SPAN206

Conversational Spanish I

This second year conversational-Spanish sequence is designed for students who already have a good general knowledge of grammar (CEFR A2) and would like to achieve independence in their communicative skills. It offers a combination of instructor-facilitated, small-group discussion, peer review projects, debates, interviews, and brief presentations around topics such as communication, identity, multiculturalism, diversity, and equity in the Hispanic world. Special guests are a key element in this course, so students can deepen their skills as they expand their awareness through active participation.

Grammar will only be reviewed through context, emphasizing on the topics of gender and number agreement, simple tenses in indicative and subjunctive mood, as well as comparative forms.

High attendance throughout the class, and a continuous collaborative environment is vital for the success in this course.

Language of Instruction: Spanish

Prerequisite: One of BC High School Spanish Grade 12, SPAN 202, or SPAN 203

Grading Breakdown

Participation: 10%
Auditorial assignments: 15%
Group discussions (video recorded): 15%
Written assignments (peer review): 15%
La entrevista (in groups of 3 students): 20%
Final project (group presentation): 20%
Personal dictionary: 5%

Total grade: 100%

Course registration

SPAN202

Elementary Spanish II

SPAN 202 is the second course in the FHIS Department’s Elementary Spanish language sequence. The course builds on elementary Spanish skills, emphasizing cultural fluency alongside language proficiency. Students enrolled will demonstrate their ability to read, write, listen to and discuss context specific cultural topics such as travel, inclusive education, food justice, technology and social media, and community engagement. Students will also learn to navigate simple and compound verb tenses in the present, past, and future, and modes of speaking (i.e., the imperative, the subjunctive) to give recommendations, and express wishes, feelings and doubts in real and hypothetical situations. This course will include a wide range of literary and cultural mediums (i.e., music, visual arts, podcasts, and short narratives and films) to broaden students’ understanding of intercultural topics related to the Spanish-speaking world. Course learning goals and assignments aim to build toward more advanced language and literature courses in our program. Students may speak to an advisor to learn more about our comprehensive programs or read more about our programs here.

The design and structure of this course are founded on adaptive and inclusive principles of teaching and learning that consider the interests and needs of all learners and strive toward greater personalization of learning, flexibility and accessibility for all students, including students with disabilities.

Language of instruction: Spanish

Recommended prerequisites: SPAN 201

Note: Credit will be granted for either SPAN 203 or both SPAN 201, SPAN 202

Grading Breakdown

Student participation and engagement: 15%

Assignments: 45%
-Supersite Plus (weekly) (10%)
-Mis experiencias skill-focused assignments (20%)
-Small-group oral interview (15%)

Quizzes and Exams: 40%
-Quizzes (2) (20%)
-Final Exam (20%)

Readings

Required Text: Experiencias Intermediate Spanish, eTextbook (2nd Edition) and SuperSite Plus, Defrancesco, Thompson, Brown, and Barton (Vista Higher Learning, 2025).

ISBN (5 month access): 9781669920755

ISBN (12 month access): 9781669920779

Course registration

Determine your entry level

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SPAN201

Elementary Spanish I

SPAN 201 is the first course in the FHIS Department’s Elementary Spanish language sequence. Students enrolled will demonstrate their ability to read, write, listen to, and discuss context-specific cultural topics such as migration, finances and work, health, the environment, and art. Students will also learn how to narrate past events with more precision and personalized commentary; use commands; give recommendations; express wishes, feelings and doubts in real and hypothetical situations. This course will include literary and cultural readings, brief videos and podcasts to broaden students’ understanding of intercultural topics related to the Spanish-speaking world. Course learning goals and assignments aim to build toward more advanced language and literature courses in our program. Students may speak to an advisor to learn more about our comprehensive programs or read more about our programs here.

Language of instruction: Spanish

Recommended pre-requisites: one of SPAN 102, SPAN 103, SPAN 11

Notes: Credit will be granted for either SPAN 203 or both SPAN 201, SPAN 202

Grading Breakdown

Quizzes and Exams:
•Midterm Quizzes (2@10% each) (20%)
•Final Exam (25%)

Assignments:
•Weekly Experiencias Supersite Learning Activities (10%)
•Skill-focused Practice (in and out of class) (20%)
•Small-group Oral Interview (10%)

Active in-class participation and oral proficiency (15%)

Total = 100%

Readings

Experiencias Intermediate Spanish, eTextbook (2nd Edition) and SuperSite Plus, Defrancesco, Thompson, Brown, and Barton (Vista Higher Learning, 2025)

Where do you purchase it? The Exploraciones eTextbook and MindTap are available for purchase through the UBC Bookstore’s website.

