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CAS LF 343 La France À Paris: Paris in Literature

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CAS LF 343 La France À Paris: Paris in Literature CAS LF 343 La France à Paris: Paris in Literature Credits: 4 Professor: Irit KLEIMAN, Associate Professor of Romance Studies, BU Email: [email protected] Schedule: sixteen seminar-length sessions over 7 weeks May 22–25, 11:00 AM-5:30 PM, divided into two sessions + lunch June 1-July 6, Fridays 10:30AM–1:00PM May 22 and June 15, 5:30-8PM, as make-up for Pentecost on May 21 Midterm exam: June 1 Final exam: July 6 Office hours: Daily 10:30–11:00AM during the first week, 10:00-10:30AM during internship weeks, and by appointment Course visits: Week 1 • Père Lachaise cemetery • Covered Passages and the Grands Boulevards, • The Grand Palais and other buildings from the Exposition Universelle • The Centre Pompidou, Museum of Modern Art • Guided walk through the archeological remains of ancient and medieval Paris Weeks 2 – 7 • The Louvre and the Pantheon • The National Immigration Museum • Institut du Monde Arabe • Mémorial de la Shoah and the Musée du Judaïsme • Explorations of neighborhoods including la Goutte d’Or and Belleville • The Paris Métro: its history and its quality as a museum of Paris history • Recent urban renewal zones--Bibliothèque François Mitterand, Parc de la Villette Concerning visits indicated for weeks 2-7: Internship schedules and other constraints mean that visits during the second half of the course are suggested and encouraged, but not part of scheduled course time. While students should make a good faith effort to visit at least one of the sites indicated as a match for each week's readings, it is understood that this will not always be possible. The timing and format of homework and other assignments based on site visits during this portion of the course take these constraints into account. Course materials: • All materials will be distributed electronically, using Blackboard and/or email, using a combination of pdfs for download and links to online resources. 1 • Students interested in reading longer portions of works discussed in class may wish to purchase paperback copies of Nadja, Dora Bruder, or Un Livre blanc. COURSE PRESENTATION This seminar proposes a journey through the literary and cultural history of Paris. The course aims to teach students not only how to critically engage with and interpret textual material, and also how to read and analyze the urban space around them. Taking the city as a unique text, we will read Paris's streets and monuments at the same time that we learn to interpret a selection of literary texts and multimedia works devoted to the city (fiction, history, politics). Thus we will set chronology (mostly) aside in order to better understand the thematic currents and core concepts at the heart of Francophone literary and social movements, exploring the myths and moments that have shaped contemporary Paris and its literature. Topics covered during the first half of the course will include the flâneur, the uprisings of May 1968, the Enlightenment ideals of the French Revolution, the splendor and devastation of Paris’s nineteenth century transformations, and avant-garde movements of the early 20th century. Then, in the second half of our time together, we will engage in sustained reflection on how diversity and immigration have redefining Frenchness and French literature. For us, Paris will become a text, a book that we will study and analyze like we do the pages of the authors that will guide our journey. Students should seek to fully immerse themselves in Parisian life and culture, approaching not only class, but daily life and work, with an analytical sprit and an open mind. DAILY PREPARATIONS For each class, students will be asked to read and prepare several texts, most of which are excerpts of longer works. To be fully prepared, students should ask themselves: 1. What does the text say? What image of Paris does this writer construct? 2. How does the writer construct this representation of Paris (metaphor, stylistic effects, vocabulary, etc.)? 3. Does the text reflect characteristics of a literary movement or cultural idea we have discussed? How so? 4. What passage(s) would you like to investigate more closely? Students should identify citations and phrases that inspire, move, or puzzle them. Students should be prepared to speak about and share this passage with the rest of the class. Each session will be organized around this preparatory work, resulting in student-led discussion of key themes, problems, and questions. All class discussions, visits, and excursions will be conducted in French. LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this course, students will have developed: 2 ! Basic knowledge of major French literary movements from before the French Revolution to the present and their