Course Description
This course will cover various cultural manifestations of French or Francophone civilization in their immediate historical context. The course will cover a significant period of history, and examine the salient cultural features of that moment. Given in English.
Athena Title
TOPICS FREN CIV
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
To familiarize students with key cultural manifestations of a specified period of French civilization, generally less than a century in length; so doing, to teach critical assessment and interpretation of such works, whether in literature, art, or architecture; to improve students' ability to establish relations between the different fields in question. Students will improve their listening, speaking, written, and interpretive skills by treating, in English, representative texts. That will be accomplished through classroom discussions based, in part, on study questions that students will prepare before coming to class, and through the various written assignments, and final examinations. This course examines literature, and culture in an integrative manner. Therefore, oral communication and writing skills are given the same importance.
Topical Outline
Sample outlines: 1) Arthurian Tradition in France. Reading of several of the quests of the Arthurian cycle; consideration of the architecture in its role as site of the quests, and of the graphic arts as illustrations of the quests; viewing of film versions of these stories. 2) The Court of the Sun King. Reading of plays by Racine and Molière as well as fables by La Fontaine; viewing of performances of the plays; consideration of the architecture of Versailles and Vaux-le-Vicomte; appreciation of the music of Lully; the role of these works as a reflection of the politics of Louis XIV. 3) The Impressionist Moment. Consideration of the novels, poetry and painting of the forty years preceding the First World War; the relation of painting, poetry and music at that period; the relation of this artistic climate to the onset of the War.
General Education Core
CORE IV: Humanities and the Arts