Please note your eTextbook + Supersite Plus code are valid for both SPAN 201 and SPAN 202 when you purchase the 12-month access.

Experiencias Intermediate Spanish, eTextbook (2nd Edition). Vista Higher Learning (2025).

Course registration

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SPAN102

Beginners’ Spanish II

SPAN 102 is the second of a series of language and literature courses offered by the FHIS Department that introduces students to the fundamentals of the Spanish language and expands on their language skills, (inter)cultural knowledge, and communicative capacity. It is designed for new learners of the language, and topics covered will expose students to ways of thinking and understanding the world that promote intercultural curiosity and competence, and build toward more advanced language and literature courses in our program. Students may speak to an advisor to learn more about our comprehensive programs or read more about our programs here.

Language of instruction: Spanish

Recommended prerequisites: SPAN 101

Note: Credit will be granted for either SPAN 103 or both SPAN 101, SPAN 102

Grading Breakdown

Participation and Preparation 15%

Tasks 35%
• MindTap Online Weekly Assignments (10%)
• Written and visual presentation(s) (10%)
• Entrevista oral (in pairs or in 3’s) (15%)

Tests 50%
• Midterm 1 (15%)
• Midterm 2 (15%)
• Examen Final (20%)

Readings

Exploraciones 3/E Etext+ Mindtap, 9781774747568

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SPAN101

Beginners’ Spanish I

SPAN 101 introduces learners to the fundamentals of the Spanish language through personalized activities that require interactive communication, intercultural knowledge, and real-world engagement with course materials. Throughout the semester, students will demonstrate an ability to listen to, discuss, read and write about everyday activities and future plans within the context of common tasks and situations (who and how they are, common pastimes, the family and professions, and daily life and routines).

Grading Breakdown

Participation and Preparation: 16%

Written and Oral Assignments: 40%

Written Assignment in class (10%)
10 Weekly MindTap Activities (10%)
Audio activity (5%)
Oral Interview (15%)

Evaluaciones formales (Test My Knowledge): 46%

Midterm Exam (18%)
Final Exam (28%)

*Subject to change

Readings

Required readings: Exploraciones (3rd edition), Blitt/Casas (Cengage Publishing, 2020), ISBN: 9781774747568

Course registration

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FREN111

Course type: Hybrid

A hybrid course may involve a combination of synchronous activities (done in “real time”) and asynchronous activities (done in one’s own time). The course will be delivered online.

Course Description - Summer

A low intermediate course for non-specialists, focused on the discovery and appreciation of diverse aspects of francophone culture, based on printed documents, audio-visual material and the Internet. If you are unsure whether this is the appropriate level of French course for you, click here.

Required text:
TBA

Prerequisite: One of FREN 11, FREN 102 or equivalent

Note: Not available for credit to students with FREN 12, FREN 112 or equivalent.

The sequence of French language courses FREN101/102, 111/112, 122/123, 224/225 is designed for non native speakers.
The Department of FHIS reserves the right to refuse enrollment to any of its language courses to a student who has, in the view of the Department, a level of competence unsuited to that course. Enrollment at or below the level the student has already attained is not permitted.

Course registration

Course Description - Winter

Elementary French I

A course for non-specialists based on the A2 level of the European Framework and focused on the understanding and production of detached sentences and expressions related to everyday life (such as personal and familial information and one’s immediate environment including home, community and workplace).

French grammatical structures such as the imperative, past tenses, negation and comparison will be studied with an interactive approach, stressing communicative competence.

This practice will include:

communicating in the context of the practical exchange of information on familiar topics;
understanding spoken messages;
reading short texts such as personal letters, ads, menus, schedules;
expressing practical ideas and opinions both orally and in writing.

Three hours a week will be devoted to providing students with communicational tools that help to deal with everyday situations that one might encounter in a French speaking region.

At the end of the semester, students will be able to understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment), to communicate about routine tasks requiring direct exchange of information on familiar matters, to describe aspects of their background, immediate environment and ordinary needs.

Lectures and class discussions are mostly conducted in French. If you are unsure whether this is the appropriate level of French course for you, click here.

Required Text
Cosmopolite 2, Editions Hachette

Recommended Text
La grammaire du français A2, Éditions Maison des langues

Prerequisite: One of FREN 11, FREN 102 or equivalent

Note: Not available for credit to students with FREN 12, FREN 112 or equivalent.

