French and Romance Philology

In this course, we will consider French-language cinema as an inherently global
phenomenon, which stems both from the transnational nature of the medium itself, and the
legacy of the former French empire. From the very beginning, the Lumière brothers sent
cameramen and projectionists to faraway locations—from India to Indochina, or from Mexico to
Morocco. If early French ethnographic and narrative cinema functioned as a form of soft power,
by the mid-20 th -century, filmmakers were on the frontlines of anti-colonial militantism,
documenting, for instance, the horrors of the Algerian War. In the wake of decolonization, great
African directors tackled the challenges of emergent nations, as well as the complex neocolonial
networks that kept them tied to European metropoles. Today, filmmakers from around the
world—from Iran to Cambodia—turn to live-action film and animation in French—despite their
complicated relationships to both the language and France’s former empire. This course will
include units on: ethnography and docufiction; colonial and anticolonial cinema; historical
violence and memory; banlieue, beur, and Black identities; and emergent queer filmmakers.
Taught in English, with films in French (and other languages) with English subtitles. Required
readings will be available in English, with some optional readings in French for French majors
and minors. Satisfies the Global Core requirement. Students may receive credit for the French
major / minor if they submit their papers in French.

Prerequisites: Primarily for students who need further instruction to qualify for the intermediate course. Credit cannot be granted for both FREN BC1002 and BC1102 (or its equivalent). Enrollment limited to 20 students per section. Oral and written review of basic grammar and syntax. Readings in modern French and Francophone literature.

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.

The city of Paris, in the years between 1870 and 1914, was the scene of one of the most dynamic, progressive, and chaotic periods in French history. The era came to be fondly–and retrospectively–known as the Belle Époque. It is true that between the revolution of the Paris Commune in 1870 and the outbreak of World War I, Paris was the locus of successive waves of social and cultural discoveries and innovation at all levels of society, in all aspects of economic and political life, and in all fields of artistic creation and technological advance. But this time of dazzling advances was accompanied by social upheaval, political turmoil, inequality, poverty and discrimination. In our course, we will explore the period of 1870-1914 in Paris in its myriad aspects. We will give special attention to how artistic production, especially in the areas of literature, the visual arts and music, reflect rapid social change in a volatile political environment. Another focus point will be the evolving role of women in society and the visible questioning of gender and sexual identity. We will also examine French colonialism and specifically how it was represented and displayed in three successive Expositions Universelles (Worlds Fairs) held in Paris in 1878, 1889, and 1900. Throughout our exploration, we will consider not only the beauty and charm of the City of Light, but also the more complex and dark aspects of this moment of intense social and transformation. Finally, we will consider the fact that the term “Belle Époque” is itself a label, a retrospective reimagining in the mid-twentieth century of a privileged moment in the past, already distant and forever lost. This will lead us to consider collective memory as a cultural process that creates “periods” and “versions” of the past in an effort to better grapple with the present.

Discussion section for FREN BC2456: Paris in La Belle Epoque

Discussion section for FREN BC2456: Paris in La Belle Epoque

Translation of French texts--both critical and literary, focusing on particular questions or themes.  FREN BC1204: French Intermediate II or the equivalent level is required.

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. 

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.

What are French people actually saying to each other? You’ve taken French for 3+ years, have been reading literature, watching films and writing about them in sophisticated analyses. Yet, conversations among native speakers may still elude you. This course is designed to help you bridge that gap, and gain a better understanding of the slang (argot) and the pop culture references that contribute to French’s vibrancy. Together we will review a variety of contemporary French popular art forms, from music, film and graphic novels to street art, film, and food culture. We will explore the history of these genres, and the ways in which French identity is continuously (re)-established in its popular culture with and against the influences of decolonization, Americanization and globalization. The course is conducted in French.

The course is an introduction to the visual arts and art professions in the context of French and

francophone arts and cultural institutions. Students will experience arts through class discussions of artistic production and a familiarization with art history and art criticism in French, presentations, workshops, discussions with art professionals, guest lectures, and visits to art museums and

galleries. Students who take the class can apply for paid internships in an art institution in the

spring following the class. In these internships, students will use some of the French language

skills they have acquired in class.

UN3405 enables students to hone and perfect their reading and writing skills while improving their ability to express and organize thoughts in French. In this engaging advanced language class, students are exposed to major texts in fields as diverse as journalism, sociology, anthropology, politics, literature, philosophy and history. Stimulating class discussions, targeted reviews of key grammatical points in context, and an array of diverse writing exercises all contribute to strengthen students’ mastery of the French language. This course also works as a bridge class between Intermediate French II and courses that focus on French and Francophone cultures, history and literature (such as 3409 and 3410). Students who take this class will be fully prepared to take advanced content classes or spend a semester in a Francophone country. This class is required for the French major and minor.

UN3405 enables students to hone and perfect their reading and writing skills while improving their ability to express and organize thoughts in French. In this engaging advanced language class, students are exposed to major texts in fields as diverse as journalism, sociology, anthropology, politics, literature, philosophy and history. Stimulating class discussions, targeted reviews of key grammatical points in context, and an array of diverse writing exercises all contribute to strengthen students’ mastery of the French language. This course also works as a bridge class between Intermediate French II and courses that focus on French and Francophone cultures, history and literature (such as 3409 and 3410). Students who take this class will be fully prepared to take advanced content classes or spend a semester in a Francophone country. This class is required for the French major and minor.

