French Courses by Semester
Spring
- FREN 1000: On Afrofuturism. Utopian & Dystopian Literature and Film from Africa (Dean’s sem)
The world begins as an idea, a concept, a fruit of imagination. The birth, growth, death and rebirth of civilization is a phenomenon as common as the cycling of the seasons. This course examines African futurism, magical realism, and other forms of the unreal or fantastic in literary texts, film, and other media. Through close reading and attention to historical, cultural, and sociopolitical context, students consider how these works reinterpret the past, diagnose modernity, and posit alternative futures. Particular attention will be given to the roles race, gender, class, and sexuality play within these radically engaging worlds. Topics vary from week to week and include works by Nnedi Okorafor, Amos Tutuola, Wanuri Kahui, Birago Diop, Amadou Hampaté Bâ etc.
Prerequisites: none.
This Dean’s Seminar is taught in English and fulfills the following G-PAC requirements: Critical Thinking in the Humanities; Oral Communication. This course counts toward French major and minor and satisfies the post-1800 requirement for the French minor
- FREN 1001 - Basic French I
Handling the immediate context of daily experience in spoken and written French: identifying, describing, and characterizing people, objects, places and events; giving information and instructions; issuing simple commands and requests.
Course is taught in French.
Prerequisite: French Placement Exam score: 0-250.
This course may not be audited or taken pass/fail.
- FREN 1002 - Basic French II
Speaking and writing in French about past and future events: telling a story (narrating and describing in the past), promising, predicting and proposing simple hypotheses and conjectures.
Course is taught in French.
Prerequisite: FREN 1001 or French Placement Exam score: 251-350.
This course may not be audited or taken pass/fail.
- FREN 1003 - Intermediate French I
Increasing active vocabulary, reinforcing mastery of basic grammar, dealing with more complex structures (verbal phrases, subordinate clauses) and using some patterns of indirect speech (e.g., repeating or relaying messages, giving reports, summarizing).
Course is taught in French.
Prerequisite: FREN 1002 or French Placement Exam score: 351-400.
This course may not be audited or taken pass/fail.
- FREN 1004 - Intermediate French II
Consolidation and further expansion of the ability to understand as well as produce a more complex level of oral and written discourse emphasizing subjective expression: issuing indirect commands and requests; giving opinions; making proposals; building arguments; defending and criticizing ideas.
Course is taught in French.
Prerequisite: FREN 1003 or French Placement Exam score: 401-500
This course may not be audited or taken pass/fail.
- FREN 2005 - Language, Culture, and Society
This is the first course in a two-course sequence designed for students at the advanced-intermediate level. Through an introduction to French history, 2005 promotes conversational skills and helps students develop the ability to write and comprehend somewhat complex texts on a broad range of topics. This course may not be audited or taken pass/fail. An extensive grammar review is included.
Course is taught in French.
This course satisfies GPAC requirements.
Prerequisite: FREN 1004 or French Placement Exam score: 501-550
This course may not be audited or taken pass/fail.
- FREN 2006 - Language, Culture and Society II
This course expands the range and complexity of oral communication skills via a variety of discussion formats as well as formal oral presentations and debates. 2006 also aims to develop the student's ability to analyze and comprehend more elaborate, expository prose and to write critically on a broad range of contemporary political, social and cultural topics. French 2006 continues the intensive grammar review begun in 2005.
Course is taught in French.
This course satisfies GPAC requirements.
Prerequisite: FREN 2005 or French Placement Exam score: 551-601
This course may not be audited or taken pass/fail.
- FREN 2500: The Cultural Politics of Food in France
Prof. Masha Belenky
What do we talk about when we talk about food? This course introduces food as a lens through which to think about French culture and society. In addition to learning about the history of French cuisine, gastronomy, and food practices, we will also explore the powerful symbolic role of food in literature and film as a way to approach questions of national identity, cultural specificity, immigration, gender, and power. More broadly, we will learn how to think and write critically and analytically about material culture (such as food) and what it can teach us about ourselves and society as a whole.
Prerequisites: none.
This course is taught in English and fulfills the following G-PAC requirements: Critical Thinking in the Humanities; Oral Communication. This course counts toward French major and minor and satisfies the post-1800 requirement for the French minor.
