Current Graduate Courses in French and Italian

The course provides an introduction to structures of the language necessary for reading, followed by reading in graded texts of a general nature. Credit given for only one of F491 or any French course at the 100-level.

Introduction à l'étude du roman français au XVIIIe siècle. L'accent sera mis sur les deux formes narratives qui ont dominé le siècle: le roman-mémoires et le roman épistolaire.

Œuvres au programme:

• Prévost, Manon Lescaut
• Crébillon, Les Égarements du cœur et de l'esprit
• Marivaux, La Vie de Marianne
• Rousseau, La Nouvelle Héloïse
• Charrière, Lettres de Lausanne
• Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses

Focused classroom observations followed by discussions; identification and evaluation of teaching techniques. Required of new associate instructors of French.

F577 introduces students to issues in French syntax and to syntactic theory. The aim is to develop an understanding of syntactic categories, the principles governing syntactic representations and syntactic operations. Major syntactic differences between French and English will be examined and characterized in those syntactic principles.

The general objective of this course is to impart to students with little or no previous introduction to linguistics knowledge of the main linguistic features of French and their relevance for the pedagogy of French as a foreign language in the United States. We will examine various aspects of the structure of French (lexicon, phonology, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics) with emphasis on the spoken language and coverage of social, stylistic, and geographical variation, discussing implications of such variation for the FLE classroom. There will also be a sociolinguistically-oriented survey of the linguistic situation in France and in various Francophone regions. Other sociolinguistic topics will include language attitudes and linguistic insecurity; linguistic and pedagogical norms; language policy in France and the Francophone world; multilingualism and diglossia.

This class is joint-listed with Renaissance Studies REN-R 502.

In the mid fourth century BC, the comic playwright Antiphanes wrote a work entitled paroimiazoménos or The Man who Spoke in Proverbs. His play has been lost, but the conceit has flourished throughout the ages so much so that paremiology, or the study of proverbs supplies a fascinating and indeed indispensable guide to literary tradition. This course approaches the proverb as a linguistic form, as a privileged site of humanist scholarship, and especially as the nucleus of fictional episodes which derive from the tension between the timeless wisdom of proverbial speech and the narrative immersion in time. We will also attend to the visual representation of proverbs and the concomitant fascination with hieroglyphs that is so characteristic of Renaissance culture. We will begin by surveying the role of Erasmus' Adages in the definition and diffusion of proverbs in Renaissance Europe. This seems to be an opportune time to do so since in recent years independent teams of scholars have completed an English translation, a critical edition, and, just last year, a French translation of the Adagia, thus assuring them a prosperous place in Renaissance studies. After this preliminary phase, we will study four of the most seminal and sententious texts of the Renaissance: Erasmus' Praise of Folly, Rabelais' Gargantua and Quart Livre, and the first part of Cervantes' Don Quijote. On the basis of the issues that arise from our study of this common corpus of paremiomania, students will be expected to develop their own research projects adapted to their own linguistic background and disciplinary interests. Every student will do an in-class exposé and write a term paper on a topic chosen in consultation with the professor.

Although everyone recognizes the reign of Louis XIV as the peak of French absolutism, it is important to remember that the term "absolutism" itself was never used in the period. As an analytic tool, the term is useful less on account of its indexical value – pointing to a stable definition or sparking discussion on what that definition should be – than because it brings into focus the practices of self-representation that found and sustain the power of the king. Indeed, the only place where absolutism incontestably exists is in its manifestations, in the image of itself that royal power projects outwards but also inwards. This course will study this dynamic by looking closely at various artistic expressions of absolutism (theater, poetry, architecture, portraiture, etc.) that respond to and help construct the image of Louis XIV. In doing so, we hope to take up the challenge formulated by prominent French historians Fanny Cosandey and Robert Descimon when they concluded a recent book-length survey of the immensely rich and varied research on French absolutism with the following surprising statement: "We end up, then [after 200 pages of reviewing recent scholarship], with the contradiction of an absolutism that we know incomparably well in its details but without a good grasp of its totality or coherence." The collective and interdisciplinary endeavor of the course, where each participant will specialize in a specific expression, is organized in the firm conviction that if not the totality, then certainly the coherence of French absolutism under Louis XIV best can be grasped through a careful examination of the various aspects of its expressions. Readings will include primary texts by Molière, Racine, Boileau, La Fontaine, Félibien, and Louis XIV himself, as well as critical essays by Louis Marin, Peter Burke, Roger Chartier, and Norbert Elias, among others. Weekly response papers and scaffolded final research project.

