French
Romance Languages and Literatures
Revised 10/30/09
COURSES - ACADEMIC YEAR 2009-2010
Please refer to InsideND for the most up-to-date, accurate information.
Spring 2010 - Fall 2009
Spring 2010
Note: These undergraduate courses are taught in English with the exception of Quechua courses
LLRO 10101 BEGINNING QUECHUA I 12:50-1:40 MWF, 12:30-1:45 T
I.Callalli
The principle aims of this beginning-level Quechua Language course are to encourage the development of competency and proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and to generate cultural understanding through a communicative approach to second language acquisition. Songs, role-playing and other related activities will also be incorporated. This course is taught in Spanish and may be taken in conjunction with LLRO 10102 and 20201 to fulfill the language requirement. Cross-list LAST 10500
LLRO 27201 INTERMEDIATE QUECHUA I 3:00-4:15 M/W
I.Callalli
An intermediate-level, third-semester college language course. Emphasis on and refinement of grammatical competence and oral and written language skills. Class time is dedicated to interactive discussion encouraging the development of language proficiency and generating cultural understanding. Cross-list LAST 27501
LLRO 30650 RACIALIZATION IN THE US & BRAZILIAN HISTORY 4:30-5:45 M/W
J. Graham
This course will consider the processes that have caused aspects of society to be racialized, or labeled with racial meanings, symbolisms, and/or identities. The class will focus on, but will not be limited to, “black” racialization. We will examine how racialization has shaped the human experience in the largest ex-slaveholding nations of the Americas – the United States and Brazil. Our goal is to understand the ways in which not only people are racialized, but also communities, geographical regions, nations, cultural production (such as music), behavior, labor, and gender, to name a few. With these two nations as our case studies, the class will explore the dynamic nature of racialization, focusing on the impact that space and time has had on the way we identify and live race. Cr-List AFST 30286 May count for Portuguese Minor
LLRO 40041 INTRO TO APPLIED LINGUISTICS 3:00-4:15 M/W
L. Askildson
This course will introduce students to the properties of language and their systematic study via linguistic inquiry. Specifically, the origins and mechanisms of linguistics knowledge will be examined alongside the componential units of syntax, morphology, phonology and semantics. The course will further introduce students to applied linguistic study with an emphasis on second language acquisition and the integration of sociocultural knowledge within this process. Students will complete this course with a greater understanding of the nature of language and the mechanisms whereby it is acquired, conceptually represented and produced.
LLRO 40116 DANTE II 12:30-1:45 T/R
C. Moevs
Dante's Comedy is one of the supreme poetic achievements in Western literature. It is a probing synthesis of the entire Western cultural and philosophical tradition that produced it, a radical experiment in poetics and poetic technique, and a profound exploration of Christian spirituality. Dante I and II are a close study, over two semesters, of the entire Comedy, in its cultural (historical, literary, artistic, philosophical) context. Dante I covers the works that precede the Comedy (Vita Nuova, Convivio, De vulgari eloquentia) and the Inferno, Dante II covers the Purgatorio and Paradiso, along with the Monarchia. These are separate courses, and can be taken independently, though they do form an integrated sequence. The course and all discussion will be conducted in English. Dante's minor works will be read in English translation; all critical articles will be in English. The Comedy will be read in facing-page translation, and we will refer to it in Italian. Acquaintance with Latin or a Romance language is therefore helpful, though not strictly necessary. Cross list, ROIT 40116/63116, MI 40553, 60553, LIT 73665, RLT 40242
LLRO 40233 MACHIAVELLI NOW 11:45-1:00 M/W
T. Cachey
In this seminar we will approach Machiavelli through the careful study of his major works, read against the background of the political crisis of the Italian Renaissance, and with particular attention to their resonance for subsequent political analyses of the condition of modernity. Readings: Political essays and treatises, literary works and letters, including The Prince, Mandragola, Belfagor, Discourses on the First Decade of Livy, and the Dialogue on Language. The course will be offered in English. Requirements: brief presentations, midterm and final paper. POLS 30651
LLRO 40560 BRAZILIAN FILM AND POPULAR MUSIC 3:30-4:45 T/R
I. Ferreira Gould
This course offers social, cultural, political, and historical perspectives on Brazil through film, photography, and popular music. Topics include the reception of Cinema Novo and post-Cinema Novo films, bossa nova, samba, and Tropicália. Special attention will be paid to Tropicália (a movement with key manifestations in literature, cinema and popular music) and the circumstances surrounding its creation, the repressive military regime that governed Brazil from 1964 to 1985. Offered in English (discussion group available in Portuguese). Prerequisite: none. Cross list LAST 30500
LLRO 63050 INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY CRITICISM 3:30-6:15 R
J. Douthwaite
This seminar allows M.A. and PhD students to understand the most prominent 20th and 21st-century approaches to interpreting literary texts. Emphasis is on the active verb "to interpret," and not on: 1) "theory" as a monolithic mass of obscure and difficult texts; or 2) "criticism": a negative rhetoric of censure and value judgments.
