Studies in World Literatures (STWL)

The course will trace the historical conditions of women's education in the Western traditions with reference to women's 'historical silence' or 'mouthpiece function'. Women's writing will be read as an escape from, answer to, repudiation of a gender discourse favoring men's determination of self and society. Readings and discussions will focus on women's desire for knowledge as well as women's articulation of desire - the desire to be different without having to adapt to standards not set by themselves. The goal of self-determination will be differentiated with regard to both equal rights and equal responsibilities. Finally, the course will address women's conceptualization of history, literature, and language of their own.

An intensive examination of classical texts from twentieth century and contemporary Africa aimed at highlighting their particularities in expressing the colonial experience and its aftermath. Explores manifestations of traditional narrative forms in the modern novel and seeks to introduce students to the contributions of some of the most influential writers from the African continent.

This course introduces French environmental history from the Enlightenment to the present day through the study of literature and film, challenging common assumptions about France's ecological past. Through literary and cinematic analysis of texts by Chateaubriand, Zola, Maupassant, George Sand, Jules Verne, Elysée Reclus, Colette, Jean Giono, and Maylis de Kerangal, and films by Georges Méliès, Agnès Varda, Sara Dosa, Cyprien Vial among others, we will examine how French writers and filmmakers have depicted French society's complex relationship with nature, often revealing surprising continuities and ruptures that contradict popular narratives about environmental change. We will analyze representations of industrialization, globalization, natural disasters, conservation efforts, and ecological anxiety (in texts as early as Voltaire's1756 "Poem on the Disaster of Lisbon" to uncover the myths and realities of French environmental history.

This film course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to study the unique contributions that French-speaking filmmakers have made to the art of cinema. The course is both an introduction to the study of film, and an in-depth survey of French-language filmmaking. We discuss the history of French cinema (from the invention of the cinématographe by the Lumière brothers until today, including cinematic trends such as Poetic Realism, Occupation Cinema, the French New Wave and Young French Cinema) with particular emphasis on sound films (i.e., films made since 1930). We also examine both the qualities of individual films and the cultural and historical factors that have shaped the development of the medium. The course is taught in English and the films (in French with English subtitles) are analyzed in relation to an historical overview of French cinema, an introduction to film theory, key concepts of film studies and various articles on each specific film. Emphasis throughout the semester will be on close readings of the films. One unit.

This course, titled after French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir's 1949 feminist manifesto The Second Sex, explores the unique contributions that women filmmakers have made to the art of cinema, from its inception to the present, with special attention to the contemporary period. Emphasis will be placed on French-language cinema (produced in France, Belgium, Quebec/Canada, North Africa and other francophone countries), but other national cinemas will be discussed as well. Counts toward the Studies in World Literatures (STWL) major, and the concentration in Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies (GSWS). No prerequisite. Conducted in English. One Unit.

A topical examination of contemporary African societies and cultures as expressed through the camera lens. A study of films from across the continent focusing on the dynamics of change, gender, migrations, conflicts, politics, globalization, and marginalization. The course aims to highlight the internal diversity of perspectives and aesthetics in the representation of such issues. The course focuses less on the technical or theoretical considerations of the films and more so on the examination of the themes and issues they raise, internally and globally. (Films from Algeria, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Kenya, South Africa, etc.)

Intended as an introduction to French visual culture, this course takes a geographical approach to artistic innovation, region by region. We begin in the Dordogne, where the cave walls of Lascaux bear the oldest images in Western civilization to remind us that the human impulse to paint a scene, to capture light and animal movement, is as ancient as consciousness itself. Throughout the semester, we will explore Frances landscapes alongside the artistic movements they inspired  with stops at Fontainebleau (the Barbizon school), in Normandy (Impressionism), in Brittany (Synthetism and Primitivism), in Auvergne and Franche-Comté (Realism), in Occitanie (Fauvism), and in Provence (Post-impressionism and Still Life). Through the identification of various artistic strategies and techniques and use of visual rhetoric (including color theory, composition, perspective, etc.), students will learn to write detailed analyses of the works studied in class and what they tell us about the regions in which they were produced.Not only will we study the masterpieces  paintings, lithographs, illustrations, photographs  that capture Frances many landscapes, we will also read about the cultures and traditions reflected in these works and the emerging technologies that played a role in their mass-production, through the writings of contemporary critics, canonical French authors, and art historians. Weekly readings and discussions will emphasize the relationships between art and the social, technological, and political changes that took place, while visits to local art museums will allow for an understanding of how French art travelled beyond the continent and the international networks at play. Recommended for students interested in art history and French cultural studies.