2020 | By Ralph Sarkonak
This work, which represents the fruits of forty years of research on Claude Simon, alternates thematic studies and essays devoted to individual novels; particular attention is paid to the “almost unspoken” novels. The three main themes studied here are anglicity, androgyny and anti-Semitism; they are among the most important of the work both because of their ethical dimension and their multiple formal and intertextual resonances. The targeted novels, which correspond to the four periods of the work, are The Rite of Spring, History, Triptyque and L’Acacia, but Simon’s other books are discussed in the book’s seven essays. “The choice to close the book on a study of the Jewish theme […] is particularly justified in that it converges with the interest now proven for the relationship of Simonian novels with History and for their integration of social discourses and of ethical and political questions ”, we commented.
Graduate Proseminar I: Research Skills and Scholarly Practices
Cross-listed with FREN592
Credits: Janko Ferlič, 2016
What is academia? What is research? What can I expect from a graduate program and what does a graduate program expect from me? How do I prepare a grant application, a conference paper, or a journal article? What are the next two years of my MA, or the next four years of my PhD, going to look like? The Proseminar answers these questions and many more. Meet your fellow students from the incoming graduate cohort, discover the inner mechanisms of the FHIS graduate program, learn to develop your research project and share its results, and explore different theories and ways of thinking in this fortnightly course.
The Proseminar is mandatory for PhD students as well as MA students taking the thesis-based option. MA students who haven’t decided between the thesis-based and course-based options are strongly advised to follow the Proseminar.
The Proseminar spans two courses: Proseminar I (FREN/SPAN 591) in Winter Term 1 and Proseminar II (FREN/SPAN 592) in Winter Term 2. The two courses must be attended in order. Students who begin their program in September must enrol in Proseminar I immediately; students who begin their program in January must wait until the following September to enrol and cannot take Proseminar II before Proseminar I.
Language of instruction: English
Instructor: Dr. Patrick Moran
The grading breakdown typically includes fortnightly assignments (approx. 40-50%), a short end-of-term paper in Term 1 (approx. 20%), a longer end-of-term work in Term 2 (approx. 30%) and active participation in both terms (approx. 30%).
Graduate Proseminar I: Research Skills and Scholarly Practices
Cross-listed with SPAN592
Credits: Janko Ferlič, 2016
What is academia? What is research? What can I expect from a graduate program and what does a graduate program expect from me? How do I prepare a grant application, a conference paper, or a journal article? What are the next two years of my MA, or the next four years of my PhD, going to look like? The Proseminar answers these questions and many more. Meet your fellow students from the incoming graduate cohort, discover the inner mechanisms of the FHIS graduate program, learn to develop your research project and share its results, and explore different theories and ways of thinking in this fortnightly course.
The Proseminar is mandatory for PhD students as well as MA students taking the thesis-based option. MA students who haven’t decided between the thesis-based and course-based options are strongly advised to follow the Proseminar.
The Proseminar spans two courses: Proseminar I (FREN/SPAN 591) in Winter Term 1 and Proseminar II (FREN/SPAN 592) in Winter Term 2. The two courses must be attended in order. Students who begin their program in September must enrol in Proseminar I immediately; students who begin their program in January must wait until the following September to enrol and cannot take Proseminar II before Proseminar I.
Language of instruction: English
Instructor: Dr. Patrick Moran
The grading breakdown typically includes fortnightly assignments (approx. 40-50%), a short end-of-term paper in Term 1 (approx. 20%), a longer end-of-term work in Term 2 (approx. 30%) and active participation in both terms (approx. 30%).
Graduate Proseminar I: Research Skills and Scholarly Practices
Cross-listed with FREN591
Credits: Janko Ferlič, 2016
What is academia? What is research? What can I expect from a graduate program and what does a graduate program expect from me? How do I prepare a grant application, a conference paper, or a journal article? What are the next two years of my MA, or the next four years of my PhD, going to look like? The Proseminar answers these questions and many more. Meet your fellow students from the incoming graduate cohort, discover the inner mechanisms of the FHIS graduate program, learn to develop your research project and share its results, and explore different theories and ways of thinking in this fortnightly course.
The Proseminar is mandatory for PhD students as well as MA students taking the thesis-based option. MA students who haven’t decided between the thesis-based and course-based options are strongly advised to follow the Proseminar.
The Proseminar spans two courses: Proseminar I (FREN/SPAN 591) in Winter Term 1 and Proseminar II (FREN/SPAN 592) in Winter Term 2. The two courses must be attended in order. Students who begin their program in September must enrol in Proseminar I immediately; students who begin their program in January must wait until the following September to enrol and cannot take Proseminar II before Proseminar I.
