Graduate French

French 4034/7034                                                                                                                              Topic: The Global Cinema of Quebec: Representation, Social Justice, and Cultural Policy                  Instructor: Michael Gott                                                                                                                                  Tu 5:10PM-8:10PM 

 This seminar focuses on Quebec cinema in the 21st century and takes an in-depth look at a filmmaking industry whose increasingly diverse production continues to resist the hegemony of Hollywood and to thrive as a hub of French-language (and increasingly multilingual) cinema in North America. The seminar will take an interdisciplinary cultural studies approach and draw on transnational film studies, multilingualism in film, and theorizations of identity, immigration, and borders in order to assess to what extent film narratives reflect or respond to immigration and asylum policy and prevailing social and official discourses about identity and integration. One key point of comparison will involve initiatives in France to increase diversity in film industries, including the Collectif 50/50 organization that lobbies for parity in funding and hiring practices. We will also compare and contrast these initiatives to Hollywood’s fledgling efforts to increase diversity on and behind the screen.   

This seminar will draw on a number of diverse perspectives from scholars, filmmakers, and people who are both scholars and filmmakers or screenwriters. It has four primary aims: 1) to assess changes to the industry and its output over the past decade in comparison with global trends, 2) to discern how the initiative to achieve funding parity has impacted representation on screen and behind the scenes (directors, screenwriters, editors, film crews, etc.), 3) to consider Quebec cinema as a microcosm of global transnational film trends, and 4) to critically assess a selection of narratives with the social and industrial contexts outlined above and discuss their representation of and engagement with diversity and local and global social justice issues.  The seminar will involve various guest directors and professors. Contact Professor Gott with questions (Michael.gott@uc.edu) 

FREN 7026 - Gender and Sexualities in Francophone Cultures                                                          Prof. Therese Migraine George                                                                                                                      Th 5:15PM - 8:15PM

This course, taught in English, will be based on a series of virtual lectures and meetings with academic experts working on issues of gender and sexuality in Francophone cultures at UC and outside of UC. Students will be exposed to and become familiar with a wide range of topics and methodological approaches related to gender and sexualities from the cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspectives of US-based and international scholars in the fields of Francophone literatures and cultures.

FREN 7001 Teaching practicum. Required to all new graduate students. This course is the first sequence of a practicum of foreign language teaching at the college level. The course is designed to help graduate teaching assistants in all aspects of teaching the first-year basic foreign language courses. Methodology, materials development, assessment, and classroom management as well as teaching practices are discussed and evaluated on a weekly basis. Professional development is assessed through activities such as observation reports, peer observations and the creation of pedagogical materials.

FREN 7034 French and Francophone Cinema. This course will meet on Tuesdays from 5 to 8. Prof. Gott. This seminar focuses on contemporary cinema from around the world in the French language and the interaction between different spaces and industries of the French-speaking world. We will watch films from Quebec, Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, the Middle East, and France and in the process learn both about the art and industry of cinema and the cultures of these geographic regions. Students will complete a research or pedagogical project that will be presented in written and/or multimedia form (such as a video essay) that combines their interests with the topic of the seminar. In Fall 2020 the course will include video visits from several filmmakers from Quebec.

FREN 7087 Franco-Arabic Literature and Fil. This course will meet on Wednesdays from 5 to 8. Prof. Vialet. This seminar is an introduction to Franco-Arab literature and cinema from the Maghreb and the French-speaking North African diaspora. We will read, see, study, and discuss several kinds of stories (novels, short stories and films) written by several generations of writers and filmmakers including Camus, Chraïbi, Ben Jelloun, Djebar, Mokeddem, Bey, Sansal, Kechiche. 

FREN 7032 Comics and Film.

Day and Time: Wednesday 5-8 pm

Prof. Gott

Description

What's the difference between how Gérard Depardieu fits on the big screen and into a bande dessinée "case" (panel)? What does a road movie look like in comic book format? We will seek to answer this and other pressing questions in FREN 7032 (Comics and Film). This course uses selected comic books/graphic novels and film and other screen media (television series, etc.) to compare and contrast the two different visual art forms - screen and page.  We will analyze the interplay and inspiration between and across media and use the selected readings and viewings to understand important contemporary issues (human rights, migration, travel, political issues, gender issues) and their representations in comics and film. We will discuss and apply theories of adaptation, comic art, and cinema. French students will consider a variety of works from France and the francophone world (notably Africa and Europe) and we will discuss key theories and contexts together with the Spanish course of the same theme taught by Professor Espinoza. 

FREN 7055 Francophone literature.

Day and Time: Tuesday 5-8 pm

Prof. Migraine-George

Description

In this class we will explore works in French by both French and Francophone writers from different continents. We will focus on the notion of identity through discussions of nationality, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. We will question the distinction traditionally established between "French" and "Francophone" writers, and examine various writers' call for a "world literature in French." Beyond their use of French, these writers share a resistance to the centralizing power of a language, a rejection of exclusive definitions, and a claim for creative autonomy. This class will cover books as well as films, documentaries, and artworks, and draw from current events in French-speaking countries around the world.

FREN 7085 Contemporary topics. 

