FREN428

Corps, Passions, Emotions : Le Théâtre Français et Francophone du XVIIe Siècle

Ce cours se propose d’étudier les différentes articulations théâtrales et performatives françaises et francophones du XVII^e siècle. Souvent associé au classicisme, aux concepts de bienséance et de vraisemblance ainsi qu’aux « trois unités » (unité de lieu, unité d’action, unité de temps), le théâtre français et francophone fut un moyen important pour la propagation de nouvelles idées (politiques, morales, coloniales, raciales, philosophiques, esthétiques, stylistiques, cosmologiques, médicales, etc.). La production théâtrale du XVII^e siècle fut impressionnante : elle ne consistait pas seulement en pièces « classiques » (comédies, tragédies), composées par les trois dramaturges les plus célèbres du siècle associés à « l’âge classique » — Corneille, Molière, Racine —, mais aussi en une variété de genres nouveaux (pastorales, tragicomédies, ballets, entrées royales, comédies-ballets et opéras), jouées dans de multiples lieux de théâtre non seulement en France, mais aussi dans le « Nouveau Monde » (tels le Canada et St. Domingue). Nous allons explorer l’impact de la Poétique d’Aristote sur le « théâtre classique » et l’importance de la commedia dell’arte pour la production théâtrale et visuelle (Jacques Callot, Maurice Sand) à travers les siècles ; nous allons étudier l’interaction du corps humain et des machines théâtrales sur la scène française et francophone. Les thèmes récurrents comprennent la question des genres (gender), les relations raciales, les représentations spatiales, les théories du théâtre (« La querelle du Cid », les traités sur le théâtre), les articulations des passions (Descartes) et les pratiques performatives et poétiques d’inclusion et d’exclusion, en particulier dans le contexte colonial de la Nouvelle France (Canada) et des Caraïbes.

Required readings: To be announced.

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

Language of instruction: French

Translation and Romance Languages

Certain themes and challenges recur in translation, whatever the situation and whatever the language pair. This course examines translation in the framework of cross­-cultural and multi­disciplinary comparisons, with an emphasis on Romance languages. We will look at the history of translation, and analyze translators and interpreters as fictional characters in literature and film. We will also explore the practice of translation in a variety of media, including literary texts, news media, Internet, film, radio, TV, blogs, and video games. A wide variety of topics such as how translation and interpreting shape our lives and transform the world, what is lost and found in translation, translating literature and cultural cues, fluency and transparency, register and tone, the author-translator-reader triangle, translating humorous verses, puns and wordplays will be examined through a list of selected readings to provide a foundational understanding of the crucial role that translators and interpreters play in our lives.

Language of instruction: English

Recommended prerequisites: Second-year standing or higher.

Italian Fashion Cultures

Cross-listed with RMST100

Milano Fashion Week & Design, 02/2011 | Source: Flickr (Mat's Eye)

In 2022, Italy’s newly-elected, right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, re-named a previous trade ministry as the “Ministry for Business and Made in Italy,” thereby invoking a key marker of Italian commercial, group, and cultural identity. Since the end of the WWII, the garment and accessories sector has been traditionally recognized as a pillar within the Made in Italy industries.

“Italian Fashion Cultures” examines both the national history of Italian fashion since the post-WWII period and its global dimensions. The course delineates the dynamics among the country’s fashion capitals (Florence, Rome, and Milan), with a focus on the apparel sector’s growth during the 1950s-1970s. We also probe how and why Italian fashion has developed in response to the clothing sector’s exigencies and creative tension with France, the United States, and China.

The course highlights ready-to-wear and fast fashion, the two most significant categories of the fashion world today. Cultural appropriation, decoloniality, and sustainability are examined throughout the course in relation to the course’s primary texts, including fashion journalism, websites, social media, advertising, literature, films, and artworks.