This class is joint-listed with Linguistics LING-L 625.

This course will focus on the linguistic and social phenomena surrounding language contact. We will examine the typology of contact situations and a broad range of phenomena including language maintenance, shift and death; diglossia; koineization; pidginization and creolization; language intertwining or the creation of mixed languages such as Michif, Ma'a, and Media Lengua; Sprachbunds and language areas; codeswitching, lexical borrowing, and grammatical borrowing including calquing and replication. We will also examine some of the basic findings on bilingualism: definitions, typologies of bilingualism, issues of bilingualism and the human brain, and issues of bilingual or multilingual speech communities. Much of the material examined in this course will be drawn from situations where French is one of the languages in contact, whether in North America, Africa, Europe or the South Pacific, and students will have opportunities in course assignments and a term paper to explore these varieties in greater detail.

*Obtain on-line permission from the Graduate Secretary.

Renaissance Classicism: Theories & Practices
Oggetto del corso sarà il Classicismo come codice di forme e significati maturati in seno alla cultura umanistica e alla sua pratica imitativa dell'Antichità, e come modello culturale che si definisce nei primi decenni del Cinquecento per poi caratterizzare la modernità letteraria in Italia e non solo. Indagheremo questo modello culturale nelle sfere linguistiche, retoriche, stilistiche, etiche e politiche. Leggeremo testi di Bembo e altri petrarchisti, di Castiglione e Della Casa, di Machiavelli e Guicciardini e infine di Castelvetro. Il corso si terrà in italiano.

While literary histories of early Italian literary culture tend to identify a straight-line trajectory from a Latin to an Italian vernacular tradition, Italy's linguistic, literary and documentary relations with other traditions reveal a far more diverse set of traditions that influenced active vernaculars both within Italy and as part of its engagement with the political, linguistic and intellectual contexts outside Italy, including Arabic in the Duchy of Puglia, Old French in the Veneto and Tuscany, and Old Occitan throughout the peninsula. Studying especially the relations with and use of Old Occitan, this course examines the origins and diversity of linguistic and intellectual traditions engaged in diverse regions of Italy in relation to the early development of the local vernacular traditions from the late twelfth to the early fourteenth century, including the composition (and abandonment) of the De vulgari eloquentia. Texts include works by Italy's earliest writers in the vernacular (from Rambertino Buvalelli, Sordello, Lanfranco Cigala, Bartolomeo Zorzi to Giacomo da Lentini, Percivale Doria, San Francesco d'Assisi, Guittone d'Arezzo, Brunetto Latini and Dante) to early writers and copyists who found refuge and patronage at Italy courts (such as Uc de Saint Circ, Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, Aimeric de Peguilhan, Guilhem de la Tor, and Folquet de Romans), who introduced motifs, genres and new questions of linguistic expression to wider circulation in Italy and Europe. While seminar participants should have a solid reading knowledge of Italian, the course will also provide the opportunity to study the basics of Old Occitan. One additional reading knowledge of a language, such as Old French or Latin, will be helpful but not essential.

This course investigates how Italian cinema embodies the essence of the Italian political and ideological collective consciousness after World War II when the cultural milieu surrounding the anti-fascist Resistance became a cultural and political foundation for postwar Italian national identity as well as the ideological basis of the 1946 Italian constitution. The major issues in Italian cultural and cinematic changes from the end of WW II to 1959 will be studied, including modernization, the transformation of traditions, social institutions, the pre-economic boom, the end of neo-realism and the birth of pink neo-realism, the Italian style comedy, the Cold War, fashion and internal immigration. Particular attention will be given to the relationship between traditional values and the new cultural models imported from abroad, which gave rise to the new movie star system.

