French

The Department of French and Italian (link is external)offers a liberal arts major designed to give students a thorough grounding in the language, literature, and culture of one or more of the subjects it teaches, seen as independent disciplines or in combination with other languages and cognate subjects. Its courses provide practical instruction in the French and Italian languages; the literatures and cultures of France and Italy in all periods, from medieval to contemporary; and literature in French written in other parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Students are encouraged to complement their courses in French and/or Italian with related and varied courses in other literatures, art history, history, political science, sociology, comparative literature, or other humanities subjects.

In addition to serving as the focus for an education in liberal arts, the French and Italian concentrations can be the basis for graduate or professional study. In mostly small classes and seminars, allowing extensive student/teacher interaction, students become equipped to take up careers in many walks of life, including journalism, business, law, government service, and international affairs. For non-majors, the department offers a rich set of language courses, from introductory to very advanced. It also offers a popular certificate program, allowing the study of French and Italian to be combined with concentration in history, architecture, English, politics, or any other subject available at Princeton.

An Advanced Placement score of 5 or an SAT Subject Test score of at least 760 is required to satisfy the A.B. foreign language requirement at entrance, or for admission to a 200-level course.

Students who wish to continue a language begun in secondary school must have their proficiency measured either by a College Board score or by a placement test administered prior to course registration. Placement will depend on previous training and proficiency.

The normal program for beginners seeking a basic mastery of French is the sequence 101, 102, 107, which satisfies the University's language requirement. Normally students electing a beginner's course in any language will receive credit only if two terms are completed.

Students showing particular gifts in 101 may be admitted to the accelerated, double-credit spring course, 102-7, which also satisfies the University's language requirement.

Students with advanced placement in French will be placed in either 103 or 105 and will proceed to either 107 or 108 to satisfy the University language requirement. They also may be placed directly into 108. Students who have successfully completed 107 cannot take 108.

Course credit in 107 or 108 is also available through approved summer courses abroad (see Study and Work Abroad below). Funding may be available for selected and committed students. Students must pass a placement test upon their return to satisfy the language requirement.