Language of instruction: English
Instructor: Dr. Patrick Moran
The grading breakdown typically includes fortnightly assignments (approx. 40-50%), a short end-of-term paper in Term 1 (approx. 20%), a longer end-of-term work in Term 2 (approx. 30%) and active participation in both terms (approx. 30%).
Graduate Proseminar I: Research Skills and Scholarly Practices
Cross-listed with SPAN591
Credits: Janko Ferlič, 2016
What is academia? What is research? What can I expect from a graduate program and what does a graduate program expect from me? How do I prepare a grant application, a conference paper, or a journal article? What are the next two years of my MA, or the next four years of my PhD, going to look like? The Proseminar answers these questions and many more. Meet your fellow students from the incoming graduate cohort, discover the inner mechanisms of the FHIS graduate program, learn to develop your research project and share its results, and explore different theories and ways of thinking in this fortnightly course.
The Proseminar is mandatory for PhD students as well as MA students taking the thesis-based option. MA students who haven’t decided between the thesis-based and course-based options are strongly advised to follow the Proseminar.
The Proseminar spans two courses: Proseminar I (FREN/SPAN 591) in Winter Term 1 and Proseminar II (FREN/SPAN 592) in Winter Term 2. The two courses must be attended in order. Students who begin their program in September must enrol in Proseminar I immediately; students who begin their program in January must wait until the following September to enrol and cannot take Proseminar II before Proseminar I.
Language of instruction: English
Instructor: Dr. Patrick Moran
The grading breakdown typically includes fortnightly assignments (approx. 40-50%), a short end-of-term paper in Term 1 (approx. 20%), a longer end-of-term work in Term 2 (approx. 30%) and active participation in both terms (approx. 30%).
2021 | Translated by Patrick Moran
This is a new Modern French translation by Dr. Patrick Moran of the early 13th-century Old French romance La Mort le roi Artu, which contains an introduction and notes. It is published by La Librairie Droz (Geneva, Switzerland) and is based on the classic 1936 edition by Jean Frappier.
La Mort le roi Artu offers one of the most famous medieval accounts of the death of King Arthur and the fall of the Round Table. Written anonymously in Northern or Eastern France c. 1210-1220, it inspired European literature throughout the Middle Ages and was a huge influence on English retellings (particularly Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur).
Full description:
La Mort le Roi Artu depicts an Arthurian world on the edge of the precipice, where envy and resentment jeopardize traditional chivalrous values, where the forbidden love of Queen Guinevere and Lancelot du Lac risks being revealed at any time and destroying the fragile balance of the court. The last part of the Lancelot-Graal cycle, copied endlessly until the 15th century before being printed many times during the Renaissance, this anonymous novel constitutes the richest and most complex version of the fall of Arthur’s kingdom, through a choral story where the heroes of yesteryear fall prey to their own desires and the whims of Fortune. Here we find the critical Lachmannian edition of Jean Frappier, with a new and very successful translation by Patrick Moran.
Narconarrativas de América Latina
Instructor: Jon Beasley-Murray
Language of instruction: Spanish
Este curso examinará las narrativas asociadas con el narcotráfico y la llamada “guerra” en contra de las drogas en América Latina, sobre todo en Colombia y México. Aprovecharemos de la oportunidad para estudiar la relación entre narrativa y el mercado, representación y violencia, y la práctica de lectura e intoxicación. Partimos de la hipótesis de una paradoja: mientras que, por un lado, el tráfico en contrabando y su violencia (o contra-violencia) constituyen un reto para las técnicas de la representación, por otro lado hay una resonancia o semejanza rara entre estos flujos de drogas y la práctica literaria. Las narconarrativas son sumamente anti-literarias pero a la vez revelan alguna esencia de la literatura en sí.
Indigeneidad: La identidad indígena en la literatura y la cultura latinoamericanas (siglos XVI-XXI)
Source: Flickr - Gary Stevens
¿Cómo se han representado y autorrepresentado los pueblos indígenas a través de la historia cultural de América Latina?
¿Qué estereotipos siguen vigentes y de dónde vienen?
Los pueblos indígenas ocupan sin duda un lugar primordial, aunque no siempre reconocido, en lo que hoy se considera como América Latina. El propósito de este curso consiste precisamente en explorar cómo los pueblos indígenas han sido representados y autorrepresentados en la cultura latinoamericana, desde la época precolombina hasta nuestros días. Por lo tanto, con un enfoque particular en el periodo colonial, examinaremos una gran variedad de obras escritas y audiovisuales (canciones, crónicas, películas, poemas, testimonios, etc.) creadas por o sobre los autóctonos antes, durante y después de la colonización española. En este proceso reflexionaremos sobre conceptos relevantes, como la identidad, la raza/etnicidad, el esencialismo, los derechos humanos, la resistencia y la decolonialidad, entre otros. Además, para analizar el material seleccionado, recurriremos a textos crítico-teóricos pertinentes. Dentro de este contexto, estableceremos conexiones con otros grupos étnicos de América Latina (los mestizos, afrodescendientes, criollos, etc.) y la situación global actual.
