French and Romance Philology

Modern art was born as an idea at the end of the 19th century, when France was at the center of the arts. Since then, French writers have written about the art of their time and promoted it, as Zola did for the Impressionists, or Apollinaire for the Cubists. Writing about modern art was also a way for writers to reflect on their own approach to poetics, and for philosophers to better understand what “modern times” and “modernity” could mean. But, in the course of the 20th century, writers and the visual arts of their time became less tightly interwoven. Novels, theater plays or essays have become bitter, sarcastic, critical of “contemporary art.” What is it that makes contemporary art a subject of satire or irony, for contemporary writers? This course tracks the relationship between writers, especially in France, and the visual arts of their time. By studying mostly works of imaginative literature, but also critical essays, that deal with “modern art” and “contemporary art”, we will try to understand why writers are fascinated by the visual arts of their time, what art says about the time we live in, whether it is “modern”, “postmodern” or “contemporary”, and how writers use the art of their time to define their own work and their own approach to literature.

We will begin in 19th century in France by considering how Baudelaire coined the word “modernity” in his essays on painting, and by examining novels about painters by Balzac and Zola. We will then turn to the 20th century to see how poets and writers promoted the avant-gardes, how Virginia Woolf depicted a painter to reflect on her own modernism in To the Lighthouse, and to study important philosophical texts about the work of art by Heidegger and Walter Benjamin. In the second part of the semester, we move to the United States, the “center of the arts” after World War II. We will study how critics advocated for abstraction and modern art, how this art was met with irony and sarcasm by Tom Wolfe, and we will reflect on an American painter of this time who was not doing abstract art: Edward Hopper. We will visit the exhibition “Edward Hopper’s New York” scheduled at the Whitney Museum. To end, we will come back to France, where the debate around contemporary art has been heated, and read polemical texts as well as Yasmina Reza’s famous play “Art” and Michel Houellebecq’s novel on contemporary art. We will also watch Ruben Ostlund’s film The Square, which received the Palme d’Or in Cannes in 2017. In the last session we will read Zadie Smith’s novel On Beauty and see how the debate around art has been changing over time as new questions are being raised, namely the question of minorities and white privilege in art.

This course explores the production of culture in the contemporary Maghreb. We consider how important dimensions of social and political life are explored in literature and film and, correspondingly, the role that these and other media play in shaping social and political dynamics. The focus is on Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, but these nations are also situated in broader regional and global contexts. Former French colonies, these three nations  have in common a multilingual cultural environment in which French coexists with Arabic and Amazigh languages.

The course begins in roughly 1990, a time of disenchantment when the political regimes established at Independence were challenged and in some cases replaced. We explore the dynamics of Algeria’s ‘Black Decade’ and Morocco’s emergence from the ‘Years of lead,’ then turn to more recent social and political dynamics, notably the ‘Arab spring’ of 2011-2012 and the ongoing Algerian hirak. Throughout the course we consider how the arts have responded to and contributed to change while also revisiting the past and reframing national narratives.

The course is interdisciplinary, combining historical, sociological and anthropological approaches with close reading of texts and films. The syllabus is organized both historically and thematically. We explore questions including the representation and memory of violence, the geographies and sociology of migration and globalization, and the changing landscape of media and publication. Several sessions explore the meaning of ‘modernity’ in conjunction with explorations of subjectivity and spirituality, gender and sexuality.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

The course will offer students an understanding of fundamental underlying concepts that structure French society and that are necessary to grasp if one wants to follow current events in France. This course could be of interest not only to CC students but also to students enrolled at SIPA or Teacher’s College.

Moreover, this course would allow for a comparative approach to how same events are covered in US, or other foreign media, and in France.

Given that this course will deal with current events, the readings will depend entirely on how the news unfolds. Students will be given an introduction to the various media outlets available to them: the press, television and online sources. As the course unfolds, I will adapt the choice of sources that best follow events as they happen. 2022 for example, will be the year France assumes the presidency of the European Union. It will also be the year of the presidential elections. For such events, I will propose specific institutional sources. On the other hand, events that could not be anticipated will require some form of guidance in terms of sources.

In spite of the obvious unpredictability of the specific content of this course, certain key concepts necessary to understand current events in France will be presented. These may vary slightly from one semester to another, but would include, without being limited to: the structure of government and public institutions, political parties, unions and “associations”, social benefits and “the welfare state”, public vs. private sector, “Paris is France”, universalism, secularism and “laïcité”, cultural exceptionalism, the figure of the intellectual, national identity, immigration, geography of France and demographics, relation to Europe, geopolitics, globalization and sovereignty. Of course, the choice of themes and concepts in a given semester would be influenced by dominant topics in the French news.

