FREN331

FREN331

Art, Culture et Société du Moyen Age à la Révolution Française: Poétique, Environnement, Intelligence Artificielle

Ce cours se propose d’envisager la littérature et la culture françaises du Moyen Âge jusqu’à la Révolution Française à travers le prisme de différents genres poétiques, de l’environnement, de la géographie, mais aussi de la question de l’intelligence artificielle—en France et au Canada (Nouvelle-France). Partant de l’observation que les catégories de place, espace, genre, intelligence (artificielle) et frontières entre homme et machine ne sont pas des catégories stables, mais en fluctuation permanente, nous lirons des textes, cartes et autres représentations visuelles qui témoignent d’une vision de la France prémoderne très complexe et multiforme. Nous approfondirons, entre autres, les questions suivantes : Comment les écrivain.e.s du Moyen Âge et de la première modernité pensaient-ils/elles la question de “différence” (de culture, race, genre, etc.) ? Comment peut-on aborder la tension entre poétique et colonisation ? Comment les questions de l’espace, de la protection de l’environnement et de la définition de l’être humain s’articulent-ils dans les textes littéraires ? Comment peut-on comprendre et étudier les anxiétés et les peurs associées au sens de perte d’identité ? Sont inclu.e.s les auteur.e.s suivant.e.s : Christine de Pizan, Guillaume de Lorris, Joachim du Bellay, Pierre de Ronsard, Marguerite de Navarre, Michel de Montaigne, Marie de Gournay, Marc Lescarbot, Jean Racine et Julien Offray de la Mettrie.

Prerequisite: One of FREN 311, FREN 321 and one of FREN 224, FREN 401.

Language of instruction: French

Grading Breakdown

PRESENCE AND ACTIVE PARTICIPATION (22%):

You are required to attend class, to focus exclusively on the texts and topics discussed in class, and to participate actively and thoughtfully in class discussions. The use of electronic devices for purposes other than accessing and/or using class material and/or taking notes for the class is strictly forbidden.

Presence in class is not the same as active participation. For example, if you attend class but never speak up, you will receive 50% of the « Presence and Active Participation » grade. Meaningful active participation and contribution to class includes the « travail sur le texte », in which you show your capacity to understand and engage with a literary text. In Week 1, I will dedicate an entire unit (1.c) to further explaining how to engage and work with a literary text successfully, meaningfully and efficiently.

ATELIERS D’ÉCRITURE (36%):

You will receive six written assignments (« atelier d’écriture ») in the course of the semester. The « ateliers d’écriture » is an assignment done individually in class (with the exception of Week 3), with pen & pencil. You are not allowed to use any electronic devices for this assignment and you will submit your writing directly at the end of class. Each writing assignment/atelier d’écriture is 6% of the final grade. Hence 36% for the six written assignments. In Week 1, I will dedicate an entire unit (1.c) to further explaining how the « Atelier d’écriture » is structured and what will be expected from you.

QUIZZES (42%):

There will be four 30-minute quizzes in the course of the semester: Weeks 4, 8, 11 and 14. The Quiz of Week 8 will include more authors than the other three quizzes, hence the higher distribution of percentage points:

  • Quiz Week 4: 8%
  • Quiz Week 8: 18%
  • Quiz Week 11: 8%
  • Quiz Week 14: 8%

Readings

Coming soon

SPAN409

Revolutionary Stages

Façade detail of the Teatro de los Insurgentes in San Ángel, Ciudad de México. The mosaic was created by Diego Rivera in 1953. | Source: Carl Campbell - https://www.flickr.com/photos/carlbcampbell/4880312325/

Much of today’s modern drama, from Broadway musicals to intellectual farces, descends from an extremely rich Hispanic theatrical and performance tradition. In this course students will study the trajectory of Hispanic dramatic literature and performance from indigenous rituals and dances, medieval mystery plays, Golden Age comedias, and revolutionary dramas denouncing colonial, dictatorial violence and oppressive politics of gender, sexuality and race up to the present day. Covering texts from Spain and Latin America, students will develop their knowledge of performance in different stages of conflict and struggle. The course will incorporate cinematic adaptations of plays, videos featuring memorable performances, readings of historical texts, as well as varied visual arts with which the texts were in dialogue.

