Course Offerings - Spring 2011

Prof. Michelle Boularès
This course is mandatory for all students in Program I. An intensive workshop that quickly immerses students in the basic tenets of French grammar and pronunciation, this course also provides students a historical and cultural framework to help them understand French society. Conducted in French.

Prof. Michelle Boularès
Presentation and systematic practice of basic structures and vocabulary of oral French through dialogues, pattern drills, exercises. Correct pronunciation, sound placement, and intonation are stressed. For students with little or no command of French. Completes the equivalent of one year's elementary course. Textbook: Libre Echange. Conducted in French.

Prerequisite: V45.0010 or V45.0001-0002. Open to students who have completed the equivalent of a year's elementary level and to others on assignment by placement test. Completes the equivalent of a year's intermediate level in one semester.

Prof. TBA
Acquisition and practice of more sophisticated structures of French. Development of fundamental oral and written skills, vocabulary enrichment, conversational ability. Short reading texts; guided compositions. Completes the equivalent of one year's intermediate course. Textbook: Libre Echange. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus

Prof. TBA
Prerequisite: V45.0011-0012 or V45.0020. Open to students who have completed the equivalent of a year's intermediate level and to others who have passed the proficiency examination but who wish to review their French in order to take advanced courses in language, literature, and civilization.

Systematizes and reinforces the language skills presented in earlier level courses through an intensive review of grammar, written exercises, an introduction to composition, lexical enrichment, and spoken skills. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus 

Open to students in both Program I & II

Prof. Nadine Airut
This workshop allows students the opportunity to sing their way to a discovery of French language and culture. Students expand their vocabulary and improve their pronunciation through performance while learning about the history and context of this popular art form. The workshop culminates in a performance at the end of the semester. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus 

Open to students in both Program I & II

NYU Art History Students: This course counts for Elective Credit

Prof. Marie LePetit
Working in collaboration with the Theatre Workshop and Acting French courses, this course provides a coherent framework for students to produce and present a sustained body of visual work that will constitute an integrated part of the end of semester theatre performances. In Spring 2009, we will focus on the life and works of Eugène Ionesco. Students will have an opportunity to enter into the wonderful and absurdist world of this great 20th century playwrite (and sometimes painter), in order to imagine and create props, masks, and/or backdrops for the theatre productions. Students may work in a variety of media, e.g. drawing, electronic arts, installation, painting, photography, sculpture, sound and video, and will have the opportunity to create in the professor’s studio. The course includes visits to museum and galleries to explore the wide range of subjects and materiality available to contemporary artists, and culminates with the exhibition/ theatre performances in a prestigious Parisian venue at the end of the semester. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus 

Open to students in both Programs I & II

Prof. Isabelle Coydon
In this workshop students have the opportunity to deepen their understanding of phonetics and improve their pronunciation and comprehension of spoken French. Through listening exercises, poetry, and role-plays, students will work on articulation, rhythm and intonation. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus 

Open to all NYU-France students. NYU Art History students: This course counts for Advanced Modern credit.

Prof. Shalini Le Gall
Mounting poverty in the countryside, mechanization of labour, and massive migration into Paris (provoking flagrant disparities between the peasant, artisan and urban working classes and the rising bourgeoisie) culminated in the 1848 Revolution. This course investigates the manner and methods by which the Paris-based avant-garde appropriated these socio-political conditions to challenge the myths of modernity and give experimental artistic forms to a new modernity, from Realism, Impressionism, Symbolism to Fauvism and Cubism. Major retrospectives, permanent collections and a restaged Ballets Russes performance in original Picasso décors enhance our study of this explosive half-century. Conducted in English.

Sample Syllabus

Gallatin students can register for this course under the number K20.9865.

Prof. Beth Epstein
France and the U.S. have a habit of looking at one another as anti-models when it comes to discussions of assimilation and difference, “race,” identity, community and diversity. In this course, we explore this comparison as a productive means for re-considering these terms. Why is the notion of “ethnic community” so problematic in France? And why do Americans insist on the “homogeneity” of the French nation, even as, at various points throughout modern French history, France has received more immigrants to its shores than the United States? Through readings, film screenings, and site visits we explore the movements and encounters that have made Paris a rich, and sometimes controversial, site of cultural exchange. Topics include contemporary polemics on questions such as headscarves, the banlieue, the new Paris museums of immigration and “primitive” art, affirmative action and discrimination positive, historic expressions of exoticism, négritude, and anti-colonialism. Occasional case studies drawn from the American context help provide a comparative framework for these ideas. Conducted in English.