Required texts:

• Gian Piero Brunetta, Storia del cinema italiano. Dal neorealismo al miracolo economico 1945-1959. Volume terzo. Roma: Editori Riuniti, 1993. ISBN 88-359-3787-6.
• Incontri con il cinema italiano (a cura di Antonio Vitti). Caltanissetta: Sciascia Editore, 2003, ISBN 9-788882-411480.
• Peppe De Santis secondo se stesso (a cura e con saggi di Antonio Vitti). Metauro, 2006, ISBN 9-78887-543889.
• Marta Boneschi, Poveri ma belli . Milano: Mondadori, ISBN 97-8880- 4423591.

*Obtain on-line permission from the Graduate Secretary.

Prerequisite: F491 or consent of department.

Open with consent of the instructor to undergraduates who have already completed the B.A. language requirement in another language. Continuation of language and reading development from F491. Credit given for only one of F492 or any of the following: F150, F169, F200, F205, or F219.

This course will provide an overview of approaches to foreign language teaching and the theoretical notions underlying current trends and classroom practice. Course objectives are the following:

1. To acquaint students with issues and research in foreign language teaching
2. To show ways of using research to achieve more effective classroom teaching and testing
3. To develop students' skills in evaluating teaching performance and instructional materials
4. To prepare students for continued professional development

Class meetings will be devoted to discussion, short presentations and/or demonstrations by students and the instructor. Students will use professional journals to explore topics of interest; prepare classroom materials; evaluate instructional materials; and complete an online teaching portfolio.

This course focuses on aspects of grammar and pragmatics where French and English make use of different constructions (e.g., phrasal verbs, the expression of verbal aspect, achieving emphasis, etc.). Its objectives are: (1) to identify areas of grammar in which the two languages differ; (2) to explore why these differences exist and what they mean; (3) to distinguish differences that are imposed by the grammar of each language from those that serve as stylistic resources; and (4) to become better writers of French or English (or both) as a result of better understanding the structure of each language. Each week, one specific area of grammar or pragmatics is discussed; the discussion is supplemented and tested against practical problems of translation. Requirements for the course include regularly scheduled short assignments, short oral presentations on a specific area of contrast between French and English, and a term paper which investigates in detail one specific area of contrast by comparing its expression in one or more books and translation(s) thereof.

Morphology is the study of word structure. In this course, which introduces morphology from the perspective of the structure of French, we will be concerned both with basic questions that must be answered in any theory (such as the elusive definitions of morpheme and word) and with the various approaches to morphology taken within Generative Linguistics in the last 30 years. Among the questions particular to French that we will investigate are the structure of verb endings and the role of the paradigm (inflectional morphology), the status of the feminine desinence (inflection & derivation), the building up of words from roots and suffixes or prefixes (derivation, e.g. emploi+eur), and the process of compounding (e.g. la porte-parole, le cessez-le-feu), the role of clitics (e.g. me, y) in the grammar. In each of these areas we find significant overlap with either phonology or syntax or both, so that a major issue for morphologists is to define the space of morphology in the grammar. Competing views on this matter, from "morphocentrism" (at one extreme) to the complete exclusion of any separate morphological component in the grammar (on the other extreme), are explored. Because issues in generative morphology interact so crucially with both syntactic and phonological theory, the course affords an opportunity for students to solidify their understanding of generative theory as a whole.

