16 courses with the subject FREN H, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
FREN H001ELEMENTARY FRENCH1.0
This is the first course in a two-part series of elementary French. The course will introduce students to the cultural and ethnic diversity of France and the francophone world and will help students develop French communicative skills in a comprehensive manner, including interpretive listening, interpretive reading, presentational speaking, presentational writing, and interpersonal communication. The course meets for five (5) hours a week: three (3) hours with the instructor, one (1) hour with a TA, and one (1) hour with a conversation partner. Students who take FREN 001 at HC have priority of enrollment in the second semester FREN 002. Reserved for students with no previous to very little experience in the French language.
This is the second course in a two-part series of elementary French. The course will introduce students to the cultural and ethnic diversity of France and the francophone world and will help students develop French communicative skills in a comprehensive manner, including interpretive listening, interpretive reading, presentational speaking, presentational writing, and interpersonal communication. The course meets for five (5) hours a week: three (3) hours with the instructor, one (1) hour with a TA, and one (1) hour with a conversation partner. Students who take the first semester at HC have priority of enrollment in the second semester.
The emphasis on speaking and understanding French is continued, texts from French literature and cultural media are read, and short papers are written in French. Students use the Language Learning Center regularly and attend supplementary oral practice sessions. The course meets in non-intensive (three hours each week) sections which are supplemented by an extra hour per week with an assistant. This is a year-long course; both semesters (003 and 004) are required for credit. Prerequisite(s): FREN 001 and 002, or French placement exam.
The emphasis on speaking and understanding French is continued, texts from French literature and cultural media are read, and short papers are written in French. Students use the Language Learning Center regularly and attend supplementary oral practice sessions. The course meets in non-intensive (three hours each week) sections which are supplemented by an extra hour per week with an assistant. This is a year-long course; both semesters (003 and 004) are required for credit. Prerequisite(s): FREN 001 and 002, or French placement exam
FREN H100FRANCOPHONIES EN PERSPECTIVES I: INTENSIVE1.5
The emphasis on speaking and understanding French is continued, literary and cultural texts are read, and increasingly longer papers are written in French. In addition to the three class meetings each week, students develop their skills in an additional group session with the professors and in oral practice hours with assistants. Students use the Language Learning Center regularly. This course prepares students to take 102 or 105 in the second semester. Open only to graduates of Intensive Elementary French or to students specially placed by the department. Students who are not graduates of Intensive Elementary must take either 102 or 105 in Semester II to receive credit.
This course introduces French culture and cultural analysis through a series of flashpoints in France's history. What distinguishes France as a nation? How did it emerge before the Revolution of 1789 and how has it evolved since? What questions have shaped and reshaped French and Francophone identities? Today, France has a diverse population, due to its colonial pasts and its place at the crossroads of several ideological and aesthetic traditions. How does French society accommodate antithetical perspectives? As we explore these issues, we will learn to examine them analytically. Because the tools of analysis are often themselves "made in France," French culture will provide not only objects of study but also their means of interrogation. All the while, students will strengthen their skills in French language and expression through grammatical exercises, discussions, presentations, and essays. Prerequisite(s): FREN 004, or French placement exam
The goal of this course, the sequel to French 101, is to continue to develop your powers of expression and analysis in French. A difference between French 102 and 105 (the other sequel to 101) is that here the objects of study will be literary, and that through them we will consider what the value of studying literature is. In French and Francophone cultures, literature has an important and volatile relation to the question of civilization. The relation is important because literature has been used to define and to instill a sense of civility, that is, what it takes for people to live peacefully with one another. On the other hand, the relation is volatile because people disagree about literature's role in defining civility as well as about how to define civility (and therefore civilization) itself. We will explore these fundamental issues in French and Francophone cultures through texts and films of diverse periods, genres, and origins. Authors and artists will include Marivaux, Abdellatif Kechiche, Jean de La Fontaine, Victor Hugo, Françoise de Graffigny, Michel de Montaigne, and Patrick Chamoiseau. Prerequisite(s): FREN 005 or 101
What makes a culture "great"? A good place to explore this question is 17th-century France. It is often thought that during this century, French culture became great—hence the century's nickname, le grand siècle. In this course we will consider the hypothesis of French grandeur, but not to assess it as true or false. Rather, we will approach it as a notion that gets constructed, applied, and interrogated in the 1600s through a series of theatrical, political, architectural, theological, and scientific œuvres. These works—mainly by Molière, Madame de Lafayette, Racine, La Bruyère, Corneille, Descartes, Elisabeth de Bohême, and André Le Nôtre—differ radically in their ideas, forms, perspectives, and effects. Nevertheless, they are all regarded in France as "classics" in that they serve in the classroom as essential ingredients of an education. The significance of this class, therefore, extends beyond the specific period it covers to include French culture in general and the values that it may (or may not) have today. We will pay particular attention to theatrical plays as objects of individual passion and political appropriation, to the place of women with respect to ideologies of state and reason, to the development of a centralized––i.e., modern––state (as represented, e.g., through the palace of Versailles and its gardens), and to the establishment of the French colonial empire and its infamous code noir. In French. Prerequisite(s): FREN 101 and 102/105, or 005 and 102/105