Sample Syllabus 

Prof. Mariam Habibi
This class journeys through the long and lively history of protest movements that has marked the trajectory of modern France. Beginning with the 19th century, we will consider the Revolution of 1848 and the Paris Commune of 1871 when youth manned the barricades and paid with their lives for their ideals. In the 20th century we will focus on 1968, when the streets of Paris and other major cities witnessed an unprecedented level of contestation challenging the all powerful government of Général de Gaulle. We will end with the twenty-first century when young people’s refusal to accept employment reform forced the government to withdraw its proposals, and the youth in the banlieues (outer cities) revolted against social injustice. Conducted in English.

Sample Syllabus

Prof. Liana Theodoratou
France’s oldest city, and one the Mediterranean’s most important ports, Marseilles has been a crossroads of historical, cultural, and political exchanges from antiquity to the present. This course introduces students to the richness of the city’s past and present by looking at literary, cinematic, and musical representations of its diverse and cosmopolitan history. The course includes a weekend trip to the city so that students can experience its wonders firsthand. Readings include texts by Fernand Braudel, Alexandre Dumas, Albert Camus, Walter Benjamin, Marcel Pagnol, J. M.G. Le Clézio, and Jean-Claude Izzo; we will watch films by Marco Gastine, Luc Besson, and Robert Guédiguian, and, because Marseilles also is the Mediterranean capital of hip-hop and fusion, listen to a wide range of music that seeks to embody the diverse sounds and languages of this always-changing region. Conducted in English. 

NYU Art History Students: This course counts for Elective Credit

Prof. Paul Edwards
This course explores photography from the 1830s to the present day, emphasizing style and subject matter (rather than technical processes) in the work of the major photographers. We will consider how photography has enlarged and affected our vision and knowledge of the world and how photography and modern art have influenced each other. Conducted in English.

Sample Syllabus 

Prof. Stephen Monteiro
This course provides an introduction to some of the major movements and filmmakers in European cinema since the close of World War II. Drawing on films from a range of European countries, we trace some of the major themes and events that have shaped post-war Europe and examine the ways these events have been represented on film. Keeping a focus on questions of representation, we consider how the films reflect the social and cultural realities of their time. Conducted in English.

Sample Syllabus

NYU Art History students: This course counts for Art History Elective credit.

Prof. Nicolas Baudouin
This course aims to understand and appreciate the creativity and dynamism of the Parisian art scene today through an exploration of contemporary art in the capital. The course will focus on the diversity of resources provided by the city, with special attention to new artistic practices and loci of production, as well as the multiple actors involved, from artists themselves to private galleries to art critics and museum curators. Reference to major avant-garde art movements of the past such as dada, geometrical abstraction, surrealism and expressionism will also be made in order to better situate today’s artistic concerns. Conducted in English.

Sample Syllabus 

Prof. Christina von Koehler
An introduction to classic texts of French political and social philosophy. Consideration of the historical influences upon and the historical impact of French thinkers. Through close readings and analysis of selected passages from primary sources (in English translation), and those few seminal non-French works that inspired new directions in French thought, we will explore the intellectual framework and historical references that inform French debates on politics and society to the present day. Philosophers to be considered include St. Thomas Aquinas, Machiavelli, Montaigne, de la Fontaine, Descartes, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Napoleon Bonaparte, Saint-Simon, Prudhon, Marx, Jules Ferry, Zola, Fanon, Camus, and Sartre. Conducted in English.

Sample Syllabus 

Prof. Mariam Habibi
An exploration of the historical and on-going contact between France and the Muslim world, including, most notably, the important Muslim population living in France today. The course examines the historical links between France and its colonial possessions in North and West Africa and the Middle East, the place of Islamic religious practice in a traditionally Catholic, and officially secular, France, and the frictions generated by newly politicized forms of Islam. Also considered is the ‘crisis’ of the banlieue, or French suburbs, and the cultural, generational, and religious tensions in evidence there. Conducted in English.

Sample Syllabus 

Prof. Shapiro Comte
The course explores the evolution of French painting in Paris, from its classical origins during Louis’ XIV’s Old Regime, through its radical transformations across the decades of the Enlightenment and Revolution, to its Neoclassical and Romantic reconstruction during Napoleon I's era. Through analysis of the reciprocity between artists and the political and cultural institutions of Paris, we examine the reasons and manner by which art operated as a potent discursive program within French society. The role of painting as a dense symbolic language of communication and persuasion, and/or as a critique of social and moral values dominates our investigation of this tumultuous epoch. It serves also as a model to investigate the present-day role of contemporary media and its influence on our perceptions of society and politics. Conducted in English.

