French 370 - Sounding French

When Malian-French singer Aya Nakamura was selected to sing at the 2024 Olympic opening ceremonies in Paris, one criticism proliferated across traditional and new media sites: that Nakamura did not qualify to sing for France since her French was, not “real” French, nor did it even, “sound French.” Similar critiques were drawn for fellow singer, Yseult, French of Cameroonian descent, and whose use of slang and Franglish were seen as “destroying” the sanctity of the French language. These two situations are symptomatic of broader discussions surrounding language purity, language and coloniality, language as national heritage, exophony, and the ways in which language has been a tool of both assimilation and discrimination in the French empire. 

This class explores the ways francophone soundscapes are socially constructed by way of race, gender, class, colony, and nation. Through film, songs, and netspaces, we will ask: what does it mean to “sound French”? How does variation or non-perfect French elicit violence or exclusion? On the contrary, what are the stakes of someone whose French might be “too good,” and how might language imply designations such as migrant, expatriate, traveller, or citizen? We’ll also look into the stakes and praxes of new technologies in auto-translation, voice modification, and accent diminution, such as Google’s language suite, Sanas.ai, or Tomato.ai, to name a few. Finally, we will ask ourselves–as either native French speakers, or as French language learners in the USA–about the many ways in which we ourselves might or might not sound properly French, American, or (in the age of machine interference) even human. 

Creators, singers/songwriters, and makers will be varied. Theorists are likely to include Bourdieu, Césaire, Fanon, Glissant, Nakamura (Lisa), Noble, Tawada. Taught in French. 

Prerequisite: FREN-207 or FREN-208, or equivalent. Fall Semester: Professor Sweat.

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Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: attention to issues of class, race, and gender; independent research; oral presentations; audiovisual work; instruction in languages other than English, visual analysis; aural analysis. Assessment: Students will complete an annotated bibliography for the mid-term exercise. A final exercise will include an audio recording and a shorter, meta-reflexive essay.