We explore Paris from 1789 to 1914, the long 19th century, punctuated by political regime changes and social and cultural revolutions. What was it like to experience the modernization of Paris and the birth of the life on the boulevard, site of exploration for the "flâneur"? What did Parisians do for fun? How did the new consumer society and newspaper culture affect the reception, reading, and very forms of literature, fashion, and art? Pre-requisite(s): French 102
FREN H250INTRODUCTION À LA LITTÉRATURE FRANCOPHONE: CUISINE ET CULTURE EN FRANCE1.0
In 2010, “the gastronomic meal of the French” was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, with particular mention to “togetherness, the pleasure of taste, and the balance between human beings and the products of nature.” In addition, UNESCO noted the importance in choosing the right dish or recipe, how products are procured, which flavors marry well, the art of the table setting, and the specific structure of the meal. Why is “food” so central to French culture? Culinary culture is constructed from a rich fabric of narratives that sustain its very practice. What are those stories and how are they shared? In this course, we will explore the discourse, indeed the language, that led to the emergence of French cuisine and the rise of gastronomy in the nineteenth century. (We will even consider the complex relationship the French have with doggie bags...) Primary sources include works by Roland Barthes, Pierre Bourdieu, Annie Ernaux, Agnès Varda and Émile Zola. Materials for consideration include literature, cookbooks, menus, film, television, sociological and historical texts, as well as topics of contemporary political and social debate. Prerequisite(s): FREN 101 and 102/105, or 005 and 102/105
FREN H254FRENCH IN ENGLISH: COLONIALISM THROUGH FRENCH AND FRANCOPHONE FILMS1.0
This course is an introduction to the history of French colonization through some popular films released, most of them, in the 80s and 90s (Camp de Thiaroye, Chocolat, Fort Saganne, Indochine, La victoire en chantant, Outremer, to name a few). We will begin with an overview of the history and critique of French imperialism, talk about economic, political, ideological and psychological foundations of the colonial enterprise, and then study the films. These materials offer complex and sometimes divergent views on colonization but from their confrontation should arise not only a general but also a critical understanding of colonization and its repercussions. Crosslisted: COML. Pre-requisite(s): First-year writing course
FREN H271FRENCH IN COMMON: ALLOCHTHONOUS AND INDIGENOUS VOICES IN QUEBEC1.0
What sets Quebecois society apart from the rest of Canada’s provinces? And what about the First Peoples, colonized twice over? How has French paradoxically become, for them, a tool of resistance against cultural erasure and colonization? The semester is divided into two parts: allochthonous communities and Indigenous communities. Themes explored through literary and cinematic works include: memory, loss of territory, community resilience, linguistic assimilation and cultural reclamation, identity issues, and postcolonial perspectives. Crosslisted: FREN, COML. Pre-requisite(s): FREN 102
Since its publication in 1845, Prosper Mérimée's short story Carmen has been adapted in a variety of media: opera, film, theatre, dance, comic strips. Carmen has indeed become a myth with almost universal resonance, taken up by European, American and African artists alike. What is it about Mérimée's eponymous character that attracts artists so much? Her femme fatale looks? The “Gypsy” that she is? The character so naturally prone to transgression? We will first study Mérimée's short story and then move on to its adaptations: Which characterizations of Carmen have been retained, altered or simply rejected and why? What rewritings of the myth of Carmen do these adaptations propose (Bizet, Brook, Dornford-May, Gai Ramaka, Godard, Preminger, Townsend, Rosi, Saura; Vidor)? In French Pre-requisite(s): Pre-requisite(s): FREN 101 and FREN 102. Open to non-majors.
FREN H312ADVANCED TOPICS IN FRENCH LITERATURE: MACHINES PENSANTES DE DESCARTES À NOUS-MÊMES,ADV TOPICS FRENCH LIT: L'ÉDUCATION ET SES SUJETS CHEZ DESCARTES, LA FONTAINE ET ROUSSEAU1.0
Have you ever wondered whether machines can think? This course explores the question by uncovering the contested origins of mechanical culture in early modernity. We will study the inventions of calculating and thinking machines by Descartes and Pascal, as well as their appropriations and critiques by Madame de Lafayette and La Fontaine. We will then use our findings to reassess: 1) democratic constitutions as self-adjusting mechanisms; mechanical dimensions of constitutional democracy, and 2) the impacts of artificially intelligent chatbots on democratic educations, including at liberal arts colleges such as Haverford. Readings (as well as those mentioned above) will include works by Alan Turing ("Computing Machinery and Intelligence"), Ridley Scott (Blade Runner), Michael Kammen (A Machine That Would Go of Itself), and others. The course will also feature experimental imitation games using Chatgpt. Taught in French. Crosslisted: FREN and COML Pre-requisite : 1 course FREN 2xx,The goal of this course is to put modern ideas about education into historical perspective by looking at some of their early-modern French counterparts. Will consider how certain subjects— inclusivity, civility, technology, poetry, reason, and passions, as well as persons of different social categories—developed into educational fixtures. The syllabus will centrally feature three authors whose works connect and collide with one another: Descartes, La Fontaine, and Rousseau. We will also read some recent pedagogical theories in order to see how they reflect, reform, or reject early-modern notions. In French. Crosslisted: FREN and COML Prerequisite(s): At least one 200-level course