Courses

• FRE 101 Beginner's French I FallAn audio-visual approach is used to develop the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing French in a cultural context. The main emphasis is on acquiring competence through aural/oral practice. Classroom activities include videos, comprehension and grammar exercises, conversation, and skits. Five classes; laboratory required. No credit is given for 101 unless followed by 102. Staff
• FRE 102 Beginner's French II SpringA continuation of 101. The audio-visual approach promotes proficiency through listening and speaking French. Growing emphasis on reading and writing. Classroom activities include videos, discussions, small group work, and comprehension and grammar exercises. A midterm interview with instructor, and a final oral presentation. Five classes; laboratory required. Prerequisite: 101. Students who complete 102 normally place into 107. Staff
• FRE 1027 Intensive Intermediate and Advanced French SpringAn intensive double-credit course designed to help students develop an active command of the language. Focus will be on reading and listening comprehension, oral proficiency, grammatical accuracy, and the development of reading and writing skills. A solid grammatical basis and awareness of the idiomatic usage of the language will be emphasized. Students will be introduced to various Francophone cultures through readings, videos, and films. Prerequisite: 101 and permission of instructor. Five 90-minute classes. Staff
• FRE 103 Intensive Beginner's and Intermediate French Fall/SpringAn intensive course that covers 101 and 102 in one semester. Designed for students who have previously studied French but whose preparation is either too remote or insufficient for direct placement in intermediate French. An audio-visual approach is used to develop concurrently the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing French in a cultural context. Classroom activities include videos, discussions, small group work, comprehension and grammar exercises, and conversation. Five classes; laboratory required. Normally followed by 107. Staff
• FRE 105 Intermediate French FallDesigned for students who have a satisfactory foundation in French but are not yet qualified for 108. Grammar review, composition, reading of standard French texts, and practice in listening and speaking. Three classes, laboratory as deemed necessary. Prerequisites: two to five years of secondary school French and a satisfactory score on the placement test. Normally followed by 108. C. Sagnier
• FRE 107 Intermediate/Advanced French Fall/SpringA continuation of 102. Develops an active command of spoken and written French through class discussion and compositions. Continued presentation and review of grammar. Acquisition of reading skills through short readings. Five classes. Normally open only to students who have successfully completed 102 or 103. Staff
• FRE 108 Advanced French Fall/SpringAn intensive course aimed at developing an active command of the language. Syllabus includes the reading of literary texts, and class exercises emphasize comprehension and oral proficiency. Three classes. Prerequisite: 105 or satisfactory score on placement test. Staff
• FRE 207 Studies in French Language and Style Fall/SpringIntensive practical training in oral and written French through a study of French culture and society. Strong emphasis on discussion. Film series. Recommended as preparation for advanced courses in French literature and civilization. Three classes. Prerequisite: 107 or 108. Staff
• FRE 211 French Theater Workshop (also THR 211 ) Fall/Spring LAAn intensive practical training in French through an introduction to acting techniques and an exploration of the French dramatic canon. Emphasis is placed on improving students' oral skills through pronunciation and diction exercises and the performance of scenes from French playwrights. Course culminates in the performance of students' work. Prerequisite: FRE 107, 108, or the equivalent. FRE 207 recommended as a co-requisite. Two 90-minute classes. F. Masse
• FRE 215 France Today: Culture, Politics, and Society FallIntensive language practice and readings from French textbooks for students of economics and politics, focusing on the concepts and vocabulary of the modern international economy. Prerequisite: a 200-level course in French, or instructor's permission. Two 90-minute classes. C. Sagnier
• FRE 221 The Rise of France: French Literature, Culture, and Society from the Beginnings to 1789 Fall LAA study of the evolution of French literature, culture, and society from the beginnings to the Revolution: the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Neo-Classicism, and the Enlightenment. The distinguishing cultural and social ideals of these four periods will be defined and analyzed, and representative cultural productions (the cathedrals, the châteaux of the Loire, Versailles, etc.) will be discussed in context. A few major literary texts will constitute primary readings. Prerequisites: 107, 108, or equivalent. 207 recommended as a corequisite. Two 90-minute classes. Staff
• FRE 222 The Making of Modern France: French Literature, Culture, and Society from 1789 to the Present Spring LAA historical survey of the main features of French society, literature, and culture from the period of the French Revolution (1789-99) to the present. Weekly lectures cover political, intellectual, and cultural history, while precepts and readings focus on representative literary texts (drama, lyric poetry, and fiction) as well as examples of French art and film. Prerequisites: 107, 108, or equivalent. 207 recommended as a corequisite. Two 90-minute classes. Staff
