Graduate French Courses
Below you will find the graduate French course descriptions. For current and past semester course flyers and descriptions, check out the official French Program Blog.
FREN 701 History of the French Language
FREN 721 French Poetry of 16th Century Classical and Italian Influences : The Lyons poets, the Pléiade, Protestant poets.
FREN 725 Main Currents of French Renaissance : Study of different aspects of French Renaissance in the works of major authors.
FREN 732 French Tragedy of 17th Century : Study of characteristics of French tragic theatre from Baroque to Classicism. Emphasis on plays and prefaces of Corneille and Racine.
FREN 733 Theatre of Molière : Analysis of major plays. Discussion of theatrical life of the period.
FREN 734 French Moralists of Classical Period : Works by such authors as La Rochefoucauld, Bossuet, La Fontaine, Madame de Sévigné, Fénélon, La Bruyère, Saint-Simon.
FREN 741 Diderot : Study of novels and aesthetic and philosophical theories. Diderot’s influence through the Encyclopédie.
FREN 753 Balzac and Stendhal : Major novels of Balzac and Stendhal. Comparative analysis of their themes, and narrative techniques. Study of intellectual, social and political trends of the period.
FREN 754 Flaubert, Zola, and Maupassant : Analysis of selected works. Study of Realism and Naturalism and their impact on French fiction.
FREN 755 French Fiction from Romanticism to the Decadence : Impact of antipositivistic thought on novel and related genres of 19th-century French fiction. Works by Hugo, Sand, Mérimée, Nerval, Gautier, Barbey d’Aurevilly, Huysmans, Villiers de l’Isle-Adam.
FREN 756 19th-Century French Theatre : Main trends from Melodrama to Théâtre Libre. Readings from Pixérécourt, Hugo, Vigny, Musset, Scribe, Labiche, Dumas fils, Sardou, Becque, Feydeau, Maeterlinck, Courteline. Study of dramatic theory and styles of theatrical production.
FREN 760 Aspects of 20th-Century French Fiction : Analysis and discussion of novels by Mauriac, Duhamel, Alain-Fournier, Rolland, Colette, Saint-Exupéry, Malraux, Sartre, Camus and le Nouveau roman. (For Gide and Proust, see
FREN 761 Gide and Proust : Analysis of authors’ major fiction. Study of their style and creative process.
FREN 765 Aspects of Modern French Theatre : Analysis and discussion of plays by such authors as Claudel, Giraudoux, Romains, Montherlant, Anouilh, Sartre, Camus, Beckett, Ionesco, Duras.
FREN 791-799 Special Topics in French Literature : Study of particular writer, trend, or perspective in French literature. Topics to be announced in advance.
FREN 799.03 Independent Study in French Literature
The following French courses are offered only if student demand is sufficient:
FREN 600 Basic Course in French for Graduate Students
FREN 611 Explication de Texte
FREN 621 Genre Studies I: French Poetry
FREN 622 Genre Studies II: The Theatre in France
FREN 623 Genre Studies III: The French Novel
FREN 624 Literature of Ideas
FREN 702 Studies in French Criticism.
FREN 708 Methods of Research
FREN 711 Medieval French Literature
FREN 712 Medieval French Literature II
FREN 722 Rabelais and Montaigne
FREN 731 Descartes and Pascal
FREN 742 Voltaire and Rousseau
FREN 750 Era of Chateaubriand
FREN 751 Romanticism and the Parnasse
FREN 752 French Poetry from Baudelaire to Symbolism
FREN 763 Major Currents of Modern French Poetry