This course offers students analytical tools for interpreting French history, society, and culture. The first part of the course focuses on the approaches that social science disciplines (history, anthropology, sociology) and theoretical frameworks (semiotics, Marxism, structuralism, cultural history, queer theory) have used to analyze French social phenomena. Short excerpts of texts by Claude Lévi-Strauss, Pierre Bourdieu, Roland Barthes, Algirdas Julien Greimas, Natalie Zemon-Davis, Michel Foucault, Lynn Hunt, Pierre Nora, Robert Darnton, Joan Scott and others will orient our discussions. In the second part of the course, students use these different approaches to examine the ways in which terms such as “nation,” “class,” “secularism,” and “gender” take on distinct meanings in the French context.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 14

Prerequisites: At least one unit of FREN 205, FREN 206, FREN 207, FREN 208, FREN 209 or above, or an equivalent departmental placement score.

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered; Spring

Notes: Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.