It will provide students with tools to attain: 1) rigor in literary analysis; 2) sharpened critical thinking; 3) knowledge of major intellectual movements of the 20th and 21st centuries (i.e. Marxism, structuralism and post-structuralism, narratology, feminism, psychoanalysis, new historicism, postmodernism, and postcolonial theory); 4) discernment to figure out where other critics (including professors at ND!) are coming from. That is, we seek to train students who are able, by listening to a lecture or reading a scholar's work, to distinguish the particular ideological, political, or esthetic perspective that he or she subscribes to, even if unconsciously. Students will thus be able to discern the strengths and limitations of others’ approaches and eventually to form their own signature style of interpretation. Our ultimate goal is for graduate students to join ongoing debates among scholars, and to be able to articulate ideas intelligibly and persuasively.
Requirements: Assiduous attendance and study of all course materials; preparation of discussion questions as “discussant” with a partner (on two occasions); three mini-essays in response to discussion questions (3pp.); one analytical paper (6-8 pp.); and one applied interpretative paper (8-10pp.).
LLRO 63213 RELIGION AND LITERATURE IN THE LIGHT OF JOB 12:45-3:15 T
V. Montemaggi
This course explores the light that the Book of Job can shed on our understanding of the relationship between literary and theological reflection. An initial reading of the Book of Job itself will open up the questions (concerning, for example, human vulnerability and divine unknowability) that will then provide the conceptual focus for the rest of the course; in which we will examine texts by Gregory the Great, Dante, Shakespeare and Primo Levi, shaped in different but richly complementary ways by a profoundly compelling engagement with the questions raised by Job. Through such examination, and in conversation with contemporary literary and theological studies, students will be invited to reflect closely on the distinctive contribution that the coming together of literary and theological reflection can make to our thinking about meaning and truth
NOTE: THESE UNDERGRADUATE COURSES ARE TAUGHT IN ENGLISH
UNIVERSITY SEMINAR
LLRO 13186-02 IMAGINARY GEOGRAPHIES 11:00-12:15 TR S. Ferri
This course focuses on the geography of imagined places and made-up fantasy worlds in literature and film. We will focus mainly on Italian and other Romance literatures, with references to classical sources. The seminar will be organized around thematic clusters, such as the worlds of the afterlife, utopian and dystopian lands, cities of the future, enchanted gardens and descriptions of unexplored countries. For each theme we will see how it has developed over time, we will discuss the reasons and ideas behind each author’s creation, we will examine the allegorical and symbolic meanings associated with a specific imaginary place, and we will try to understand what an imaginary place tells us about the real world. Some of the questions that we will raise are: What is the significance of geographical imagination? What are the assumptions and intentions of the authors in developing fantasy worlds? What do imaginary places reveal about the social and historical contexts against which they are set? What is the connection between literary creation and geographical invention?
