Courses
Most of my courses are in the Deparment of French and Francophone Studies, but I also teach occasionally in Cross-cultural Studies. Here are the upper-division departmental courses I offer on a somewhat regular basis:
FREN 241. The Lyric and Other Seductions French lyric poetry occupies a privileged position in the literary landscape of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. However, it also shares a common heritage with less literary siblings, such as popular music and even advertising. Starting with the study of such poets as Lamartine, Desbordes-Valmore, Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Valéry, and Bonnefoy, we will also investigate poetic techniques in popular songs and contemporary ads. Conducted in French. Prerequisite: French 204. 6 cr., AL; LA.
FREN 249. Paris Program: European Identities: Paris and Madrid Paris is a world capital, a crossroads of cultures, races, classes, and languages. This vibrancy is related to France’s central role in the European Union, the evolution of which has produced tremendous changes within its member nations. The transformation of Europe has strained national and regional identities, and this strain can be "read" in various forms of expression, including literature, art, monuments, and public events. Studying the particular cases of Paris and Madrid–a "field trip" to Madrid is planned–students will examine the ways in which France is (re)defining itself within the context of an evolving Europe. Prerequisite: French 204. 6 cr., AL; LA, IS.
FREN 340. Arts of Brevity: Short Fiction The rise of newspapers and magazines in the nineteenth century promotes a variety of short genres that will remain popular to the present day: short stories, prose poetry, vignettes, theatrical scenes. In this short course (first five weeks of the term) we’ll study short works by such authors as Diderot, Sand, Balzac, Mérimée, Flaubert, Allais, Tardieu, Le Clézio. Conducted in French. Prerequisite: French 204; recommended preparation: French 206, 240, or 241. 3 cr., AL; LA, IS.
FREN 341. Madame Bovary and Her Avatars Decried as scandalous, heralded as the first "modern" novel, Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary (published in 1857) sparked debate, spawned both detractors and followers, and became a permanent fixture in French culture and even the French language. In this five-week course we will read the novel, study its cultural context and impact, and see how it has been variously re-interpreted in film and other media. Conducted in French. Prerequisite: French 204; recommended preparation: French 206, 240, or 241. 3 cr., AL; LA, IS.
FREN 354. Other Worlds What do Persians, Peruvians, Tartars, Tahitians and Eldoradans have in common? For one thing, they’re all present in eighteenth-century France’s heavily fantasized view of the world beyond its borders. By looking at texts and events of the long eighteenth century, including travel literature, voyages of discovery, and the Encyclopédie, we will examine the way the French used the outside world as a screen upon which to project its own imaginings. Authors may include Mme de Graffigny, Montesquieu, Bougainville, Diderot, Voltaire, Sade, Mme de Staël and Voltaire, among others. Conducted in French. Prerequisite: Prerequisite: French 204, recommended preparation: French 206, 240, or 241. 6 cr., AL; LA, IS.
LCST 245. Introduction to Critical Methods: Structure, Gender, Culture What does it mean to interpret? What questions do we ask of texts and images, and how do we go about finding our answers? In this course we will examine a number of strategies for reading works (such as novels, stories, images, films), drawing on a variety of national traditions. Topics include rhetoric, translation, post-structuralism, cultural studies, and gender studies. 6 cr., AL, WR; LA, WR2, IS.