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Spring 1999 Courses

All courses listed may be used to satisfy the general curricular requirement of one semester of a course in a foreign language department.

General Listing
Course Descriptions

General Listing

Elementary French 50:420:101
MWF 10:10
Professor Ellman

prerequisite 50:420:101 or the equivalent

Elementary French 50:420:102
MWF 9:05
Professor Ellman

prerequisite 50:420:101 or the equivalent

Intermediate French 50:420:132
MWF 11:15
Professor Morford

prerequisite 50:420:131 or the equivalent

Modern French Readings 50:420:202
MWF 2:00
Professor Showalter

course taught in French; prerequisite 50:420:201 or instructor’s permission

Advanced Composition and Conversation 50:420:322
MWF 10:10
Professor Morford

course taught in French; prerequisite 50:420:321 or instructor’s permission

ST: Crime and Justice in French Literature 50:420:240
TTh 9:30
Professor Showalter

course taught in English; cross-listed by the program in criminal justice

ST: France since 1945 50:420:241
MW 1:20
Professor Morford

course taught in English

Women in French Literature 50:420:244
TTh 12:30
Professor Horowitz

course taught in English; a multi-cultural course; cross-listed by the program in women’s studies

French Film in English I 01:420:305
TTh 1:10-2:30
Professor Williams

+ screening Th 2:40-4:30 or B.A.

distance learning course taught by remote link to New Brunswick; note class hours

enrollment limited to 20

Individual Studies 50:420:354
B.A.
Professor Horowitz

Honors 50:420:496
B.A.
Professor Horowitz

Professor Showalter will give a course on French Literature of the 18th Century in the M.L.S. program.

Professor Horowitz will give a course on French Literature of the 17th Century in the New Brunswick graduate program.

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50:420:101. Elementary French I (R) (4)
Prof. Ellman

For students with no knowledge of French or with one year or less of high school French. Lays a foundation for speaking, understanding, reading and writing the language. Three class meetings and two language lab sessions each week.

50:420:102. Elementary French II (R) (4)
Prof. Ellman

Prerequisite: 50:420:101 or equivalent. Not for students with more than two years of high school French.

Continuation of 50:420:101. Three class meetings and two language lab sessions each week.

50:420:132. Intermediate French II (3)
Prof. Morford

Prerequisite 50:420:131 or instructors permission.

This course aims to help students who already have some background in French to improve their skills in the language and to deepen their understanding of French-speaking cultures. We will study various aspects of oral and written expression, vocabulary and grammar, as well as cultural and literary traditions of modern francophone societies. Above all, the course emphasizes learning and practicing particular communicative functions: we will learn how to use French to do various things (for example, to express feelings and attitudes, to engage in conversation, to ask for and give explanations). The class is conducted in French, and students have many opportunities to speak, write, hear and practice French, both in and beyond the classroom. In 1998-99, we are using the Bravo! curriculum, which emphasizes communicative competence.

50:420:202. Modern French Readings (3)
Prof. Showalter

Course taught in French

During the first part of the semester we will read and discuss several clasic short stories by French writers like Maupassant, Cesbron and Pagnol; in the second part we will read slightly longer works, such as Balzac’s Le Colonel Chabert and Colette’s Le Blé en herbe. These works will serve as a basis for an introduction to literary movements in France and to some of the basic techniques of literary analysis in French. Course requirements will include a final exam and three short interpretive papers.

50:420:240. Special Topics: Crime and Justice in French Literature in Translation (3)
Prof. Showalter

Course taught in English

This course fulfills the requirement in the criminal justice major for a crime-related course outside the offerings of the department of sociology, anthropology and criminal justice.

Using short novels and films, we will look at the way crime and justice have been represented in French literature from the eighteenth century until the present. Ideas covered will include the bandit as folk hero, the aristocratic lawbreaker, the criminal as victim of society and as monstrous genius, crimes of passion, police in literature, the genre of the detective novel, courtrooms, and images of policing in modern society. We will read works by Diderot, Balzac, Mérimée, Mauriac, Simenon, Camus and others, and see a selection of French films. Course requirements will include two exams, a short interpretive paper and some ungraded but required written work.

