Catalogue 2021-2022 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
French and Francophone Studies Department
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Chair: Susan Hiner;
Professors: Patricia-Pia Célérier, Susan Hiner, Vinay Swamyab;
Associate Professors: Kathleen Harta, Anne Branckyb, Thomas Parker;
Visiting Assistant Professors: Matthew Amos, Adam Cutchin;
Adjunct Instructor: Athena Fokaidis.
a On leave 2021/22, first semester
b. On leave 2021/22, second semester
ab On leave 2021/22
Advisers: The department
Study Abroad: Study abroad is the most effective way to achieve linguistic and cultural fluency. Vassar College and Wesleyan University jointly sponsor a program of study in Paris (VWPP). Majors in French and Francophone Studies are encouraged to participate in this program for one or two semesters during their junior year. Students electing a correlate sequence in French and Francophone Studies are also encouraged to participate in the program. Students concentrating in other fields and for whom study in Paris is advisable are accepted, within the regulations of their respective departments and the Office of the Dean of Studies. Students of French and Francophone Studies who are unable to study abroad during the academic year are strongly encouraged to attend the summer program at Middlebury College French School, or other summer programs in France or French-speaking countries.
All courses are conducted in French unless otherwise specified.
Major
Correlate Sequence in French and Francophone Studies
Students majoring in other programs may complement their study by electing a correlate sequence in French and Francophone Studies. Those interested in completing a correlate sequence should consult as soon as possible with a member of the department to plan their course of studies. French and Francophone Studies: I. Introductory
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FFS 105 - Elementary French Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Fundamentals of the language. Students learn to understand spoken French, to express simple ideas both orally and in writing, and to read French of average difficulty. While enhancing their communicative skills, students acquire knowledge of France and the Francophone world. Athena Fokaidis.
Enrollment limited by class.
Open to seniors by permission of the instructor.
Not open to students who have previously studied French.
Yearlong course 105-FFS 106 .
Three 50-minute periods; two 50-minute periods of drill and oral practice.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 106 - Elementary French Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Fundamentals of the language. Students learn to understand spoken French, to express simple ideas both orally and in writing, and to read French of average difficulty. While enhancing their communicative skills, students acquire knowledge of France and the Francophone world. Athena Fokaidis.
Enrollment limited by class.
Open to seniors by permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have previously studied French.
Students should go on to FFS 205 after successful completion of 106.
Yearlong course FFS 105 -106.
Three 50-minute periods; two 50-minute periods of drill and oral practice.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 109 - Basic French Review Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
For students who have had some French but who are not yet ready for an intermediate course. Students learn to understand spoken French, to express simple ideas both orally and in writing, and to read French of average difficulty. While enhancing their communicative skills, students acquire knowledge of France and the Francophone world. Patricia-Pia Célérier.
Enrollment limited by class.
Placement test required.
Three 50-minute periods; two 50-minute periods of drill and oral practice.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 170 - Perspectives in French and Francophone Cultures Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Topic for 2021/22b: Questions of Character. French post-war writers and critics insisted on treating fictional characters as strictly textual entities not to be confused with psychological beings capable of moral agency. But why do we still care what fictional characters do? What incites us to talk about certain characters as if they were real people? Why, until recently, did most scholars frown upon doing so? What can a renewed interrogation of character teach us about storytelling, other cultures, and our own individual or group biases? We pursue these questions while focusing on celebrated works of fiction and film set in French-speaking countries. The course emphasis is on close reading, discussion, writing for revision, peer review, and the exploration of secondary texts representing a variety of disciplinary approaches. All discussions and texts are in English. Films include Casablanca (Michael Curtiz,1942) and one other title, to be announced. Kathleen Hart.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
All readings and discussions are in English. No knowledge of French is necessary.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
French and Francophone Studies: II. Intermediate
The intermediate level comprises three ascending levels: 1) FFS 205 and FFS 206 2) FFS 210 and FFS 212 and 3) 200-level courses numbered above 212. Rotating topics courses may be taken more than once.
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FFS 205 - Intermediate French I Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Basic grammar review and vocabulary acquisition. Oral and written practice using short texts, audiovisual and on-line resources. Enrollment limited by class. Adam Cutchin.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 105 -FFS 106 , or permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have taken a course at or above the FFS 206 level.
Enrollment limited by class.
Placement test required.