Prerequisites: FREN UN3405 must be taken before FREN UN3333/4 unless the student has an AP score of 5 or the director of undergraduate studies permission. The goal of FREN UN3405 is to help students improve their grammar and perfect their writing and reading skills, especially as a preparation for taking literature or civilization courses, or spending a semester in a francophone country. Through the study of two full-length works of literature and a number of short texts representative of different genres, periods, and styles, they will become more aware of stylistic nuances, and will be introduced to the vocabulary and methods of literary analysis. Working on the advanced grammar points covered in this course will further strengthen their mastery of French syntax. They will also be practicing writing through a variety of exercises, including pastiches and creative pieces, as well as typically French forms of academic writing such as “résumé,” “explication de texte,” and “dissertation.

Prerequisites: FREN UN3405 must be taken before FREN UN3333/4 unless the student has an AP score of 5 or the director of undergraduate studies permission. The goal of FREN UN3405 is to help students improve their grammar and perfect their writing and reading skills, especially as a preparation for taking literature or civilization courses, or spending a semester in a francophone country. Through the study of two full-length works of literature and a number of short texts representative of different genres, periods, and styles, they will become more aware of stylistic nuances, and will be introduced to the vocabulary and methods of literary analysis. Working on the advanced grammar points covered in this course will further strengthen their mastery of French syntax. They will also be practicing writing through a variety of exercises, including pastiches and creative pieces, as well as typically French forms of academic writing such as “résumé,” “explication de texte,” and “dissertation.

This class provides an introduction to the history of France and of the francophone world since the Middle Ages. It initiates students to the major events and themes that have shaped politics, society, and culture in France and its former colonies, paying special attention to questions of identity and diversity in a national and imperial context. Modules include a combination of lecture and seminar-style discussion of documents (in French).

This course is part of a two-course sequence and is a core requirement the French and Francophone Studies major.  

This class offers a survey of major works of French and francophone literature from the Middle Ages to the present. Emphasis will be placed on formal and stylistic elements of the works read and on developing the critical skills necessary for literary analysis. Works will be placed in their historical context.

France is seen as both a haven for the Jews, celebrated as the first Western European

nation to grant them equal rights, and as a uniquely dangerous place, infamous for a latent

antisemitism that periodically explodes in violent ways. Today, the country is home to the largest

Jewish population in Europe and the third largest in the world. It has also become internationally

known for its concept of laïcité, a form of secularism perceived as hostile toward the public

expression of religion. These seeming contradictions spark questions about the experience of

Jews in France that are the central subject of this course. After a brief historical survey of key

moments in the history of French Jewry, we will explore questions of French and Jewish

identities. Questions under consideration include: what does it mean to be French and Jewish at

the same time? How do Jews relate to dominant French culture and to other minorities? How

does France’s dual status as a republic and an empire complicate these questions? What is

particular about the Jewish experience in France compared to other Western European and North

American countries with significant Jewish populations? We will approach these questions from

a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including history, philosophy, sociology, literature and

film. Our discussions will draw on the rich tradition of French literary and philosophical works

about Jewish identity as well as recent texts and films. The majority of readings will be in

French, but discussion and assignments will be in English in order to make the course accessible

to more students.

Close reading of Rabelais, Marguerite de Navarre, Montaigne and La Boétie, in the context of the Renaissance, the rise of the individual, the religious quarrels, the civil wars, the discovery of the New World, the progress of science.

1. Course Description

Students curate, organize and attend a series of lectures open to all members of the French department, including graduate students, faculty and undergraduate majors/concentrators. Working with a faculty member, they invite two speakers each semester, collaborate on the scheduling and organization of talks, introduce guests and lead the discussion.

The lecture series exposes graduate students to new work in the field, including new methodologies and emerging areas of research and teaching. By giving students the opportunity to select speakers, it actively engages them in the cultural and intellectual life of the department. Students benefit from observing the different possible formats and styles of academic talks. By organizing and scheduling events, preparing speaker introductions and moderating questions and discussion, they also develop important professional skills.

The seminar will focus on an anthology of major philosophical texts from the second half of the 20th century, which address the issue of the Other (l’autre/Autrui) as an ontological and anthropological problem. They range from Sartre and Lacan to Levinas and Derrida through de Beauvoir, Levi-Strauss, Foucault, Irigaray and Fanon. Together, they construct a theoretical conversation which arguably redefined the dilemmas of identity and difference tracing back to the very beginnings of Western philosophy.