Course Registration

RMST222

[Cross-listed with Italian Studies 345]

Types and Archetypes of Fascism in the Age of the Crisis of Liberal Democracy

This course aims at offering students with diverse backgrounds some foundational knowledge about the phenomenon of “xxx-ism” as, in successive incarnations, it arose and ran its course in the context of neo-Latin societies and cultures. Since the phenomenon originated in Italy, our primary focus will be the Italian peninsula.

We will read Neville and make references to Bosworth, Mack Smith, Martin Clark, Procacci and other contemporary historians and sociologists. We will analyze works of theory, politics, fiction and memoirs from that age (by Marinetti, Moravia, Pirandello, Ungaretti, Carlo Levi); examine the architecture and fine arts of Mussolini’s regime; and watch clips from films belonging to the genres of telefoni bianchi comedy (Camerini’s Il Signor Max), war propaganda (Balbo’s transatlantic flights, Rossellini’s The White Ship) and historical “peplum” kolossals (Gallone’s Scipio the African).

Ultimately, the goal of this Italy-based extended case study is to provide students with the analytical tools indispensable not only to condemn, in facile, dogmatic (and thus ultimately misplaced) self-assurance, the fascism(s) of yesteryear, but, more importantly, to condemn and — so it is hoped — oppose effectively the many forms of xxx-ism facing us today.

Textbooks
LIT (REQUIRED)
A reader containing excerpts from works of theory, politics, essays and literary texts will be available from Copiesmart in the UBC Village.

HIST AND CIV (REQUIRED)
Peter Neville, Mussolini, 2nd ed., London: Routledge, 2014.

Prerequisite: None

Language of instruction: English

Course Registration

FREN498

Directed Reading

Senior undergraduate students interested in studying particular topics in French literature or linguistics that are not covered by our regular courses may be able, in consultation with a professor who shares their interests, to plan a program of reading, writing and individual discussion for which academic credit will be granted under the umbrella heading FREN 498. The relationship of this credit to the requirements of the Minor, Major or Honours programs will depend upon the topics studied.

Fourth-year students in French whose graduation would be delayed by the unavailability of a required course in a given session may make a similar arrangement to study topics normally covered in a scheduled course.

It is the responsibility of applicants for a directed reading course to make practical arrangements with an appropriate faculty member, then to submit a proposal to the Major and Honours Advisor. The proposal must include a one-page abstract, a bibliography, and the name of the professor who is willing to meet with the student regularly to supervise their work. This proposal should be submitted by November 1 if the student intends to begin in January.

FREN495

Masculinités, féminités et questions d’identité à la Renaissance

Cross-listed with FREN502

Maître François de Rohan, Marguerite de Navarre donne son ouvrage à Anne de Pisseleu, duchesse d'Etampes. Miniature tirée d'un manuscrit de La Coche ou débat d'amour (vers 1542): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Coche_ou_d%C3%A9bat_d%27amour_-_Mus%C3%A9e_Cond%C3%A9_Ms522_f43v_%28Marguerite_de_Navarre_et_Anne_de_Pisseleu%29.jpg

Le masculin et le féminin sont souvent remis en question depuis l’émergence des études sur le genre (gender studies). Cependant, même si les voies d’approche récentes à la sexualité ou à l’altérité nous permettent d’analyser quelques-uns de ces concepts sous un nouveau jour, nous constaterons que certaines problématiques existaient déjà dans l’imaginaire de la Renaissance. Dans ce séminaire, nous lirons donc divers textes – médicaux, philosophiques, iconographiques et littéraires – dits d’Ancien Régime, qui nous permettront d’examiner les débats (voire les angoisses) vis-à-vis des concepts de masculinité et de féminité, qui sont si souvent liés aux questions identitaires, y compris les constructions d’identités linguistiques, régionales ou nationales, entre autres.

Nous examinerons donc diverses représentations d’hommes et de femmes dans un choix de textes attribués à des auteurs masculins et féminins, ainsi que les images (parfois idéalisantes) d’hermaphrodites et d’androgynes qui prolifèrent dans l’iconographie renaissante. Nous aurons aussi lieu de nous demander s’il pouvait exister une écriture masculine ou féminine, non seulement à l’instar de certains critiques plus ou moins récents, mais de textes du seizième siècle où il s’agit (comme chez Montaigne) de mettre en valeur la vigueur d’une écriture virile, tout en dépréciant la « mollesse » de styles, de langues et de comportements décrits comme efféminés – liant ainsi éthique, rhétorique et esthétique.