Three 50-minute or two 75-minute periods; 50 minutes of scheduled oral practice.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 206 - Intermediate French II Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Emphasis on more complex linguistic structures. Reading, writing, and speaking skills are developed through discussion of cultural and literary texts and use of audiovisual material. The course prepares students linguistically for cultural and literary study at the intermediate level. Matthew Amos.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 205 or permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have taken a course at or above the FFS 210 level.
Enrollment limited by class. Placement test required.
Three 50-minute or two 75-minute periods; 50 minutes of scheduled oral practice.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 210 - The Francophone World Through Text, Sound, and Image Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Introduction to the Francophone world and to basic modes of interpretation and analysis through the study and discussion of short texts (print or online magazine or newspaper articles, short stories, essays), films, and other visual or recorded media. The course includes a grammar workshop, vocabulary building, essay writing, image analysis, and “explication de texte.” The course includes review and expansion of complex linguistic structures, and serves as a preparation for upper 200-level courses. Athena Fokaidis.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 206 or the equivalent.
Enrollment limited by class. Placement test required.
Two 75-minute periods; 50 minutes of scheduled oral practice.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 212 - Reading Literature and Film Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Introductory study of French and Francophone literature and cinema through the analysis and discussion of poetry, short fiction, theater, the essay, and film. Biographical information, cultural context, historical background, critical theory, and the evolution of genre are explored. Patricia-Pia Célérier.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 210 or equivalent.
Enrollment limited by class. Placement test required.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 228 - Tellers and Tales
1 unit(s)
The course uses short stories to think about culture, and culture to think about stories. How do stories challenge or reinforce the prevailing beliefs and practices of a specific era, region or subculture of the French-speaking world? The study of narrative techniques, such as point of view and event sequencing, can help us address such questions. After exploring narrative techniques in short fictional works, we turn our attention to film adaptations, storytelling podcasts, and a French song tradition of storytelling. Authors include Honoré de Balzac, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Liliane Dévieux, Guy de Maupassant, Anna Gavalda.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 230 - Ancients vs. Moderns: Past, Present and Future in the French Literary Tradition Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
A defining conflict that shook the French literary world from the late 17th to the early 18th centuries, the Querelle des anciens et des modernes pitted those who found the ancient Greeks and Romans to be unsurpassable in terms of artistic merit against those who considered contemporary esthetic innovations to be a progression beyond the inheritance of Antiquity. Although we read several texts commonly included in the canon of the Querelle, this course is not meant to be a survey of this specific historical conflict, but rather a broader exploration of the roles played by the past, the present and the future in the creation and reception of works of literature in the medieval and early modern French tradition and beyond. Readings may include selections from Chrétien de Troyes, Marguerite de Navarre, Molière, Voltaire, Rousseau, Bataille and Cassin among others. Matthew Amos.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 231 - Revolutionary France and Its Legacies
1 unit(s)
Studies in French literature, history, and culture in relation to the French Revolution during the Enlightenment and the Romantic period.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 232 - The Modern Age Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Topic for 2021/22a: The Worlds of Madame Bovary. Censored by the government on moral and religious grounds, Flaubert’s 1857 novel Madame Bovary is considered today to be an important document for reading modernity in France, a rich example of the conflicts surrounding the feminine in the nineteenth century, and a “master text” of French literature. The novel is also relevant to contemporary questions of material culture, desire and the feminine, the individual and society, and literary production. Taking Madame Bovary as our central focus, we read Flaubert’s masterpiece in conjunction with some of the novels, images, and texts from the everyday press that informed the culture that produced its heroine and that she fictitiously and famously consumed. The principles of simultaneous readings and the juxtaposition of genres that organize this course offer a unique perspective into both what Emma Bovary read and the influence of mass culture on the production of the literary. We also consider how Emma’s readings and character persist into the twentieth century by taking up some later incarnations of this novel in both film and text. This class serves as both an exploration of narrative forms and an introduction to the practice of interdisciplinary cultural analysis. Susan Hiner.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 235 - Contemporary France Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
In this course, we analyze the major historical and cultural events that have shaped France’s evolution since the end of WWII, and the start of the 5th République. We gain an understanding of the country’s current identity crisis by looking at the consequences of decolonization, the changing roles of intellectuals and the media, the emergence of women in the public sphere, the causes of enduring social inequalities, the legitimacy of the French Republican model in relation to European integration and national sovereignty, multiculturalism and globalization. The course draws on a wide range of texts, films, songs, and documents including essays and articles from the press. Patricia-Pia Celerier.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 240 - Grammar and Composition Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
A course designed to improve written expression through the study and practice of various forms of writing, readings, and oral practice as well as an in-depth study of major aspects of French grammar. Adam Cutchin.