Sample Syllabus 

Prof. Sarah Riggs
This class looks closely at affinities between pairs of artists — a writer and a painter, a sculptor and a poet, two filmmakers, a novelist and a prose writer — who have frequented Paris cafés and ateliers together from the modern period up to the present day. We explore cross-pollination between artists, as well as notable points of difference, in examining books and artworks in the context of each other as well as of the artistic circles and city sites from which they emerged. Students keep a journal of their travels within the city to pertinent neighbourhoods, parks, and museums. We will consider such dynamic pairs as Colette & Proust, Degas & Cassatt, Manet & Baudelaire, Sylvia Beach & Co. (Joyce, Hemingway, & Toomer), Stein & Picasso, Ashbery & Rimbaud, Rilke & Rodin, Duras & Varda, R. Waldrop & Roubaud. Conducted in English.

Sample Syllabus

Prof. Cécile Cotté
In this course, we work closely with students in Acting French and the Visual Art Workshop, to create an original performance based on texts by a major French author. Students work in collaboration with the professor, trained in the experimental methods of the French director Jacques Lecoq, to define their roles and the mise en scène. In Spring 2011 we will focus on the French avant-garde from the first part of the 20th century, which had major repercussions in art, literature and the history of ideas, to create an original production with music and artwork (created by NYU in France students) for an end of semester performance in a prestigious Paris venue. Conducted in English. 

Cross listed with V57.9091 (History) and V53.9591 (Politics)

Prof. TBA
This course surveys the development of democracy in Europe, from 5th century BC Athens to the present day. The first part of the course focuses on the origins of democracy and dictatorship in the major nation-states of Europe, from the early modern period to the early 20th century. In particular, we ask why England and France were able to consolidate their democracies by the end of the 19th century, whereas Germany took an authoritarian route which culminated in fascism. The second part of the course focuses primarily on the post-World War II period: on the consolidation of democracy after the war, the development of social democracy, challenges to democracy from the political left and right, transitions to democracy in southern Europe in the 1970s, and problems of democratic consolidation in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Though most of the countries of Europe will be discussed, particular attention is given to France. Conducted in English. 

Prof. Rachel Ward
This course introduces students to the basic structures and practices of media in Europe and their relationship to everyday social life. It pays special attention to the common models and idioms of media in Europe, with an emphasis on national and regional variations. Specific case studies highlight current trends in the production, distribution, consumption, and regulation of media. Topics may include: national or regional idioms in a range of media genres, from entertainment, to advertising and publicity, to news and information; legal norms regarding content and freedom of expression; pirate and independent media; and innovations and emerging practices in digital media. Conducted in English.

Sample Syllabus 

Prof. Rachel Ward
This course examines fashion as a form of communication and culture. Through cultural and media studies theory, we will examine how fashion makes meaning, and how it has been valued through history, popular culture and media institutions, focusing on the relationship between fashion, visual self-presentation, and power. The course will situate fashion both in terms of its production and consumption, addressing its role in relation to identity and body politics (gender, race, sexuality, class), art and status, nationhood and the global economy, celebrity and Hollywood culture, youth cultures and subversive practices. Conducted in English.

Sample Syllabus 

Prof. Michelle Boularès
This course is mandatory for all students in Program II. An intensive workshop that quickly immerses students in the basic tenets of French grammar and pronunciation, this course also provides students a historical and cultural framework to help them understand French society. (Can count for French major at NYU only if in groups 5 to 8) Conducted in French. Required for all students.

Prerequisite: V45.0030, or assignment by placement test, or approval of the director.

Prof. Pauline Reychman & Prof. Laurent Habert
Assumes a mastery of the fundamental structures of French. May be taken concurrently with V45.9105. Helps the student to develop vocabulary, to improve pronunciation, and to learn new idiomatic expressions. Introduction to corrective phonetics and emphasis on understanding contemporary French through a study of authentic documents; radio and television interviews, advertisements, spontaneous oral productions, etc. Conducted in French.

Prerequisite: V45.0030, assignment by placement test, or approval of the director.

Prof. Elizabeth Molkou
Designed to improve the student's written French and to provide advanced training in French and in comparative grammar. Students are trained to express themselves in a variety of writing situations (diaries, transcriptions, narration, letters, etc.). Focuses on the distinction between spoken and written styles and the problem of contrastive grammar. Emphasis is on accuracy and fluency of usage in the written language. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus 

Prerequisite: V45.0101, or assignment by placement test.

