FREN 0200 Basic French

This is the second half of a two-semester course. Four meetings a week for oral practice plus one conversation hour. One hour of work outside of class is expected every day (grammar/writing, oral practice, reading). An accelerated track enables qualified students to go directly to FREN 0500 after FREN 0200. Enrollment limited to 15.

Stéphanie Gaillard

FREN 0400 Intermediate French II

Continuation of FREN 0300 but may be taken separately. A four-skill language course that stresses oral interaction in class (three meetings per week plus one 50-minute conversation section). Materials include audio activities, film, and a novel. Short compositions with systematic grammar practice. Prerequisite: FREN 0300, FREN 0200 with permission, or placement.

FREN 0500 Writing and Speaking French I

A four-skill language course that stresses oral interaction in class. Thematic units will focus on songs, poems, a short novel, a graphic novel, films, and a longer novel. Activities include a creative project using Comic Life, and a systematic grammar review. Prerequisite: FREN 0400, FREN 0200 with written permission, or placement.

Stéphanie Gaillard

FREN 0600 Writing and Speaking French II

Prerequisite for study in French-speaking countries. Class time is devoted mainly to conversation and discussion practice. Writing instruction and assignments focus on essays, commentaries, and to a lesser degree, on story writing. Apart from reading assignments for discussion (press articles and literary excerpts), students select two novels to read. Prerequisite: FREN 0500 or placement.

Stéphanie Ravillon

FREN 0620 Writing and Speaking French II: Lire La Mode: Histoire(s) Du Vêtement Dans L'Art Et La Littérature

Can we "read" a garment like we read a text? How does a garment contribute to our understanding of a work of art in general? This course, at the same level as FREN0600, explores fashion in art and literature as a critical tool for understanding social and cultural phenomena in French History from the Middle Ages to today. In this class, we will examine the ways in which the (his)story of a garment allows us to better grasp the social and cultural stakes of literary or artistic works.

Elise Bouley

FREN 0950A Advanced Written and Oral French: Traduction

An introduction to the theory and practice of translation, this course will be designed to expand students' range and appreciation of written styles and registers and will be based on translation exercises and texts reflecting different types of written and oral communication. Texts will range from literary texts (excerpts from novels, plays, comic books...) to journalistic texts (articles from newspapers...). Class activities will also include comparative studies of translated texts, as well as grammar review and vocabulary work. Course taught in French. Written translations to and from French. Prerequisite: FREN 0600 or equivalent. Enrollment limited to 18. Instructor permission required.

Stephanie Ravillon 

FREN 1110F Le Roman contemporain

In this course we will read a selection of French and Francophone novels from 1985 to 2015. Authors include Patrick Modiano, Marie NDiaye, Lydie Salvayre, Marie Redonnet, Jean-Philippe Toussaint and Laurent Mauvignier. Placing these novels in dialogue with key voices from critical theory (Cixous, Barthes, Derrida, Kristeva), we will pursue through the semester a sustained reflection on major contemporary “problematics” including identity, subjecthood, hospitality, history, genealogy, gender, memory and ghosts. Taught in French. Prerequisite: a course at the 0600- or 0700 -level or equivalent proficiency. Contact the instructor to verify your proficiency if you have not taken French at Brown.

Thangam Ravindranathan

FREN 1120F L'enfer, c'est les autres

In this course we will read a selection of plays by notable 20th century French and Francophone writers, and consider how the dramatic form organizes and complicates questions of representation, subjectivity, body, politics and voice. Authors include Sartre, Camus, Genet, Beckett, Césaire, Koltès, Duras, Sarraute, Ndiaye, Redonnet. Secondary readings by Adorno, Deleuze, Kristeva amongst others. Taught in French. Prerequisite: a course at the 600- or 700-level or equivalent proficiency. Contact the instructor to verify your proficiency if you have not taken French at Brown.

Thangam Ravindranathan

FREN 1140A French Theory

In this course we will read a selection of plays by notable 20th century French and Francophone writers, and consider how the dramatic form organizes and complicates questions of representation, subjectivity, body, politics and voice. Authors include Sartre, Camus, Genet, Beckett, Césaire, Koltès, Duras, Sarraute, Ndiaye, Redonnet. Secondary readings by Adorno, Deleuze, Kristeva amongst others. Taught in French. Prerequisite: a course at the 600- or 700-level or equivalent proficiency. Contact the instructor to verify your proficiency if you have not taken French at Brown.