• FRE 224 French Literature: Approaches to the Language of Literary Texts Fall/Spring LAThe application of various critical methods to the interpretation of texts (short fiction, drama, and poetry) from all periods. Topics will include themes, narrative and rhetorical strategies, authorial voice, implicit reader, and genre theory. Two 90-minute classes. Prerequisite: 107, 108 or equivalent. 207 recommended as a corequisite. A. Benhaïm
• FRE 307 Advanced French Language and Style Fall/SpringIntensive practice of written and spoken French through close analysis of grammatical and syntactic structures, literary translation, and the stylistic study of representative literary works from the Middle Ages to the present. Prerequisite: a 200-level French course or instructor's permission. Two 90-minute classes. Staff
• FRE 313 Contemporary French Civilization Fall SAThe evolution of 20th-century French institutions and their relationship to intellectual and social movements since World War I. New directions taken by French thought will be stressed through the study of individuals, selected from representative fields, whose influence led to the restructuring of contemporary French civilization. Two 90-minute classes. Prerequisite: a 200-level course in French or instructor's permission. Staff
• FRE 317 Visions of Paris Spring LAA study of Paris as urban space, object of representation, and part of French cultural identity. Topics include Paris in the Ancien Régime; Revolutionary and Napoleonic Paris; the transformation of Paris in the 19th century; Paris as a site of European art and literature; modern and multicultural Paris in the 1900s; and challenges in the new millennium. Prerequisite: a 200-level course in French or instructor's permission. One 90-minute lecture, one 90-minute preceptorial. A. Benhaïm
• FRE 321 The Invention of Literature and Culture in France (also GSS 330 ) Fall/Spring LAThe birth of literature in the Middle Ages in France is accompanied by remarkable inventiveness. From the glamour of troubadour love songs to the somber passion of heroic poetry, from the refinements of chivalric romance to the bawdy of (fabliaux), from intricate lyric forms to complex prose romances, medieval writers not only practiced but constantly re-created the emergent concept of "literature," elaborating, as they did so, such legendary tales as those of Roland, Tristan, Lancelot, and the grail. Prerequisite: a 200-level course in French or instructor's permission. One 90-minute lecture, one 90-minute preceptorial. StaffFRE 327 Tales of Hospitality: France, North Africa, and the Mediterranean (also COM 357 ) Fall EMAn exploration of the concept of hospitality, individual and collective, in French, Mediterranean, and Maghrebi (i.e., North African: Arab, Berber, and Jewish) cultures. Draws on materials from literature and the arts, politics and law, philosophy and religion. Issues studied include immigration, citizenship, alienation, and, more generally, the meaning of welcoming a stranger. Prerequisite: a 200-level course in French or instructor's permission. One 90-minute lecture, one 90-minute preceptorial. A. BenhaïmFRE 330 Landmarks of French Culture (also AFS 330 ) Spring LAAn interdisciplinary study of places, periods, persons, or questions that helped define French cultural identity, from its origins to the present. Areas of study could include courtly love; gothic art; the Enyclopedia; the Belle Epoque; the Figure of the Intellectual from Zola to Simone de Beauvoir; the sociocultural revolution of May 1968; colonization, its discontents, and its aftermaths; France in the age of globalization; Franco-American relations; etc. Prerequisite: a 200-level course in French or instructor's permission. Two 90-minute classes. Staff
• FRE 331 French Renaissance Literature and Culture Fall LAReadings from the works of Rabelais, the Pléiade poets, Marguerite de Navarre, Montaigne, and d'Aubigné in the light of contemporary artistic, political, and cultural preoccupations. Themes will include the rhetoric of love, education, humanism, recurrent mythologies, and utopias. Two 90-minute classes. Prerequisite: a 200-level course in French or instructor's permission. K. Chenoweth
• FRE 332 Topics in the French Middle Ages and Renaissance Spring LAThe continuities of French culture and its preeminence over much of Europe from its 11th-century beginnings through the 16th century. Emphasis on medieval and Renaissance literary works (in modernized versions) in their relationship to topics such as "love'' (fin'amor), saintliness, national identity, humanism, and so on. Prerequisite: a 200-level course in French or instructor's permission. One 90-minute lecture, one 90-minute preceptorial. K. Chenoweth
• FRE 341 The Classical Age Fall LAAn introduction to the literature and culture of the 17th century, known in France as le grand siècle. Readings range from the dramatic masterpieces of Corneille, Molière, and Racine to La Fontaine's Fables and Perrault's Contes, to be studied in relationship to their historical context. Formal and thematic analysis with an emphasis on moral, social, and political tensions and conflicts. Two 90-minute classes. Prerequisite: a 200-level French course or instructor's permission. V. Schröder
• FRE 351 The Age of Enlightenment LAExamines the challenge to the political and cultural authority of the ancien régime from new ideas, values, and rhetorics. The emphasis may fall on the work of an individual writer or group of writers, a genre or subgenre (the epistolary novel, the popular scientific essay), or the role of literary institutions (journalism, salons, censorship). Two 90-minute classes. Prerequisite: a 200-level French course or instructor's permission. Staff
