs. selfhood, ethnology and autobiography, etc.

Authors considered will include Segalen, Morand, Michaux, Leiris, Levi-Strauss, Butor, Le Clezio, Baudrillard, Bouvier, Jouanard, Leuwers.

SM 600. Old French. (B) A systematic study of the structure of Old French including phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon as well as intensive practice in reading Old French texts with an emphasis on 12th- and 13th-century texts. By the end of the semester, students should be able to read works in Old French with the aid of a dictionary. Attention will be paid to the chronological differences between earlier and later Old French as well as to the major dialectal differences. Students will also be familiarized with the major research tools, dictionaries and grammars for working on Old French.

SM 609. (COML604) France and Its Others. (M) The purpose of this course is to examine the various modalities of interaction between anthropology and literature in modern French culture. Our guiding thesis is that the turn toward other cultures has functioned as a revitalizing element in the production of cultural artifacts while providing an alternative vantage point from which to examine the development of French culture and society in the contemporary period. The extraordinary innovations of "ethnosurrealism" in the twenties and thirties by such key figures of the avant-garde as Breton, Artaud, Bataille, Caillois, and Leiris, have become acknowledged models for the postwar critical thought of Barthes, Derrida, and Foucault, as well as inspiring a renewal of "anthropology as cultural critique in the United States." Besides the authors just indicated, key texts by Durkheim, Mauss and Levi-Strauss will be considered both on their own terms and in relation to their obvious influence. The institutional fate of these intellectual crossovers and their correlative disciplinary conflicts will provide the overarching historical frame for the course, from the turn of the century to the most recent debates.

SM 619. (COML701) Poetique du Recit. (M)

SM 620. Reading History in Literature. (A)

SM 630. (COML630, ITAL630) Introduction to Medieval French Literature: The Grail and the Rose. (M) Topics vary. Previous topics include The Grail and the Rose, Literary Genres and Transformations, and Readings in Old French Texts.

SM 631. Epic and Romance. (M) Topics will vary from semester to semester.

SM 634. Le Roman de la Rose. (M)

SM 635. (COML714) Late Medieval Literature. (M) One possible topic is "History and Allegory: Problems of Representation." Considers several privileged cases of the relationship between the contemporary historical subject (dangerous, unstable) and the allegorical mode of representation (literary-philosophical, distancing, cerebrally interpretive). Texts to be studied include the "Roman de Fauvel" (and the spectacular corruption of Philippe le Bel's court in early 13th-century Paris); Christine de Pizan's "Epistre d'Othea" and "Jehanne d'Arc" (and mythographic-allegorical treatments of the "crisis of the Hundred Years War" in the late 14th and early 15th centuries); as well as Froissart and de la Sale.

SM 638. (COML638, MUSC710) Medieval Culture. (M) Faculty. Topics will vary each term.

SM 640. Studies in the Renaissance. (M) Topics vary. Previous topics have included Rabelais and M. de Navarre, Montaigne, and Renaissance and Counter-Renaissance.

SM 650. (COML651, GRMN651, HIST651) Studies in the 17th Century. (M) Topics of discussion will vary from semester to semester. One possible topic is "The Royal Machine: Louis XIV and the Versailles Era." We will examine certain key texts of what is known as the Golden Age of French literature in tandem with a number of recent theoretical texts that could be described as historical. Our goal will be to explore the basis of "the new historicism," a term that is designed to cover a variety of critical systems that try to account for the historical specificity and referentiality of literary texts.

SM 652. (COML652, GSOC652) Women's Writing in Early Modern France. (M) Topics of discussion will vary from semester to semester. One possible topic is: "The Female Tradition and the Development of the Modern Novel." We will discuss the most important women writers--from Scudery to Lafayette-of the golden age of French women writers. We will be particularly concerned with the ways in which they were responsible for generic innovations and in particular with the ways in which they shaped the development of the modern novel.

