French Major
As a French major, you will study great texts with an eye to gender roles, traditions, communities, individual freedom, social obligations, and many other topics of critical importance today You will also undertake a rigorous study of the French language. This major is housed in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.
sample courses:
We will study the life and culture of France with special emphasis placed on the changes that are slowly but radically transforming French society: the increasing influence of the European Union; the influx of immigrants from Africa and other parts of the world; the growing role of "Beurs" and other French citizens born of foreign parents; the increasingly dominant position of women; the globalization of French culture, technological progress, etc. We will also concentrate on developing vocabulary and improving written and spoken French. Lectures, discussions, TV newscasts, films and internet.
In this seminar we will examine the evolution of the French novel in the twentieth century. We will closely read five great novels, by Proust, Gide, Céline, Robbe-Grillet, and Ernaux. We will determine what characterizes the twentieth-century French novel and how it has changed from Proust to Ernaux. We will consider its technical aspects but will also focus on the major themes it addresses: love, art, memory, time, death, society, and the general problem of the human condition.
our students have gone on to become:
Business Consultants
Diplomats
Journalists
Historians
International Relations
Lawyers
Physicians
Publishers
Teachers
Translators