Todos los textos serán en español (si este no es el idioma original de la obra, se proveerá una traducción) y estarán disponibles en Canvas.
Lecturas obligatorias:
- Angueira, Myriam. Newen
- Bastidas, Micaela. Selección de cartas
- Bolívar, Simón. Discurso de Angostura y Carta de Jamaica
- Burgos-Debray, Elizabeth (y Rigoberta Menchú). Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú y así me nació la conciencia
- Calfuqueo, Sebastián. Mapu Kufüll / Mariscos terrestres
- Castillo, Bernal Díaz del. Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España
- Condorcanqui Noguer, José Gabriel. Relación histórica
- Guerra, Ciro. El abrazo de la serpiente
- Jerez, Francisco de. Verdadera historia de la conquista del Perú
- Palafox Herranz, Teófila et al., La vida de una familia ikoots
- Rivera Cusicanqui, Silvia. Ch’ixinakax utxiwa: una reflexión sobre prácticas y discursos descolonizadores
- Sahagún, Bernardino de. Códice Florentino
- Selección de música contemporánea producida por indígenas (Uchpa, Nación Rap, etc.)
- Selección de poesía contemporánea producida por indígenas (Briceida Cuevas Cob, Leonel Lienlaf, etc.)
- Yupanqui, Titu Cusi. Instrucción al Licenciado Lope García de Castro
Prerequisites: SPAN 221; and SPAN 301 or equivalent expertise in written and spoken Spanish.
Language of instruction: Spanish
History of the Spanish Language
Why does Spanish only have five vocalic sounds? Where does the form “vos” used in Argentina come from? Which Spanish words come from Arabic, and Indigenous languages and why? Do you really think that people in Spain pronounce the “z” as “th” because a former king had a lisp? Why and which are the differences between Caribbean Spanish and the Spanish spoken in the Andes? Do you know the basic Internet slang in Spanish? Learning about the past of Spanish is one of the best ways to understand how it works today and be fully aware of its possibilities.
This course introduces students to the History of the Spanish Language from the Latin origins to the present by focusing on four critical moments of change: when it first became an administrative language (13th century), an imperial (16th and 17th centuries), an institutionalized (18th century) and, finally, a “digital” one (20th and 21st centuries). We will engage with the external history (i.e. historical events, cultural contexts) and the internal developments of Spanish (i.e., the evolution of the sibilant phonetic system, dialectal variations in Spain and America) in order to apply this knowledge to practical exercises and to analyze different texts (historical, publicity, songs…). A metalinguistic reflection on why and how languages evolve, as well as the study of the main concepts (i.e., synchrony/diachrony, grammaticalization, neologism) and theories to explain linguistic change (language contact and transfer, standardization, social prestige…) will be also a part of the learning experience.
Language of instruction: Spanish
Recommended prerequisites: SPAN 302 or equivalent expertise in written and spoken Spanish
Final Project 30%
Abstract and Bibliography Final Project 5%
Midterm Exam 20%
Preparation and Participation 15%
Article Presentation 10%
Report 10%
Mini-homework (4 x 2.5) 10%
This course prioritizes student accessibility, voice, language proficiency, and autonomy. All course materials will be freely accessible to students via Canvas, either as PDFs within weekly modules or through direct links to resources in the UBC library.
Cultures of the Francophone World
FREN 442 introduces students to Francophone communities that are often less visible or have been traditionally marginalized in the academic curriculum. Geographically this may include communities from Africa, the Americas, East Asia, Europe, the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, and the Pacific. We will analyze a variety of materials (fictional and non-fictional texts, art, comics, music, documentaries) to get insights into the historical, linguistic, and social specificities of these regions.
This course will also explore the inherent ambivalence of La Francophonie – a political institution that connotes not only diversity but also colonial history – in order to encourage critical reflection on the role of French and France in a global context. Moreover, students will study some of the main key concepts related to French imperialism; analyze colonial and postcolonial discourses and have the occasion to exchange with visiting speakers from Francophone regions. The course also includes out-of-class activities. Class will be conducted in French.
Prerequisites: One of FREN 321, FREN 328, FREN 329 and one of FREN 402, FREN 225.
Language of instruction: French
