Nicole Berthe Claudine Grangeat-Vaget, Reverend Joseph
Paradis Professor
of French
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Multimedia projects:
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Language
courses previously
taught
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French
199-200: "French in Action" An
integrated two-semester course in language and culture, based
on the video "French in Action," for elementary-level
students with prior study of French. The first semester consists
of a thorough review of beginning grammar and the development
of listening and speaking skills. The second semester continues
the emphasis in these areas, adding more sophisticated grammatical
concepts. Throughout the course we concentrate on vocabulary
building, writing, and developing ease and competence in spoken
French
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French
203: Intermediate French language and Composition
This course will improve students' writing
and speaking skills in French and develop their ability to read
and analyze texts. Course materials include authors and films
representing cultures of the French-speaking world. Written
and oral expression are strengthened through biweekly essays,
class discussion, and grammar review. Students spend an additional
hour each week with native French and Francophone assistants
in small supplementary conversation groups.
Satisfies language requirement; does not satisfy a distribution
requirement.
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French 254: Phonetics and Pronunciation: The goal of this course
is to improve students' spoken French. Individualized attention
is given to idiomatic speech patterns, rhythm, and intonation.
Students will participate in prose and poetry readings and impromptu
discussions. French and Francophone assistantes participate
in the teaching of the course. Designed especially for majors
before they go abroad
Intermediate and advanced French civilization and literature courses previously taught
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To understand "the French
paradoxe" we will explore its most conflictual historical
moments (feudalism, absolute monarchy, political and social
revolutions).
We will look for answers to the complexity of present-day France:
its inclination to libertinism vs. its moralistic religious
conventions;
its institutionalization of rebellion vs. its longing for conformity,
its official status as "the eldest daughter of the Catholic
church" vs. its actual reputation as the most de-Christianized
country in Western Europe. Using CD-ROMs, computer applications
and films, students will learn the social and historical context
of French art and architecture (medieval churches, renaissance
castles,
baroque and rococo architecture, paintings from the 16th to the
19th century). For exemple "Art Religieux Médieval",is
a web application on the difference between French Romanesque and
Gothic Architecture.
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In
this couse students will learn how to glance at
the history, art and architecture of France to get insights
into the mentality
of contemporary
French people. They will learn about Romanesque
and Gothic churches, Renaissance castles of the Loire Valley,
Baroque and Rococo art and architecture, and the many
schools of paintings of the 19th century
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Eighteenth Century Studies
- French
311 Fall '97: The Pursuit of Happiness
in France in the Age of Enlightenment
Although the eighteenth century ended in
turmoil, artists as well as philosophers and writers firmly believed
that they had discovered the secrets of collective happiness. For
the playwright Marivaux and the painters Watteau, Boucher, and Fragonard,
love and sensuality constituted the main avenues to happiness and
in their works they represented a kaleidoscope of psychologies and
passions. For Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Bernardin de Saint-Pierre,
happiness was to be found in a paradisiac dream of a new golden
age in which perfect harmony with nature would be achieved (Les
rèveries d'un promeneur solitaire, Paul et Viginie). For
Diderot, any belief in God was an obstacle to happiness, but like
Montesquieu and the painter Greuze, he recommended practicing moral
virtue to achieve social harmony (Pensées philosophiques,
Les Lettres persanes). For Voltaire happiness depended on the creation
of a just and tolerant society in which free men and women lived
in peace (Les Lettres philosophiques, Candide). As Chardin's paintings
also illustrated, prosperity based on commerce would guarantee that
each citizen could live comfortably and even luxuriously. For Beaumarchais,
the secret of happiness lay essentially in social justice (Le mariage
de Figaro). In this course we will complement the study of literary
and philosophical texts with the examination of paintings of the
time. We will also view some cinematic attempts at representing
eighteenth-century society (Milos Forman's Valmont, Truffaut's L'enfant
sauvage, Tavernier's Que la fête commence!, Richard Heffron's
La Révolution: les années lumières).
- French
311 Fall '98: Love and Seduction
Rococo Style
The aristocratic and bourgeois culture which
prevailed in Paris from 1715 to the evolution of 1789 is known as
the French Rococo period. While contemporary philosophers sought
happiness in redesigning an ideal society, rococo artists and writers
who mainly catered to the aristocracy found solace in love and seduction.
For them, love was a pass time and women's idealised beauty a source
of inspiration; for others, beauty could only be found in the soul
of a virtous woman . A selection of works by the most representative
philosophers and artists of the "Age of Enlightenment"
will be annalysed in the socio-historical context of the XVIIIth
century. We will also study contemporary films evocating the XVIIIth
century.
- French
331 Fall 05
Fictional
Heroines in the Ancien Régime
(pre-1800) The
purpose of this course is to create an
electronic edition of an unpublished 18th
century manuscript "Les
Mémoires de la comtesse
de L..." Using fiction by
female writers of the 16th, 17th,
and 18th centuries, students
will probe
the realities of women's lives
in the Ancien Régime:
loveless marriages, convents,
prostitution, and madness. In
addition to
examining fictional heroines
of Diderot, l'abbé Prévost,
Choderlos de Laclos, and le marquis
de Sade, students will learn
to encode structural, contextual,
and analytical elements of the
text using the latest Web technologies.
(Technological support
will be integretated into the course.)
- French 331 Course
on Social and Political Issues and Critical Approaches: From
Rococo to Revolution
XXth century Studies: Social and Political
Issues/ Critical Approaches
- French 331 Spring 05 Political
Passion and National Predicament: 1789 and 1940 in France in films
In this course students will have the opportunity
to study two passion-filled moments of French history: the spectacular
revolution of 1789, and the startling collaboration of France and
Germany during the Second World War. Since contemporary Cinema gives
us a chance to peer into the past while reflecting on major questions
of the present, we will examine the works of film directors such
as Abel Gance, Andrzej Wajda, Ettore Scola, who reinvented the French
revolution, and of others such as Marcel Ophuls, Claude Chabrol,
Claude Berri, Louis Malle, Alain Resnais, François Truffaud
who probed moments of great distress for a French population torn
between the conflicting forces of resistance and collaboration.
Students will examine the viewpoints and intentions of the film
directors who were inspired by these dramatic events, and find ways
to make connections to our own reality today. We will consider how
these times of great turmoil, peril, and promise provide an ideal
dramatic backdrop for the promotion of ideas on love, war, and politics
in today’s society.
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French 370 : Senior Seminar "Avoir Vingt Ans" -Youth
and Ambition or the Past Revisited
This course seeks to recall all lovers, warriors,
dreamers, social climbers, sports fanatics, and other "action
figures" of France's collective past, equating or contrasting
their aspirations with the dreams of modern youth. Students will
study the lives and visions of heroes such as Jeanne d'Arc, La Princesse
de Clèves, Candide, Napoléon Bonaparte, Julien Sorel,
Eugène de Rastignac, Emma Bovary, Saint Exupéry, and
Frison-Roche. Using films, modern novels, newspaper articles, and
drawing on their own personal experience, students will investigate
and examine the sociocultural nd political issues that confront
contemporary French youth
Courses
previously coordinated and taught in European
Studies
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