Dans ce cours, nous examinerons dans un premier temps les questions et les réponses élaborées par le Moyen Age en face du problème de la folie et des fous : Qu'est-ce que la folie ? Qu'est-ce qu'un fou ? Y a-t-il des signes de la folie ? Quelles sont les causes de la folie ? En somme, d'où vient la folie ? Comment s'articule le rapport du corps et de l'âme chez le fou ? Que faire des fous ? On voit dès à présent qu'il s'agira plus à ce stade d'un discours sur la folie – discours verbal, mais aussi iconographique – que d'un discours du fou lui-même, discours pouvant déboucher sur une sorte de typologie des fous et des folies. Dès lors, on devra prendre en considération la position sociale et la perspective particulière des examinateurs de la folie et des fous : théologiens, médecins, légistes… On examinera ensuite comment cette problématique globale, mais déjà multidimensionnelle est à son tour prise en charge, transformée, complexifiée ou minée dans des œuvres de fiction tout en étant portée par des personnages plus ou moins célèbres : Merlin (Vie de Merlin), Tristan (Folies Tristan), Yvain (Le Chevalier au Lion), Robert le Diable (roman du même nom), voire certains saints… Nous examinerons aussi la dimension sociale, publique et collective de la folie à travers la Fête des Fous et le Carnaval qui nous fourniront une passerelle vers le « théâtre de la folie », en particulier dans le Jeu de la Feuillée, les farces (notamment la Farce de maître Pathelin) et les sotties. Il s'agira dès lors de voir l'enjeu et les modalités particulières de cette « théâtralisation » de la folie.

Devoirs et notation : 1) Présence et participation active et continue en classe : réactions aux lectures (à poster sur Oncourse) et présentation orale de 20 minutes environ comportant une problématique précise (soit environ 10 pp. à double interligne ; me fournir la version écrite) (total : 40%) ; 2) Devoir écrit de fin de semestre (15-25 pages) pouvant être le développement / approfondissement de la problématique de la présentation orale ou bien un sujet nouveau : 60%.

The purpose of this seminar is to question the status of painting as a literary theme, from the emergence of art criticism with Diderot's "Salons" in the second half of the 18th century, to Proust's novel "À la recherche du temps perdu" at the beginning of the 20th century, through the works of several 19th-century poets, novelists and art critics, such as Baudelaire, the Goncourt brothers, Zola and Huysmans. As an introduction to these readings, we shall survey some fundamental writings on art from antiquity (Plato, Pliny) and the Renaissance (Vasari), and consider the philosophical background on which the critical paradigm emerged in the Enlightenment (Hume, Kant). The literary texts will be examined in light of the visual examples mentioned or implied in the literature. We shall also have the chance to visit the art collections and to look at relevant editions at the Kinsey Institute, the Lilly Library and/or the Art Museum. Readings and class discussion will be in French and in English.

Le séminaire sera consacré à l'analyse des rapports complexes et ambigus entre la littérature contemporaine et les classiques. Les écrivains d'aujourd'hui s'engagent souvent dans une relation agonistique avec leurs précurseurs, tout en greffant leurs textes sur le grand tronc de la tradition. Nous examinerons cette relation à travers une série de lectures en dialogue:

• Leïla Sebbar (Shérazade: 17 ans, brune, frisée, les yeux verts) avec Pierre Loti (Aziyadé)
• Pierre Michon (Vies minuscules) avec Honoré de Balzac (Illusions perdues) et Arthur Rimbaud (Une saison en enfer)
• Alain Mabanckou (Verre cassé) avec L.-F. Céline (Mort à crédit)
• Marie NDiaye (Hilda) avec Jean Genet (Les Bonnes)
• J.M.G. Le Clézio (Révolutions) avec J.-J. Rousseau (Confessions) et M. Proust (Combray)

Les étudiants participant au cours seront notés à partir des critères suivants: 1) la présence et la participation active en classe (15%); 2) les réponses écrites aux questions hebdomadaires sur Oncourse (20%); 3) une explication de texte orale (15%); 4) un devoir écrit de mi-semestre de 3000 mots (20%); 5) un devoir écrit de fin de semestre de 6000 mots (développant la problématique du devoir de mi-semestre) (30%).

This interdisciplinary course traces the development of French cinema from its origins through the present using fourteen exemplary films. We will approach film not only as a form of art and as an expression of French cultural identity, but as an economic commodity, a tool of socio-political discourse, and a repository of collective memory. Methodologically, we will integrate theory with close analysis of the films' form and content with contextual information related to their production, distribution, and reception. Assignments will include reading response papers, longer analytical essays, oral presentations, and active participation in discussions.

