Undergraduate French, Literature, and Culture Courses

This course is divided into two parts. The first part examines grammar and writing; its goal is to develop the science or engineering students' proficiency in written French and in technical writing as well as their ability to present ideas and concepts clearly and with methodology. These fundamental skills will serve them during their time at university and beyond, for all written work such as lab reports and briefing notes. The second part of the course focuses on literature. Through the study of many literary works, a variety of literary genres from different centuries will be examined, providing students with a rich overview of French-Canadian literature during the first semester and of Francophone literature from outside Canada during the second semester. At the end of the year, students will have developed their ability to analyze, will recognize the characteristics of each of the literary genres taught, and will establish meaningful links between the literary works, and between literature and society.

This course is divided into two parts. The first part examines grammar and writing; its goal is to develop the students' written French and their ability to present their ideas using a methodology skills that will serve them well for all of the written work they will have to produce during their time at university. The second part of the course focuses on literature. Through the study of various literary works, a variety of literary genres from different centuries will be examined, providing students with a rich overview of French-Canadian literature during the first semester and of Francophone literature from outside Canada during the second semester. At the end of the year, students will have developed their ability to analyze, will recognize the characteristics of each of the literary genres taught, and will establish meaningful links between the literary works, and between literature and society.

This course introduces students to French-Canadian literature through certain texts that are typical of the following literary genres: drama, the novel, and the story/legend. French-Canadian texts are examined with special emphasis on their socio-historical background, character development, and themes. The course also aims at developing students' analytical minds, and at improving their writing skills and knowledge of grammar through production of written work.

This course introduces students to canonical texts in French literature. French literary works of various eras are studied; examined works will be mostly prose (novels, short stories, tales). Through a series of written assignments, the course will also increase students' skills in the organization and production of university-level written work.

This one-year course is divided into two semesters. The first semester is dedicated to Francophone literature from outside Canada since the 16th century, and the second semester focuses on French-Canadian literature from the 20th century. For both semesters, literary works of various genres (narrative, poetry, drama, etc.) belonging to different cultural movements will be analyzed. The course situates the literary work in the historic period they were written in and that influenced them, and in the history of ideas that accompanies the development of literature and society. At the end of the year, students will know the important phases that led to cultural modernity, and will be able to connect these phases to historical and social factors or to philosophical notions. In addition, they will have honed their ability to analyze, write essays and conduct bibliographical research-highly useful skills that will serve them well for the rest of their university career.

This course is a study of advanced writing techniques (explanatory essay) and an introduction to French Canadian literary movements and writers of the twentieth century. The aim of the course is to enable students, through their readings, to improve their analytical skills and to explore important Quebec and French Canadian literary works and movements, especially from a socio-historical point of view.

This course is a study of advanced writing techniques (explanatory essay) and an introduction to French literary movements and writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The aim of the course is to enable students, through their readings, to improve their analytical skills and to explore important French literary works and movements, especially from a socio-historical point of view.

Characteristics: This course is to be offered conjointly by the Department of French, Literature, and Culture and the Department of English; it is to be team-taught by two professors, one from each of the departments. It will focus on comparisons of important aesthetic and cultural movements.

Through analyses of representative texts in French and English, this course will familiarize students with important aesthetic concepts of the second half of the 19th century, enabling them to trace connections and divergences between the two cultures. At the end of the course, the students will not only be able to describe the interactions between the writers of the two worlds, but also to apprehend the differences in the understanding of aesthetic movements on either side of the Channel.

This course aims, through textual analysis and lectures, to provide the student with a deeper knowledge of the francophone literature of the sub-Saharan, especially that which deal with problems of post-colonial society. Through readings dealing with violence (Beti), dictators (Kourouma), child soldiers, the Rwandan genocide (Monénembo), immigration (Diome), etc., the student will acquire a better understanding of the stakes and mentality of certain areas of sub-Saharan francophone Africa. At the end of the course, the student will understand those forces, which motivated various independence movements and the difficulties that resulted. The student will also acquire the basic tools, which will allow him to reflect upon tribal wars, ethnic conflicts and genocide. He will also become familiar with literary representations of sub-Saharan francophone Africa. Finally, the student will be made aware of what literature can teach us about the limitations of the westernization of customs and mores and its unexpected consequences.

The objective of this course is to introduce the student to francophone literature of the Maghreb and of the Middle East through the study of their most representative works. This course will also allow the student to discover la francophonie arabe in general. The course will be divided into three parts: the first part will be devoted to writers of the colonial period; the second to texts written after the wars of independence; and the third to contemporary works. At the end of this course, the student will have gained a certain understanding of the uneasiness of certain intellectuals who employ the language of the colonizer while at the same time calling for independence. The student will also come to understand how such literature forces the writer to become un écrivain engagé, and how it of necessity turns into a vehicle for the struggle, protest and demands for autonomy. The student will note the self-imposed role of the author as a righter of wrongs, specifically of the stereotyped Western vision of the history and society of the Middle East and of the Maghreb. He will also note the transformation of this literature from its roots in Arabic/Muslim communities to one, which today is called upon to deal with current hot topics, such as the rise of fanaticism, and the identity crises connected to immigration. Finally, the student will learn to recognize the literary and linguistic specificities of the works studied, all the while acknowledging them as products of the fusion of divergent cultures.

