* FREN 0120a / CPLT 0200a, World Literature After Empire  Jill Jarvis

An introduction to contemporary French fiction in a global perspective that will transform the way you think about the relationship between literature and politics. Together we read prizewinning novels by writers of the former French Empire—in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean—alongside key manifestos and theoretical essays that define or defy the notion of world literature. Keeping our focus on questions of race, gender, imperialism, and translation, we ask: has literature gone global? What does that mean? What can we learn from writers whose texts cross and confound linguistic and national borders? Enrollment limited to first-year students. No previous knowledge of French is required.  WR, HU
T 1:30pm-3:25pm

* FREN 1100a, Elementary and Intermediate French I  Staff

Intensive training and practice in all the language skills, with an initial emphasis on listening and speaking. Emphasis on communicative proficiency, self-expression, and cultural insights. Extensive use of audio and video material. Conducted entirely in French.  To be followed by FREN 1200. For students with no previous experience of French. Daily classroom attendance is required between Monday and Thursday. Friday asynchronous.  L1  1½ Course cr
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* FREN 1210a, Intermediate French  Candace Skorupa

Designed for initiated beginners, this course develops all the language skills with an emphasis on listening and speaking. Activities include role playing, self-expression, and discussion of cultural and literary texts. Emphasis on grammar review and acquisition of vocabulary. Frequent audio and video exercises. Conducted entirely in French. Daily classroom attendance is required. Placement according to placement test score. Online preregistration required; see french.yale.edu for details.  L2  1½ Course cr
MTWTh 10:30am-11:20am

* FREN 1250a, Intensive Elementary French  Constance Sherak

An accelerated course that covers in one term the material taught in FREN 110 and 120. Practice in all language skills, with emphasis on communicative proficiency. Admits to FREN 145. Conducted entirely in French. For students of superior linguistic ability. No preregistration required.  L1, L2  RP  2 Course cr
MTWTh 9:25am-11:20am

* FREN 1300a, Intermediate and Advanced French I  Matuku Ngame

The first half of a two-term sequence designed to develop students' proficiency in the four language skill areas. Prepares students for further work in literary, language, and cultural studies, as well as for nonacademic use of French. Oral communication skills, writing practice, vocabulary expansion, and a comprehensive review of fundamental grammatical structures are integrated with the study of short stories, novels, and films. Admits to FREN 1400. Conducted entirely in French. Meets Monday through Thursday. Friday asynchronous. FREN 1200, 1210, or a satisfactory placement test score.   L3  1½ Course cr
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* FREN 1400a, Intermediate and Advanced French II  Soumia Koundi

The second half of a two-term sequence designed to develop students' proficiency in the four language skill areas. Introduction of more complex grammatical structures. Films and other authentic media accompany literary readings from throughout the francophone world, culminating with the reading of a longer novel and in-class presentation of student research projects. Admits to FREN 1500. Conducted entirely in French. After FREN 1300 or a satisfactory placement test score. Daily classroom attendance is required between Monday and Thursday. Friday asynchronous.  L4  1½ Course cr
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* FREN 1500a, Advanced Language Practice  Staff

An advanced language course intended to improve students' comprehension of spoken and written French as well as their speaking and writing skills. Modern fiction and nonfiction texts familiarize students with idiomatic French. Special attention to grammar review and vocabulary acquisition. Conducted entirely in French. After FREN 1400, 1450, or a satisfactory placement test score.   L5
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* FREN 1600a, Advanced Conversation Through Culture, Film, and Media  Staff

Intensive oral practice designed to further skills in listening comprehension, speaking, and reading through the use of videos, films, fiction, and articles. Emphasis on contemporary French and francophone cultures. Conducted entirely in French. Prerequisites: FREN 1500, or a satisfactory placement test score, or with permission of the course director. May be taken concurrently with or after FREN 1700.  L5
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* FREN 1700a or b, Introduction to Literatures in French  Leo Tertrain

Introduction to the analysis of literary texts in French from the 17th century to today. Close reading of novels, short stories, plays, and poems by authors such as Balzac, Césaire, Colette, Diderot, La Fontaine, Maupassant, NDiaye, and Perec. More information on the format and content of the course can be found in the syllabus (available through the syllabus tab below). May be taken concurrently with FREN 1600.  L5, HU
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* FREN 1830a, Medical French: Conversation and Culture  Leo Tertrain