The course will be taught in English, and all films will be subtitled. Readings for the course will be in both French and English. Students may write their paper in whichever language they prefer.

Joint-offered with CMCL-C 596.

Ce cours s'intéresse à la variation géographique et sociale en français. Après un bref rappel de l'histoire de cette langue et une description de la situation linguistique en France contemporaine, le cours sera divisé en deux grandes parties: dialectologie et sociolinguistique. On y discute les méthodes de la dialectologie traditionnelle et l'élaboration des atlas linguistiques, on compare ces méthodes avec celles de la dialectologie moderne et on y présente les principaux dialectes d'oïl. Nous traversons ensuite l'Atlantique pour voir comment le français hexagonal et les dialectes d'oïl se sont à la fois conservés et transformés. Finalement, nous verrons comment le besoin d'étudier la variation en milieu urbain a donné naissance à la sociolinguistique. Les questions de norme, de variation sociale, de types de français y sont abordées et exemplifiées à l'aide d'études variationnistes sur des phénomènes linguistiques précis.

Independent study of a topic in French or Francophone culture/civilization not offered in a regular course this semester, under the guidance of a faculty member. Requires departmental authorization. Consult with the professor you would like to work with, and then obtain permission form from the department office.

Independent study of a topic not offered in a regular course this semester, under the guidance of a faculty member. Requires departmental authorization. Consult with the professor you would like to work with, and then obtain a permission form from the department office.

Obtain on-line permission from the Graduate Secretary.

Obtain on-line permission from the Director of Graduate Studies.

Prerequisite: M491 or consent of department.

Open with consent of the instructor to undergraduates who have already completed the B.A. language requirement in another language. Continuation of language and reading development from M491. Credit not given for both M492 and either of the following: M150 or M200.

Joint-offered with MEST-M 490 and MEST-M 500

What are the principles of manuscript reproduction that writers had in mind when mapping out their works? How did these principles change once writers conceived their works as being published in book form? What were the roles of copyist, compiler, editor and then compositor in shaping the form in which a work appeared? And how can we convey the often unique subtleties of these cultural forms of reproduction today in digital environments? How did the reading of medieval works change from manuscript to print? And how do the matrices of print affect the production and interpretation of Renaissance texts? How do the paradigms of audience (or users of books) change from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance? These will be the guiding questions of this course that examines manuscripts and early printed books from their primary building blocks of the bifolium and the fascicle to their role as the primary tools of literary, historical, philosophical and scientific communication from the Middle Ages until the birth of "national presses".

This course orients students to the cultural and physical structures, preparation, and uses of medieval manuscripts and documents and studies the changes brought about by printing in the late 15th and throughout the 16th century. Students will have hands-on experience with materials and will have the opportunity to develop individual research projects that involve medieval manuscripts and/or early printed books. While the course will be taught in English, a familiarity with an ancient and/or medieval language will be essential for full participation in the course. Students will have the opportunity to develop a project in their field of expertise.

Questo corso analizza lo sviluppo del teatro moderno in Italia dalla nascita della Commedia dell'Arte nel Cinquecento, fino al tramonto della Commedia e alle origini del teatro borghese nel Settecento. Autori trattati includeranno Giovan Battista Andreini, De' Dottori, Tesauro, Bettini, Goldoni, Chiari, Gozzi, ed altri. Il corso pone particolare attenzione agli aspetti spaziali / temporali / performativi dei testi quali ossatura dell'esperienza spettacolare, e non soltanto quali prodotti letterari.

Esorcismi: la morte nella poesia italiana

In this class we will study many well-known poetic works which focus on the representation of death as a departing or arrival point (or both) of their aesthetic imagination. The goal is that of analyzing if poetry becomes simply a vehicle to perpetuate a symbol of ineluctable desolation or if instead attempts to exemplify death as an unavoidable reference point which motivates to action and exploration of the self as well as of the external world. We will read passages from Dante, Jacopone, Petrarch, Ariosto, Alfieri, Foscolo, Manzoni, Leopardi, Pascoli, Ungaretti, Montale and others.