Readings may feature authors such as Lope de Vega, Calderón, Cervantes, Tirso de Molina, Ana Caro, Sor Juana, Unamuno, Valle-Inclán, García Lorca, Vallejo, Boal, Vargas Llosa, Orozco Rosales, Puig, Dorfman, Gambaro, Pavlovsky, Buenaventura, Bondy, Hadad and others.

Required readings: Required readings and performance videos will be posted as links and PDFs on Canvas.

Recommended readings

  • Allen, Richard. Teatro hispanoamericano: una bibliografía anotada. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1987.
  • Arellano, Ignacio. Historia del teatro español del siglo XVII. Madrid: Cátedra, 2008.
  • Arellano, Ignacio and José Antonio Rodríguez Garrido. El teatro en la Hispanoamérica colonial. Madrid: Iberoamericana, 2008.
  • Bial, Henry. “Introduction.” The Performance Studies Reader. Ed. H. Bial, 1–4. New York: Routledge, 2002.
  • McKendrick, Malveena. Theatre in Spain, 1490-1700. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989.
  • Ruiz Ramón, Francisco. Historia del teatro español (desde sus orígenes hasta 1900). Madrid: Cátedra, 2011.
  • Scott Soufas, Teresa. Dramas of Distinction: Plays by Golden Age Women. Lexington: The U of Kentucky P, 1997.
  • Taylor, Diana and Sarah J. Townsend, eds. Stages of Conflict: A Critical Anthology of Latin American Theater and Performance. Michigan: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2008.
  • Taylor, Diana. Theatre of Crisis: Drama and Politics in Latin America. Lexington: The Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1991.
  • Theatre/Theory/Theatre. Ed. Daniel Gerould. Wisconsin: Hal Leonard Corp., 2000.

Prerequisites: SPAN 221; and SPAN 301 or equivalent expertise in written and spoken Spanish.

Language of instruction: Spanish

FREN414

The French Novel: 19th Century to Today

The Parisian Novels (The Yellow Books) by Vincent Van Gogh

The novel does not exist—or more specifically, there is no universal, applicable model. This is a bastardized literary genre that has survived many cultural, historical and political upheavals. From the French 19th century to today, the novel’s reincarnations are plentiful as they challenge aesthetic and ideological expectations. Topics covered in our advanced literature course include: engagement, narratology (realism, Nouveau Roman, autofiction, etc.), cultural critique, the collective imaginary, the seepage between life and arts, third-wave feminism, and so forth.

Required readings:

  1. Hugo. Le dernier jour d’un condamné (1829)
  2. Zola. Thérèse Raquin (1873)
  3. M Proust. Du côté de chez Swann – Combray (1913)
  4. Robbe-Grillet. La Jalousie (1957)
  5. Laurens. Celle que vous croyez (2016)

Prerequisites: One of FREN 321, FREN 328, FREN 329 and one of FREN 402, FREN 225.

Language of instruction: French

SPAN505B

Cross-listed with SPAN495B

Guess Who’s Back? Nation and Identity Building in Spanish Early Modern, Modern and Postmodern Drama

X First, Buy X, National Flag Day, patriots’ summits… Not long ago, the End of History and Globalization fostered the expectation of a post-national world, governed by supranational institutions. However, the 21st century has witnessed a resurgence of populism and nationalist movements, reaffirming national and cultural identities. In this evolving landscape—where globalization, deglobalization, and nationalism coexist and compete—it is timely to take a fresh look at the concepts of nation and national identity-building throughout history.

Using Spain as a case study, this course will explore how drama has served as a tool to promote or challenge national identity discourses—from the establishment of the so-called “national theatre” in the 16th century to the end of the transition to democracy and the present day. To do so, we will read several plays and genres (historical drama, tragedy, grotesque drama, farce, tragicomedy, political satire) in their socio-historical context. Particularly, we will discuss 1) topics such as the intersections between kingdom, nation and empire, the construction of an “essential and eternal Spain”, the evolution and re-evaluation of Spanishness, the suitability of having a National Classical Theatre Company (CNTC), the role of memory, or the inteactions between different national projects within the Iberian Peninsula; 2) processes such as the appropriation of traditional figures and values (monarchy, honor, masculinity, family, religion) by different ideologies or the development of methods to exclude others (Jews, Muslims, Indigenous peoples, Republicans, immigrants…) from the nation; and 3) rhetorical and discoursive devices such as the manipulation of History, symbolism (Numancia), allegory or synecdoche (to equate Spanish identity to a part or a group). The course will also pay attention to the discontinuities, paradoxes, contradictions and fissures (racial and gender diversity, resistance, denounce, rebellion, anxiety, schizophrenia) in the plays and their discourses to showcase the incompleteness of the task of consolidate internal unity and provide a better understanding of the Spanish identity crisis. Due to the relevance and applicability of the topic, students will be able to work on their areas of interest (i.e., Latin American contemporary drama, comparing theatre with film or other genres…) for their final research project.