Prof. Patrick Guédon & Prof. Yoann Barbareau
For students with relative fluency in French who wish to further strengthen their pronunciation and command of spoken French. Develops the skills presented in V45.9101 through an in-depth study of French phonetics (corrective and theoretical), and analysis of the modes of oral discourse in French. Emphasis is on understanding spoken French (modes of argument, persuasion, emotion, etc.) through analysis of authentic documents and development of student discourse in French. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus 

Prerequisite: V45.0105 or assignment by placement test.

Prof. François Thuilliers
Aims to refine students' understanding of and ability to manipulate written French. Students practice summarizing and expanding articles from French magazines and papers and learn how to organize reports and reviews in French. Focuses on the distinction between spoken and written styles and the problem of contrastive grammar. Emphasis on accuracy and fluency of usage in the written language. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite: V45.0030, V45.0101, or permission of Director

Prof. Cécile Cotté
Use of dramatic situations and readings to help students overcome inhibitions in their oral use of language. The graduated series of exercises and activities is designed to improve pronunciation, intonation, expression, and body language. The course culminates in a performance created in collaboration with students in Theatre Workshop and Visual Art Workshop of an original work inspired by texts of a major French writer. Students work closely with the professor to define their roles and the mise en scène. In Spring 2009 we will focus on the life and works of Eugène Ionesco, delving into his wonderful and aburdist world, to create an original production with music and artwork (created by NYU in France students) for an end of semester performance in a prestigious Paris venue. Conducted in French. 

Prerequisite: V45.0030, V45.0105, or permission of the instructor.

Prof. Laurent Habert
Designed for students who wish to become familiar with the specialized language used in French business. Emphasis is on oral and written communication and the acquisition of a business and commercial vocabulary dealing with the varied activities of a commercial firm: advertising, transportation, banking, etc. Group work in simulated business situations and exposure to "authentic" spoken materials are stressed. Qualified students have the option of taking the Exam of the Chamber of French Commerce at the end of the course. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus 

Cross-listed with V45.9716 (French)
NYU Art History Students: This course counts for Art History elective credit.

Prof. Isabelle de Masion Rouge

This course studies the rise of modern and contemporary art in Europe in relation to its cultural, historical and social contexts. The works of Matisse, Picasso, Duchamp, Dali, Miro and Magritte, among others, are considered. The course includes both class lectures with slides and museum visits. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus

NYU Art History students: This course counts for Art History elective credit.

Prof. Catherine Clot
Paris of the 19th and early 20th centuries developed into a major urban center, in part because of the promise of liberty that drew people there following the upheavals of the Revolution. The urban renewal that occurred under the Second Empire in the mid-19th century in particular transformed the capital into a modern city of innovation and spectacle. While the official arts reflected the tastes and priorities of successive governments and the emergent bourgeoisie, it was the avant-garde that most marked the city as a site of resistance and daring. In this course we study these different art movements as they relate to the city of Paris, studying the sites, movements, and transformations that helped shape the modern arts. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus 

Open to students in both Program I & II

Prof. Nadine Airut
This workshop allows students the opportunity to sing their way to a discovery of French language and culture. Students expand their vocabulary and improve their pronunciation through performance while learning about the history and context of this popular art form. The workshop culminates in a performance at the end of the semester. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus 

Open to students in both Program I & II

Prof. Marie LePetit
Working in collaboration with the Theatre Workshop and Acting French courses, this course provides a coherent framework for students to produce and present a sustained body of visual work that will constitute an integrated part of the end of semester theatre performances. In Spring 2009, we will focus on the life and works of Eugène Ionesco. Students will have an opportunity to enter into the wonderful and absurdist world of this great 20th century playwrite (and sometimes painter), in order to imagine and create props, masks, and/or backdrops for the theatre productions. Students may work in a variety of media, e.g. drawing, electronic arts, installation, painting, photography, sculpture, sound and video, and will have the opportunity to create in the professor’s studio. The course includes visits to museum and galleries to explore the wide range of subjects and materiality available to contemporary artists, and culminates with the exhibition/ theatre performances in a prestigious Parisian venue at the end of the semester. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus 

Open to students in both Programs I & II

Prof. Isabelle Coydon
In this workshop students have the opportunity to deepen their understanding of phonetics and improve their pronunciation and comprehension of spoken French. Through listening exercises, poetry, and role-plays, students will work on articulation, rhythm and intonation. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus 

