Advanced Beginning French: The Literary Prison

This yearlong course has two objectives: to provide a comprehensive grammar review to students with some prior knowledge of French and to apply that grammatical knowledge in a literary study of the prison. Approaching the prison as a narrative setting, formal device, and culturally charged symbol, we will examine its connection to changing concepts of selfhood, innocence and guilt, the relationship between the individual and the state, and the process of literary creation itself. The course will unfold in two phases: The first semester offers a fast-paced, systematic review of the fundamentals of French language; short essays and presentations will allow students to study literary and historical prisons and prisoners in poetry, drama, fiction, and memoirs from 1450 to 1800. In the spring, students will refine their linguistic and literary knowledge through the study of longer texts from the 19th to the 21st century. Authors for the year may include Villon, Corneille, Voltaire, Roland, Balzac, Hugo, Camus, Djebar, Bon. Individual conferences will allow students to pursue their interests in aesthetic, political, or social dimensions of literary prisons and prisoners or in any other area of French and Francophone literatures and cultures. In addition to conferences, students will attend a weekly conversation session with a French language assistant. Students are also strongly encouraged to attend the weekly French lunch table, as well as French film screenings. Students who successfully complete this course and an intermediate-level course may be eligible to study in Paris with Sarah Lawrence College during their junior year.  Course conducted in French. Admission by placement test to be taken during interview week at the beginning of the fall semester.