- FREN 3030: Business French: French for Professional Purposes
Prof. Hadia Anaye
This course aims to prepare students for the demands of the business world. Through tasks-based situations and group projects, students will develop essential professional communication skills for future employers. In this course, we will study the vocabulary specific to various sectors, such as diplomacy, technologies, environment, or public health, as well as the culture of francophone companies. There will be the opportunity to visit important international institutions based in Washington D.C., to further discuss important issues that affect today’s world. We will also analyze different types of authentic documents allowing students to provide students with a better understanding and readiness for the professional world within French-speaking businesses or organizations.
Prerequisite: FREN 2006 or equivalent.
- FREN 3100W: Approaches to French Studies: Text, Image, Culture (formerly known as Introduction to French Literature)
Prof. Masha Belenky
What can we learn from stories? In this course (a gateway to the French Minor and Major) we will study literature, theater, and film as a privileged window into French culture, history, and society. We will explore a diverse range of works from different literary and visual media (poetry, prose, theater, film) and historical periods (from the Renaissance to the 21st century) and discover the connections between aesthetic forms and human experiences. By the end of the semester you will have practiced techniques of textual and cultural analysis and will hone your analytical reading, writing, and thinking skills. You will also practice and improve your written and spoken French and deepen your appreciation of French literature and culture. Most of all, I hope you will experience the joy of reading!
Prerequisite: French 2006 or equivalent. *This course satisfies the WID requirement.*
- FREN 3210: Medieval and Early Modern French Literature in Context
Prof. Emma Campbell
How does literature engage with social and political change not only after the fact but as it is unfolding? What resources does literature offer for thinking and influencing such change? This course examines the historical dynamism and transnationalism of premodern literature written in French with these questions in mind. Between 1040 and 1600 the francophone world underwent major social, political, and intellectual shifts. Until recently, histories of French literature often approached this period’s significance teleologically, tracing a progressive movement towards modernity and the emergence of the French ethnolinguistic state. By foregrounding literature’s responses to nonlinear change, this course seeks to pose a different set of questions, which bring into view the perspectives that such narratives obscure. It asks: What does literature have to tell us about how people made sense of the changes they were living through? How did premodern texts participate in formulating and debating the questions that those changes raised? What can literary texts reveal about historical attitudes to gender, race, and religious identity? And how do we make sense of “French” literary history today, as a history that continues to speak to the changes of our own time?
No prior knowledge of medieval French is required. Students will read all primary materials in modern translations and editions.
Prerequisite: FREN 3100W or equivalent. This course satisfies the pre-1800 requirement for the French minor.
- FREN 4500: Challenging Nature: Sex, Gender, and Embodiment in Medieval French Texts
Prof. Emma Campbell
How do pre-modern engagements with “natural” concepts of sex and gender compare with today’s understandings of gender, sexuality, and identity? This class considers this question by engaging a range of French materials from historical, scientific, and literary genres, along with the images that sometimes accompany these works in medieval manuscripts. Focusing on the relationship between the natural world and ideas about sex-gender variance in medieval texts, it asks: How do pre-modern texts conceptualize sexed and gendered embodiment across human and non-human realms? And how might medieval sources open perspectives on sex-gender diversity that expand those of our present moment?
No prior knowledge of medieval French is required. Students will read all primary materials in modern translations and editions.
Prerequisite: FREN 3100W or equivalent. This course satisfies the pre-1800 requirement for the French minor.
- FREN 4600: Tradition and Modernity in Africa and the Maghreb
Prof. Abdourahman Waberi
This course will explore the daunting issues that confront Africa and the Maghreb in its transformation from tradition to modernity. If tradition comprises the centuries-old oral legacies, modernity may refer to what has appeared recently, namely the writings along with films, websites, musical productions, journals and conferences. We will use a wide range of sources (novels, memoirs, films and songs) in order to understand the link between past and present. Our topics will include language and memory, Islam and Christianity, urbanity and cultural productions, social justice and spiritual redemption.
Prerequisite: FREN 3100W or equivalent. This course satisfies the post-1800 requirement for the French minor.
- FREN 4920W: Senior Honors Thesis
Profs. Belenky, Campbell, Waberi.
Preparation of the senior thesis. For French majors pursuing honors in French. Departmental approval is required. Includes a significant engagement in writing as a form of critical inquiry and scholarly expression to satisfy the WID requirement.
Prerequisites: FREN 4910 and program approval *This course satisfies the WID requirement.*
Fall
- FREN 1001 - Basic French I
Handling the immediate context of daily experience in spoken and written French: identifying, describing, and characterizing people, objects, places and events; giving information and instructions; issuing simple commands and requests.
Course is taught in French.