• FRE 352 Topics in 17th- and 18th-Century French Literature (also GSS 352 ) Spring LATopics will range from single authors and major texts (for example, the Encyclopedie) to literary genres and questions of culture (preciosite, comedy and/or tragedy, historiography, epistolary writing, etc.). Prerequisite: a 200-level course in French or instructor's permission. Two 90-minute classes. V. Schröder
• FRE 353 The Old Regime: Society and Culture in France, 1624-1789 Fall/Spring LAThe age of French political and cultural hegemony is characterized by the construction of the modern state, the imposition of strict social discipline, and the rationalization of large areas of human behavior. These processes will be studied in political and philosophical writings, plays, novels, poems, and memoirs. Prerequisite: a 200-level course in French or instructor's permission. Two 90-minute classes. V. Schröder
• FRE 357 Literature, Culture, and Politics (also TRA 357 ) Fall/Spring LALiterary texts represent and often question relations of power and cultural norms, but as a form of knowledge, literature is itself implicated in power relations. Topics range from the work of a writer or group of writers who composed both fiction and political theory or commentary to the function of censorship and of literary trials. Prerequisite: a 200-level course in French or instructor's permission. One 90-minute lecture, one 90-minute preceptorial. G. Blix
• FRE 362 The 19th-Century French Novel Spring LAMajor literary and cultural themes in the tradition of the French novel. Special attention to fictional techniques and innovations in the works of Stendhal, Balzac, Flaubert, and Zola. Emphasis on literary form in relation to intellectual, artistic, and historical background. One 90-minute lecture, one 90-minute preceptorial. Prerequisite: a 200-level French course or instructor's permission. Alternates with 363. G. Blix
• FRE 363 The 20th-Century French Novel Fall LAA study of major themes, forms, and techniques in modern fiction. Close analysis of works by Proust, Gide, Céline, Sartre, Camus, Sarraute, Duras, Robbe-Grillet, and Condé. The nouveau roman and experiments in contemporary fiction will be examined as well as the cultural, moral, and political problems of our times. One 90-minute lecture, one 90-minute preceptorial. Prerequisite: a 200-level French course or instructor D. Bellos, T. Trezise
• FRE 364 Modern French Poetry Fall/Spring LAPostromantic poetry, including works by Baudelaire, the symbolists (Verlaine, Rimbaud, Mallarmé), such modernists as Valéry, Apollinaire, and the surrealists. Special emphasis is placed on close textual analysis, as well as on symbolist, surrealist, and contemporary poetics. Two 90-minute seminars. Prerequisite: a 200-level French course or instructor E. Rentzou
• FRE 365 French Theater Fall LAPlays by Molière, Corneille, Racine, Beaumarchais, Marivaux, Hugo, Feydeau, Jarry, Claudel, Giraudoux, Anouilh, Sartre, Genet, Ionesco, and Beckett, along with consideration of mise en scène, techniques of acting, theories of Artaud, and evolution of such traditions as théâtre de moeurs, boulevard comedy, and theater of the absurd. Two 90-minute classes. Prerequisite: a 200-level French course or instructor's permission. V. Schröder
• FRE 366 French Fiction in Translation Spring LAInnovations in the theory and practice of French narrative from the 1850s to the present, considered in cultural, historical, and intellectual context. Works by Flaubert, Proust, Gide, Céline, Camus, Sarraute, Yourcenar, and others will be read in English translation. Prerequisite: a 200-level literature course or instructor's permission. Two 90-minute classes. T. Trezise
• FRE 367 Topics in 19th- and 20th-Century French Literature and Culture Spring LATopics will range from the oeuvre and context of a single author (for example, Balzac, Baudelaire, or Beckett) to specific cultural and literary problems (modernism and the avant-garde, history as literature, women's writing). Prerequisite: a 200-level French course or instructor's permission. C. Wampole
• FRE 371 World Literatures in French Fall/Spring LAAn introduction to francophone societies and cultures in Europe, Africa, Asia, and America. Each year special attention will be paid to one of these (for example, the Caribbean, the Maghreb). Readings will include both literary works and works of historical and social analysis. Prerequisite: a 200-level course in French or instructor F. Nesbitt
• FRE 391 Topics in French Cinema (also VIS 347 ) Spring LAMajor movements and directors in French and French-language cinema. Topics may include: early history of the cinematographe; the Golden Age of French film; Renoir, Bresson, Tati; the "New-Wave"; French women directors of the 1980s; adaptation of literary works. T. Trezise
• FRE 401 Topics in French Literature and Culture Fall/Spring LAIssues pertaining to French literature and/or culture that transcend chronological boundaries. The specific content of the course will change each time it is offered. Possible topics include: French Autobiographical Writings, The Idea of Nationhood in France, The French Intellectual, Satire and Humor in France. Prerequisite: a 200-level course in French or instructor's permission. One three-hour seminar. Staff
• FRE 407 Prose Translation (also TRA 407 ) Fall/Spring LAHistory, theory, and practice of literary translation. One three-hour seminar. Prerequisite: a 200-level course in French or instructor's permission. D. Bellos

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