Language of instruction: French

Instructor: Nancy Frelick

Grading Breakdown

Participation (discussions en classe et sur Canvas, 2 x 10%): 20%
Présentations en classe: 20%
Dissertations (2 x 30%): 60%
Total: 100%

Readings

Lectures obligatoires :

Une sélection de textes en prose (Marie de Gournay, Marguerite de Navarre, Michel de Montaigne et Etienne de la Boétie, François Rabelais…) et en poésie (Philippe Desportes, les Dames des Roches, Joachim Du Bellay, Pernette du Guillet, Nicole Estienne, Louise Labé, Clément Marot, Estienne Pasquier, Pierre de Ronsard, Maurice Scève…), ainsi que quelques emblèmes (de Gilles Corrozet et Guillaume La Perrière).

Un choix de textes primaires et d’ouvrages critiques sera disponible via Canvas.

Quelques pistes bibliographiques :

Berriot-Salvadore, Evelyne. Les Femmes dans la société française de la Renaissance. Genève: Droz, 1990.

---. Un corps, un destin. La Femme dans la médecine de la Renaissance. Paris: Champion, 1993.

Clément, Michèle et Janine Incardona, eds. L’Émergence littéraire des femmes à Lyon à la Renaissance, 1520-1560. Saint-Étienne: PU Sainte-Étienne, 2008.

Closson, Mariane, ed. L’Hermaphrodite de la Renaissance aux Lumières. Paris: Garnier, 2013.

Cottrell, Robert D. Sexuality/Textuality: A Study of the Fabric of Montaigne’s Essais: Columbus: Ohio State UP, 1981.

Ferguson, Gary, ed. L’Homme en tous genres: Masculinités, textes et contextes. Paris L’Harmattan, 2009.

---. Queer (Re)Readings in the French Renaissance. Homosexuality, Gender, Culture. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008.

Frelick, Nancy M., and Edith Benkov, eds. Subject/Object and Beyond: Women in Early Modern France. Toronto: Iter Press, 2024.

Gray, Floyd. Gender, Rhetoric, and Print Culture in French Renaissance Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000.

Hampton, Timothy. Literature and Nation in the Sixteenth Century: Inventing Renaissance France. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2001.

Jordan, Constance. Renaissance Feminism: Literary Texts and Political Models. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1990.

Keller, Marcus. Figurations of France: Literary Nation-Building in Times of Crisis (1550-1650). Newark: U of Delaware P, 2011.

Kritzman, Lawrence D. The Rhetoric of Sexuality and the Literature of the French Renaissance. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1991.

LaGuardia, David. Intertextual Masculinity in French Renaissance Literature: Rabelais, Brantôme and the Cent nouvelles nouvelles. Aldershot: Ashgate 2008.

Laqueur, Thomas. Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1992.

Larsen, Anne R. et Colette H. Winn, eds. Renaissance Women Writers: French Texts/American Contexts. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1994.

Long, Kathleen P. Hermaphrodites in Renaissance Europe. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

---, ed. High Anxiety : Masculinity in Crisis in Early Modern France. Kirksville: Truman State UP, 2002.

Poirier, Guy. L'Homosexualité dans l'imaginaire de la Renaissance. Paris: Champion, 1996.

Reeser, Todd W. Moderating Masculinity in Early Modern Culture. Chapel Hill: North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures, 2006.

---. Setting Plato Straight: Translating Ancient Sexuality in the Renaissance. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2016.

Rothstein, Marian. The Androgyne in Early Modern France: Contextualizing the Power of Gender. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

Siefert, Lewis C. and Rebecca M. Wilkin, eds. Men and Women Making Friends in Early Modern France. Farnham: Ashgate, 2015.

Warner, Lyndan. The Ideas of Man and Woman in Renaissance France. Farnham: Ashgate, 2011.

Wiesner, Merry E. Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. 2^nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000.

Winn, Colette, H. Teaching French Women Writers of the Renaissance and Reformation. New York: MLA, 2011.

Yandell, Cathy M. Carpe Corpus: Time and Gender in Early Modern France. Newark: U of Delaware P, 2000

Course registration

FREN427A

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, 1970 et 1980. Finalement, nous consacrerons la dernière partie du cours à l’étude des principaux aspects de la cinématographie française plus contemporaine.

Lecture obligatoire:
Prédal, René. 2013. Histoire du cinéma français. Des origines à nos jours. Nouveau Monde Editions.

Lectures recommandées:
Prédal, René. 2008. Le cinéma français depuis 2000. Paris : Armand Colin.
Bertin-Maghit, Jean-Pierre. 1994. Le cinéma français avant l’Occupation. Paris : PUF.
Forbes, Jill. 1992. The Cinema in France After the New Wave. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Prerequisite: One of FREN 320, FREN 321, FREN 328, FREN 329, FREN 330

Note: FREN 427 may be taken twice, with different content, for a maximum of 6 credits.

Language of instruction: French

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