Prerequisite(s): A minimum of FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Recommended: One unit above FFS 212 .
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 241 - Composition and Conversation
1 unit(s)
A course designed to improve written and oral expression, through the study and practice of various forms of writing, and the discussion of readings on contemporary issues. Enrollment limited by class.
Prerequisite(s): A minimum of FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Recommended: One unit above FFS 212 is recommended.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 242 - Studies in Genre I
1 unit(s)
Study of narrative and prose forms including the novel, autobiography, and the essay. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 243 - Studies in Genre II
1 unit(s)
Studies of dramatic and lyric forms, including theater, poetry, and song.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 244 - French Cinema
1 unit(s)
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 280 - Reading and Writing the Francophone City: Montréal Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
As the second-largest primarily Francophone city in the world and the most populous city in Quebec, Montreal exerts a special fascination on writers and readers alike, both within and beyond its borders. How has the city— and the ways it has been experienced— been recorded? How have these diverse ways of recording the city influenced not just how others experience it, but how the city itself has evolved? Straddling literary, cultural and urban studies, this course, draws on a variety of practical, theoretical, literary, historical, sociological, and linguistic approaches to interpreting urban space in order to expand students’ knowledge of how to “read” a city. By analyzing popular fiction, newspapers, caricatures, maps, postcards, advertisements and more, we make connections between text, visual culture, and urban space. We explore the ways the authors’ lived experience and Montreal’s built environment have responded to each other—as reflected in the texts studied—in an enduring fashion, which has nonetheless led to an ever-shifting city, both real and imagined. Adam Cutchin.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
As a form of community-engaged learning, students work either in pairs or alone to offer lessons or animation involving French language and culture at a school or other local site. Grades usually range from kindergarten to middle school. Lessons involve simple vocabulary, songs, games, and imparting geographical or cultural information. Under the supervision of the faculty coordinator, students invent weekly lesson plans, reflect on their experience in weekly blog posts or journals written in French, and write a final paper in French. Students also meet periodically with the faculty coordinator to discuss their experiences. The course is special permission because students who register for it must obtain a form from the Office of Community-Engaged Learning. Kathleen Hart.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 206 or the equivalent.
Course Format: INT -
FFS 291 - 19th-Century POP Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
In this half-unit project-based intensive we explore various forms of 19th-century French popular culture: from the daily press, the fashion press, serial, theatrical, and panoramic literature to caricatures, political satire, popular illustration, and advertisements. We consider the history, range, and power of popular culture and reflect on the origins of our own viral culture. Works studied include both online and Vassar archival press materials, selected contemporary scholarship, and several short texts representative of popular French literature. The intensive foregrounds discussion and regular blog post assignments to prepare for individual independent work. Susan Hiner.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or equivalent or permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: INT -
FFS 294 - Le Labo: The Culture and Language of the French and Francophone Labs
0.5 unit(s)
(Same as BIOL 294 ) This half-unit intensive meets several times over the course of the semester to prepare students wishing to enroll in a course in the sciences while on a Francophone program abroad. Students learn to navigate francophone laboratory setting and cultures while reading scientific articles in the French language and work on building technical vocabulary in a field of their choice. Texts studied depend on student interest, but may include readings from any of the disciplines in the natural sciences and mathematics. Students also learn to write scientific material in the target language. Independent work between course meetings is emphasized. Offered in conjunction with the department of Biology/French and Francophone Studies.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 210 or the equivalent recommended; can be taken simultaneously with 210.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: INT -
FFS 295 - Voices of Exile and Migration
1 unit(s)
What does it mean to live in exile? What happens to the subject and the voice that s/he produces? This intensive delves into narratives of exile, migration and immigration, whether forced or chosen, and considers the political and aesthetic effects of writing about and from exile. This intensive has two components. We read and discuss French-language texts by authors who have experienced and speak to exile and migration. We also work with French-speaking immigrants, migrants and/or refugees to bear witness to their narratives and to retransmit them through transmedial storytelling techniques. Students are invited to consider the impact of the pandemic and policy on immigration, migration and asylum. If available, additional opportunities for community engagement are offered.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: INT -
FFS 296 - La chanson engagée: Songs of Protest and Hope
0.5 unit(s)
This half-unit intensive explores the word-play, musical traditions, and cultural history of French-language songs expressing desire for social or political change. We start with the politically engaged or anti-authoritarian traditions of French chanson in the 19th and 20th centuries, then examine their continuities with song traditions in other parts of the French-speaking world. Vocabulary and methods are introduced for discussing and analyzing music, sound (including tone of voice), and interactions between acoustic, verbal and visual images. Activities culminate in an analytical presentation that incorporates organized sound in the form of either recordings by known artists, or a live performance involving music or rhythmic speech (for instance, in the case of slam, or speech that imitates French cabaret style). Alternatively, the student project can involve the creation of background music or sound effects for French-language lyrics or poetry relating to the course content. Students participate in choosing the regions and time periods studied.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 210 or the equivalent.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: INT -
FFS 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
One unit of credit given only in exceptional cases and by permission of the chair. The department.
