Graduate Course Descriptions

Core courses in the French MA (thesis and non-thesis tracks):

LIT 6066 Introduction to the Comparative Study of Literature (3 credits)
Prerequisites: BA degree and reading-level second language
An introduction to the comparative study of literary phenomena (genres, themes, movements, and periods) from the perspective of Continental, English, and American literatures, including translation theory and analysis.

FRE 6835 History and Dialectology of French (3 credits)
Prerequisite or corequisite: FRE 2203 or equivalent; LIN 3010 strongly recommended
Linguistic development of French from Latin to the present. Linguistic geography of French dialects, including Haitian French Creole and Canadian French.

FRT 6826 Contemporary French Critical Theory (3 credits)
Major issues in contemporary French critical theory, including the relations of language and materialism, elements of structuralism and semiology, theories of subjective communication and exchange, feminist issues, the Lacanian symbolic order. Reading and discussion of Saussure, Levi–Strauss, Benveniste, Barthes, Derrida, Foucault, Lacan. Taught in English.

Core courses in the French MAT:

LIN 6720 Second Language Acquisition (3 credits)
Prerequisite: LIN 3010
A survey of theoretical models of communicative competence and second-language acquisition and a discussion of the practical implications of these models for instruction and assessment, including the application of course concepts to authentic second/foreign language data.

FLE 5892 Foreign Language Teaching Practicum (3 credits)
Overview of current research on second-language acquisition. Introduction to current language teaching methodologies and assessment of their practical relevance for the foreign-language classroom.

FLE 5876 Electronic Media and Foreign (3 credits)
Both theoretical and practical in orientation, this course will focus on the use of electronic media, chiefly the World Wide Web and computer interactive resources in the teaching of foreign languages. Classical and recent theories of second language acquisition will be reviewed in the context of electronic applications. Software and hardware options for different teaching methods will be assessed, although the course emphasis is on the communicative method for developing primarily oral skills. Students will develop one set of original teaching materials for a first–year course in beginning French, Italian, Japanese, or Spanish.

FRE 6908 Special Topics: French Teaching Internship with Faculty (3 credits)

Literature courses recently offered in the French MA and MAT include:

FRW 6110 Le Comique (3 credits)
Study of different forms of “le comique” in French prose and theatre from the Renaissance to the 20th century. Genres, literary models, and rhetorical forms including comedy, satire, parody, and irony.

FRW 6418 L’Auteur Médiéval (3 credits)
Prerequisites: FOL 3880, FRW 3100 or equivalents
In-depth study of seminal medieval texts key to the formulation of medieval authorship. In addition to primary readings, students also read contemporary critical theory on authorship to gain a deeper understanding of how post modern and medieval conceptions of authorship might converge or diverge.

FRW 6426 Débattre la Renaissance (3 credits)
Prerequisite: FOL 3880 or equivalent
Study of Renaissance literature and society through the lens of debate as intellectual form in the neoplatonic, humanist, and scholastic contexts. Emphasis on Querelle des Femmes and Renaissance theories of gender in exploring figurations of women in humanist and neoplatonic debate.

FRW 6465 19th-Century French Fiction (3 credits)
Seminar readings and discussions of such major 19th-century novelists as Balzac, Stendhal, Flaubert, and Zola. Topics will vary. May be repeated for credit.

FRW 6485 20th-Century French Fiction (3 credits)
Seminar readings and discussions of such major modern prose artists as Proust, Celine, Beckett, and the novelists of the 1950s. Topics will vary. May be repeated for credit.

FRW 6613 L’Entre Deux-Guerres (3 credits)
Study of early Modernism and such Avant-Gardes as Dada, Cubism, Futurism, in the context of contemporary theories of mind (Bergson, Freud) and conflicting political ideologies (Communism, Fascism).

FRW 6795 Modern French Women Writers (3 credits)
Reading and discussion of major French modern and contemporary women writers with particular attention to their varying approaches to problems of subjectivity, and including texts by Colette, Sarraute, Beauvior, Rochefort, Duras, Cixous, Wittig, and others.

FRW 6938 Special Topics: Seminar in French Literature (3 credits)
Since topics will vary, course may be repeated for credit. Recent monographic topics include Monique Wittig, Simone de Beauvoir, Samuel Beckett, and Proust.

FRW 6908 Directed Independent Study (1-3 credits)
Independent reading and research in advanced topics and by permission of the instructor only. The program of study is arranged in consultation with instructor during the term prior to the student’s taking the course.

Students enrolled in the thesis track of the French MA have room for one elective course, and are encouraged to take a comparative literature course to fulfill this requirement. Recent offerings include:

LIT 6393 Evil and the Feminine (3 credits)
Interdisciplinary seminar focusing on the historical origins of the idea of woman as evil, and on the social and artistic uses of that stigma in different cultures and periods, including the present.

LIT 6938 History of Translation (3 credits)
Seminar exploring the history of translation in Europe and the Americas, beginning with early Roman translators and continuing through medieval, renaissance, neoclassical, colonial, modernist, and post-colonial translation practice.

LIT 6938 Antigones (3 credits)
Seminar exploring various rewrites of Antigone—as both artistic source and conceptual paradigm of urgent contemporary questions—in print and film, from classical Greece to modern Europe and the Americas.

Students enrolled in the thesis option track of the French MA are also required to complete 6 credits of thesis work by enrolling in FRE 6971 (MA thesis credits). Students must be registered for a minimum of ONE (1) credit-hour of FRE 6971 in the semester during which the thesis will be filed.

PLEASE NOTE: Graduate students who are offered a Graduate Teaching Assistantship in French are required to take FLE 5892 in their first semester of teaching. This course does not count for credit towards the MA degree.

FLE 5892 Foreign Language Teaching Practicum (3 credits)
Overview of current research on second–language acquisition. Introduction to current language teaching methodologies and assessment of their practical relevance for the foreign–language classroom.