Day and Time: Tuesday & Thursday 11-12:20pm

Prof. Vialet

Description

See Prof. Vialet

FREN 7030. Survey of Eighteenth-Century Literature

Day and Time: Wednesday 5-8 pm

Dr. Jeff Loveland

Description

This course is designed to introduce you to eighteenth-century French literature and to help prepare you for the MA exam. In particular, we will read all of the titles from the eighteenth-century portion of the MA list and practice the technique of close reading (“explication de texte”). At the same time, you will have the chance to familiarize yourself with outstanding works of French literature, including the original version of “La Belle et la bête,” the French Encyclopédie (the most famous encyclopedia of all time), Voltaire’s satire Candide, Rousseau’s Confessions (sometimes considered the first “kiss-and-tell” autobiography), and Charrière’s Lettres de Mistriss Henley (a strangely “open” and modern novel about a marriage gone awry).

FREN 7070 Survey of French Literature

Day and Time: Tuesday 5-8 pm

Dr. Thérèse Migraine-George

The main objective of this course is to provide students with a broad overview of French literature from the Middle Ages to today. By reading excerpts from French works (novels, plays, and poems) we will focus on major French writers and on the most important literary schools, or movements, that have shaped French literature. In our reading and analysis of these texts we will follow a chronological order and look at how French literature should be approached in relation to historical periods, social contexts, and various other cultural factors and influences. We will also discuss the notion of a French literary “canon” by exploring how norms, conventions, and biases have determined its formation.

FILM 7095 Graduate Internship in Film and Media Studies

Variable 1-4 credits. Day and time to be arranged with the professor.

Dr. Michael Gott

FREN 7030. Survey of Eighteenth-Century Literature               (Prof. Jeff Loveland)

This course is designed to introduce you to eighteenth-century French literature and to help prepare you for the MA exam. In particular, we will read all of the titles from the eighteenth-century portion of the MA list and practice the technique of close reading (“explication de texte”). At the same time, you will have the chance to familiarize yourself with outstanding works of French literature, including the original version of “La Belle et la bête,” the French Encyclopédie (the most famous encyclopedia of all time), Voltaire’s satire Candide, Rousseau’s Confessions (sometimes considered the first “kiss-and-tell” autobiography), and Charrière’s Lettres de Mistriss Henley (a strangely “open” and modern novel about a marriage gone awry).

FREN 7034 Topics in French and Francophone Cinema: (Re)Framing the Republic (Dr. Michael Gott)

The goal of the course will be to study a variety of perspectives on contemporary French identity as well as on France’s position vis-à-vis its own shifting identity, its former colonies, a new “borderless” Europe, and the rest of the World. We will also introduce and employ tools for analyzing different art forms, including how to read a bande dessinée album both visually and as a work of literature and interpret various key cinematic techniques.

FREN 7035 European Film Travel (Dr. Michael Gott)

Through the vantage point of cinema and other visual media, "Travels in European Cinema" engages with mobility in various forms as the defining characteristic of contemporary Europe. From the "road trip" to economic migration and from undocumented migrants to privileged tourists, this course will explore how cinematic travel has been represented by filmmakers in Europe. We will also discuss media representations of mobility and migration, from advertising to television news. We examine how cinema as an industry "travels" across borders in Europe and considers the history of the techniques used to represent motion and travel in cinema. The course covers French-language films as well as movies from Germany, Spain, Romania, Italy, the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe and Africa. This course is taught in English with a French component for French students.

FREN 7055 Intro to Francophone Literature (Vialet)

This course provides a comparative examination of Francophone literatures and cultures. It focuses on the literary representation of cultural and national identities. This course also examines how Francophone cultures interact with other postcolonial contexts.

RLL 7053 Computer-Assisted Language Learning SWLC (Hwu)

The course explores the applicability and application of computer technologies in various areas of second language learning and teaching, as well as the integration of second language learning theories in a Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) environment. The emphasis is on helping second language teachers make informed judgments about how to incorporate computers into their language classes to make certain aspects of student learning more engaging, efficient, and/or effective.

FREN 7041 The 19^th Century French Novel (Loveland)

This course is designed to introduce graduate students to nineteenth-century French literature in order to help them prepare for the MA exam. Students read novels from the nineteenth-century part of the MA reading list and practice the required part of the MA exam on close reading. Since the reading of the course is heavy, studentsdo less writing than in advanced graduate classes.

FREN 7087 Littérature et cinéma du Maghreb en langue française (Vialet)

This course is designed to have the students develop a personal and cogent appreciation of 20^th and 21^st-century masterpieces created by French-speaking writers and filmmakers of North-African origins, including Albert Camus, Driss Chraïbi, Tahar ben Jelloun, Azouz Begag, Assia Djebar, Maïssa Bey, Malika Mokeddem, Boualem Sansal, Gillo Pontecorvo, Abdellatif Kechiche. The students will thus be able to pursue doctoral-level studies and actively participate in professional meetings, and will master analytical skills applicable to the reading and appreciation of works from other centuries, languages and cultural history.

RLL 7051 Foreign Language Teaching (Hwu)

This course is designed to address the needs and concerns of current and future foreign language instructors in a classroom in which the communicative language teaching approach is used. It explores various topics that lead to concrete suggestions for implementing communicative language teaching, including the role of compensable input in second language acquisition, the purposes of communication, the process of developing lesson goals, and grammar instruction in a communicative classroom.