An introductory survey of French and Francophone cultural production representing a variety of periods, genres, approaches, and media. Students will read, view, discuss, and practice interpreting.

Survey of writing in French from 1800 to the present. Explores various movements and trends in French literary and cultural history of the modern and contemporary periods.

Building on skills acquired in FREN 3031, this class helps students reflect on and become more confident in their oral use of French. Students will practice French skills by reading aloud and performing plays in a supportive and comfortable atmosphere.

In this course we will read poems in French from a variety of writers and time periods, taking into account their stylistic features, emotional impact, and cultural resonance. Each day will be structured around the study of one key poem.Through in-class readings of related poems, writing workshops and secondary readings, we will explore how poetry brings us closer to words, language, knowledge, sensations, emotion, ourselves, and others.

Francophone philosophers from the Caribbean adopted a critical perspective and questioned aporias and blind spots of our history. We will read texts by Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Edouard Glissant (1928-2011), Patrick Chamoiseau to see how they reflected on issues such as colonialism. 

Love fascinated people in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as it still does today. This course will examine understandings and uses of love in religious and secular literature, music and art. What is the relationship, for medieval writers, between the love of God and the love of human beings? What is the role of poetry in promoting and producing love? What medieval ideas about love continue to shape our modern understandings and assumption.

After an initial examination of the political and social conditions in France under the Nazi regime during World War II, this seminar explores the enduring legacy of those "Dark Years" by investigating how the complex and traumatic history of the Occupation has impacted French culture during the last half of the twentieth century and into the twenty first.

Discusses political institutions and social problems based upon readings in recent publications and an analysis of current events.

Composition and defense of thesis. Prerequisite: FREN 4998 and good standing in the Distinguished Majors Program. Note: The prerequisite to all 5000-level literature courses is two 4000-level literature courses with an average grade of B, or the instructor's permission.

Topics may include genres (romance, poetry, hagiography, chanson de geste, allegory), themes (love, war, nature), single authors (Chrétien de Troyes, Machaut) and cultural and literary issues (gender, religion, authorship, rewritings).