An advanced language course designed to develop linguistic proficiency in the fields of medicine and public health through culture and literature. One part of the course is an introduction to historical and contemporary specificities regarding various aspects of health and medicine in different Francophone countries. Discussions and oral presentations on these elements are based on documentaries, graphic novels, and articles. The other part of the course is an exploration of the representations of health and medicine in contemporary French literature. This topic is examined through several autobiographical and fictional narratives. More information on the format and content of the course can be found in the syllabus (available through the syllabus tab below). Prerequisite: FREN 1500 or a satisfactory placement test score, or with permission of instructor.  L5
MW 4pm-5:15pm

* FREN 1840b, Business French: Communication and Culture  Leo Tertrain

An advanced language course emphasizing verbal communication and culture. Designed to introduce students to historical and contemporary specificities of various Francophone economic environments, and to foster the acquisition of vocabulary related to these environments. Discussions, papers, and oral presentations, with a focus on ethical, political, legal, semiological, and artistic questions. Topics such as taxation, privatization, the eurozone, the energy industry, labor unions, labor law, banking, the sharing economy, and human resources are explored through films, documentaries, a graphic novel, a literary text, a biographical narrative, articles, and excerpts from essays. Conducted entirely in French.  Prerequisite: FREN 1500 or a satisfactory placement test score, or with permission of instructor.   L5
MW 4pm-5:15pm

FREN 2400b / CPLT 2140b / HUMS 2010b, The Modern French Novel  Staff

A survey of major French novels, considering style and story, literary and intellectual movements, and historical contexts. Writers include Balzac, Flaubert, Proust, Camus, and Duras. Readings in translation. One section conducted in French.  HU  0 Course cr
TTh 10:30am-11:20am

* FREN 3012b, Literary Translation: Contemporary Workshop  Nichole Gleisner

This course will focus on translating contemporary literature by exploring concerns of writers and translators working in the French and Francophone field today. Each week, students will translate an excerpt from a wide variety of texts written in French: prose, poetry, graphic novels, YA, science fiction, long-form journalism. We will also read and craft literary criticism, paying special attention to reviews of books in translation as we seek to understand and define the role of the translator in our current day. How does literary criticism complement the work of translation? In what ways is the current mode of approaching translations in reviews lacking? How can we develop criteria to evaluate works in translation that acknowledge the role of the translator ? How do these activities – both translating and reviewing – enrich scholarly communities, webs of thought, networks of writers, students’ own ways of approaching and understanding a text? Students will translate and workshop selections each week as well as undertake the translation of a significant portion of a contemporary text of their own. L5 level required.  HU
W 9:25am-11:20am

* FREN 3050a / ENGL 2505a, Medieval Biography  Ardis Butterfield

The sources, aims, and diversity of biographical forms in medieval literature. Analysis of the medieval world through the study of autobiography, hagiography, political martyrology, and literary biography; the challenges of viewing a historical period primarily through a single life. Includes a research trip to New York City. Reading will include French and Latin texts, but all will be available in translation.  HU
MW 1:05pm-2:20pm

* FREN 3070a / CPLT 3020a, France by Rail: Trains in French Literature, Film, and History  Morgane Cadieu

The seminar examines trains in literature, cinema, and theory, from the end of the nineteenth century and the first locomotives to the subway in contemporary Paris. The readings and discussions will focus on: the representation of French historical events through trains (industrialization, colonization, deportation, decolonization, immigration); the railroad as an anthropological tool; the aesthetics of trains; and the tracks as metaphors for determinism and free will. We visit the Beinecke collections and the Yale University Art Gallery. Corpus can include Augé, Chéreau, Delbo, Djemaï, Dongala, Ernaux, Renoir, Sebbar, Sembène, Verne, Wajsbrot, and Zola. Conducted in English. Reading knowledge of French is not a requirement. May not be taken after FREN 306.  HU
W 4pm-5:55pm

* FREN 3230b, Moliere: French Comedy, Laughter, and Society  Pierre Saint-Amand

In this course we study the major comedies written by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known as Molière (1622-1673), considered the greatest playwright of the French language (his plays are the most seen and read of all French writers). We analyze the plays in the context of the principal themes that have emerged out his theater and that made Molière the consecrated author he is: the critique of society, of the court, of religion; the education of women, the pervasiveness of money are other issues that will be discussed. Conducted in French. FREN 150 or equivalent will be the prerequisite  L5, HU
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

* FREN 3300a / HUMS 4364a, The World of Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables"  Maurice Samuels

Considered one of the greatest novels of all time, Victor Hugo's Les Misérables (1862) offers more than a thrilling story, unforgettable characters, and powerful writing. It offers a window into history. Working from a new translation, this seminar studies Hugo's epic masterpiece in all its unabridged glory, but also uses it as a lens to explore the world of nineteenth-century France—including issues such as the criminal justice system, religion, poverty, social welfare, war, prostitution, industrialization, and revolution. Students gain the tools to work both as close readers and as cultural historians in order to illuminate the ways in which Hugo's text intersects with its context. Attention is also paid to famous stage and screen adaptations of the novel: what do they get right and what do they get wrong? Taught in English, no knowledge of French is required.   HU  0 Course cr
T 1:30pm-3:25pm

