French

This course provides an opportunity to participate in theatrical improvisation activities to develop oral skills. It practices expressing oneself in communication situations and learning to adapt to the context. The course includes guided improvisation and writing short dialogues around acts of staged speech. It facilitates development of oral skills through theatrical play; adapting to different communication situations (levels of language, sociocultural codes); learning about writing theatrical dialogue; and discovering French theater and theatrical techniques.

This course studies works (mainly literary) from prehistory to try to better understand the power of attraction that this still so enigmatic period in the history of man exerts on the imagination and to explore, particularly from the daydreams and fantasized representations that unfold there, what that they say about us more than about our distant ancestors. The course also provides an opportunity to address, from the texts studied, specifically literary questions, through for example those of genres and registers, the construction of the story or writing resources. Part of this course is devoted to the study of works of youth literature to discover the vision of prehistory that they offer.

This course studies French-Spanish filmmaker of Luis Buñuel, in particular his final and probably most productive period which was mainly French. Accompanied by screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, his faithful sidekick, the father of Spanish cinema drew his inspiration from several of the great French novels of the preceding decade. This course explores one of them, LE JOURNAL D’UNE FEMME DE CHAMBRE, to reflect on the specific work of adaptation characterized by varying degrees of difference from the original.

This course reflects on how the novel genre was constructed in awareness of multilingualism and the challenges of translation, based on the most translated novel in the world, DON QUIJOTE DE LA MANCHA. It discusses the numerous rewritings of the novel that have been carried out around the world and studies a certain number of “adaptations” for youth, theater, comics, and film.

Based on an exploration of visual and literary culture, this course addresses the place of women photographers and writers in the history of art; the expression of gender stereotypes in literary production and visual culture; and the deconstruction of these clichés by a new generation of artists, favoring a female gaze.

This course discusses the relationship between text, art, and the nature of the Renaissance. This course demonstrates how, in the 16th century, literature dictated the representation of space and the natural elements.

This course deals with the internal and external history of French. It examines how Latin was transformed to give birth to French and the deep grammatical characteristics that distinguish the two languages. The course also focuses on the survival of Latin as an intellectual language and the competition between Latin and French, particularly during the Renaissance. The history of spelling is also covered.

This course offers a chronological presentation of French literature from the 19th through the 20th centuries. It focuses on genres, major works, and authors, grounding them in significant events in French history.

This course represents additional work for the course FR 101A, FRENCH CIVILIZATION. This course studies key aspects of contemporary French culture and civilization. The course covers topics that are pertinent to the functions of French society such as state organization, the educational system, the press and media, and demographics.