FREN402

Upper-Intermediate French II

Alfred Pellan, Canada Ouest, 1942-1943.

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 402 is the second 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: This course is recommended for students who have completed one of FREN_V 401 or assignment based on placement test.

Intermediate French II

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 302 is the second of a pair of Intermediate courses—301 and 302—aligned with level B1 objectives of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).

With an approach that is communicative and collaborative, inductive and interactive, the course aims to reinforce the skills acquired at the A1 and A2 levels and provides students with the tools to understand and use French independently. At the B1 level, you will have the opportunity to go beyond everyday communication situations in order to express yourself on current social and cultural issues.

In FREN 302, you will strengthen your existing skills with a view toward more advanced language practice. Whether you intend to continue your studies in French (in literature, culture, or linguistics courses) or simply maintain your French beyond this course, you will develop the strategies needed to achieve your goals.

Note: This course is not available for credit to students with French Immersion 12 or those who were educated in a Francophone school.

In FREN 301 and FREN 302, you can expect to:

– Consolidate and refine previously acquired grammar points (such as pronouns and past tenses) and learn new structures (such as the subjunctive, complex past tenses, and logical connectors) to enrich both spoken and written expression.

– Explore a wide variety of themes (e.g., art, travel, work, ecology, relationships, new technologies, etc.), which will serve as topics for discussion, writing, and vocabulary expansion.

– Study authentic materials (literary excerpts, news articles, videos, podcasts, songs, etc.) to strengthen key language skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking).

– Develop intercultural skills through activities focused on various Francophone cultures, both in Canada and around the world.

– Acquire tools to express and justify your opinion, recount an experience, describe and analyze a work of art, talk about your plans and wishes, and give advice, among other abilities.

– Work individually, in small groups, and with the whole class to explore different ways of learning and mastering the language.

Language of instruction: French

Recommended prerequisites: This course is recommended for students who have completed FREN_V 301 or assignment based on placement test.

Note: Not available for credit to students with French Immersion 12 or if you were educated in a francophone school.

Elementary French II

A continuation of FREN_V 201. Aligned with CEFR level A2 objectives.

Language of instruction: French

Recommended prerequisites: This course is recommended for students who have completed FREN_V 201 or assignment based on placement test.

Research Intensive Seminar in Romance Studies

Introduction to Cultural Mobility Studies

Crosslisted with RMST495

Cultural mobility can be defined as mobilities relayed in and about cultural products, events, and phenomena. The concept can be viewed as part of a recent, influential critical movement to foreground mobility in social sciences and in the humanities and arts. According to Tim Cresswell (On the Move, 2006: 2-3), mobility is the effect of movement, meaning, and power. John Urry underscores the necessity to analyze assemblages or interconnections of five interdependent mobilities in social life: the corporeal travel of people; the physical movement of objects; imaginative travel through perusing the media; virtual travel through, for instance, Zoom meetings; and communicative travel using, for example, social media (Mobilities, 2006: 47-8). The mobilities paradigm has been used to explain significant socio-cultural phenomena, ranging from social inequality to global climate change, all of which are related to physical movements in crucial ways.

This course introduces the research field of cultural mobilities in relation to case studies focused on several mobile subjects—namely, explorers, tourists, colonizers, migrants, and refugees. The course is divided into two units. In the first unit, students learn critical frames and tools from social scientific and humanistic inquiries into mobilities. In the second unit, students are encouraged to use these theoretical insights to approach major intercultural events (e.g., the Age of Discovery, the Grand Tour, and migrations) as they are articulated in narratives of diverse types (e.g., novels, journalism, diaries, and films). In particular, we consider authorial intent, knowledge creation, cultural technologies, affects, meaning-meaning, and power dynamics that these narratives help articulate. Through this exercise, toward the end of the semester, we assess how we may contribute to further theorizing cultural mobility analysis.

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Language of instruction: English

Instructor: Dr. Gaoheng Zhang

Students with the necessary language proficiency can also fulfill the RMST495 (in English) requirement by taking SPAN495 (in Spanish) or FREN495 (in French).