Who were the Gauls and when was Paris the "capital of modernity"? What caused the French and Haitian Revolutions? Why do the French care so much about religion, nation, empire or, for that matter, food and fashion? This class surveys the history of France and the Francophone world from the Middle Ages to the present. It provides an introduction to major events and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions of people in France and across the world, in its former colonies. From feudalism and absolutism to imperialism, capitalism, and republicanism, we explore how questions of identity and difference play out in politics, culture and society. The class is based in lecture and discussion and relies on close readings of primary sources. The course is taught entirely in French and is one of two core courses for the major and minor in French. Students are encouraged to take FREN 3405 prior to this course.

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.

This course examines French from a linguistic perspective: the historical development of the language, as well as important phonetic, phonological, and sociolinguistic aspects of varieties of French from around the world. The course is intended for undergraduates in French, as well as students in linguistics, and is open to students across the Columbia community.

Asylum/Asile is an experiential learning class conducted in collaboration with Project Rousseau, a holistic non-profit organization that helps young people in communities with the greatest need.  

Since migrant youth and families began arriving in New York by bus from the southern border, Project Rousseau has been on the frontlines serving them. A large proportion of these migrants are Francophone asylum seekers who need support with their application. This class will teach the theory and practice of asylum law, the specific sociohistorical, cultural, and political contexts that motivates Francophone asylum seekers, especially in the case of Mauritania and Guinea, and the ways in which translation is critical to this process. The class will culminate in students assisting Project Rousseau’s Francophone clients with their asylum applications. 

The class is offered in the Fall. Interested students will be able to apply for internships with Project Rousseau in the Spring Semester. 

“Quand on refuse, on dit non”, said Ivorian novelist Ahmadou Kourouma towards the end of his life. Taking this stance as a starting point, this seminar will explore, through the lens of the novel, major political upheavals in the Francophone world during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. We will shed light on the history of decolonization, May 68, the feminist movement, and struggles against racism and injustice by delving into the imaginary worlds of six leading francophone novelists: Marguerite Duras, Ahmadou Kourouma, Assia Djebar, Hélène Cixous, George Perec and Édouard Glissant.

French literature has been preoccupied with prostitutes and prostitution for centuries. This course proposes to examine the some of the various depictions of women and men who make their living via sexual activity, from the 18th century through our own era. We will trace the different varieties of “loose women”, identifying an extensive taxonomy of courtisanes, lorettes, grisettes, filles de joie etc., in male-authored works from Manon Lescaut (1731) through the apogee of literary obsession with “fallen women” in the 19th-century. Over the course of the century the romantic “whore with a heart of gold” trope (Dumas’s Dame aux camélias) coexisted with Mérimée’s fatal gypsy Carmen, Flaubert and Baudelaire’s insistence on prostitution as metaphor, Maupassant’s analyses of bourgeois hypocrisy in this regard, and, finally, Zola’s irresistible and destructive Nana. The 20th century saw more nuanced depictions of both female and male prostitution from such authors as Colette and Jean Genet. We will conclude with 21st-century first-person accounts of sex work by Nelly Arcan (Putain, 2001) and Virginie Despentes (King Kong théorie, 2006).   

The objective of this course will be to tease out Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s complex and often contradictory ideas on women and gender difference in nature and society, to examine his own gender construction in his autobiographical writings, and to determine how women writers from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries have responded to these aspects of his work. Readings of Rousseau’s works (in French) will include the Discours sur l’inégalité, Émile, the Lettre à d’Alembert and the Confessions. Other authors will include Louise d’Épinay, Isabelle de Charrière, Olympe de Gouges, Germaine de Staël, Mary Wollstonecraft, Marie-Jeanne Roland de la Platière, George Sand and Monique Wittig, along with contemporary feminist criticism on Rousseau. The course will be taught in French with most readings in French, but papers may be written in English for non-majors or graduate students from other departments. This course fulfills the pre-1800 requirement for the French major and the 18th Century requirement for the MA or PhD in the French Department.

By the end of the course students should be conversant in the major arguments, themes and motifs Rousseau develops with respect to women and gender difference in the state of nature and society. They should have gained a nuanced understanding of the ways gender and sexuality are constructed in the Confessions and in the autobiographical works of women authors inspired by it. They should be able to characterize the diverse ways that various women writers, from Rousseau’s time to the present, have responded to his depiction of women and gender. They should have gained the ability to speak with fluency in French about these complex issues, and to develop in their written work, in French or in English, coherent and original arguments about Rousseau, women and gender. Above all, students will be expected to develop their own point of view on a central paradox of Rousseau’s corpus: how is it that a writer often derided in his own time and our own as misogynist has had such an outsized influence on successive generations of women writers?

Graduate students attend and lead a series of lectures open to all members of the French department, including graduate students, faculty and undergraduate majors/concentrators. These lectures are planned in conjunction with graduate seminars occurring that year, and graduate students are expected to introduce the guest speakers 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, while enriching the cultural and intellectual life of the department. Students benefit from meeting important faculty in the field and from observing the different possible formats and styles of academic talks. By helping to prepare events, write speaker introductions and moderate Q&A sessions, they also develop important professional skills.