Language of instruction: Spanish

Instructor: Dr. Raúl Álvarez Moreno

Grading Breakdown

Coming soon!

Readings

Primary texts:

  • Cervantes, Miguel de. El cerco de Numancia (1585).
  • Vega, Félix Lope de. El mejor alcalde, el rey (1635).
  • García de la Huerta, Vicente. Raquel (1776) o Quintana, José Manuel. Pelayo (1805).
  • Álvarez Quintero, Serafín y Joaquín. Los chorros del oro (sainete de ambiente andaluz) (1906).
  • Valle Inclán, Ramón María. Farsa y licencia de la reina castiza (1920).
  • Torrente Ballester, Gonzalo. Lope de Aguirre: crónica dramática de la historia americana (1940).
  • Rodríguez Méndez, José María. Flor de otoño (1973) o Sanchís Sinisterra, José. ¡Ay Carmela! (1986).
  • Boadella, Albert. Ubú president o Los últimos días de Pompeya (1995).
  • Conejero, Alberto. La piedra oscura (2013).
  • Blasco, Lola. ¡Teme a tu vecino como a ti mismo! (2015)
  • Ripoll, Laila y Mariano Llorente. Rif (de piojos y gas mostaza) (2022).

Main critical sources:

  • Adorno, T. W. and Max Horkheimer. Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944).
  • Anderson, Benedicte. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
  •   (1991).
  • Álvarez Junco. José María. Mater Dolorosa: la idea de España en el siglo XIX  (2001)
  •    -----. Dioses inútiles. Naciones y nacionalismos (2016).
  • Balfour, Sebastian and Alejandro Quiroga. The Reinvention of Spain: Nation and Identity since Democracy (2007).
  • Certeau, Michel de. The Writing of History (1988).
  • Dangler, Jean. Making Difference in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia (2005).
  • Delgado, María and David Gies. A History of Theatre in Spain (2012).
  • Fuchs, Barbara. Exotic Nation: Maurophilia and the Construction of Early Modern Spain (2009).
  • Gellner, Ernest. Nations and Nationalism (2008).
  • González, Cinta C. Nación y constitución: de la Ilustración al Liberalismo (2006).
  • Hobsbawm, Eric. Nations and Nationalism Since 1780 (1991).
  • Kamen, Henry. Imagining Spain: Historical Myth and National Identity (2008).
  •   -----. La invención de España. Leyendas e ilusiones que han construido la realidad española (2020).
  • Maravall, José Antonio. Concepto de España en la Edad Media (1964).
  • Martín-Estudillo, Luis and Nicholas Spadaccini. Memory and Its Discontents: Spanish Culture in the Early Twenty-First Century (2012).
  • Nora, Pierre. “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémorie” (1989)
  • Rodríguez Puértolas, Julio. Historia de la literatura fascista española (2008).
  • Salgues, Marie. Teatro patriótico y nacionalismo en España: 1859-1900 (2010).
  • Sanz, Ismael. E. España contra España: los nacionalismos franquistas (2003).

FREN556A

Traductologie

Ce séminaire offre une initiation aux principales théories de la traduction. Il s’intéresse à l’étude de divers écrits théoriques historiques et contemporains, ainsi qu’à la discussion critique de ces théories et de leurs répercussions. Il trace également l’émergence de la discipline autonome de la traductologie en tenant compte de ses liens actuels avec d’autres sciences humaines et sociales telles que la sociologie, la psychologie, l’anthropologie et la linguistique. Le séminaire est l’occasion d’une remise en question des notions telles que l’œuvre originale, l’œuvre traduite, l’adaptation, la liberté, la loyauté et la neutralité en traduction. En outre, seront examinés, par exemple, le contexte socioculturel de la traduction, la traduction et le féminisme, la traduction et l’autochtonie, la traduction queer et l’évaluation de l’importance des considérations théoriques dans la pratique des traducteur.ice.s. À la fin du semestre, les étudiant.e.s devraient être capables d’identifier les tendances dans le domaine, de les associer à leurs contextes historiques et d’analyser de manière critique les différences et les similitudes repérées.