This course examines the portrayal of war and military life in French literature from the Middle Ages to the present as well as the works that had a determining influence on this literature. The works covered in the course include novels, short stories, memoirs and poems. Students will be required to participate in discussions, write an essay, give an oral presentation, etc.

The course examines the portrayal of war and military life in French-Canadian literature, from the founding of New France to the present day. Emphasis is placed on the 20th century, especially the two world wars. The works covered in the course include novels, short stories, plays, memoirs and poetry. Students will be required to take part in seminar discussions, write a dissertation and make an oral presentation.

This course aims, through text analysis and lectures, to give students an in-depth knowledge of travel stories, war stories and memoirs that give accounts of the exploration of Africa from the Napoleonic era to World War I. Through reading works (essays, newspapers, treatises, memoirs) written by both military personnel and explorers, students will understand the ways in which the exploration of Africa and the mores of its various peoples were talked about. The writings of Caillié, Douville, Faidherbe, Binger, Gallieni, Brazza, Blanc and Foureau will be studied and compared to those of other explorers such as Barth, Nachtigal, Livingstone and Stanley. At the end of the course, students will have acquired a solid knowledge of the poetics specific to the exploration narrative and will be more skilled at analyzing written works in which authors attempt to describe cultures that are different from their own.

This course examines, mainly from a synchronic perspective, the linguistic characteristics of modern-day Quebec French. More specifically, students will be introduced to the phonetic, morphological, syntactical and lexical particularities that distinguish Quebec French from standard French. Part of the course will be dedicated to different forms of Anglicization in each of the linguistic disciplines. At the end of the course, students will be able to assess the various differences between the Quebec variety of French and standard French and better understand how their language works.

This course examines the characteristics of spoken French in Quebec by analyzing the underlying historical, political, economic and social contexts. Students will be introduced to joual and its influence on literature and everyday language. More specifically, they will evaluate the impact of Anglicisms on Quebec French, the importance of establishing standards different from those of French in France, and the usefulness of descriptive dictionaries as distinct from conventional dictionaries. At the end of the course, students will be able to identify and determine the factors that have contributed to the development of the Quebec variety of French.

This course is for students who wish to improve their knowledge of the French language, both written and oral, in order to speak with accuracy and rigour in academic writings and in military contexts. In this course, students acquire grammatical and linguistic knowledge that will enable them to better control of the French grammar and its many difficulties as well as the current consensual metalanguage. Traditional grammar describes uses and defines rules that we must appropriate to be able to communicate clearly in written and oral languages in a military environment or otherwise. The spoken verb and hinges occupy a prominent place in the grammatical learning courses. The student will receive advice on sentence acceptability notions and on relief and phrasal structure in academic or military writing strategies.

This course is for students who wish to improve their knowledge of the French language with the ultimate goal of writing academic and military texts clearly and precisely.

In this course, students will acquire the grammatical, linguistic and syntactic knowledge that will enable them to better master the difficulties of French, thereby improving their communication in writing. Writing consists mainly of correctly conveying information to a recipient, which implies, amongst other things, an understanding of the rules governing the construction of sentences. Students will learn to write complex sentences, choosing the best linguistic arrangement of the units that make up a sentence. They will also receive advice on the concepts of the acceptability of a sentence, on the simplifying of sentence structure, and on academic and military writing strategies.

This course aims to improve students’ discursive competency in reading and writing through different categories of speech: literary, political, journalistic and academic. The course will consist of four modules, each of which will be devoted to a specific type of speech. The student must recognize and properly use the most important French stylistic devices, as found in documents as diverse as newspaper articles, political speeches, literary and academic texts, and criticism of all kinds. Numerous written assignments will follow the reading and the description of the various discourses, so as to give students the necessary knowledge to express clearly and accurately their ideas in works of different categories while using a precise and varied vocabulary. Written work will primarily aim to get students to adopt the style best suited to the purpose of the texts they will produce.

The course aims, by the introduction to representative theoretical texts, not only at familiarizing the students with the important literary theories, but also at teaching them to choose the approach which suits best in a given work and in their own reading of a corpus. At the conclusion of this course, the student will understand, on one hand that no theory is absolute and, on the other hand, that each allows to understand and to analyze the literary work according to a specific but not exclusive angle. This way, he can use the learnt methodological approaches during all his studies. The course will be divided into sequences, from two to three weeks, among which each will be dedicated to a particular theoretical approach in order to present its development and its current applications (structuralism, literary psychoanalysis, socio-criticism, narratology, deconstruction, theory of the reception, feminist theory, cultural and post-colonial studies, etc.)