LLRO 13186-01
LITERATURES OF LUSOPHONE AFRICA
2:00-3:15 TR
I. Ferreira Gould
This university seminar offers a comprehensive survey of postcolonial
Lusophone-African literatures (in translation) produced by contemporary writers
from Angola, Cape Verde, and Mozambique. The course has several goals: to
acquaint English-speaking students with literatures and regions with which they
are not familiar; to study comparatively the literary representations of
independence, civil wars, colonial legacies, and postcolonial identities; and
to learn how to employ literary concepts involved in the study of novels and
short fiction. The course provides students with a variety of approaches to
close reading and creative writing. Students will develop debating and other
skills of oral expression.
LLRO 13186-03 ON INTERPRETATION L. MacKenzie 9:30-10:45 TR
In this seminar our truck will be with "texts" from various registers of art: "low" (e.g., songs by Bob Dylan); "middle" (e.g., films by Martin Scorsese) and "high" (opera, symbolist poetry, absurdist theater). This variety of sources is chosen with one purpose in mind: to encourage techniques of reading from the inside of the text outward. To this end, our interest is more on the how than on the what. In other words, how do we go about finding the seam, the portal through which to enter a text. Written work will be publicly scrutinized in the hopes of also cultivating the fine, difficult and all to often lost art of self-critique. Students under the impression that they "can't" do textual analysis are especially welcome, as, of course, are those for whom literature and the arts are already a source of joy and a engine of growth.
LLRO 13186-04 STRANGE NARRATIVES: THEORY AND PRACTICE
J. Douthwaite 5-6:15 TR
The readings in "Strange Narratives" are organized as a progression from simple to more complex narratives, drawn from the literature of France, England, Germany, Martinique, Japan, and the United States. By studying folk and fairy tales, tales of terror, and two full-length novels, we will explore how insights from the economics of class conflict (marxism), gender relations (feminism), and environmental politics (eco-criticism) can provide useful tools for illuminating textual creation. The theme behind all readings is the strange, be it peculiar characters or bizarre plots, by powerful authors such as Balzac, Poe, Shelley, and Hugo. All texts have been chosen with an eye for their masterful style as well as spellbinding content. Students should quite enjuoy reading these texts and find ample material to try their own talents of textual craftsmanship and creativity through this class.
COLLEGE SEMINAR
CSEM 23101-01 UNDERSTANDING TIME, CELEBRATING THE ORDINARY 1:30-2:45 MW P. Martin
From being in time to being on time, all that has meaning for us is known first through the body. Our engagement with questions bearing on the rhythms of our lived experience, the construction of human identity or the expression of our creative potential always takes place at the level of the particular, the local and the ordinary. Discussion of what it means to be, to know, and to make in time will be supported by reflection on course material drawn from historical, sociological and theological sources. Participants in this interdisciplinary seminar will also work with film, photography and literature. Seminar assignments will contribute to the development of a critical voice by fostering both individual and collaborative student reflection on a variety of levels. Over the course of the academic term, students will be encouraged to develop the kind of analytical skills that will allow them to respond critically to a particular reading, and to synthesize the work of more than one author without losing sight of the formal distinctiveness of each author’s vision and achievement.
ROMANCE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES
LLRO 10101 BEGINNING QUECHUA 9:35-10:25 MWF, 9:30-10:45 T Ines Callalli
The principal aims of this beginning-level Quechua Language course are to encourage the development of competency and proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and to generate cultural understanding through a communicative approach to second language acquisition. Songs, role-playing and other related activities will also be incorporated.
