French

FREN BC1001 ELEMENTARY FRENCH I. 4.00 points.

Basic elements of French grammar. Oral, writing, and reading skills. Students may take either or both of these courses at Columbia

FREN BC1002 ELEMENTARY FRENCH II. 4.00 points.

Basic elements of French grammar. Oral, writing, and reading skills. Students may take either or both of these courses at Columbia

FREN BC1203 INTERMEDIATE FRENCH I. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: FREN BC1001, BC1002, BC1102, C1101 and C1102, or an appropriate score on the placement test. Further development of oral and written communication skills. Readings in French literature

FREN BC1204 INTERMEDIATE FRENCH II. 3.00 points.

Advanced work in language skills. Readings in French literature. Prerequisites: FREN BC1203 or an appropriate score on the placement test. NOTE: This course does not fulfill the Columbia College and GS language requirement

FREN BC1207 Intermediate French I - Summer. 3.00 points.

Further development of oral and written communication skills. Readings in French literature

FREN BC1208 Intermediate French II - Summer. 3.00 points.

Advanced work in language skills. Readings in French literature

FREN BC3002 TRANSLATING THEATRE WKSHP. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: Application required through Prof Laurie Postlewate
Prerequisites: Completion of Intermediate French II or equivalent. Please contact Prof. Laurie Postlewate. Students will be placed on an automatic waitlist and admitted to the course individually after contacting Prof. Postlewate. The course combines: reading and watching plays in French, hands-on translation work (French to English), and study and discussion of theoretical and dramaturgical issues specific to translating theatre

FREN BC3006 COMPOSITION AND CONVERSATION. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to 12 students.
Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to 12 students. Discussions on contemporary issues and oral presentations. Creative writing assignments designed to improve writing skills and vocabulary development. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required

FREN BC3010 Textual Analysis. 3 points.

This course is designed for students who have completed Intermediate French II or its equivalent. The aim is to help you transition from language courses to upper-level literature and culture classes, and specifically to equip you with the tools you will need to analyze literary texts and to comment upon them effectively in both oral and written form. Through close reading of selected texts and practice in the form of analysis known as the explication de texte, you will become familiar with a number of different methods of reading, and develop the critical thinking and interpretive skills you need to analyze arguments, and to speak and write persuasively in French. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.

FREN BC3012 Advanced Grammar. 3 points.

Systematic study of morphology, syntax, and idiomatic expressions. Weekly writing assignments. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.

FREN BC3013 Writing Workshop . 3 points.

Prerequisites: The French language requirement and approval of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 12 students.

Workshop format course to perfect writing skills in French. Writing formats that will be used over the semester include narration, portait, essai, dissertation, film and book reviews, and correspondence. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.

FREN BC3014 Advanced Translation. 3.00 points.

Translation of French texts--both critical and literary, focusing on particular questions or themes. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required

FREN BC3016 ADVANCED ORAL FRENCH. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: At least one French course after completion of FREN BC1204: Intermediate II or permission of the instructor.
Prerequisites: At least one French course after completion of FREN BC1204: Intermediate II or permission of the instructor. Oral presentations and discussions of French films aimed at increasing fluency, acquiring vocabulary, and perfecting pronunciation skills

FREN BC3019 ADVANCED PHONETICS. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to 12 students.

Detailed study of all aspects of French pronunciation; theoretical linguistic concepts will be followed up with intensive oral drills. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.

FREN BC3021 MAJOR FRENCH TEXTS I. 3.00 points.

An exploration of the early periods of French literary creation (Medieval-17th century) through works of fiction, poetry, and theatre. Special attention is given to texts that use tradition to bring about change, to provoke, to contest social norms, and to test the expected parameters of literary expression

FREN BC3022 MAJOR FRENCH TEXTS II. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: FREN BC3021 may be taken for credit without completion of FREN BC3022.
Prerequisites: FREN BC3021 may be taken for credit without completion of FREN BC3022. The Age of Enlightenment, Romanticism, Realism, and Symbolism. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required

FREN BC3025 Theater of the Classical Age. 3 points.