Prerequisite: French Placement Exam score: 0-250.
This course may not be audited or taken pass/fail.
- FREN 1002 - Basic French II
Speaking and writing in French about past and future events: telling a story (narrating and describing in the past), promising, predicting and proposing simple hypotheses and conjectures.
Course is taught in French.
Prerequisite: FREN 1001 or French Placement Exam score: 251-350.
This course may not be audited or taken pass/fail.
- FREN 1003 - Intermediate French I
Increasing active vocabulary, reinforcing mastery of basic grammar, dealing with more complex structures (verbal phrases, subordinate clauses) and using some patterns of indirect speech (e.g., repeating or relaying messages, giving reports, summarizing).
Course is taught in French.
Prerequisite: FREN 1002 or French Placement Exam score: 351-400.
This course may not be audited or taken pass/fail.
- FREN 1004 - Intermediate French II
Consolidation and further expansion of the ability to understand as well as produce a more complex level of oral and written discourse emphasizing subjective expression: issuing indirect commands and requests; giving opinions; making proposals; building arguments; defending and criticizing ideas.
Course is taught in French.
Prerequisite: FREN 1003 or French Placement Exam score: 401-500
This course may not be audited or taken pass/fail.
- FREN 2005 - Language, Culture, and Society
This is the first course in a two-course sequence designed for students at the advanced-intermediate level. Through an introduction to French history, 2005 promotes conversational skills and helps students develop the ability to write and comprehend somewhat complex texts on a broad range of topics. This course may not be audited or taken pass/fail. An extensive grammar review is included.
Course is taught in French.
This course satisfies GPAC requirements.
Prerequisite: FREN 1004 or French Placement Exam score: 501-550
This course may not be audited or taken pass/fail.
- FREN 2006 - Language, Culture and Society II
This course expands the range and complexity of oral communication skills via a variety of discussion formats as well as formal oral presentations and debates. 2006 also aims to develop the student's ability to analyze and comprehend more elaborate, expository prose and to write critically on a broad range of contemporary political, social and cultural topics. French 2006 continues the intensive grammar review begun in 2005.
Course is taught in French.
This course satisfies GPAC requirements.
Prerequisite: FREN 2005 or French Placement Exam score: 551-601
This course may not be audited or taken pass/fail.
- FREN 3010W - Advanced French Language, Structure, and Composition
Prof. Sarah-Kay Hurst
TR 12:45-2:00Deepen your knowledge of French and explore local and global Francophone connections in DC and beyond, building your written and spoken French to apply your language and cultural skills in authentic contexts! Through experiential learning at embassies and museums, a Community Engaged Scholarship project, and interactive classroom activities, you will create a personalized journey to elevate your language learning. From a visit to the Embassy of Haiti, to an interactive guided tour of the “American Louvre” (Renwick Gallery), to an excursion to the Planet Word language museum, you will discover how language, culture, and history intersect in meaningful ways. Through scaffolded writing pieces, personal ‘discovery’ activities, collaborative speaking, and learning through games, you will improve your ability to produce expository, descriptive, persuasive, and narrative writing. You will also strengthen your writing and speaking skills for diverse personal and professional contexts by integrating figures of speech, borrowings, idiomatic expressions, and stylistic variations between French and English, while incorporating linguistic concepts to deepen your understanding of the nuances of the French language. As a class, we will engage in a semester-long collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art as part of a Community Engaged Scholarship project to create materials about Francophone Africa, all while you build myriad transferable career competencies through engagement and reflection.
This course satisfies the WID requirement.
Prerequisite: FREN 2006 or equivalent.- FREN 3100W.10: Introduction to French Literature
Prof. Masha Belenky
MW 11:10-12:25What can we learn from stories? In this course (a gateway to the French Minor and Major) we will study literature and film as a privileged window into French culture, history, and society. We will explore a diverse range of works from different genres (poetry, prose, theater, film) and historical periods (from the Renaissance to the 21st century) and discover the connections between aesthetic forms and human experiences. By the end of the semester you will have practiced techniques of textual and cultural analysis and will hone your analytical reading, writing and thinking skills. You will also practice and improve your written and spoken French and deepen your appreciation of French literature and culture. Most of all, I hope you will experience the joy of reading!
This course satisfies the WID requirement.