SM 654. (COML658, ENGL730, GRMN665, MUSC654) Early Modern Seminar. (M)

SM 660. (COML620, ENGL748, GSOC748) Studies in the Eighteenth Century. (M) Topics of discussion will vary from semester to semester. One possible topic is "Masterpieces of the Enlightenment." We will read the most influential texts of the Enlightenment, texts that shaped the social and political consciousness characteristic of the Enlightenment--for example, the meditations on freedom of religious expression that Voltaire contributed to "affaires" such as the "affaire Calas." We will also discuss different monuments of the spirit of the age-its corruption (Les Liaisons dangereuses), its libertine excesses and philosophy (La Philosophie dans le boudoir). We will define the specificity of 18th-century prose (fiction), guided by a central question: What was the Enlightenment?

SM 662. The Epistolary Novel. (M) From the Regency to the Revolution, the French 18th century was obsessed with the present moment. In literature, this obsession manifests itself most clearly in the epistolary novel, which became the privileged form of expression chosen by all the major authors of the age. Because of the rise of epistolarity, the art of "writing to the moment," in Richardson's memorable formulation, must be seen as one of the Enlightenment's principal voices. And, for the first time, the letter became a highly valued means of communication, in both the private and the public domains.

We will read most of the major epistolary novels beginning with the genre's first classic, "Lettres portugaises," and ending with its masterpiece, "Liaisons dangereuses." We will consider some real correspondences--for example, Sevigne's and Diderot's--to see how the urge to turn them into novels proved irresistible, to editors and authors alike. Finally, we will read several examples of what was known as the "public" letter, philosophical texts that used the epistolary form (for example, Diderot's "Lettre sur les aveugles"), to see how the techniques of epistolarity survived the transition into the realm of the polemical.

SM 670. (COML669) Studies in 19th-Century Literature. (M) Topics vary. One possible topic is "Decadence." We'll try to understand just what is meant by this concept as a designation for much of the literature of the fin de siecle. The notion of decadence will be explored historically and conceptually, analyzing similarities with closely related movements, such as naturalism and symbolism. After reading some theoretical texts by Baudelaire, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Wilde, and Bourget, we will discuss works by Villiers, Huysmans, Rachilde, Louys, Mirbeau, and Lorrain. To help in our understanding of the thematics of decadence, we will also look at paintings by Moreau, Rops, and other painters of the period. Influential notions of decadence and degeneration in criminology and medicine will also be discussed.

SM 671. Studies in 19th-Century Poetry. (M) Topics of discussion will vary from semester to semester. A representative description follows: Rimbaud, Lautreamont, Mallarme. One half of the course will be devoted to Rimbaud and Lautreamont, the second half to Mallarme. We will attempt to focus on such points as the revolution in poetic language, the textual body, the (en)gendering of the subject. Students will be required to read critical and theoretical writings on these questions, and discuss them in class presentations.

SM 674. The 19th-Century French Novel. (M) The development of the French novel in the 19th-century: structure and theory, ideological and historical questions. Focus may vary.

SM 680. (CINE680, COML595) Studies in the 20th Century. (M) An analysis of narrative as theme with a focus on the theme's elaboration in modern French fiction.

SM 681. Studies in Modern French Poetry. (M) How does one approach the modern poetic text which ever since the Mallarmean "crise de vers" appears to have cut loose from all referential anchoring and traditional markers (prosody, versification, etc.)? This course will present an array of possible methodological answers to this question, focusing on poetic forms and manifestations of brevity and fragmentation. In addition to being submitted to precise formal and textual inquiries, each text or work will be the point of departure for the analysis of a specific theoretical issue and/or an original practice - e.g., genetic criticism, translation theory, the poetic "diary", aphoristic modes of writing, quoting and rewriting practices, etc. Texts by key modern poets (Ponge, Chazal, Du Bouchet, Jourdan, Jabes, Michaux).

SM 684. The French Novel of the 20th Century. (M)

SM 685. Modern French Theater. (M)

SM 687. Studies in French Cinema. (M)

Topics will vary.

SM 693. (AFST693) Africa Looks to Europe. (M)

SM 695. Forms of Violence. (M)

SM 696. FRANCOPHONE STUDIES. (C)

SM 701. Topics In African Literature. (M) 851. Dissertation Proposal. (M)

999. Independent Study. (C) Designed to allow students to pursue a particular research topic under the close supervision of an instructor.