Graduate Seminar Offerings: Fall 2007, Winter 2008, Spring 2008 Advanced Critical Writing, Late Medieval Textuality and Poetic Authority, Religion and Skepticism in Renaissance Europe, Classical Tragedy, Poetry and Poetics, Autobiography Today, Literature and Cinema of Immigration, The Question of the Humanities For the complete list of our seminars, please click here. In addition to seminars in the Department of French and Italian, please check seminars pertaining to literary, visual, and critical studies in other Departments, such as Comparative Literature, English, History of Art and Architecture, Germanic, Slavic and Semitic Studies, and Religious Studies.
Seminars in Fall 2007
French 229C Poésie et poétique Professor Sydney Lévy Course taught in French Top	Nous approcherons la poésie moderne de trois façons très liées qui, bien sûr, se croiseront à travers le trimestre : 1. Des lectures serrées de certains textes 2. Un parcours rapide de la poésie du 19e et début du 20e siècle (Hugo, Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Rimbaud, Lautréamont, Valéry, Max Jacob, Apollinaire, le surréalisme, Artaud, Michaux) pour se concentrer davantage sur Francis Ponge  et la poésie récente (Jabès, Gaspar, Deguy, Roubaud, OULIPO). 3.  L’examen, à l’aide de textes théoriques, de certains problèmes que pose la poésie (son statut, son ambition, ses enjeux, ses moyens) pour se munir de quelques outils pour son analyse.  À cet égard, nous tâcherons d’examiner les apports cognitifs et épistémologiques de la poésie. This seminar is part of the 229AA-ZZ series. "Modern and Contemporary Studies."
French 229E Autobiography Today Professor Dominique Jullien Course taught in French Click here to upload web page for seminar Top	A study of some key autobiographical texts of contemporary French literature as responses to the essential questions - formal, thematic, conceptual, structural -  which this particular genre poses. Issues include: the historical models of autobiography; confessions and conversion narratives; autobiography and self-portrait; autobiography and fiction; the portrayal of childhood and family; intellectual autobiography, etc.     Bibliography: Barthes, Roland. Roland Barthes par roland barthes Colette, La Maison de Claudine Gide, André. Si le grain ne meurt Leiris, Michel. L'Age d'homme Perec, Georges. W ou le souvenir d'enfance Sarraute, Nathalie. Enfance Sartre, Jean-Paul. Les Mots This seminar is part of the 229AA-ZZ series. "Modern and Contemporary Studies."
French 234A Advanced Critical Writing Professor Jody Enders Course taught in English Top	This course is designed to help graduate students doing work in literary and cultural criticism/theory/historiography in a number of ways: e.g., how to write for publication; how to make the transition between graduate student and professional writer; how to enhance the authority of one's authorial voice; how to write more logically, powerfully, coherently, rhetorically. The main writing assignment, an article/essay/part of a dissertation chapter is a reworking of a paper that students have already written and which they have an opportunity to "workshop" with peers. This seminar is part of the 233AA-ZZ series: "Applied Linguistics, Instructional Theory, Professional Training"
Seminars in Winter 2008
French 227F Religion and Skepticism in Renaissance Europe Professor Cynthia Skenazi Course taught in French Top	In this seminar, we will read Rabelais’s Gargantua, Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptameron, andMontaigne’s Essais in the context of the rise of skepticism in sixteenth-century Europe.  Our focus will be on the relativity of human cultural and intellectual achievements, a relativity that was to undermine the whole concept of the nature of human being and his place in the moral cosmos.  Readings from Rabelais, Marguerite de Navarre, and Montaigne will be analyzed in dialogue with the works of some of their contemporaries (Erasmus, Pico Della Mirandola), and replaced in the religious, political, and social tensions of the time.  Lectures and readings in French. This seminar is part of the 227AA-ZZ series: "Medieval and Renaissance Studies"
French 228A Classical Tragedy Professor Ronald Tobin Course taught in French Top	This seminar will focus on the works of Jean Racine. Culminating in a masterful reevaluation of the life of Racine by Georges Forestier, the study of Racine's plays and poetry has accelerated since the many commemorations, in 1999, of the 300th anniversary of his death.  Our seminar will focus on the innovative cultural approaches that have shed new light on Racine's tragedies, including those having to do with the socio-literary practice of civility.   This seminar is part of the 228AA-ZZ series: "Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Studies"
Seminars in Spring 2008
French 227D Late Medieval Textuality and Poetic Authority Professor Cynthia Brown Course taught in French Top	In this course, our study of the works of major late medieval poets, including Guillaume de Machaut, Christine de Pizan, Alain Chartier and Charles d'Orléans, will entail close textual readings and poetic analyses inspired by theoretical, literary and cultural issues underpinning these texts, such as the politics of poetic creation, allegory and allegorical language, controversies surrounding the female voice, and the relationship between authors and the reproduction of their works in manuscript form. This seminar is part of the 227AA-ZZ series: "Medieval and Renaissance Studies"
French 230E Literature and Cinema of Immigration Professor Eric L. Prieto Course taught in French Top	In this seminar we will study the literary and cinematic currents reflecting the increasingly vital role played by immigrants and their descendents in the shaping of contemporary French culture. With an emphasis on the Beur phenomenon. The list of works to be studied include novels such as: Driss Chraïbi, Les boucs (1955); Leila Sebbar, Shérazade : 17 ans, brune, frisée, les yeux verts (1982); Azouz Begag, Le Gone du Chaâba (1986); Calixthe Beyala, Amours sauvages (1999); Nina Bouraoui, Garçon manqué (2000); and films such as: Mehdi Charef, Le thé au harem d'Archimède (1985); Malik Chibane, Hexagone (1994); Karim Dridi, Bye Bye (1995); Merzak Allouache, Salut, Cousin! (1996); Fabrice Genestal, La Squale (2000); Yamina Benguigui, Inch'Allah dimanche (2001), and Abdel Kechiche, L'esquive (2004). This seminar is part of the 230AA-ZZ series: "Post-colonial and Francophone Studies"
Comp. Literature 200 The Question of the Humanities Prof. Claudio Fogu Prof. Colin Gardner (Art) Course taught in English Top	In this course, Professors Fogu and Gardner will guide students in an exploration of recent strands of critical thinking aimed at re-evaluating the place and role of the humanities in contemporary society and academia. The course will explore both philosophical and institutional issues related to the current status of the humanities and will focus in particular on the rise of the 'arts' to center stage in the definition of the 'humanistic.' Discussions of writing by Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Jean-François Lyotard, and Giorgio Agamben, will be alternated with guest lectures by artists and critics whose work addresses the question of the humanities today. Click here for the detailed description of the seminar. The course is designed to attract graduate students from all areas in the humanities and social sciences.