Prerequisite: FREN 2006 or equivalent.- FREN 3100W.11: Introduction to French Literature
Prof. Emma Campbell
TR 11:10-12:25This course is an introduction to literature in French and the gateway to the French Minor and Major. We will examine a broad selection of literary and filmic texts from different genres (including poetry, prose, theater, and cinema) and historical periods (from the Renaissance to the present day). In addition to deepening your understanding of French culture, you will learn how to read and write analytically about a range of French texts using different techniques and modes of analysis. In developing these skills, you will also be encouraged to explore your own critical perspective on the texts you are studying.
This course satisfies the WID requirement.
Prerequisite: FREN 2006 or equivalent.- French 3600: Finding Your Voice
Prof. Noëlle Levy-Gires
TR 12:45-2:00Do you want to improve your speaking skills in French while exploring major debates in the contemporary French-speaking world? This course is for you. If you enjoy debate, public speaking, or improvisation, or if you simply want to learn how to defend your ideas more effectively, working with a professor trained in French language and literature, but who also brings a background in theater, this course is for you! This course focuses on the art of rhetoric and has two main goals: 1. Learning the techniques of persuasive speech: how do we convince and persuade? How can we identify the strategies used in arguments—and use them ourselves to craft clear, powerful speeches? 2. Exploring major issues in the contemporary Francophone world: resistance, colonization, the death penalty, state sovereignty (Iraq War), marriage equality, and more. Throughout the semester, we will alternate between analyzing major speeches and hands-on speaking practice: memorization, improvisation, voice work, and non-verbal communication.
Prerequisite: French 2006 or equivalent.
- FREN 3220: Modern French Literature
Prof. Abdourahman Waberi
MW 3:45-5:00Dans ce cours nous étudierons des textes canoniques du 18e siècle jusqu’à nos jours, en considérant leurs contextes historiques, sociaux, et culturels. Ces œuvres partagent une interrogation sur la nature des rapports entre les hommes : quelles structures sociales sont possibles, et quel est l’impact de ces structures sur des individus ? Les sources littéraires peuvent contribuer des perspectives nuancées à un débat qui reste pertinent même aujourd’hui. Ce cours vise à développer vos capacités en plusieurs domaines : historique, littéraire, et sociologique. Vous apprendrez à identifier des thèmes communs à la littérature française au cours des 18e, 19e, 20e et 21e siècles et aussi à lire plus profondément pour apprécier les aspects artistiques des œuvres.
Prerequisite: FREN 3100W or equivalent.- FRENCH 4540: Windows On Paris: Literature, Art and Modernity in the 19th century
Prof. Masha Belenky
MW 2:20-3:35Paris, the “capital of the nineteenth century” witnessed unprecedented social, cultural, political and aesthetic changes. Just as Paris engendered a whole array of distinctly urban genres (such as tableaux de Paris, physiologies, city guides, and, last but not least, the novel), the city itself became an object of observation and analysis of the very literature it produced, a main character in the story of emerging modernity. This class explores nineteenth-century French literature and culture through the complex interrelation between these diverse discourses of urban observation, and the images of readable urban space they create. Topics include the cultural role and the literary function of such specifically Parisian type as “le flâneur,” an urban rambler strolling through the city; the adventures of an ambitious law student trying to navigate the complexities of the Parisian social world in Balzac’s Le Père Goriot; the aspirations and failures of the capitalist Paris of the Second Empire in Zola’s great department store novel, Au Bonheur des dames; and the poeticized images of Paris as a site of desire, longing and modernity in Baudelaire’s poetry. We will also engage with our city, Washington DC, and reflect on our own urban practices.
Prerequisite : FREN 3100W or equivalent
- FREN 4910 Advanced Studies in French Culture. French Humanisms: Past, Present, and Future
Prof. Emma Campbell
TR 2:20-3:35The question of the human has been at the heart of French thought, politics, and culture since at least the 18th century. But what—or whom—does the human include or exclude? What are the benefits and risks of being recognized as human? How do definitions of humanity intersect with the forms of power wielded by states or institutions? And how are understandings of humanity shifting in response to changes in environment and technology? This advanced class traces the trajectory of French humanism from universalizing Enlightenment understandings of “l’homme” to the radical rethinking of this model in the 20th and 21st centuries. Through detailed analysis of work by key French and francophone thinkers, we will examine how the Republican ideal of the universal human has been (and continues to be) deconstructed, interrogated, and reimagined in dialogue with major cultural and political shifts.
Prerequisite: FREN 3100W or equivalent. This course satisfies the pre-1800 Literature requirement for the French minor. NOTE: This course is open to all students (with the pre-req) and is required for senior French majors.