French, Undergraduate, Department of French and Italian, Northwestern University

Courses Primarily for Undergraduates

FRENCH 111-1,2,3 Elementary French
A three-quarter first-year course for students with no prior knowledge of French. From this course, student continue in French 121. No prerequisite.

All students who have studied French before will be placed in one of the following courses through the Placement Test:

FRENCH 115-1,2 Intensive Elementary French
For students with some previous experience in French. Review and development of skills in speaking, understanding, reading, and writing as preparation for work at the second-year level. It is offered as a Fall-Winter sequence. Students who successfully complete this course should continue in Spring in French 125-1 (taught in Spring only). Prerequisite: department placement.

FRENCH 121-1,2,3 Intermediate French
A three-quarter second-year course. Grammar review, conversation, reading, and writing. Four class meetings a week. Successful completion of French 121-3 fulfills the WCAS language requirement. Prerequisite: 111 or 115 or department placement.

FRENCH 125-2,3 Intensive Intermediate French ( N.B: French 125-1 offered in Spring only)
French language and culture. Conversation, composition, reading of cultural and literary texts, and grammar review. Three class meetings a week. Successful completion of French 125-3 fulfills the WCAS language requirement. Prerequisite: department placement. Students placed in French 125 in Fall will begin with 125-2 (taught in Fall only).

All students with an AP score of 1-4 must take the Placement Test. Students with AP5 (language) place automatically in French 210, those with AP 5 (literature) should enroll in French 271 or 272.

FRENCH 201-0 Introduction to French Studies
A one quarter third-year course offered only in Fall quarter. In this course the emphasis is on understanding contemporary French culture. Successful completion of this course fulfills the WCAS language requirement. Prerequisite: AP 3 students placed in FR 201 by the Placement Test.

FRENCH 202-0 Writing Workshop
Practical study of French grammar and structure; students develop and improve writing skills through practice in preparing short compositions. Prerequisite: 201, AP score of 4 in language, or consent of department.

FRENCH 203-0 Oral Workshop
Practical course to increase listening comprehension, build vocabulary and idiom use, and enhance communication skills. Prerequisite: 201, AP score of 4 in language, or consent of department.

FRENCH 210-0 Introduction to French and Francophone Literarature
Study of texts illustrating various genres from the Middle Ages to the present such as poetry, drama, fairy tale, novel, and autobiography. Prerequisite: 202, AP score of 5 in language, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 211-0 Introduction to French and Francophone Cultures
Introduction to French and/or francophone cultures through study and analysis of major themes, issues, and debates. Prerequisite: 202, AP score of 5, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 271-0 Introduction to the French and Francophone Novel
Fundamental concepts and significant achievements of the novel in French. Prerequisite: 210, 211, AP score of 5 in literature, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 272-0 Introduction to French and Francophone Theater
Basic concepts and representative works of French and/or francophone theater. Principles of tragedy and comedy; contemporary developments. Prerequisite: 210, 211, AP score of 5 in literature, or consent of instructor.

Courses with Reading and Discussion in English
No prerequisite in French; readings, discussions, papers, and examinations in English.

FRENCH 277-0 Literature of Existentialism Existentialism
in its literary, philosophical, and cultural manifestations.

FRENCH 279-0 Introduction to French and Francophone Theater
Representative French plays from the 17th through the 20th centuries; basic concepts of genre; social and historical context. Credit not allowed for both 279 and 272.

FRENCH 372-0 Medieval Movies
Films representing medieval and Renaissance culture; films that a medieval viewer would have understood.

FRENCH 375-0 French and Francophone Film
Topics in French cinema: for example, French classical cinema, the New Wave, postcolonial French film, the cinema of
Marguerite Duras.

FRENCH 376-0 Topics in Gender and Sexuality
Major trends and perspectives in gender studies such as first- and second-wave feminisms, lesbian writers, AIDS literature, and queer theory. Content varies; topics covered previously include gender and orientalism, cross-cultural feminisms.

FRENCH 378-0 Contemporary Theory
Introduction to some major trends in contemporary French theory and the way they have influenced literary studies in the United States.