Language of instruction: French

Instructor: Dr. Irem Ayan 

Grading Breakdown

Coming soon!

Readings

Coming soon!

FREN416

Shades of Truth and Fiction in Contemporary French Literature

René Magritte, L'Empire des lumières

One notion that has come to define our times is that of truth. We are tasked, urgently, to seize what it may be and how it can be ascertained. Paradoxically, literature may contribute some of the most crucial reflections on the boundaries of truth. Indeed, writers of fiction have an intimate grasp on all shades of the real and of its representation. This appears remarkably salient in contemporary French literature, as it plays endlessly with nuances of the self, of testimony, of objectivity. This semester, we will discover how a variety of authors interprets historical reconstitution, gaslighting, confession, verisimilitude, autofiction, and more.

Language of instruction: French

Prerequisite: Either (a) all of FREN 311, FREN 321 or (b) all of FREN 328, FREN 329 and one of FREN 225, FREN 402

Grading Breakdown

10% Regular Participation
15% Fiches de lecture
10% Essais courts
20% Présentation littéraire
10% Création littéraire
5% Prospectus of Research Paper
30% Research paper

Readings

Patrick Modiano, Dora Bruder
Emmanuel Carrère, La moustache
Hervé Guibert, Cytomégalovirus
Annie Ernaux,  L’événement
Christine Angot, Les Petits
Gaël Faye, Petit pays

FREN419

Écrits de femmes (Studies in Women’s Writing)

Master of the City of Ladies (1400-1415), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Dans ce cours, nous examinerons un éventail de textes écrits par des femmes à travers les siècles (des récits allégoriques du Moyen Âge jusqu’au théâtre du dix-neuvième siècle) en nous penchant particulièrement sur la représentation des femmes et de l’écriture, ainsi que la réception de ces textes par le lectorat. Nous aurons lieu de nous demander s’il existe une « écriture féminine » qui se distinguerait d’une « écriture masculine », selon les genres choisis, les thèmes, les considérations stylistiques, etc.

Ouvrages au programme :

Marie de France, Les Lais (extraits).
Christine de Pizan, Le Livre de la cité des dames (extraits).
Marguerite de Navarre, L’Heptaméron (extraits).
Madame de Lafayette, La Princesse de Montpensier.
Isabelle de Charrière, Trois femmes.
George Sand, Gabriel.

Un choix de textes et d’ouvrages critiques sera affiché sur Canvas.

Professeur: Nancy Frelick
Bureau: TBA
Téléphone: TBA
Courriel: nancy.frelick@ubc.ca

Prerequisites: One of FREN 321, FREN 328, FREN 329 and one of FREN 225, FREN 402.

Language of instruction: French

FREN476

French Language and Societies

This course is an introduction to sociolinguistics, with a focus on French-speaking societies. Throughout the semester, we will discuss basic concepts in sociolinguistics and address main topics in the field, including language variation, language contact and its possible outcomes, standardization, multilingualism, identity questions, and language attitudes and ideologies. This course aims to enable students to analyze, understand and discuss the links between language and society by providing students with the knowledge of sociolinguistic theory, research methods, main concepts and terminology along with developing the relevant application skills. All discussions and work submitted in this course will be in French.

Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:

  • Recognize the challenges of linguistic and sociocultural diversity in the French-speaking world.
  • Understand the main concepts and theories in sociolinguistics and apply them to the study of French and multilingual communities.
  • Discuss and explain the link between various social factors and language use.
  • Conduct their own sociolinguistics research in a French-speaking community.

Required readings:
Readings will be made available through the Canvas site.

Prerequisite: One of FREN 321, FREN 328, FREN 329 and one of FREN 402, FREN 225.

Language of instruction: French

RMST301

Pinocchio & Everything Else

In this course, the term «Pinocchio» designates the original educational story for children – the would-be Bildungsroman, if one will – authored in Italian by the Florentine Carlo Collodi, Pinocchio (first part: Florence, 1881; second part: 1882-83).

«Everything else» designates the field of applicability of the pedagogical concepts implied in said text, or in some parallel literary texts from mostly Romance civs and lits whose concerns overlap, interact or converge with Pinocchio’s … or, well, diverge from them in significant, revealing ways.