50:420:241. Special Topics: France since 1945 (3)
Prof. Morford

Course taught in English

This course is designed to help students understand some of the key social, political and cultural transformations that have occurred in French society since 1945. Starting with the immediate post-war period and tracing various aspects of modern French life up until the present, we will work towards developing a comprehensve view of how the structures and values of French society, and the identities and lifestyles of its inhabitants, have changed or remained constant over this period. The course is organized into several chronological and thematic units, and students will be reading, discussing and writing about a wide range of materials, including historical overviews and analyses, novels, memoirs, films, advertisements, elements of popular culture, and scholarly works from a range of disciplines. The course will be conducted in English, though students who are majoring or minoring in French may request supplementary work in French.

50:420:244. Women in French Literature in English Translation (3)
Prof. Horowitz

Course taught in English

A multi-cultural course.

This course may be taken as part of a minor in women’s studies.

This course will treat issues related to women in French and Western society from the 17th century through the 20th. We will be reading fictional works (by both female and male authors) that creatively and powerfully examine the role of women in a variety of family and social settings. Authors (all in English translation) include the comic playwright Moliere, as well as the novelists Lafayette, Charriere, Balzac, Mauriac, Colette, and Duras. While the course is fundamentally literary in scope, our analysis will be sharpened by the study of specific historical and cultural forces impacting on these writers. Course requirements will include two exams and a short interpretive paper.

50:420:322. Advanced Composition and Conversation (3)
Prof. Morford

Course taught in French

Prerequisite: 50:420:321 or instructors permission.

This course is designed to help students continue to enhance their capacity to engage in conversation and to write effectively in French. Building of the review of grammar and expressive styles begun in French 321, we will continue to use John Barsons _Grammaire ˆ loeuvre_ (5th edition) in reviewing and practicing various aspects of French grammar, written and oral communication. We will also be studying a number of French-language films and print media, in order to better understand the social, historical and cultural contexts in which the use of standard, metropolitan French has evolved. Required work will include several short written assignments and oral presentations, as well as mid-term and final exams.

50:420:305. French Film in English (3)
Professor Alan Williams

Classes T-Th 1:15-2:35; film showings Tuesday 2:40-4:25 (end time approximate, depending on length of film)

Distance education course taught by teleconference from Rutgers, New Brunswick

This course may be taken for credit toward the majors in film studies and French This course partially satisfies the general curricular requirement for courses in a foreign language department The course will survey the history of French cinema from its beginnings to the present day, with emphasis on the classic films of the 1930s (by Renoir, Pagnol and others) and the "New Wave" of the 1960s and 1970s (Truffaut, Chabrol, Godard and others). Text: Alan Williams, _Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking.

• Jan. 19 -- The Wild Child (Fran�ois Truffaut, 1970)
• Jan. 26 -- Les Vampires (Louis Feuillade, 1915-16, episodes 1, 2 and 6)
• Feb. 2 -- Napoleon (Abel Gance, 1927, excerpt) -- The Swallow and the Titmouse (AndrŽ Antoine, 1920/84, excerpt)
• Feb. 9 -- Marius (Marcel Pagnol and A. Korda, 1931)
• Feb. 16 -- Mayerling (Anatole Litvak, 1931)
• Feb. 23 -- The Lower Depths (Jean Renoir, after Gorky, 1936)
• Mar. 2 -- Crime and Punishment (Pierre Chenal, after Dostoyevski, 1935)
• Mar. 9 -- The Raven (H.-G. Clouzot and Louis Chavance, 1943)
• Mar. 23 -- Lola Montez (Max Ophuls, 1955)
• Mar. 30 -- The Butcher (Claude Chabrol, 1970
• Apr. 6 -- In the Midst of Life (Robert Enrico, 1960) (tentative; rare archival print)
• Apr. 13 -- Hail Mary (Jean-Luc Godard, 1985; or perhaps Vivre sa vie)
• Apr. 20 -- Mama, there's a man in your bed (Claudine Serrault, 1989)
• Apr. 27 -- Irma Vep (Olivier Asseyas, 1996) Le Grand Chemin may be substituted for one of the last two.