* FREN 3310a, The French Enlightenment and the Pursuit of Happiness  Pierre Saint-Amand

French Revolutionary Saint-Just famously declared: “happiness is a new idea in Europe.” It is certainly a major concern in the eighteenth century. Whether envisioned as an individual or a collective pursuit the quest for happiness increasingly moves away from the realm of theology to become secularized and democratized. This course proposes to study how the writers of the period introduced the idea of happiness in their works, both literary and philosophical. Readings in Abbé Prévost, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Giacomo Casanova, Denis Diderot, Mme de Charrière, Voltaire, and others.  This course is conducted in French at L5 level.  L5
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

* FREN 3400a / CPLT 2320a / GMAN 3400a / HUMS 3429a / JDST 2586a, Paul Celan  Thomas Connolly

An undergraduate seminar in English exploring the life and work of Paul Celan (1920-1970), survivor of the Shoah, and one of the foremost European poets of the second half of the twentieth century. We will read from his early poems in both Romanian and German, and his published collections including Der Sand aus den Urnen, Mohn und Gedächtnis, Von Schelle zu Schelle, Sprachgitter, Die Niemandsrose, Atemwende, Fadensonnen, Lichtzwang, and Schneepart. We will also read from his rare pieces in prose and his correspondence with family, friends, and other intellectuals and poets including Bachmann, Sachs, Heidegger, Char, du Bouchet, Michaux, Ungaretti. A special focus on his poetic translations from French, but also Russian, English, American, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese, and Hebrew. Critical readings draw from Szondi, Adorno, Derrida, Agamben, and others. Readings in English translation or in the original languages, as the student desires. Discussions in English. None.  WR, HU
M 1:30pm-3:25pm

* FREN 3450a, The Prose Poem  Thomas Connolly

An examination of the poème en prose, from its beginnings as a response to the inadequacy of French verse forms through its emergence as an independent genre. Ability to read and discuss in French  HU
M 9:25am-11:20am

* FREN 3500b / CPLT 1150b / HUMS 4355b, Baudelaire  Thomas Connolly

An undergraduate seminar on the life and work of one the greatest poets of all time, and founder of modernity, Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867). Readings include œuvre de jeunesse, his collection of poems in verse, Les fleurs du mal, his collection of poems in prose, Le spleen de Paris, as well as his writings on fashion, contemporary culture, drugs, the arts, especially painting, his translations from English and American including Edgar Allan Poe, his private journals, the infamous late writings on Belgium and the Belgians, as well as his rare attempts at theater. His afterlives in literature, painting, music, dance, film, translation, and philosophy. Secondary materials including but not limited to Benjamin, Bonnefoy, Derrida, Fondane, Sartre. Readings in French, discussions in English. Ability to read in French is necessary.  HU  0 Course cr
M 9:25am-11:20am

* FREN 3700b / AFST 3377b, Caribbean Poetry in French  Thomas Connolly

An introduction to Caribbean poetry in French from the turn of the twentieth century to the present day. Topics covered will include literary, social, and political movements including surrealism, colonization, decolonization, immigration, the relation of French to other languages of the Caribbean including Créole, Spanish, and English, and points of contact between poetry, music, theater, and the visual arts. Students will learn how to read, comment on, and write about poetry. Primary authors will include Étienne Léro, Aimé Césaire, Saint-John Perse, Magloire-Saint-Aude, Édouard Glissant, René Depestre, Davertige, Jean Métellus, Raphaël Confiant, Suzanne Dracius, and Patrick Chamoiseau. Readings, assignments, and discussions in French. Ability to read, write, and discuss in French.
M 1:30pm-3:25pm

* FREN 3840b / CPLT 3380b / FILM 3620b / ITAL 3384b / JDST 3489b, Representing the Holocaust  Maurice Samuels and Millicent Marcus

The Holocaust as it has been depicted in books and films, and as written and recorded by survivors in different languages including French and Italian. Questions of aesthetics and authority, language and its limits, ethical engagement, metaphors and memory, and narrative adequacy to record historical truth. Interactive discussions about films (Life Is Beautiful, Schindler's List, Shoah), novels, memoirs (Primo Levi, Charlotte Delbo, Art Spiegelman), commentaries, theoretical writings, and testimonies from Yale's Fortunoff Video Archive.  WR, HU
TTh 2:35pm-3:50pm