Independent study of a topic not offered in a regular course this semester, under the guidance of a faculty member. Requires departmental authorization. Consult with the professor you would like to work with, and then obtain permission form from the department office.

Obtain on-line permission from the Graduate Secretary.

Obtain on-line permission from the Director of Graduate Studies.

The course provides an introduction to structures of the language necessary for reading, followed by reading in graded texts of a general nature. Credit given for only one of F491 or any French course at the 100-level.

Independent study on a specific topic not taught in one of the department's regular courses. If interested, complete the permission form.

Independent study of a topic not offered in a regular course, under the guidance of a faculty member. Requires departmental authorization. Consult with the professor you would like to work with, and then obtain a permission form from the department office.

*Obtain on-line permission from the Graduate Secretary.

Independent study on a specific topic not taught in one of the department's regular courses. If interested, complete the permission form.

Independent study of a topic not offered in a regular course, under the guidance of a faculty member. Requires departmental authorization. Consult with the professor you would like to work with, and then obtain permission form from the department office.

*Obtain on-line permission from the Graduate Secretary.

Prerequisite: F491 or consent of department. Open with consent of the instructor to undergraduates who have already completed the B.A. language requirement in another language. Continuation of language and reading development from F491. Credit given for only one of F492 or any of the following: F150, F169, F200, F205, or F219.

Independent study on a specific topic not taught in one of the department's regular courses. If interested, complete the permission form.

Independent study of a topic not offered in a regular course, under the guidance of a faculty member. Requires departmental authorization. Consult with the professor you would like to work with, and then obtain a permission form from the department office.

*Obtain on-line permission from the Graduate Secretary.

Independent study on a specific topic not taught in one of the department's regular courses. If interested, complete the permission form.

Independent study of a topic not offered in a regular course, under the guidance of a faculty member. Requires departmental authorization. Consult with the professor you would like to work with, and then obtain permission form from the department office.

*Obtain on-line permission from the Graduate Secretary.

The course provides an introduction to structures of the language necessary for reading, followed by reading in graded texts of a general nature. Credit given for only one of F491 or any French course at the 100-level.

In his classic study The Greeks and the Irrational, E. R. Dodds had to contend against the persistent stereotype (somewhat weakened in our own day) of Greek rationality. Fortunately, no such stereotype impedes our understanding of the European Renaissance, an era well known for fanaticism and superstition. The Renaissance mind was crowded with miracles, demons, witches, and premonitory exceptions to the laws of nature, though not all minds were equally credulous. This course examines, through readings of Renaissance French prose, both the orthodoxy of belief and the heterodoxy of reason. Our main texts are Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptaméron and Michel de Montaigne’s Essais. We will also read François Rabelais’ parody of occult philosophy, Guillaume Postel’s enthusiasm for prophecy, Innocent Gentillet’s Reformation rebuttal of Machiavelli, and Jean Bodin’s dual contributions to religious dialogue and demonology. Among its other motives, this course marks the occasion of the first ever critical edition (or even correct edition) of Jean Bodin’s Démonomanie des sorciers soon to issue from the presses of Librairie Droz. Students are expected to do an in-class presentation and a term paper on a topic chosen in consultation with the professor.

Many literary works that are now considered canonical were once published clandestinely, or they were subjected to memorable trials. Perhaps the most famous examples in nineteenth-century France are the novel Madame Bovary by Flaubert, who was eventually acquitted, and Baudelaire’s poetry collection Les Fleurs du Mal, which remained theoretically censored until 1949. But besides these well-known examples, most of the illustrious writers of the century (notably Hugo, Musset, Gautier, Barbey Aurevilly, etc.) had portions of their works that were censored for political and/or moral reasons, and were then illegally circulated; so much so that censorship and clandestine literature ought to be considered an essential part of the nineteenth-century French literary field.