Course Format: OTH -
FFS 299 - Poetry, Sound and Music Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
In 2021, the Paris-based publishing house Fayard chose Congolese-Belgian singer Marie-Pierre Kakoma, known by her fans as Lous and the Yakuza, to translate Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem “The Hill We Climb.” The choice might astonish people accustomed to thinking of poets primarily as writers. But for centuries, many French-language songwriters have described themselves or been described as literary artists. This intensive focuses on the overlap between French-language poetry, song traditions, and environmental sound art in the French-speaking world. How does poetry “sing,” and what does music “say?” What new relationships are being forged between poetry and environmental sound art in French-speaking contexts? Vocabulary and methods are introduced for discussing music, sound (including tone of voice) and interactions between acoustic, verbal and visual images. Bi-weekly blogs and workshop activities culminate in an analytical presentation that incorporates organized sound in the form of recordings by known artists, or a live performance involving music or rhythmic speech (for instance, in the case of rap, slam, or speech that imitates a French cabaret style). Alternatively, the student project can involve the creation of background music or sound effects for French-language lyrics or poetry. Students participate in choosing the regions and time periods studied. Kathleen Hart.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: INT
French and Francophone Studies: III. Advanced
Prerequisite for all advanced courses: two units of 200-level work above FFS 212 , or equivalent, or by permission of the department. Open to first-year students and sophomores only by permission of the instructor. Rotating topics courses may be taken more than once.
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FFS 300 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Open only to majors. The department.
Permission required.
Course Format: INT -
FFS 301 - Senior Translation Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 or 1 unit(s)
Open only to majors. One unit of credit given in exceptional cases only and by permission of the chair. The department.
Course Format: OTH -
FFS 302 - Senior Project Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
Senior Thesis Preparation. Course to be taken in conjunction with FFS 303 . Only open to majors.
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FFS 303 - Senior Project Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
Senior Thesis. To be taken upon successful completion of FFS 302 . Open only to majors.
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FFS 332 - Literature and Society in Pre-Revolutionary France
1 unit(s)
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 348 - Modernism and its Discontents Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Topic for 2021/22b: Fashion’s Empires. This course examines the emergence of fashion as one of French modernity’s most complex and ideologically charged discourses. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, we consider the historical and cultural evolution of fashion in France from the end of the Old Regime to the early twentieth century. From the spectacle of Marie Antoinette’s fashion excesses to the new chic of Chanel’s simplicity, the course explores the ways in which fashion and its representation in both text and image operated on gender, society and national identity in France’s modern age. Studying literary texts next to historical documents, illustrations, real objects, and works of fashion theory, our analysis reveals fashion’s central and powerful role in French culture. Authors studied may include Girardin, Balzac, Baudelaire, Zola, Mallarmé, Proust, Colette, alongside illustrators and fashion writers. Susan Hiner.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 355 - Cross Currents in French Culture
1 unit(s)
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 366 - Francophone Literature and Cultures Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Topic for 2021/22a: Ciné-vérité? Narratives and French and Francophone Documentary Film-Making. The Francophone world has a rich and varied documentary film tradition ranging from René Vautier’s “Afrique 50”, the first anticolonial film, to Alain Resnais’ Nuit et Brouillard (1956), Marcel Ophüls’ Le Chagrin et la pitié (1969), Nicolas Philibert’s Être et avoir (2002), Agnès Varda’s Les Plages d’Agnès (2008), Moussa Sene Absa’s Yoole, le sacrifice (2010), and Nadia El Fani’s Même Pas Mal (2012). This seminar explores different genres of Francophone short- and feature-length documentaries including works of the historical, social and political varieties, the ‘essai documentaire’, the ‘auto-documentaire’ as well as Web and radio documentaries, and television Web-series. We use this palette of audio-visual essays as a springboard both to examine the specificities of this genre’s form and the ways they interrogate the burning issues they seek to analyze, and to gauge the extent to which they frame – and perhaps even define – the French and Francophone cultures they depict. Patricia-Pia Cèlèrier.
