FREN103

Intensive Beginners’ French

This course addresses the fundamentals of the French language taught with an action-oriented methodology. It is ideal for students who are not complete beginners in French or for those who are fast learners, or for those who have knowledge of another Romance language. You will be introduced to experiential learning in group settings. This may require you to complete a learning task and/or an assignment outside of campus (taking the public transportation and journaling your experience in French).

The teaching approach is learner-centered and inclusive. A learner-centered approach means that you are a part of your learning. Therefore, you will need to develop strategies of learning in conducing both individual and group work. It also means that I will adjust content based on your needs to the best I can to support a positive learning experience for you. An inclusive approach means that everyone matters in regards of your identity (racial, gender, sexual) and/or accessibility needs. In this class, equity matters so you are welcome to use the non-binary pronoun “iel” and further inclusive forms of writing.

This is a 3CR course aligned with CEFR level A1 objectives and its overall language proficiency (general competences,  communicative language competences, communicative language activities and strategies). Credits will be granted for FREN 103 (3) or both FREN 101 (3), FREN 102 (3).

Language of Instruction: French

Instructor: Dr. Caroline Lebrec

Prerequisite: No prerequisites

Indigenous Literatures of Francophone Canada

Eruoma Awashish, Nitehik/Dans mon coeur

Depuis le début des années 2000, la littérature et le cinéma autochtones au Québec connaissent un essor important. Dans leurs textes littéraires et œuvres cinématographiques, les créatrices et créateurs issus des Premiers Peuples mettent en avant des demandes de justice, de guérison et de récupération des savoirs autochtones. Si notre époque actuelle continue d’être marquée par le colonialisme de peuplement, la création et l’art de raconter (le storytelling), peuvent-ils constituer des interventions qui dérangent les systèmes qui oppriment ? Pour bien y répondre, nous nous pencherons sur les débats historiques et contemporains sur la langue, la race, la souveraineté et l’exploitation des ressources naturelles au Québec, afin de contextualiser la production des arts narratifs autochtones et de mieux comprendre les épistémologies qui les sous-tendent. La sélection d’œuvres d’écrivain·es et de cinéastes de différentes nations (Innu, Wendat, Cris, Mohawk, Abénaquis, Anishnaabe et Inuit), qui s’expriment dans différents genres littéraires (histoire orale, récit de vie, autofiction, théâtre, nouvelle, poésie) et cinématographiques (archives visuelles, documentaire, long métrage, court métrage, nouveaux médias), mettra en lumière la grande diversité des arts narratifs autochtones au Québec.

Language of Instruction: French

Instructor: Dr. Isabella Huberman

Prerequisite: Recommended for students in 3rd year or above. Restricted to students with 2nd year standing or above.

Italian Mafia Movies

The association of the mafia with Italy is one of a handful of prevailing cultural metaphors about the country that unfailingly provoke a broad spectrum of impassioned responses from both Italians and non-Italians. This course argues that cinema has fundamentally shaped our perceptions and emotions about the mafia. We trace the lineaments of a cinematic genre born from the American and Italian milieus: the mafia movie. Diverse theses about Italian-origin organized crime, including the Cosa Nostra, Camorra, ‘Ndrangheta, Banda della Magliana, and others, are proposed in these films, which sometimes highlight anti-mafia activities and individuals. We conduct formal film analysis while attending to the socio-historical and cultural contexts of the production of the films or the historical periods depicted in the films. The guiding question of the course is not whether these filmic representations accurately depict the mafia and their contestations. Rather, we seek to unravel the representational complexities, intentions, and agendas of the movies and of the genre. In this way, we gain a cinematic key to understanding Italian mafia which complements relevant historical and empirical studies.

Language of instruction: English

Instructor: Dr. Gaoheng Zhang

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Gender and Sexuality in Italian Cinema

Italy, cinema, and romantic love are closely associated concepts for many people. William Wyler’s wildly popular film Roman Holiday (1953) stands as a powerful testament to this perception. What does Italian cinema say about this subject? This course will explore nuances of love, sex, desire, and eroticism in Italian cinema within the country’s post-WWII historical, socio-political, and cultural milieus, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s. The course’s three units— “masculinities,” “femininities,” and “stardom”—will cover a range of focused discussions of tropes and notions of gender and sexuality in cinema. Students will learn to contextualize contemporary Italian cinematic depictions of love and to apply critical concepts from gender studies to film analysis. All films have English subtitles.

Language of instruction: English

Instructor: Dr. Gaoheng Zhang 

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Tending the World Soul as Renaissance: Byzantium in Italy and the Humanist Dream

Anonymous in Giorgione’s style, Orpheus and Time. Washington, Phillis Memorial Gallery

Early in the fifteenth century it became painfully obvious that the scattered remains of what had once been glorious Byzantium were sitting on the edge of a historical abyss: it was simply a matter of time before the Ottoman Turks would conquer Constantinople and turn it into the capital of their rapidly expanding, increasingly powerful Empire (1453).

This course explores the extraordinary cultural legacy that Byzantium left to the world in and through its waning. We will focus in particular on the area of the Italian peninsula, where many of the most eminent Byzantine delegates to the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1437-39) ended up settling, “trans-lating” with them the heritage of their Classical, Late Antique and Christian cultures.

One of the most powerful Italian families, the Medicis, sponsored the “rebirth” of the ancient wisdom of the Greeks through a painstaking program of translations largely authored by Marsilio Ficino. But the Florentine Academy also gathered poets, philosophers, painters, musicians. Their works quickly spread throughout Italy, and from there to the rest of the Western world.

The invention of the printing press powerfully helped entertain the dream that the (re)birth of an irenic, peaceful, self-aware and holistic society was possible. The dream of such a felicitous Renaissance only lasted a few decades, engulfed as it was by Europe’s political and confessional tragedies. Even so, its legacy never died out completely, and remained the backbone of Western sapiential awareness.

It is the heritage of this “other” Renaissance which we shall try to track down — a heritage grounded in the ancient teachings of the Hermetic wisdom, advocating through the ages the “golden” possibility of achieving a timeless, truly realized human consciousness.

Language of instruction: English

Instructor: Dr. Daniela Boccassini

Prerequisites: No prerequisites