Elective course requirements can also be fulfilled by language, literature, and culture classes taught in the target language (French, Italian, Spanish or other approved Romance languages) when students meet the necessary proficiency requirements in that language. Please contact FHIS Student Programs Coordinator (fhis.undergrad@ubc.ca) for further inquiry.

Études postcoloniales : quels défis ? Quel horizon ?

Instructor: Farid Laroussi
Language of instruction: French

Les études postcoloniales appartiennent désormais de plain-pied au champ de la recherche universitaire, ainsi qu’à des disciplines aussi différentes que le cinéma ou les sciences politiques. Mais qu’en sait-on vraiment ? Plus de quarante ans après leur avènement, les études postcoloniales continuent de nous proposer une sorte d’urgence à connaître et à penser le sujet. Notre séminaire s’attachera à appréhender des discours de la postcolonialité, notamment autour de la théorie et aussi du roman dit francophone. On abordera le contexte socio-historique, ainsi que des questions d’ordre pragmatique avec par exemple celles de la mémoire, de l´énonciation, ou de la migration. Cette pluralité des approches vous donnera l’occasion de choisir et d’analyser les sujets qui peuvent vous tenir à cœur ou capter votre attention critique, bref, d’établir votre propre rapport au savoir. Outre un exposé, une bibliographie raisonnée, il y aura aussi un travail de recherche soutenu et argumenté qui, idéalement, devrait vous initier à la publication d’un article.

Objectifs :

• Acquérir une vision d’ensemble des courants et approches autour de la théorie postcoloniale
• Analyser la viabilité et la richesse du discours minoritaire/natif/exilé
• Apprendre à utiliser l’analyse postcoloniale dans le roman, francophone notamment
• Développer les outils de la méthodologie comparative
• Établir et comprendre les liens entre les études subalternes, les féminismes, l’oralité, l’orientalisme, la mondialisation vs le cosmopolitisme, etc.

Ouvrages de cours :

Kaouther Adimi. Nos richesses (2017)
Alain Mabanckou. Verre cassé (2005)
Gisèle Pineau. La grande drive des esprits (1993)
Des articles critiques et de théorie seront distribués

Liste non-exhaustive d’ouvrages critiques autour de la thématique postcoloniale :

Deepika Bahri. Native Intelligence: Aesthetics, Politics and Postcolonial Literature (2003)
Aimé Césaire. Discours sur le colonialisme (1950)
Patrick Chamoiseau. Écrire en pays dominé (1997)
Yves Clavaron. Poétique du roman postcolonial (2011)
Dominique Combe. Littératures francophones : questions, débats, et polémiques (2019)
David Damrosch. What is World Literature? (2003)
Zillah Eisenstein. Against Empire Feminisms, Racism, and the West (2004)
Frantz Fanon. Peau noire, masques blancs (1952)
Charles Forsdick (ed.). Postcolonial Thought in the French-Speaking World (2009)
Simon Gikandi. Reading the African Novel (1987)
Sandra Harding (ed.). The Postcolonial Science and Technology Studies Reader (2011)
Abdelkébir Khatibi. Du bilinguisme (1985)
Farid Laroussi. Postcolonial Counterpoint. Orientalism, France and the Maghreb (2016)
Achille Mbembe. De la postcolonie, essai sur l’imagination politique dans l’Afrique contemporaine (2000)
Albert Memmi. Portrait du colonisé (1957)
Walter Mignolo. On Decoloniality. Concept, Analytics, Praxis (2018)
Jean-Marc Moura. Littérature francophone et théorie postcoloniale (1999)
Edward Said. Orientalism (1978)
Ella Shoat. Dangerous Liaisons: Gender, Nation and Postcolonial Perspective (1997)
Marie-Claude Smouts (dir.) La situation postcoloniale: les postcolonial studies dans le débat français (2007)
Gayatri Spivak. A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present (1999)
Michael Syrotinski. Deconstruction and the Postcolonial (2007)
Gillian Whitlock. Postcolonial Life-Narrative (2015)