FREN 1310P La théorie féministe en France

From Olympe de Gouges to the movement called #Balancetonporc (the French version of #MeToo), from the first-wave feminism to the queer third-wave feminism, from the debates on abortion to pornography, prostitution, and gender parity, this course will explore major texts in French and francophone feminist theory (Simone de Beauvoir, Monique Wittig, Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva, Hélène Cixous, Virginie Despentes, Sam Bourcier, Paul B. Preciado…). Prerequisite: a course at the 600- or 700-level or equivalent proficiency. Contact the instructor to verify your proficiency if you have not taken French at Brown. Taught in French.
 

FREN 1310Y La pensée contemporaine française : Du marxisme à l’écologie politique

This seminar is dedicated to understanding the philosophical gestures that have made possible the so-called “French Theory”, one of the most influential fields of critical theory over the last 50 years. The course proposes a rigorous and synoptic reading of this body of work, taking as its starting point what they commonly attempt to reappropriate and overcome: namely, Hegelianism as a figure of metaphysics. The decisive influence of figures such as Kojève and Sartre, both readers of Hegel in France, will be the starting point for understanding authors such as Fanon, Foucault and Derrida in a political and theoretical context marked by Marxism. We will then look at the most contemporary metamorphoses in Francophone thought, notably the centrality of political ecology and decolonial theories. TAUGHT IN FRENCH
 

Mohamed Amer Meziane

FREN 1330F Féminisme caribéen francophone

An introduction to feminisms in the Francophone Caribbean, this course traces the recent history of feminist movements in Haiti, La Martinique, and Guadeloupe in light of a strong tradition of militant anticolonial and anti-imperial activism. With a double focus on theory and practice, we will engage in a broad range of inquiries: course materials include essays, graphic novels, short stories, poems, documentaries, editorials by journalists, and the work of feminist scholars across the disciplines. Taught in French.
 

Sabine Lamour

FREN 1410F Comment peut-on être Français? L'identité française en question

This course will examine the transformation of cultural identity in contemporary France. What does it mean to be "French" or étranger today? We will investigate this question by reflecting on some of the major changes that have occurred in French society in the past 30 years in the wake of immigration, the emergence of ethnic identity, racism, the construction of Europe, and globalization. We will study contemporary fiction and non-fiction, essays, films, songs, comedy, as well as theoretical texts. Readings will include works by Leïla Sebbar, Chadhort Djavann, Faïza Guène, Julie Kristeva, Tzvetan Todorov, Philippe d'Iribarne, and Eric Fassin. Prerequisite: a course at the 600- or 700-level or equivalent proficiency. Contact the instructor to verify your proficiency if you have not taken French at Brown. In French.
 

Ourida Mostefai

FREN 1410I Sorcellerie et Renaissance: le sort de la sorcière

An interdisciplinary exploration of witches and witchcraft in Renaissance France based on close analysis of primary texts-confessions from trials, iconography, literary texts, and witchcraft theory. Topics include the trial of Joan of Arc, the science of demons, skepticism, and the nature of belief. Readings in Montaigne, Mauss, among others. Enrollment limited to 20. Taught in French. Prerequisite: a course at the 0600- or 0700-level or equivalent proficiency. Contact the instructor to verify your proficiency if you have not taken French at Brown.

FREN1710N Décoloniser l’être

The Maghreb, the Caribbean and West Africa are the three main areas of the “francophone” world. This course is an introduction to the French-language intellectual production, both literary and philosophical, of these regions of the world. What unites the French-speaking non-Western worlds? How did they anticipate the major themes of Anglophone postcolonial and decolonial theory? How do literature and philosophy overlap in this canon? How are these literary and philosophical traditions rooted in the struggle against colonialism and for the liberation of peoples? What is their relationship to socialism and pan-Africanism? The uniqueness of this course is that it will maintain, throughout the semester, a continental perspective that includes the Maghreb and the Caribbean within Africa. Emphasis will be placed on French-language sources, which are often neglected in English-speaking contexts. TAUGHT IN FRENCH

FREN 2130I Plans, Theory, Literature

Although the field of plant studies has emerged only recently, the critical reflection on the specificity of vegetal life has a long history. Indeed, many of the questions currently debated in this field are by no means new, and literature has long been a central medium for grappling with the challenges posed by the vegetal. The dual mission of this seminar will be to: 1) critically assess major texts in the emerging field of plant studies and 2) trace the evolution of literary representations of vegetal life in French and Francophone literatures from the 16th century to the present. We will examine permutations of the vegetal as a philosophical and political construct in tension with conceptions of human and nonhuman animals through such topics as the subjectivity of plants, the sexuality of plants, cross-species alliances, “becoming plant.”