This course introduces students to literature and culture from a variety of perspectives. It will increase confidence and skill in writing and speaking; integrate historical, political, and social contexts into the study of literary texts from France and the French-speaking world; and bring understanding of the special relevance of earlier periods to contemporary French and Francophone cultural and aesthetic issues. Students explore diversified works - literature, historical documents, film, art, and music - and do formal oral and written presentations.

This course introduces students to literature and culture from a variety of perspectives. It will increase confidence and skill in writing and speaking; integrate historical, political, and social contexts into the study of literary texts from France and the French-speaking world; and bring understanding of the special relevance of earlier periods to contemporary French and Francophone cultural and aesthetic issues. Students explore diversified works - literature, historical documents, film, art, and music - and do formal oral and written presentations.

This course introduces the literatures of French-speaking countries outside Europe. Readings include tales, novels, plays, and poetry from Africa, the Caribbean, Canada, and other areas. Discussions and short papers examine the texts as literary works as well as keys to the understanding of varied cultures. Students will be asked to do formal oral and written presentations.

This course will introduce students to contemporary popular culture in France and the French-speaking world, largely through the study of recent (post-1990) best-selling novels, popular music, and feature films. Students will be asked to give formal oral presentations based on up-to-date materials gathered from the Internet and/or French television and to participate actively in class discussion.

Histoire et Patrimoine: While exploring decisive moments of France's past, students will examine the development of art and architecture, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, and familiarize themselves with the mentality of each period (Medieval tapestries, Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals, Renaissance castles, Classic and Rococo art and architecture, and 19th Century schools of painting). Through a combination of movies, readings, pictures, and interactive links on the syllabus, students will prepare for oral presentations and essays.

Hugo's epic masterpiece, written in exile, has everything: ceaseless adventures, crimes and punishments, love, hate, obsession, heroes, villains, the battle of Waterloo, and civil war. The sympathetic everyman, Jean Valjean, condemned to hard labor for stealing bread and relentlessly pursued by the pitiless policeman Javert, encounters unforgettable characters. We will examine how Hugo situates Valjean's escapes within a framework of social injustice and good triumphing over evil, balancing his political and romantic ideas. Reading, discussion, film screenings.

Viewing multimedia material of the digital age, we will approach vintage Moliere's plays, and watch him go after the vices of his time: tyranny of fathers, hypocrisy of church people, absurdity of social and literary snobs. We will focus on women and servants, prime victims of absolutism. Context will be provided through films such as Moliere, Le Roi Danse, Vatel, La Princesse de Cleves,The Rise to Power of Louis XIV. We will study Tartuffe, Don Juan, L'Ecole des Femmes, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Les Femmes Savantes.

In this course, we will study novels (and a few films) that chronicle and analyze the coming-of-age process of a principal character. In each case, we will travel with the character as she/he moves from ignorance to knowledge, from naïvet to sophistication, from inexperience to experience, from adolescence to adulthood.