LLRO 27201 INTERMEDIATE QUECHUA 2:00-3:15 TR Ines Callalli
The principal aim of this two-semester language course is to encourage the development of competency and proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and to generate cultural understanding through a communicative approach to second language acquisition. This course is designed for highly motivated students and is taught in Spanish. LLRO 10101 and 10102 may be taken in conjunction with LLRO 20201 to fulfill the language requirement. This course is crosslisted with LAST
LLRO 30610-01 OF SANS-CULOTTES AND SAINT-DOMINGUE: REVOLUTION IN FRANCE AND HAITI J. Douthwaite 3:30-4:45 TR
This course, taught in English, will take an interdisciplinary literary-historical approach to revolutionary movements that electrified populations around the world: the revolt of the sans-culottes in France (1789-1794) and the slave uprisings in colonial Saint-Domingue (1791-1804). Through analysis of short stories and novels by authors such as Condorcet, Balzac, and Hugo, and readings in nineteenth-century and modern-day historiography by scholars such as Michelet, Soboul, James, and Dubois, students will appreciate the controversies that have perplexed observers for centuries. Assignments will include an 8-10 page research paper (due at midterm), an oral exposé, a creative project (due at the end of the semester), two quizzes and a final exam. These assignments will allow students to engage with the art, literature and history of the French and Haitian revolutions in three ways: as researchers, as interpreters, and as creators, students will learn to translate eighteenth-century struggles into a contemporary idiom with relevance for us still today. An optional one-credit discussion session will be available, pending enrollments, for students wishing to read texts in the original French and to join weekly discussions in French. Crosslist with AFAM and HIST
LLRO 40107 BETWEEN RELIGION & LIT; MEANING, VULNERABLE & HUMAN EXISTENCE V. Montemaggi 12:30-1:45 TR
This course explores the contribution that the coming together of theological and literary reflection can make to our understanding of the nature of meaning. Focusing on the work of Augustine, Aquinas, Dante, Primo Levi, Dostoevsky and Shakespeare, students will address questions such as 'What is it we are doing when speaking, reading, using language?' 'How do the intellect and the imagination work in relation to literary texts?', 'How might all this relate to our ways of thinking about God, human nature, and the relationship between them?' Such questions will be addressed, in particular, through reflection on how the texts studied invite us to think about the nature of love, forgiveness, vulnerability and creativity.
LLRO 40145-01 DANTE I 3:00-4:15 MW T. Cachey
According to the eminent critic John Freccero "Understanding in the Inferno is a process that might be characterized as hyperbolic doubt systematically applied to the values of contemporary society." This may explain the strong revival of interest in the poem that we have witnessed of late. In this course we will read and discuss in detail the Inferno as well as important "minor" works leading up to the Divine Comedy including the Vita nuova (New Life), the Convivio (The Banquet), and the De vulgari eloquentia (On vernacular eloquence). We will especially focus on major episodes of the Inferno in the light of recent scholarship and in relation to current debates in the humanities. The course satisfies the university literature requirement, and will be offered in English (but we will read the Inferno in a facing-page translation). Undergraduate students of Italian at all levels are welcome. Midterm, final exam and brief presentations. CL with LLRO 40145, MI 40552, MI 60552
LLRO 40545 ITALIAN NATIONAL CINEMA 2:00-3:15 TR J. Welle
Focusing on the question of national cinema, this course examines the concept and the reality of “national” cinema in the Italian case by tracing the history of one of the world’s most renowned and beloved national cinemas during the three moments of its greatest international impact: the silent period, neorealism, and the auteur cinema of the 1960s and ‘70s. Attention will also be given to governmental film policies and attempts to produce a “national” cinema, the construction of national identity in film, and an examination of the ways in which images of the nation are understood and received by audiences both at home and abroad. Requirements include preparation of readings and participation in class discussions, attendance at mandatory film screenings, a research paper of modest length, an oral presentation, a midterm and a final exam. The class will be conducted in English. LLRO 4xx ROIT 4xx FTT 32X Lab for Italian National Cinema is a mandatory weekly film screening for the films taught in the course.
