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.

Language of Instruction: French

Instructor: Dr. Marie-Eve Bouchard

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

The Grail Quest: Myth, Mystery and Romance

Cross-listed with MDVL 301

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Damsel of the Sanct Grael (1874).

From Tennyson to Indiana Jones and The Da Vinci Code, much has been written and imagined about the Grail, but the earliest appearances of this mysterious artifact in medieval French literature are sometimes overlooked. This course is an opportunity to return to the great 12^th and 13^th century romances that first introduced the Grail and helped define it for subsequent generations.

Though the Grail is usually described today as the cup from which Christ drank at the Last Supper, early Grail romances are less clear on the matter. Chrétien de Troyes’ seminal Story of the Grail (c. 1180-1190) never quite explains the nature of the strange artifact that Perceval, a naive young man barely knighted by king Arthur, encounters during his adventures. In seeking to solve the mysteries left by Chrétien’s unfinished tale, however, his continuators and imitators built the Grail into an explicitly Christian relic, in line with the new religiosity of the early 13^th century. The anonymous Quest of the Holy Grail (c. 1220) cements this interpretation and displaces Perceval in favour of a new hero, Galaad, a knight so pure and chaste as to be otherworldly: his adventures and those of his companions take place in a heavily allegorical version of the Arthurian world where every encounter has a deeper spiritual meaning.

In addition to these two romances, we will also study three short Welsh texts. Two are drawn from the Mabinogion: the romance of Peredur, which is a loose adaptation of Chrétien’s Story of the Grail, but might reflect earlier versions of the tale; and Branwen, the second branch of the Mabinogi, an early Welsh tale of war, death, rebirth and magic cauldrons, that hints at some of the earliest Celtic beliefs that may have influenced Chrétien’s work. The third, The Spoils of Annwfn, is a cryptic poem that tells of a trip by Arthur and his men to the mysterious Other World.

Throughout this course we will explore the themes of belief, valour, knowledge and fulfillment that unite the different early versions of the tale, despite their canonical divergences. The Grail quest, after all, is rarely about the Grail itself: it’s about self-discovery and finding the true nature of things beyond the veil of appearance.

Language of instruction: English

Instructor: Dr. Patrick Moran

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.

Italian Food Cultures

Italy is world-renowned for its food cultures and Italians put great care into food preparation, consumption, and appreciation. It’s no wonder that Italian food-related themes permeate the country’s cultural life and beyond. This course will examine representations of Italian or Italian-derived foodways and the role they play in articulating larger issues concerning contemporary Italy, including regionalism, anti-globalization, family history, gender and sexual identities, Italian American food, tourism in Italy, and immigration to Italy. Students will form a complex picture of Italy’s relationships with food cultures in a global context. Class assignments and final projects will allow students to explore their critical and/or creative views of class materials. The course assumes no prior knowledge of Italian. But it requires a passion for Italian food and culture!

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Language of instruction: English

Cinéma français

Ce cours a pour objectif d’initier les étudiant(e)s à l’histoire du cinéma français, du début du siècle dernier jusqu’à nos jours, en fonction de ses grandes lignes d’évolution esthétique et idéologique. En guise d’introduction, nous aborderons les principales étapes qui ont marqué le cinéma français avant 1945: l’âge d’or du cinéma muet, la naissance et les premiers classiques du cinéma parlant, le réalisme poétique de la fin des années 1930, le cinéma sous l’Occupation et à l’époque de la Libération. Cela fait, nous aborderons le cinéma de la Nouvelle vague et celui des années 1960 à 2000. Finalement, nous consacrerons la dernière partie du cours à l’étude des principaux aspects de la cinématographie française plus contemporaine (2000-2015).

Lecture obligatoire: René Prédal. 2018. Histoire du cinéma français. Paris: Nouveau Monde Éditions.

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

Language of instruction: French

Upper-Intermediate French I

Kittie Bruneau, Cercle éternel, 1981.

The Department of FHIS offers a series of eight courses designed to build students’ skills progressively in the four basic communicative functions of listening, reading, writing, and speaking. FREN 401 is the first of a pair of Upper-Intermediate courses—401 and 402—aligned with level B2 objectives of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).

The course is open to all students with a sufficient level of French, whether they are in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th year.

With an approach that is communicative and collaborative, inductive and interactive, the course aims to refine the skills acquired in Intermediate French I & II or equivalent courses and to enhance students’ knowledge of French and the Francophone world. Students will be able to consolidate and expand their writing, reading, comprehension, and speaking skills in French.

The course is devoted to providing students with tools for interacting with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction in French possible without strain.

The course is focused on:

• grammatical analysis, vocabulary enrichment, and socio-cultural competency using a wide variety of authentic documents of the French-Speaking world (news, literature, songs, etc.);
• the deep understanding of both concrete and abstract topics in a complex document (written or oral);
• the ability to research Francophone relevant resources and synthesize them;
• the production of clear, detailed, nuanced, and well-structured written and oral communication on a number of topics (use of critical thinking and creativity, construction of arguments to defend one’s opinion and explain one’s viewpoint, use of rhetorical strategies);
• the ability to correct one’s own mistakes (when writing or speaking) and constantly improve;
• the development of learner’s autonomy.

Both individually and in collaborative small groups, students will produce and share ideas in workshops, whole class discussions, oral presentations, debates, or other writing assignments. French grammatical structures such as relative pronouns, the passive form, the subjunctive, and logic connectors will be studied within a task-based approach so that students reach a greater degree of complexity and sophistication when expressing themselves.

Language of instruction: French

Recommended prerequisites: one of FREN 123, FREN 302, or French Immersion 12, or assignment based on placement test