main characteristics. Students will become familiar with movements such as realism, surrealism, Negritude, or structuralism through their reading and analysis of excerpts from authors including Rousseau, Baudelaire, Bréton, Zola, Senghor, Benjamin, Barthes, and Mabanckou. ! The ability to identify and explain the main stylistic processes and figures of speech (lexical field, metaphor, repetition, juxtaposition, etc.) in order to determine their impact on the meaning of a text. They will be able to organize and develop observations and reflections in a coherent and structured analysis (oral or written). ! A deeper familiarity with Paris, its neighborhoods, history, and monuments. Students will be asked to take their questions and analyses of a place beyond the surface, seeking to understand the changing historical, cultural, social signification that any single space can embody at different moments in history. ! The ability to organize, narrate, and analyze these experiences in thoughtful, stylistically sound, and carefully written reflections. ! An increasing level of comfort and fluidity in spoken French through the use of French in all class interaction and activities. An increased level of accuracy and precision in written French. ! An intermediate high to advanced low speaking proficiency (ACTFL) in order to communicate effectively across most time registers regarding their thoughts and opinions vis-à-vis texts and experiences. ASSESSMENT AND GRADING Exams: 30% There will be a mid-term exam (weighted toward the first half of the semester) and a final exam (cumulative, but topics treated will be weighted toward the second half of the semester). Exam will ask students to answer short-answer questions, describe and comment on materials studied and visited together, and to write one or more short essays. Multimedia project and oral presentation: 15% Students will use digital media to explore a Parisian site and a theme or question inspired by the readings. The project is intended as a critical reflection on the experiential component of the class, and should thus incorporate written and audiovisual elements. It may take the form of a photo essay, a podcast, or a vodcast, or any other format previously approved by the instructor. Students will pitch their projects after the midterm, submit a detailed draft by the end of Week 6, and present their final product during the last week of classes. Students will have 15-20 minutes to introduce their projects, show the final product, and lead a conversation about their work. Homework: 40% Throughout the course, students will keep a reading journal. In these assignments, students will conduct thoughtful literary analysis, highlight key themes in weekly readings, and seek to support their conclusions with concrete examples from both the texts in question and the city of Paris. 3 Participation, effort, and progress: 15% This class is based on communication, discussion, and cultural engagement and students are expected to come to class having completed all of the assigned reading and homework. Advancing one’s proficiency in a foreign language is a process that requires sustained contact and consistent effort. We have the great privilege to be in Paris where students can maximize their use of the language in an effort to make significant strides, much faster than in a classroom setting in the United States. Much of this grade will be dedicated to effort and progress in language proficiency as well as cultural competency. Students’ level will be assessed upon arrival and at the end of the session: are students energized to participate? Are they enthusiastic about ameliorating their speaking and reading skills? A generous, respectful attitude towards peers and the professor will be expected and can be demonstrated by listening attentively to others, asking questions, and contributing ideas and suggestions. Policies regarding attendance, grading scales, and plagiarism can be found after the course calendar, on the penultimate page of this syllabus. COURSE CALENDAR This calendar is subject to revision as may be necessary. Works with an asterisk* will be presented in extracts suitable to class needs. May 22, morning session May ’68, a generation in revolt 50 years on • Selected short films and documentaries • Posters from the Ecole des Beaux Arts + graffiti slogans • Perspectives on the 50th anniversary of the May ’68 movement May 22, afternoon session 1870, Paris Commune, the enduring memory of another generation’s revolt Visit: Père Lachaise cemetery and the mur des fédérés • + Photographs, poems, and songs from the barricades May 22, late session (make-up for Monday holiday) Return to the roots of May 68; synthesis • Viewing and discussion of La Chinoise (Godard, 1967) May 23, morning session Paris Capital of the 19th c.: modernization, industrialization, and Haussman’s
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