This course will provide a detailed introduction to the three great French dramatists of the seventeenth century, rightly known as the golden age of French theatre. Reading several canonical works by each of these three playwrights-Corneille, Racine, and Molière-students will closely examine the thematic concerns (the relationship between love and duty, the individual and the state, free will and divine providence; the problems of hypocrisy, dishonesty, sexual jealousy, and avarice; the nature of kingship and the extent or the limits of royal control; the differences between prescribed gender roles for men and for women; the recourse to and reworking of mythological and Biblical sources) the plays set forth, and the rhetorical strategies they employ (from classical, Greco-Roman devices such as metaphor, apostrophe, irony, preterition, prosopopoeia, and anagnorisis to the specifically French metrical pattern of the alexandrin). FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.

FREN BC3032 Women and Writing in Early Modern France. 3 points.

Examination of cultural and literary phenomena in 15th through 17th century France, focusing on writings by and about women. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.

FREN BC3035 Eighteenth-Century French Fiction. 3 points.

Prerequisites: FREN BC3021, BC3022, BC3023, BC3024, or the equivalent.

Readings of novels and novellas by Prevost, Rousseau, Diderot, Charriere, Laclos, and Sade, with a particular focus on issues of selfhood, gender, sexuality, authority, and freedom. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.

FREN BC3036 THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT. 3.00 points.

Dans ce cours, nous examinerons le phénomène qui domine—et révolutionne—le discours philosophique, religieux, sociologique et politique au 18e siècle en Occident: les Lumières. Visant les dogmes jusque-là incontestables d'un Etat monarchique et d'une Eglise catholique autoritaires, ce mouvement réclame la liberté de la pensée et du culte; condamne l'intolérance religieuse, l’iniquité politique et le préjugé culturel; expose et déplore l’inégalité sociale; examine les bases de l’autorité politique; et subvertit par ses propos l'idéo. A l'exception d'un texte de l'Allemand Immanuel Kant, nous nous bornerons à lire des écrits des principaux philosophes francophones des Lumières (Voltaire, Diderot, et Rousseau), aussi bien que deux romans "dystopiques” (Charrière et de Sade), et deux textes politiques parus durant la Révolution française

FREN BC3037 BAUDELAIRE, RIMBAUD, MALLARME. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: (FREN BC1204) FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.
Through close readings of majors texts, an examination of how these 19th-century poets brought about a "revolution" in language and thought that gave rise to the Modernism that transformed literature and the arts and whose influence is still with us today

FREN BC3044 THEATER OF THE ABSURD. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: FREN BC3021, BC3022, BC3023, BC3024, or the equivalent.

Close reading and occasional screening of major plays associated with the Theater of the Absurd. Philosophical and literary origins of the concept of the absurd; social and political context of its emergence; theatrical conventions of early performances; popular and critical reception. Authors include: Jarry, Adamov, Arrabal, Beckett, Genet, Ionesco, Maeterlinck, Sartre, Camus.

FREN BC3043 Twentieth-Century French Women Writers. 3 points.

Prerequisites: FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.

Writings by women will be analyzed in the changing philosophical and literary contexts of the 20th century: Simone de Beauvoir, Nathalie Sarraute, Marguerite Duras, Hélène Cixous, and others.

FREN BC3054 Translation Through FIlm. 3 points.

Prerequisites: Course capped at 15.

Using filmic dialogue as a medium, this course seeks to develop skills in "spoken" or "live" translation from French into English. This practice, close to consecutive interpretation (oral translation), will help students to augment and refine their fluency in French. All aspects of language will be involved: grammar, vocabulary, tone, register and context, but in a manner more "immediate" than with the translation of written texts. Six French films will be chosen from a variety of periods and genres from which segments will be isolated for interpretation (oral translation). A preliminary discussion of each film will precede the work in translation. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.

FREN BC3056 Proust. 3 points.

Prerequisites: FREN BC3021, BC3022, BC3023, BC3024, or the equivalent.

In this course, we will read the whole of Marcel Proust's 7-volume novel, A la Recherche du temps perdu. One of the greatest novels of all time, the Recherche addresses issues of: romantic and familial love; hetero- and homosexuality; social class; anti-Semitism; social life and friendship; the persistence of memory; and the relationship between art and life.

FREN BC3062 Women in French Cinema since the 60s. 3 points.

This course traces the evolving nature of the relationship between women and society in French cinema from the New Wave of the 60's to the present. Attitudes of women and towards women will be examined in the light of the changing social, political, and intellectual context. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.

FREN BC3063 Structuralism and Post-Structuralism. 3 points.