Courses with Prerequisites in French

FRENCH 301-0 Advanced Grammar
Review and study of French grammar. Functional implementation of rules through oral and written exercises. Prerequisite: 202 or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 302-0 Advanced Composition
Development of written expression organized according to language functions (describing, summarizing, hypothesizing, persuading, etc.) and communicative needs (e.g., social and business correspondence). Prerequisite: 301 or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 303-0 Advanced Conversation
Oral practice based on short readings, visual media, and spontaneous scenarios. Prerequisite: 301 or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 305-0 French Phonetics
Study of syllabic division, intonation, rhythm, accent, linking, vowels, consonants. Practical exercises to improve pronunciation. Prerequisite: 302 or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 309-0 French in Commerce and Industry
Introduction to fundamentals of the French business world in historic, economic, social, and political contexts. Acquisition of language skills for communication in commerce and business. Prerequisite: 302 or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 310-0 The Middle Ages and Renaissance
Study of literary texts of the French Middle Ages and Renaissance with emphasis on their historical and literary-historical contexts. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 312-0 Classicism and Enlightenment
Study of literary texts from Classicism to Enlightenment and the Revolutionary period with emphasis on their philosophical, literary, and cultural contexts. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 314-0 The Age of Revolutions and Colonialism
Study of literary texts from the period between the French Revolution and World War I with emphasis on their historical and literary-historical contexts. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 316-0 The Contemporary Francophone World
Study of literary texts from the 20th and 21st centuries with emphasis on their philosophical, literary, and cultural contexts. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 320-0 Medieval French Song
Songs of the troubadours; songs of courtly love, social and political songs, women’s songs. Study of musical setting and performance. No musical training required. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 322-0 Medieval French Narratives
Major narrative works of the French Middle Ages in historical context. Content varies; topics covered previously include epics such as the Song of Roland, romances such as Chrétien de Troyes’s Perceval, and narratives of childhood. Texts read in modern French versions. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 335-0 Topics in 17th-Century Literature
Topics and issues related to the literature and culture of 17th- century France. Content varies; topics covered previously include theater and its social and political contexts, the rise of rational thought, and the development of fiction and poetry. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 340-0 Sexual Politics and the Ancien Régime
Literary, intellectual, and political role of women in view of the debates generated by the issues of women’s power in the public sphere before and during the French Revolution. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 342-0 France in the Age of Scandals
Examination of political, financial, and religious scandals that racked 18th-century France. Analysis of writings, especially novels, that both denounced and celebrated scandal. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 344-0 Rousseau and the French Revolution
Analysis of Rousseau’s political thought and major literary works and their impact on Revolutionary ideology and culture. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 346-0 The Enlightenment and the World
Authors such as Rousseau, Diderot, Montesquieu, Graffigny, and Moreau de Saint-Méry in relation to Enlightenment debates about religion, political authority, human nature, colonialism, gender, and slavery. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 350-0 The Novel in French
Content varies. Topics covered previously include the novel of the ancien régime, the psychological novel, and the Bildungsroman in France. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 355-0 The Invention of Modernity
Study of the origins of modernity in the 19th century, addressing such issues as the rise of mass culture, urbanization, and the beginnings of consumer society. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 360-0 From Modernism to Postmodernism:
Experiments in Narrative Form Crises and reinventions of French prose from the modernist moment of the early 20th century to the ambiguities of “engaged” literature of the 1930s to postmodernism. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 362-0 Popular Fictions
Popular genres such as the detective novel, fairy tales, utopian novels, science fiction, and la bande dessinéeconsidered in historical context. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 364-0 African Literatures and Cultures
Major issues, trends, and authors from francophone Africa, including North African and sub-Saharan African writers. Content varies; topics covered previously include Shahrazade, narratives of gender relations in francophone African fiction, and mysticism and francophone African fiction. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 365-0 Caribbean/African Literatures and Cultures
Major issues, trends, and authors from the francophone Caribbean and its diasporas. Content varies; topics covered previously include creolization in Caribbean women writers; slavery, history, and memory; Caribbean identities. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 366-0 Southeast Asian Literatures and Cultures
Major issues, trends, and authors from francophone Southeast Asia and its diasporas. Content varies; topics covered previously include francophone Vietnamese literature and Vietnam/Indochine in fiction and film. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 367-0 French and Francophone Theater
Major figures and movements in French and francophone theater. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 380-0 Political and Social Thought in France
Major political and social trends in France from the ancien régime to the 20th century. Content varies. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 382-0 Literature and Exoticism
Various modalities of the rhetoric of exoticism, including Orientalism, throughout the history of French literature and in popular culture. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 384-0 Women Writing in French
Analysis of texts by women authors with regard to their respective social, cultural, political, and historical contexts. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 386-0 Gender and Writing
Issues of gender and sexuality in the production of literary and other creative texts in various historical periods. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 390-0 Topics in Culture
Topics, issues, and questions in French and francophone culture. Content varies: for example, French and francophone cinema, the intellectual in France. May be repeated for credit with different topic. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 391-1,2 Theory and Practice of Translation
Intensive, advanced, two-quarter course integrates previously acquired skills through the comparative study and translation of English and French. Culminates in individual translation project in second half of second quarter. Prerequisite: 301, 302, study abroad, or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 396-0 Contemporary French and Francophone Thought
An examination of different perspectives and paradigms for understanding literature and culture. Prerequisite: senior status or consent of undergraduate adviser.

FRENCH 397-0 Studies in Literature and Culture
In-depth research and analysis of a problem or topic concerning cultural representation. Prerequisite: senior status or consent of undergraduate adviser.

FRENCH 399-0 Independent Study
Independent reading and research. Topics arranged through consultation with an instructor and approval of the department.