Graduate course descriptions

Rebel Literature: Politics and the Novel
Emmanuel Kattan
FREN GU4082
“Quand on refuse, on dit non”, said Ivorian novelist Ahmadou Kourouma towards the end of his life. Taking this stance as a starting point, this seminar will explore, through the lens of the novel, major political upheavals in the Francophone world during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. We will shed light on the history of decolonization, May 68, the feminist movement, and struggles against racism and injustice by delving into the imaginary worlds of six leading francophone novelists: Marguerite Duras, Ahmadou Kourouma, Assia Djebar, Hélène Cixous, George Perec and Édouard Glissant.

French America 1534-1804
Pierre Force
FREN GU4110
A study of the French Atlantic World from the exploration of Canada to the Louisiana Purchase and Haitian Independence, with a focus on the relationship between war and trade, forms of intercultural negotiation, the economics of slavery, and the changing meaning of race.

The demise of the First French Colonial Empire occurred in two stages: the British victory at the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, and the proclamation of Haitian Independence by insurgent slaves in 1804. The first French presence in the New World was the exploration of the Gulf of St. Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534. At its peak the French Atlantic Empire included one-third of the North American continent, as well as the richest and most productive sugar and coffee plantations in the world.

By following the history of French colonization in North America and the Caribbean, this class aims to provide students with a different perspective on the history of the Western hemisphere, and on US history itself. At the heart of the subject is the encounter between Europeans and Native Americans and between Europeans and Africans. We will focus the discussion on a few issues: the strengths and weaknesses of French imperial control as compared with the Spanish and the British; the social, political, military, and religious dimensions of relations with Native Americans; the extraordinary prosperity and fragility of the plantation system; evolving notions of race and citizenship; and how the French Atlantic Empire shaped the history of the emerging United States.

Racial Histories of Europe (15th- 21st Centuries)
Emmanuelle Saada
FRHS GU4354
After being somewhat eclipsed after World War II, race has reemerged as a central preoccupation in Western European politics, making it more important than ever to understand how the concept and practices have developed and how they have shaped the history of Europe.

In this class, we will focus on historiographical debates about race, including how and when it emerged as an ideology and how it has permeated the history of modern Europe.  We will emphasize the histories of Spain, France, Britain and Germany. We will focus on a set of connected debates, starting with the relationship between race and modernity. Was race a product of internal European dynamics in the late middle-ages related to the status of Christians of Jewish and Muslim origin or of social relations in the Americas following the conquest and the Atlantic slave trade? How much does the history of race share with the history of capitalism and imperialism? What was the role of scientific and artistic representations in the production of race? How was race connected to class, gender and sex? How and when did it become a central dimension of historical narratives and especially of how Europeans told their history? How shall we understand the relationship between antisemitism and other forms of racism in the longue durée history of Europe? How have historians analyzed the role of racism in the final solution and, conversely, how has race been transformed after the holocaust and into the present?

BD Reportage: The Origin and Aesthetics
Aubrey Gabel
CLFR GU4612
This course will trace the rise of “comics journalism,” a term first coined and popularized by the Maltese-American artist Joe Sacco in the 1990s. Surpassing the political or editorial cartoon in both space and scope, BD reportage is often aligned with subjective or opinion journalism, or “op-art.” It is rooted in long-form reporting, oral interviews, and embedded research—all communicated via the full arsenal of tools available in the comics medium. Like investigative journalism more broadly, graphic reporting covers the breadth of topics that affect modern life: from on-going wars and conflicts, to mass migration and the immigrant experience, to environmental disasters, trial reporting, the prison industrial-complex, and so on. Often approached as a predominately American phenomenon, practiced by first and foremost by Sacco himself, it is an increasingly dominant subgenre of French-language comics, as can be seen in the runaway success of Le photographe (2003-2006)—artist Emmanuel Guibert’s stunning, multi-album collaboration with the late photojournalist Didier Lefèvre, about the latter’s 1986 humanitarian mission through Pakistan and Soviet-occupied Afghanistan during the Afghan War (1979-1989)—and in a proliferation of French-language terms and formal prizes. While glancing at a prehistory of proto-forms (like illustrated news in the UK and the US or “printed literature” in Europe), this class will reconstitute a narrower French-language lineage of graphic reporting, through early children’s supplements, wartime comics propaganda, and postwar and present-day illustrated magazines. This course also juxtaposes the work of active artist-reporters, with non-journalist illustrators whose work is adjacent to reporting. Class held in English, with primary and secondary materials in French and English. French majors and minors must submit papers in French, as must graduate students in the Department of French. This class will also involve a few class trips (TBD, likely to the Museum of the Society of Illustrators and the Rare Books and Manuscript Library), as well as at least one in-person event at the Maison Française.

Annie Ernaux: Writing as a Knife
Thomas Dodman
CLFR GU4722
This course offers a deep dive into French contemporary novelist Annie Ernaux’s auto-socio-biographical fiction. It does so through close readings of some of her major works, organized thematically and across Ernaux’s oeuvre. Close readings of texts will be paired with research notes and recent film adaptations, sociological and theoretical work that has inspired Ernaux, her growing critical reception (amplified by her recent Nobel prize), as well as other writers whom she has inspired. Themes covered include: writing impersonally in the first person; what is auto-socio-biography; exploring women’s desire and sexuality; Ernaux’s feminism and political militancy; ethnographies of contemporary France and the baby-boomer generation; history, time, and memory. Throughout, we will consider what kind of genre Ernaux’s writing is, and what writing as a knife can do. Class taught in French (if you are unsure about whether you have the required level please consult with instructor).

Radical Enlightenment Women
Joanna Stalnaker
FREN GU4842
In this seminar, we will explore three different but interrelated questions. First, how did women (both real and fictional) shape the Enlightenment through the radical questions they posed? Second, how has Enlightenment historiography sought to affirm or deny the importance of women to an intellectual movement many believe ushered in the modern world? Third, what critical questions do we want to put to Enlightenment women in confronting the persistent challenges of our own time? In addressing these questions, we will read novels, letters, literary portraits and philosophical dialogues, and explore critical debates surrounding sociability, letter-writing and the institution of the salons. Authors will include Gouges, Montesquieu, Graffigny, Châtelet, Deffand, Voltaire, Lespinasse, Diderot, Rousseau, Henriette and le Chevalier / Mademoiselle d’Éon.

This seminar will be offered in French, with all readings and discussions in French. Advanced undergraduates may enroll with instructor permission.

French For Diplomats
Mohamed Yacine Chitour
FREN GU4995
This course deals with French foreign policy. It is designed for students who have a good French level (the whole course is taught is French, so there are minimal requirements) and are interested by international relations and France. It aims at improving students knowledge of French diplomacy : the vision and values it carries, its history, its logic, its strenghts, its weaknesses, the interrogations and challenges it faces. Though it is not a language course (there will be no grammar), it will also shapren students mastering of French (especially useful for those considering an exchange at Sciences Po, or wanting to work in places such as the United nations where it is useful to master some French diplomatic vocabulary).

The Hermeneutic Tradition
Pierre Force
CLHS GR8420