Introduction to the conceptual foundations of structuralism and post structuralism or to what is known as French Theory. Readings include works by Saussure, Levi Strauss, Lacan, Foucault, Cixous, and Deleuze. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.

FREN BC3065 SURREALISM. 3.00 points.

An examination of the relationship between traditional & avant-garde literature and visual culture; the use of word-play & language games as tools of artistic expression; the thematization of the unconscious and dreams; the vexed relationship between aesthetics & politics; the poetics and politics of sexuality & gender.  Authors and artists will include Andre Breton, Louis Aragon, Man Ray, Dorothea Tanning, and Salvador Dali. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.

FREN BC3067 GOLDEN AGE OF VERSAILLES. 4.00 points.

This seminar explores the cultural production emanating from the court of Louis XIV (1638-1715), including the social, economic and historical context that led to the construction of Versailles. We also examine colonization as a social reality contemporary to the creation of Versailles. The reading of literary texts is combined with consideration of the arts, architecture, dance and music. Special focus on the court as spectacle, women writers of the court, and the classical period as preparation for the Enlightenment. Work in developing skills in HTML, CSS and TImeline JS culminates in a final digital project allowing completion of the Mode of Thinking Technologically and Digitally

FREN BC3077 La Jalousie dans la Litterature Francais. 3 points.

This course takes jealousy-in its psychosexual, socio-political, ontological dimensions, and in its formal implications-as a lens through which to view a series of seminal works of French literature from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. These works include: 12th-century Arthurian legend (Béroul); a late-medieval, proto-feminist short story (Navarre); 17th-century neo-classical tragedy (Corneille); 12th and 17th-century folkloric forms (Marie de France's lai and Perrault's fairy tale, respectively); the Enlightenment "philosophical" novel (Montesquieu); the 19th-century realist novel (Balzac); the early 20th-century modernist novel (Proust); and the nouveau roman (Robbe-Grillet). Two contemporary adaptations (Singer's 2008 novel based on the Navarre story, and Chabrol's 1996 film based on Proust's novel) will also be studied. In addition, a selection of highly condensed, relevant secondary readings (excerpts of 10 pages of less) will provide students with an introduction to an array of theoretical approaches to literary study: most notably, psychoanalysis, political philosophy, and literary theory. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.

FREN BC3079 HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 4.00 points.

This seminar examines the history of the French language, both in France and in the many areas of the world in which French is a primary language. In the first part of the semester we engage in a chronological study of how the language emerged from a fusion of late medieval Latin with Germanic dialects to become a strong national institution. The development of the language is contextualized by consideration of the social and political history of France. We also devote two weeks of discussion to the situation of the French language today, with topics such as linguistic legislation, regional languages and dialects today, and gender inclusivity. This diachronic approach is carried over into the second part of the semester in which we concentrate on French in several regions outside of France including the Caribbean, North Africa, Central Africa, and North America. Here we examine how the language was first introduced, what it represented at different moments in history, the relation of French to other languages, and the situation of French in the region today. Work for the course includes a digital project (digital timeline and map, and website) to document visually the presence of French in the world, across history and in the 21st century

FREN BC3080 Advanced Seminar: Flaubert. 3 points.

Prerequisites: Limited to 15 students; priority given to French majors and seniors.

In depth study of the life and works of Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880). Exploration of ‘literary realism’ and the novelist's representation of money, marriage, ambition, class, sex, stupidity, and sainthood. While you will be expected to read all of Flaubert’s major works, we will concentrate in class on Madame Bovary (1857),L’Education sentimentale (1869), Trois Contes (1877), Bouvard et Pécuchet (1881), and the Correspondance. We will consider also cinematic adaptations of Madame Bovary and Un Coeur simple. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.

FREN BC3091 SENIOR THESIS. 4.00 points.

French majors will write their senior thesis under the supervision of the instructor

FREN BC3100 Podcasting in French Workshop. 3.00 points.

In this advanced French conversation class we will use podcasts to generate discussion, debate, and creative work focusing on current events and cultural trends. Participants will use existing podcasts to build listening and speaking skills in French, and to develop the ability to converse and debate on important topics in the world today; these will include questions of identity (gender, race, sexuality), feminism, civil unrest, the U.S. elections, and the French language. Work for the course culminates in the creation by each participant of a short podcast on a topic of their choice; in-class sessions on podcast production and editing, as well as open digital lab hours will be held by IMATS to assist in the final project. Reflection on the evolution and place of podcasting as a digital medium will also be included in our discussions

FREN BC3101 LOVE ＆ LITERATURE. 3.00 points.