The purpose of this course is thus to explore how the politics of printing influenced the evolution of literary forms in the “long nineteenth century”: from the ephemeral freedom of the press under the Revolution, which notably allowed Sade’s novels to be widely circulated, to the law of 1881, which officially—if not effectively—abolished censorship in France, through the liberal or repressive phases of the July Monarchy and the Second Empire, under which Flaubert and Baudelaire were sued, and Hugo exiled. Our aim will be to analyze canonical—and less canonical—works by the authors mentioned in light of the historical and political context of their publication. For this purpose, we shall have the chance to look at original and illustrated editions of the works studied at the Lilly Library. Readings and class discussion will be in French and in English.

« Indépendances : Sentimentales, Littéraires, Féministes, Philosophiques »

“Le récit n'est plus l'écriture d'une aventure, mais l'aventure d'une écriture." Dans ce cours, nous nous efforcerons de démontrer qu’il ne fallait pas attendre la seconde moitié du vingtième siècle pour apprécier la pertinence de cette remarque de Jean Ricardou. Dans une tentative d’approfondir nos connaissances du discours romanesque de la Belle Epoque au XXIème siècle, nous aborderons une variété de textes, de thèmes et de discours, toujours dans leurs contextes critiques, historiques et culturels. Nous commencerons par la décadence très fin-de-siècle que communique la troublante Jongleuse de Rachilde, où l’indéchiffrable Eliante, Créole d’origine, jongle à la fois avec couteaux et conventions bourgeoises. Nous passerons ensuite à l’angoisse du drame du coucher dans le Combray de Marcel Proust, seul souvenir qui reste au narrateur d’un passé perdu : angoisse partagée par son héros, Swann, dans Un Amour de Swann : textes publiés en 1913 sous le titre Du côté de chez Swann, premier volume d’A la recherche du temps perdu. Avec La Vagabonde (1910) de Colette, et Les Caves du Vatican d’André Gide (1914), nous étudierons différentes versions de l’enjeu de l’indépendance: indépendance philosophique chez Lafcadio, indépendance littéraire chez le narrateur gidien, indépendance sentimentale chez Renée. La Nausée (1938) de Jean-Paul Sartre documente l’aliénation progressive du corps, ainsi que la perte de tout point de repère chez le protagoniste, Roquentin. Nous aborderons ensuite La Chute (1956) de Camus, confession (à quel but ??) du narrateur, Clamence, de sa chute morale. Dans Les belles images (1966) de Simone de Beauvoir, nous scruterons une critique de la société technocrate et consommatrice d’après-guerre, et surtout son impact sur une nouvelle classe de femmes professionnelles. Comment Cuisiner son Mari à l’Africaine (2000) de Calixthe Beyala se situe dans le Paris contemporain et hybride de l’immigration, où s’affrontent le passé traditionaliste et un présent rempli de fausses solutions. Nous conclurons le semestre avec une autre perspective sur le conflit entre passé et présent, celle de Véronique Tadjo dans Loin de mon père (2010)—où une jeune femme rentre en Côte d’ Ivoire pour affronter la perte de son père, emblème d’ autres pertes. Pour chaque séance, nos lectures et discussions seront appuyées, interrogées et amplifiées par un choix d’articles critiques concernant le texte du jour. A travers ces lectures différentes, nous serons attentifs aux stratégies formelles de nos textes; à l’évolution du genre et du discours romanesque; et aux rapports entre nos romans et leurs contextes socioculturels et politiques. Seront demandés : une participation active à la discussion ; un exposé oral basé sur le texte du jour ; et, au choix : un essai critique (20 pp) de fin de semestre, OU : un partiel et un examen de fin de semestre, format essai.

Focused classroom observations followed by discussions; identification and evaluation of teaching techniques. Required of new associate instructors of French.

F576 introduces French phonology from a generative perspective, exploring the major controversies of 20th century phonological analysis and their evolution into current models. We will examine, from a problem-solving perspective, such well-known French sound-system phenomena as latent final consonants, e ‘muet’, nasal vowels, and h-aspiré, as well as prosodic structure.