One way to describe our general purpose is to say we wish to test the full truth of Jiddu Krishnamurti’s critical dictum: «It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society». It is with this goal in mind that we “visit” Pinocchio, and with it, a panoply of other Romance classics which also – very diversely – examine the issue of how the individual and society can be (mis)aligned with each other.

The course is articulated in two components. The first component is devoted to reading and interpreting Collodi’s Pinocchio; the other, to everything else. However, to aim for a better synergy between the two, we do not tackle the two concepts sequentially but in parallel.

The syllabus tries to offer a synopsis of what could be an ideally comprehensive plan. Each week, a first item (A) includes relevant topics or texts to be presented & discussed from mostly Romance civs and lits (see details below).

A second list (B) follows pretty closely the Italian context – and, of course, text – of Collodi’s Pinocchio. Here, Italy’s nation-building blueprint since the early 1800s (the Risorgimento, i.e. Resurgence) is studied as an exemplary small-scale case of one of today’s most burning issues on the global stage: How previously subjugated and colonized peoples may successfully coalesce into a single-identity country in consequence of a deliberate political program – with all the positive and the problematic sides therein implied.

Further topics from ancient and modern lits, econ, philosophy, history, etc., may also be approached in this class, if need be, in the order in which they may be brought up during the discussion by students, based on their own spheres of interest and specialization.

Learning outcomes:

Our desired learning outcome is to develop the factual knowledge and the critical skills necessary to question, in a well-informed, articulate manner, the mainstream current approach (concept / precept) of adapting-fitting-bending individual behaviour to dominant standards of “social success” that are often destructive, and/or unethical, and/or alienating (commodifying); and/or – tragicomically – a lot more childish than the very child they purport to “train.”

Language of instruction: English

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Grading Breakdown

  • 3 Drafts of Ideas for Midterm and Final (3 x 10% = 30%)
  • Midterm composition (20%)
  • Final composition (35%)
  • Participation (15%)

Readings

Giuseppe “Pinocchio” Collodi, I, Pinocchio, The True and Only One: Confessions of a Puppet Who Converterd from Matter to Soul, Vancouver: Finisterrae, 2022.

Students should supplement this re-creation/commentary by any edition they wish of Carlo Collodi’s 1883 Pinocchio – any English translation (there are many), or, if they can read Italian, any Italian edition of the 1883 text.

  • For the record, as of this writing one can find for free on the web both the full original Italian text (search Collodi + Pinocchio + Wikisource) and a perfectly decent English- language translation from U of Chicago (search Collodi + Pinocchio + fathom + Uchicago).

RMST321

A World of Marvels

Cross-listed with MDVL 301

Detail, extended descender of a historiated initial, Bible (Latin). Champagne, France. Late 13th / early 14th c. CE). Reims, Bibliothèque municipale Carnegie, MS 40 fol. 83v. Image source: ARCA, digital library of the IRHT (Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes, CNRS, France). Retrieved 2024-05-06 from https://arca.irht.cnrs.fr/iiif/106168/canvas/canvas-1281353/view.

Course topics, content, and assessments will vary from term to term; this description is for the 2024W2 version.

Marvellousness (mirabilis, merveille, merveillos) suffuses French and global premodern literatures, crossing borders of time, place (and modern nation-state boundaries), form (literary genre, type of artefact), audience (social class, occupation, gender), and register. From monsters to miracles, from mysterious other-worldly beings to marginal drolleries, imaginative marvels and their preservation through storytelling help us to understand perceptions of pre-modernity and their continuity into our present world. This course is for anyone who is interested in speculative fictions, escapism and consolation, playfulness, the weird and the awesome, beauty, and the delights of dark humour and satire.

Our adventures will focus on the imaginative worlds of some French “merveilleux”texts from the 12th to the 18th centuries (CE): Marie de France’s Fables and Lais, the anonymous Aucassin and Nicolette, Jean de La Fontaine’s Fables, and the fairy tales of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont and Charles Perrault. We will also encounter bestiaries, encyclopaedias, universal histories, saints’ lives, maps, almanachs, books of hours, lyric and debate poetry, games, and manuscript marginalia. While our principal focus will be the close reading of literary works, we will also consider their context and transnational influence; the historical landscape in which these landmarks are situated; the cultural background against which their actions are staged; and their relationship to an integrated creative and intellectual environment of visual and plastic arts, music, ideas, technology, ecology, medicine, and science.