This course offers an in-depth study of love as it has been treated in a variety of French literary texts. These texts will be related to a number of important philosophical and theological approaches to love, particularly in respect of certain ideas concerning ethical love, erotic love, and religious faith as an act of loving God. The first objective of this class is to show how one can relate literature to philosophy and theology; the second is to gain a broad, but thematically focused familiarity with French literature, and with some literary works beyond the French tradition. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required

FREN BC3102 WOMEN OF THE LEFT BANK. 3.00 points.

This course will group together the women who shaped and epitomized Left Bank culture in Paris from the Belle Époque to the mid-twentieth century; it will also situate these women in relation to their male peers whose works went on to establish the canons of Symbolism, Dadaism, Surrealism, and Existentialism. We will focus primarily on the realms of literature, philosophy, and art, but we will also examine how some of these women advanced cultural production more broadly—by starting publishing presses, opening bookshops, holding salons, etc. Readings will be primarily in French (Colette, Anna de Noailles, Renée Vivien, Simone de Beauvoir; Breton, Valéry, Aragon, Sartre) but will also include some English-language authors (Gertrude Stein, Djuna Barnes, Anaïs Nin). All discussions, coursework, and examinations will be in French

FREN BC3103 WOMEN, SEX ＆ POWER IN 17TH-CENTURY FRANCE. 3.00 points.

When thinking of 17th Century France, we tend to focus on the all-encompassing figure of Louis XIV, Roi Soleil. However, the 17th Century was also the century of women: women writers, women philanthropists, and women intellectuals who led some of the most influential literary salons of their time. The presence and agency of women during that period had a major influence on the representation of women in literature. Between heroic idealizations and caricatural portrayals, this course will attempt to discern between these two extremes to form an image of the real contribution of women to the literature of this period

FREN BC3104 Women Writers of Contemporary Middle East ＆ North Africa. 3.00 points.

Since the last decades of the twentieth century there has been a dramatic increase in the number of women writers from the Middle East and North Africa. This advanced course, which will be taught mainly in French, provides a window into this rich and largely neglected branch of world literature. Students will encounter the breadth and creativity of contemporary Middle Eastern and North African women’s literature by reading a range of twentieth- and twenty-first-century novels, short stories, memoirs and poetry available in French or in translation, and by viewing films that are from or about Iran, Lebanon, Algeria, and Egypt. How do Middle Eastern women authors address women’s oppression – both social and physical – and enunciate issues such as the tension between tradition and modernity, sexuality, identity and class from a female perspective? What literary traditions and models do they draw on? How different are those texts written in French for a global audience, as opposed to those written in Persian or Arabic? What are the effects of reading them in translation? Authors will include Marjane Satrapi, Shahrnush Parsipur, Assia Djebar, Maïssa Bey and Nawal El Saadawi

FREN BC3105 Existentialism. 3 points.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of Intermediate II French or the equivalent.

In-depth survey of the writers who exemplified French existentialism: Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir. The texts have been chosen for the richness with which they address fundamental philosophical questions about the meaning of life, especially questions of death and suffering, freedom and responsibility, legitimate and illegitimate violence. The first objective of this class is to show how existentialist thought combines literature and philosophy; the second objective is to gain a broad, but also deep familiarity with 20th-century French literature and thought. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required. 

FREN BC3106 Transatlantic Translation. 3.00 points.

A workshop in which students from the BC/CU community collaborate with a team of students from the École Normale Supérieure-Lyon on two translation projects. In addition to video-conferenced group sessions, students will work virtually with their translation partner in France, and consult in-person with their Barnard instructor. Prerequisite: completion of at least Intermediate II level of French

FREN BC3110 FRENCH NEW WAVE CINEMA. 3.00 points.

This course traces the emergence and development of “New Wave” cinema in France in the 60s. Through a detailed analysis of some of its most iconic films: 400 Blows, Breathless, Hiroshima mon amour… the course will examine the radical artistic and social innovations of its major “auteurs”; Truffaut, Godard, Resnais et al. FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required