The general objective of this course is to impart to students with little or no previous introduction to linguistics knowledge of the main linguistic features of French and their relevance for the pedagogy of French as a foreign language in the United States. We will examine various aspects of the structure of French (lexicon, phonology, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics) with emphasis on the spoken language and coverage of social, stylistic, and geographical variation, discussing implications of such variation for the FLE classroom. There will also be a sociolinguistically-oriented survey of the linguistic situation in France and in various Francophone regions. Other sociolinguistic topics will include language attitudes and linguistic insecurity; linguistic and pedagogical norms; language policy in France and the Francophone world; multilingualism and diglossia.

F603 provides an introduction to the history of the French language, focusing on ‘internal’ developments while setting these against an ‘external’—historical and social—backdrop. We will investigate the evolution of the sound system (phonology), word formation (morphology), sentence structure (syntax), and vocabulary. In this first half of the 603-604 sequence, we especially cover early development (Popular Latin through 13th century Old French) and phonology/morphology. Diachronic study is complemented by readings from the Old French period.

Prerequisite: F580/F573 or equivalent and approval of instructor

In this course, we inquire into the structure of the knowledge acquired in second language acquisition of French. We consider issues in clause structure, verbal paradigm, sentence interpretation, gender acquisition, noun phrase structure and phonology. Topics include the initial state of L2 acquisition, inherent constraints on L2 acquisition and learnability. We consider the role of input and correction, and inductive and deductive mechanisms in acquisition. We also consider issues in the empirical investigation of L2 acquisition. This course is designed as a guided round table discussion, introduced with supportive readings and lectures. In this light, students are encouraged to examine consequences for a cognitively explicit instructional theory.

*Obtain on-line permission from the Graduate Secretary.

Open with consent of the instructor to undergraduates who have already completed the language requirement for the B.A. in another language. Introduction to the structures of the language necessary for reading, followed by reading in graded texts of a general nature. Credit given for only one of M491 and any Italian course at the 100 level.

The main objective of this course is to explore how Italian Fascist Culture is represented during the Fascist dictatorship (1922-1943) and later in Italian cinema. The primary focus is on important Italian films and documentaries about the Fascist experience. We will study films that deal with historical events and others with memory reconstruction of the past. The course will also explore the political factors that contributed to and complicated the process of achieving a collective reckoning among Italians about the responsibilities they bore for the crimes of Fascism. Lectures will address the various interpretations of Fascism produced by professional historians, specifically those who argue that Fascism was the consequence of a moral crisis and a series of psychological disabilities ushered in by the Great War of 1914/18.(Films by Comencini, Blasetti, Forzano, Lizzani, Montaldo, Salce, Pontecorvo, Scola, Fellini, Wertmuller, Bertolucci, Bellocchio, Pasolini, Benigni, Calopresti and others will studied).

For 4-credit section, first obtain permission from instructor to enroll.

Questo corso investiga lo sviluppo della narrativa del mistero in Italia dall'Ottocento ad oggi, ripercorrendone le sue due manifestazioni principali, il giallo e il noir.

Si studiera' lo sviluppo di questi generi connessi a partire da alcuni esempi del romanzo d'appendice ottocentesco, da cui il profilo del giallo e del noir odierno emersero faticosamente, per poi vedere esempi di rilievo del giallo e del noir della maturita' nel Novecento. Grande attenzione verra' prestata al contesto storico, politico, sociale e letterario in cui le varie manifestazioni della narrativa del mistero si declinano, tracciando collegamenti anche con le tradizioni straniere che gli autori italiani presero a modello.

For 4-credit section, first obtain permission from instructor to enroll.

In this course we will analyze in depth the Italian commedia erudita, from Ludovico Ariosto to Giordano Bruno. We will pay attention to the classical models and the humanist antecedents, the style and the themes of the genre. We will also discuss the role played by this genre in what has been defined as the great comic culture of the Italian Renaissance. Students will give a formal presentation, take a final exam, and write a short review article as well as a research paper. The course will be conducted in Italian.

*Obtain on-line permission from the Graduate Secretary.