Prerequisite(s): One course above FFS 212 or the equivalent.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 370 - Stylistics and Translation Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Translation is used as a vehicle for creative experimentation and intellectual inquiry while enhancing students’ French communicative skills. Students become more sophisticated speakers and writers by practicing how to render specific grammatical structures and lexical items from French to English and vice versa. At the same time, they learn to think critically about the broader cultural issues raised by translation as a form of creative rewriting. Class discussion centers on cultural as well as more language-focused issues raised by translations of various French-language literary passages, proverbs, cinematic subtitles or advertisements from different time periods and regions of the francophone world. Exploring various theories, strategies and concepts, students learn to reflect on their translation choices with enhanced sensitivity to language, culture, genre, and context. Kathleen Hart.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 380 - Adventures in Autofiction and Autotheory Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
How do personal experiences and positionings make their way into literary writing and theoretical explorations? In recent years, French-language writers have been at the forefront of an emergent, highly politicized, and deeply personal writing practice that many are calling autotheory. This new experimental mode extracts political epistemologies from the embodied experience of the writer and explores the individual implications of systemic policies and institutionalized practices. These writers inherit a long tradition of personal writing in French, and in particular, the boundary-blurring techniques associated with autofiction, a literary tendency developed largely by women writers of the 1980s and 1990s. In this course, we study both autofictional and autotheoretical texts and examine the complex relationships between life and writing, truth and fiction, theory and practice. Authors may include Marguerite Duras, Assia Djebar, Annie Ernaux, Virginie Despentes, Edouard Louis, Paul B. Preciado, Amandine Gay. Anne Brancky.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
FFS 382 - Islam, Race, and Gender in French Intellectual Culture Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as RELI 382 ) Muslim French intellectuals and social activists are deeply engaged in debate and community organizing related to religion, racialization, and gender politics. This intensive is a mentored research experience that takes students into an ongoing book project on Muslim intellectual culture in France. This research draws on humanistic and social scientific methods to learn from the thinkers and social actors who are shaping Muslim collective life against the grain of the politicized construction of a “Muslim problem” in France. Key themes include social ethics, class and class mobility, racialization and religious belonging, French urban space, spirituality, and gender and sexuality. Our sources include manifestos, sociological texts, works of theology, memoirs, amateur short films, poetry, works of critical social theory, podcasts, and ethnographic interview transcripts, as well as state documents such as parliamentary reports and legislation. Virtual visits to French Muslim community spaces may be possible as part of the class. Readings are in French, and discussions and written work are in English. Students and faculty work together on original research based on these materials. Students interested in taking this intensive who do not have advanced reading knowledge of French should contact the instructor for further information. Kirsten Wesselhoeft.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: INT -
FFS 392 - French TV Series Unwound Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
French TV series are slowly becoming known abroad through streaming platforms such as Netflix or HBO. In France, however, TV series of notable breadth and quality have captivated viewers and critics alike for almost 20 years. Produced through public television channels such as France 2, France 3 or Arte, or by private ones such as Canal +, series like Engrenages (2005 to 2020), and Un Village français (2009 to 2017) have gained cult status. With others, for example Les Revenants (2012), Ainsi soient-ils (2012-2015), Dix pour cent ([Call my Agent], 2015, 4 seasons), Le Bureau des légendes ([The Bureau], 2015, 5 seasons), Mytho (2016), Le Baron Noir (2016), and Mixte (2021), they have tackled significant social and historical issues, cut across cinematic genres, and renewed in creative ways the techniques of visual story telling. In this half-unit project-based intensive, students explore and analyze the richness of some of these productions through independent work and collaboration. Patricia-Pia Celerier.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or equivalent or permission of the instructor.
Two hours every other week.
Course Format: INT -
FFS 393 - Advanced Independent Projects in French and Francophone Studies Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
This intensive brings together students who wish to deepen their understanding of a specific area of interest in French and Francophone Studies. Students share research through discussion as well as exercises that foster critical reflection on the topic in bi-weekly group meetings and independently. This work culminates in a final project or paper that is presented salon-style to their peers and the department. Patricia-Pia Célérier.
Two hours every other week.
