FREN 232 - The Modern Age

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

The course explores literary, artistic, social, or political manifestations of modern French society and its relation to the French-speaking world from the Napoleonic Empire to the present.

Topic for 2014/15a: Music and Text. From Bizet’s opera Carmen, inspired by Prosper Mérimée’s nineteenth-century novella, to modern cultural practices including rap, raï, slam, and environmentally focused sound recordings, the course examines literary language in relation to music. How does language “sing,” and what does music “say?” If music performs a “socially prescribed task,” as musicologist Richard Middleton proposes, then what do various combinations of music and language suggest about specific moments in French history? We address this question by considering music and literature both separately and together in relation to class, gender, ethnicity, and national identity. Readings include song lyrics, poetry by Charles Baudelaire and Paul Verlaine, a play by Marguerite Duras, and fiction by Germaine de Staël and Jean-Paul Sartre. Required films are Edmond T. Gréville’s Princesse Tam-Tam, Jaco van Dormael’s Toto le héros, and Christophe Barratier’s Les choristes. Ms. Hart.

Prerequisite: FREN 210 or FREN 212 or the equivalent.

Two 75-minute periods.