* FREN 3850a, Reading Rabelais's Gargantua  Dominique Brancher

How should the modern man be educated? Which virtues should a Christian prince possess in times of war? Can you be serious and funny at the same time? Gargantua, the life-story of a giant born from his mother's ear, published two years after Pantagruel in 1534, has surprising answers to these questions and more. It is with this work of excess, in form as much as in content, in which giants consume material and spiritual goods with equal enthusiasm, and in which received ideas are subject to harsh critical and comic scrutiny, that Rabelais invents the modern novel. Students undertake a close reading of the text in its modern French translation, alongside relevant secondary sources. All readings, discussions, and assignments in French.  HU
T 1:30pm-3:25pm

* FREN 4148b, Jean de Léry's Brazil (1578): The Birth of the Ethnological Gaze in Early Modern France  Dominique Brancher

How can we hear the voice of others, make them heard? Is the “indigenous” the object of discourse or can it be the subject of enunciation? This course focuses on the French construction and conceptualization of the country named “Brasil” in the early 16th century. Our itinerary will begin with Jean de Léry who, at the age of 22, embarked for Brazil, where he spent almost a year among the Tupinambás. 20 years after his return to France, in 1578, he published an account of this experience of otherness, anchored in his body and senses, while seeking to bring to life in the book the community that welcomed him. A bestseller throughout Europe, the book became a classic of modern anthropology. When Claude Lévi-Strauss visited Brazil, he was haunted by nostalgic memories of Léry: “the societies we can study today are no more than debilitated bodies and mutilated forms”. We examine the genesis of modern ethnology and anthropology, and their relationship to “literature”. Through topics such as cannibalism, sensuality, gendered gazes, animality, and the construction of the “good savage,” we will reflect on the intersecting issues of identity and alterity, past and present, near and far. Readings from Thévet, Montaigne, Diderot, Bougainville, Rousseau, and De Certeau will guide us. All discussions, assignments, and readings in French. French language skills (spoken and written) sufficient to read texts and participate in discussions, even though the aim of the course is also to enable participants to improve their communication skills.  HU
Th 9:25am-11:20am

* FREN 4810a / AFAM 4357 / AFST 4457a / AMST 4470a / BLST 4357a / ER&M 4067a, Racial Republic: African Diasporic Literature and Culture in Postcolonial France  Fadila Habchi

This is an interdisciplinary seminar on French cultural history from the 1930s to the present. We focus on issues concerning race and gender in the context of colonialism, postcolonialism, and migration. The course investigates how the silencing of colonial history has been made possible culturally and ideologically, and how this silencing has in turn been central to the reorganizing of French culture and society from the period of decolonization to the present. We ask how racial regimes and spaces have been constructed in French colonial discourses and how these constructions have evolved in postcolonial France. We examine postcolonial African diasporic literary writings, films, and other cultural productions that have explored the complex relations between race, colonialism, historical silences, republican universalism, and color-blindness. Topics include the 1931 Colonial Exposition, Black Paris, decolonization, universalism, the Trente Glorieuses, the Paris massacre of 1961, anti-racist movements, the "beur" author, memory, the 2005 riots, and contemporary afro-feminist and decolonial movements.  HU
W 1:30pm-3:25pm

* FREN 4910a, The Senior Essay  Dominique Brancher

A one-term research project completed under the direction of a ladder faculty member in the Department of French and resulting in a substantial paper in French or English. For additional information, consult the director of undergraduate studies.
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FREN 4920a, The Senior Essay—Translation Concentration  Dominique Brancher

A one-term research project completed under the direction of a ladder faculty member in the Department of French and resulting in a substantial translation (roughly 30 pages) from French to English, with a critical introduction of a length to be determined by the student in consultation with the advising ladder faculty member. Materials submitted for the translation concentration cannot be the same as the materials submitted for the translation courses. For additional information, consult the director of undergraduate studies.
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* FREN 4930a and FREN 4940a / FREN 4950a and FREN 4960a, The Senior Essay in the Intensive Major  Dominique Brancher

A yearlong research project completed under the direction of a ladder faculty member in the Department of French and resulting in a paper of considerable length, in French or English. For additional information, consult the director of undergraduate studies.
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FREN 4950a and FREN 4960a / FREN 4930a and FREN 4940a, The Senior Essay in the Intensive Major—Translation Concentration  Dominique Brancher

First term of a yearlong research project completed under the direction of a ladder faculty member in the Department of French and resulting in a translation of considerable length (roughly 60 pages), from French to English, with a critical introduction of a length to be determined by the student in consultation with the advising ladder faculty member. Materials submitted for the translation concentration cannot be the same as the materials submitted for the translation courses. For additional information, consult the director of undergraduate studies.
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