Course Format: INT -
FFS 394 - Independent Work on Post-Study Away Projects Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
This intensive brings together students who wish to deepen their understanding of a specific area of interest related to their study away and work with data gathered while abroad. Students supplement their findings while away with research at home as well as exercises that foster critical reflection on the topic in bi-weekly group meetings and independently. This work culminates in a final project or paper that is presented salon-style to their peers and the department. Students are invited to propose topics prior to their departure abroad. Susan Hiner.
Repeatable for credit.
Two hours every other week.
Course Format: INT -
FFS 395 - Thinking Africa: Conversations on the Thought of Achille Mbembe
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 395 and POLI 395 ) The Intensive examines a select number of texts by Achille Mbembe, the Cameroonian postcolonial theorist and author of De La Postcolonie: Essai sur l’Imagination Politique dans L’Afrique Contemporaine (2000) [On The Postcolony (2001)], “Necropolitics” (2003), Sortir de la Grande Nuit (2010), Critique de la Raison Nègre (2013) [Critique of Black Reason (2016)]. Charting Mbembe’s intellectual history, the major debates and concepts he engages, and their implication for thinking with and about Africa, we discuss the complexity of an African thinker reflecting on the condition of a continent (and humanity at large).
A goal of this Intensive is to develop a greater critical fluency on what it means to think, read and write the world from Africa. With insights from Mbembe’s corpus and the work of his interlocutors, the Intensive explores the stakes of Mbembe’s thought and relates them to other lines of inquiry, reflection, and creativity. Working individually and collaboratively, the students undertake a large writing, translation, or creative project which engages an element of Mbembe’s work and relates it to an area of their intellectual interest.
This intensive is organized as a peer-to-peer, inter-disciplinary conversation hinging on three main activities: 1. Textual exegesis, translation (from French to English) of interviews, podcasts, and conference presentations, and critique. 2. Participation in two student-organized workshops with Mbembe’s interlocutors from different disciplines, e.g., Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Philosophy/French, Columbia University) and Abdourahman Waberi (Literature and Creative Writing, George Washington University). 3. Ongoing conversation and guided independent studies with the two professors teaching the intensive as they edit a volume on the themes of this intensive.
Working in English and French, this team-taught intensive allows students to collaboratively explore Mbembe’s ideas in ways that might not be possible in a traditional senior seminar. Our discussions will take place in English, with the French and Francophone Studies students reading some of the texts and writing their assignments in French for FFS credit.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: INT -
FFS 396 - Subtitling French Films
0.5 unit(s)
This hands-on intensive workshop gives the opportunity for students interested in translation and cinema to work on subtitling a contemporary French film (TBD), which does not have published subtitles. Translation comprises both an art and a craft that requires close attention to meaning and nuance. Given the exigencies of the real-time context of a film, providing comprehensive subtitles to oral discourse in the cinematic medium requires further honing of translation skills. To that end, this workshop is open to students who have considerable experience with the French language, and preferably to those who have completed FFS 370 or equivalent. This half-unit workshop runs for the entire semester, giving us time to learn to accurately transcribe dialogue, produce succinct subtitles, as well as master appropriate technology to integrate our work with the original soundtrack and film.
Prerequisite(s): FFS 370 or equivalent or permission of the instructor.
Two hours every other week.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: INT -
FFS 397 - Student-Staged Surrealism: Liberty, Provocation, and Scandal
0.5 unit(s)
Students present, interpret, and perform surrealism as a movement for protest and artistic, intellectual, and political freedom. We begin by examining how surrealist movements have been born and altered to fit different cultural, political and social contexts, with student-led workshops and discussions on decrees ranging from the 1916 Dada Manifesto and André Breton’s 1924 Manifeste du Surréalism all the way to D. Scot Miller’s 2009 Afrosurreal Manifesto. Turning from theory to practice, students demonstrate how the discursive voice of art alternatively challenges and transcends political rules by curating a 21st-century surrealist exhibition. Finally, in the final segment, students appropriate the surrealist process and the style of a particular artist in the service of artistic, political, or intellectual freedom to stage a vernissage for the FFS French Club. Possible projects include: a life-size calligram (Apollinaire), a sculpture (Duchamp, Giacometti), a photo exhibition (Man Ray, Cahun), a film (Buñuel, Cocteau), a painting (Ernst, De chirico), fashion (Schiaperelli), or object construction (Dali, Oppenheim).
Prerequisite(s): Permission by the instructor requested in red on an imitation jackal ear.
Two hours every other week.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: INT -
FFS 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
One unit of credit given only in exceptional cases and by permission of the Chair. The department.
Course Format: OTH
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