Classes consist of interactive lectures interspersed with discussions. Weekly topics and recurring themes may include: perceptions of the natural world, creation and creativity, miracles, enchantment, other worlds and the other-worldly, dream-visions and mysticism, the fantastic, automata, metamorphosis and hybridity, apocalypse, nostalgia, utopias and other alternative worlds, and intelligent life.

Language of instruction: English

Prerequisites: No prerequisites
Informal recommendation: As this is a 300-level course, it will entail reading, analysis, and independent research. Informal prerequisites: a sense of curiosity and an openness to wonder.

Assignments

20% regular term-work

  • 10% preparation and participation:
    • weekly quiz or short commentary on reading
    • submission: Canvas quiz or discussion
    • due: week 2 onwards
  • 5% presentation:
    • student-led discussion sessions in “profs for the day” teams
    • submission: in class
    • due: week 4 onwards
  • 5% self-evaluation participation portfolio:
    • individual “book of marvels” curated collection of your class community contributions and reflection on your choice
    • submission: Canvas assignment
    • due: last week of classes

40% scaffolded group project: making a marvel

  • 2.5% stage 1: preliminary meeting of your group with the teaching team to consult on topic and select extra readings
    • submission after meeting: Canvas discussion
    • due: week 4
  • 12.5% stage 2: observation and reflection exercise with your group, in a museum or garden on campus, of marvels related to a course required reading
    • submission: Canvas discussion, group AV commentary
    • due: week 8
  • 2.5% stage 3: progress meeting for planning
    • submission after: Canvas assignment, work-in-progress notes
    • due: week 10
  • 2.5% stage 4: bibliography, references, and methodology outline
    • submission: Canvas assignment
    • due: week 12
  • 20% stage 5: the final project, making a marvel
    • form: written (anything except the standard academic essay or final paper), audio, video, multimedia, a recorded performance, a comic, a material object, a game, a continuation, a creative work, a translation (broad and narrow senses), a marvel
    • in relation to (echoing, inspired by, riffing on, remixing, etc.) at least one of the course set readings and at least one global premodern extra reading (as discussed and agreed in stage 1-2 meetings)
    • final projects could continue stage 3 of the project or your “prof for the day” session and should include a close reading of your own marvelling, as commentary or storytelling
    • submission: Canvas “a world of marvels” discussion as students’ community online exhibit
    • due: last week of classes

40% final exam, during the final exam period:

  • 20% poster presentation session
    • during the scheduled final exam time, as a celebratory un-exam
    • submission: group poster + live presentation and explanation by groups, to each other, of their projects
  • 20% individual written or recorded commentary
    • peer appreciation of other groups’ poster presentations, in relation to the course topic and to at least one of its set readings
    • submission: Canvas assignment, within 24 hours of the end of the final exam

Grading Breakdown

Regular weekly work during term (individual): weekly quizzes and online commentary (10%) + self-evaluation portfolio (5%) = 15%

Regular weekly work during term (group): presentation, student-led “prof for the day” discussion session = 5%

Final project (group): scaffolded stages of preliminary and progress meetings, notes, outline (7.5%) + observation, reflection, and commentary exercise (12.5%) + the project itself (20%) = 40%

Final exam: poster presentation session, by groups about their projects (20%) + individual peer appreciation commentary to be submitted within 24 hours afterwards (20%) = 40%

Total = 100%

Readings

Required readings:

All materials are in English translation; no prior knowledge of other languages is expected. Original versions will be referred to in class—to assist understanding and as a taster for future learning—and students may of course choose to work on texts in their original language for presentations and final projects. Required readings will be available in electronic form via Canvas (free online versions or UBC library online course reserve), and specific editions will be recommended at the start of term (for students who prefer to use a printed book).

  • Course site (Canvas)
  • Aucassin & Nicolette
  • Marie de France, Fables
  • Marie de France, Lais
  • Jean de La Fontaine, Fables
  • Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, Beauty and the Beast\
  • Charles Perrault, Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals (Tales of Mother Goose)

Recommended readings:

A list of recommended readings will be provided by the instructor:

  • additional readings from references in lectures
  • digitized manuscripts and other contemporary objects freely accessible online, via Canvas and library online course reserve
  • extra readings for student-led discussion sessions and group projects