LLRO 40906-01 FRENCH LITERATURE GOES TO THE OPERA 12:30-1:45 TR L. MacKenzie
In this course, the full title of which is “Taking Liberties: From Book to Libretto, or French Literature Goes to the Opera” and which is being taught in ENGLISH for the first time, we will be looking a series of “parent” texts, written originally in French, and their operatic “offspring.” Our objective will be less to highlight textual difference, although in certain cases that is far from being an uninteresting area of investigation, than to appreciate the theme and variation of, let us say, Merimée’s Carmen and the treatment she gets in Bizet’s opera. Among the text/operas we will examine—as books (in English translation or in the original French depending on individual student preference and as operas (DVD projections with subtitles) will be “The Barber of Seville” (Beaumarchais/Rossini); “The Marriage of Figaro” (Beaumarchais/Mozart); “Don Juan” (Molière) and “Don Giovanni (Mozart); Manon Lescaut (Prévost/Puccini), “Carmen” (Mérimée/Bizet). We may try for one more: either “Le roi s’amuse” (Hugo)/”Rigoletto” (Verdi) or “La dame aux camélias” (Dumas)/ “La Traviata” (Verdi). As a so-called “appreciation” course, students need not necessarily know French or music theory. What is required are open minds, eyes and ears. There will be two papers, the second being more ambitious than the first, and a final exam. Prerequisite: 300 level literature or music course—or permission of instructor. This course does fulfill a 400 level requirement for French majors.
LLRO 40998-01
FICTIONS OF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC
3:30-4:45 TR
I. Ferreira Gould
Taught in English, this seminar offers a comparative study of 19th, 20th, and 21st-century fiction writing in the Lusophone South Atlantic, particularly exploring the historical connections and the cultural links between Brazil and Angola. Topics for discussion include the slave trade, colonialism, luso-tropicalism, race relations, religion, diaspora, postcolonial identities, and the charged notion of Lusophone black cultures. Readings in Brazilian and Angolan fiction, as well as in historical and anthropological writing. Among the authors to be considered are, on the Brazilian side, Machado de Assis, Lima Barreto, Jorge Amado, and António Olinto, and, on the Angolan side, Luandino Vieira, Pepetela, José Eduardo Agualusa, and Ondjaki. CL in Last, Ropo, Afam
LLRO 61075-01 PRACTICUM IN TEACHING SPANISH 4:30-5:45 R J. Fisher-McPeak
This weekly practicum is designed for graduate students who serve as Spanish Teaching Assistants in the Department of Romance Languages. The course focuses on the development of organizational and presentation skills needed to excel as a foreign language teacher. Students carry out micro-teaching projects and collaborate to develop a portfolio of their own activities based upon the principles learned in the course.
LLRO 61076-01 PRACTICUM IN TEACHING FRENCH 1:00-2:15 W V. Askildson This course will prepare students to teach elementary French courses. It will cover basic teaching techniques/methods used in the ND French curriculum, setting up and maintaining a grade book, course management, as well as test design and evaluation techniques.
LLRO 61077-01 PRACTICUM IN TEACHING ITALIAN 1:30-3:00 M P. Vivirito
This course is designed for graduate students in the M.A. program in Italian/PhD. Lit and is mandatory during their first year of teaching. It complements the theoretical basis for foreign language teaching methodology provided in LLRO and gives students hands-on practice with the organizational tasks and pedagogical procedures that are pertinent to their daily teaching responsibilities.
LLRO 63075- 01 FOREIGN LANG. TEACHING METHODOLOGY & SECOND LANG. ACQUISITION K. Serafin, V. Askildson 12:45-3:15 T/R
This course introduces language instructors to the theoretical background and debates that inform current teaching methodologies for second language learning. Language instructors will learn to develop a communicative classroom environment that blends listening, speaking, reading, and writing while building toward a proficiency goal. Students will familiarize themselves with key concepts in linguistics and research methodologies. They will gain a historical perspective on theories of second language acquisition and foreign language teaching methodologies and be encouraged to develop informed views of their own. Projects include presentations, peer observations, self-assessment, small research components, micro-teaching demos, and developing basic elements of the FL teaching portfolio.