Prof. Isabelle Ernot
The course considers the concept of “French civilization” in both its mythical and real aspects. The first half of the course focuses on the political, socio-economic, and cultural history of France in the modern period, from roughly 1870 to the 1980. The second half of the course looks more closely at the contemporary period, focusing on the various ‘crises’ and transitions that have marked France during the past 20 years. Topics include the challenges of the post-colonial period (immigration, la francophonie, questions of identity), France in and of the European Union, France and globalization, and social issues in current events (the status of women, la banlieue, social exclusion). Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus

Prof. Christophe Gauzeran
Study of the theatrical genre in France, including the golden age playwrights (Corneille, Racine, Molière), 18th-century irony and sentiment, and the 19th-century theatrical revolution. Topics include theories of comedy and tragedy, the development of stagecraft, and romanticism and realism. Also, the theatre as a public genre, its relationship to taste and fashion, and its sociopolitical function. Conducted in French. 

Prof. Philippe Boyer
In this course students read masterpieces of French literature from the French Revolution to the end of the twentieth century. Works are considered from various historical, aesthetic and theoretical perspectives. Texts include:Le Père Goriot (Balzac); Madame Bovary (Flaubert); Les Faux-Monnayeurs(Gide); La Nausée (Sartre); Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein (Duras), and Du côté de chez Swan I (Proust), which will be the subject of a final essay. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus 

Prof. Pascal Morin
This course looks at the world of literary production today in France - its links to economic, social, and political concerns, its literary merits, and its place within an important literary tradition. Students read texts of the some of the major writers working today in France, including Le Clézio, Claude Simon, Amélie Nothomb, Michel Houellebecq, Catherine Millet, among others, and in relation to some of the 'sacred texts' that have shaped the contemporary French literary landscape: Proust, Duras, Sartre, Céline. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus 

Prof. Christelle Taraud
An introduction to the problems of gender as they have been expressed in France. Beginning with an historical overview, we consider the category of ‘woman’ as it was defined from the Revolution to the founding of French feminism at the end of the 19th century. The second part of the course is devoted to an exploration of gender as a political issue during the past 20 years, through consideration of such topics as parité, prostitution, colonialism, post-colonialism, and queer studies. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus 

Art History students: This course counts for Art History elective credit.

Prof. Isabelle de Maison Rouge
In this course we explore the contemporary arts in France in their historic and social context. Beginning with current trends, we attempt to situate what’s new within a longer tradition of artistic production. Themes studied include the nature of the object, the monochrome, the body, the idea of nature, personal mythologies, the importance of light. The course includes visits to contemporary galleries and museums. Conducted in French. 

Cross-listed with V57.9091 (History)

Prof. Denis Ferré
We begin with a definition of the term "democracy" as developed by the Athenian City-State in the 5th century before Christ, before moving on to discuss its reappraisal by such theoreticians of the 17th century as Locke, or of the Enlightenment, such as Montesquieu and Rousseau. Their versions, indeed, serve as the basis for the French Revolution of 1789. A long and difficult process, democracy needed nearly a century before establishing itself in France. Drawing on numerous examples from 19th and 20th century history, we will try to understand why the great contributions of democracy, such as universal suffrage and the concept of individual liberty, were so difficult to put into operation. We will also consider why these "givens" are still fragile. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus

Prof. Elisabeth Molkou
Given in the form of a workshop, this course will allow students to improve their written expression through the study and practice of a variety of literary registers, mostly drawn from contemporary literature. Beyond the questions of genre that we will address, the workshop will allow students the opportunity to produce their own texts, improve their understanding of literary creation, and hone their writing skills in a creative vein. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus 

Prof. Valerie Berty
An analysis of North and French West African cinema. In this course, we consider the aesthetic and political choices faced by African filmmakers working in the post-Independence period. Questions concerning tradition and modernity, the search for a collective and/or national identity, emigration, exile and return, history and memory, will frame our approach. Conducted in French. 

Prof. Henriette Goldwyn
How does literature function as a player in world affairs? Can a work of fiction ever change the shape of politics? In this course we examine some major works of French literature to consider the formal and ideological structures at work in works of fiction (novels and theatre) that seek to influence social and political relations. Works include Le Dernier Jour d’un Condamné, by Victor Hugo, Le Silence de la Mer, by Vercors, L’Enfance d’un chef and Les Mains sales by Sartre, Rhinocéros by Ionesco, and Quel petit vélo à guidon chrome au fond de la cour? by Perec. Conducted in French.

Sample Syllabus