Students are encouraged to consider three central questions:

(1) how clothing is represented in the primary texts to influence the audience’s cognitive and affective knowledge;

(2) how fashion helps forge individual, brand, national, and other cultural identities;

(3) given the ubiquitous presence of fashion branding, how these narratives articulate the Made in Italy cachet to consumers?

The course does not assume student’s prior knowledge of Italy or Italian fashion. Oral presentations and a final project (in the format of a critical essay, a short film, a multimedia project, or creative writing) are the main tools of assessment of learning outcomes. Regular attendance in class lecturing and participation in group discussions and in-class activities are essential for developing critical and analytical skills for these assessment activities.

Language of instruction: English

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Romance Linguistics

This course examines linguistics with an emphasis on the contemporary varieties of the Romance language family. Six main domains of linguistics will be covered: phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, and sociolinguistics. This will provide a broad understanding of the major similarities and differences between the Romance languages. Although the focus will be on French, Portuguese, Spanish and French, attention will also be paid to lesser-known varieties including Romance-based Creoles, Occitan, and Catalan, for instance. We will also be particularly interested in topics such as language variation and change, language contact, multilingualism, standardization, and language attitudes. The course will be interactive and based on numerous written exercises, in class and at home, that will allow the students to explore more precisely the different variations of the Romance languages.

Required readings:

There is no required handbook for this course, all relevant material will be provided in class and on Canvas.

Prerequisites: Two years study of each of two Romance languages or two years of one Romance language and one year of Latin.

Language of instruction: English

Pinocchio & Everything Else

Pinocchio’s statue in the town of Collodi

In this course we re-visit Pinocchio, the original educational story for children (the would-be Bildungsroman, if one will) authored in Italian by the Florentine Carlo Collodi (1881 and 1882-83), seeing it in the light of Jiddu Krishnamurti’s critical dictum «It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society». Along with it we also study a panoply of other modern classics from mostly (though not exclusively) Romance civs and lits 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 parts. The first is devoted to reading and interpreting Collodi’s Pinocchio; the other, to everything else. However, to aim for a better synergy between the two components, we do not tackle the two concepts sequentially but in parallel.

Each week, a first item includes relevant topics or texts to be presented & discussed from mostly (though not exclusively) Romance civs and lits. These may range from the birth of the picaresque novel in Spain to the 19th-century French “novel of ambition”; or from the issue of compassion in Parzival to selfishness and/or happenstance in U.S. “rags-to-riches” narratives; or from Don Quixote’s “visionary” archetype to Oblomov’s multi-layered social superfluousness … This, with tweaks that may depend on students’ preferences based on their own spheres of interest and specialization.

Also each week, a second item follows pretty closely the Italian context – and, of course, text – of Collodi’s Pinocchio: nationalism in Italian history and cultural history, the birth (and nature) of modern Italian literature and identity, and more in this vein.

Italy’s nation-building blueprint since the early 1800s is here considered an exemplary small-scale case of one of today’s most burning issues on the global stage: How previously scattered 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.

Learning Outcomes:

Our desired learning outcome is to develop the factual knowledge + 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.”

Assignments and Evaluation:

• Draft of ideas for Midterm composition (10%)
• Midterm composition (20%)
• 2 x Drafts of ideas for Final composition (2 x 10% = 20%)
• Final composition (35%)
• Participation (15%, which covers both attendance and its quality)

Required readings:

• Giuseppe “Pinocchio” Collodi. I, Pinocchio, The True and Only One: Confessions of a Puppet Who Converterd from Matter to Soul. Vancouver: Finisterrae, 2022. Available on Amazon.ca in the Kindle Store (USD 5.oo). This text is presented and commented in class.
• Any edition of Carlo Collodi. Pinocchio: Adventures of a Puppet – any English translation (there are many), or any Italian edition of the 1883 text. (There are free web versions of both, as discussed in class).
• Further readings of literary classics (primary literature, secondary literature) involve texts available in the public domain – in practice, on the web – and are to be established as the need arises, in consequence of the discussion in class.

Prerequisite: None

Language of instruction: English