This course is a study of the important phases that shaped the development of the novel in France in the 20th century through the study of a number of representative works. All of these works are striking in many respects, and they will be examined in relation to the art and thinking associated with each period; therefore, relevant cultural movements will be studied. Some of the topics that may be covered are the mise en abyme technique, which appeared in novels at the turn of the century; surrealism, which flourished during the inter-war period; the notion of engagement, which took shape with World War II; existentialism; the Nouveau Roman, which developed in the 1950s and 1960s; contemporary novels written by women; and migrant literature.

The course aims to highlight the origins of social, cultural and literary movements that are the source of contemporary issues and debates, through texts by representative authors of the French 19th century. This will involve exploring the beginnings of the affirmation of feminist and socialist movements, as well as observing the transformation of the representation of religion in French social discourse in the aftermath of the Revolution to the beginning of the 20th century. The course will cover the four major literary genres--narrative, poetry, drama, and the essay--but will also stress the importance of journalism in this century, when the press experienced significant growth. At the end of the course, students will have understood the importance of the various types of discourse that were constructed during the long nineteenth century and the scope of these discourses up to contemporary times.

This course examines the media through which our perception of the truth is constructed. By analyzing literary works, students will learn the history of various forms of information manipulation and review the main critical theories of the media (industrialisation, spectacle, social domination and propaganda). Students will also be led to question the methodological and philosophical considerations related to the concept of truth as well as the technological and psychological mechanisms that shape the reading experience in the 21st century. At the end of this course, students will be able to discern their own cognitive biases, define the media properties of various types of texts, and mobilize their information literacy to better understand phenomena such as fake news, misinformation, and “cancel culture” in the digital and social media age.

This course aims to introduce students to the practice of creative writing in several forms. The course will cover the fundamental concepts of literary writing: narration, intrigue, dialogue, point of view, characters, description, literary genre, originality, creative process, rewriting, and intermediality, as well as public reading. Through active participation in various exercises, lectures, and plenary discussions, students will explore the many characteristics of creative writing and refine their own use of language to go beyond the commonplace, clichés, and stereotypes to produce original, creative work in multiple genres. Exercises will include work in short stories, poetry, theatre, and non-fiction writing, among other writing forms.

This course will examine the relations between fiction and ethics. In a world where ethics often lie at the heart of political, economic, legal, scientific and cultural debates, literature, an open-ended field of possibilities, stands out as a way to explore and revisit this bedrock of human life organization. Through the analysis of works that address questions of responsibility, of citizenship, of our relation to the Just and the Good, the student will acquire a thorough knowledge on the nature of ethics and will better understand its ability to permeate different types of discourses.

This course is a study of French poetry from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution. We will examine the various movements that occurred over this long period -particularly the Pléiade, baroque and classicism and classicism -by situating the poetic works in their cultural context. Several literary beacons (such as Villon and Ronsard) will be studied in depth, but a number of other poets will also be looked at, and a variety of genres, registers and contents will be broached. A number of aspects will be emphasized stylistic, prosodic, lexical, thematic, etc., as well as their interrelation. Students will learn theory (linguistics, versification, etc.) and will learn to identify certain rhetorical techniques. While analyzing poetic works, sometimes comparatively, students will develop an aesthetic reflection on the nature of poetry by examining the understanding of not only the critics, but of the poets themselves.

This course is a study of French poetry and other Francophone poetry from the French Revolution to the present. We will examine the 19th century, particularly romanticism, Baudelaire and symbolism; the Belle Époque, as the late 19th century and the early 20th century is called; the Esprit nouveau, which took shape with World War I; Dadaism and surrealism, which flourished in the interwar period; socially engaged poetry, which took shape with World War II; the voices of the French-speaking world, which resonated with many in the second half of the 20th century; and poetic songs, which have abounded in recent decades. Throughout this rich journey, links will be made with the visual arts: painting, sculpture and artistic photography.

This course attempts to identify what it is that determines modernity in theatre, by examining a few texts--mostly dramatic, but some theoretical--that have marked the 20th century. At the end of the course, the student will know the major movements in theatrical aesthetics and make connections between dramatic, structural and thematic issues.

Cultural trips will be obligatory if circumstances and financial resources allow.

Through the analysis of texts, lectures, presentations and oratory performances, the course aims to offer students a theoretical and practical knowledge of various approaches and methodologies in the preparation and drafting of oral discourse. By reading treatises on oratory art, the students will learn the usual techniques that allow the oral transmission of thought in a convincingly natural and spontaneous manner. We will start from antiquity, where the foundation of oratory art is found, then move to the study of different manuals of classical and modern oratory in order to familiarize the students with the great theories of the art of public speaking. At the end of the course, students will have acquired precise knowledge of the history of oratory art and of the means to better express themselves in public.

At a time when fictional texts address the question morality’s foundations, the authors of fables, maxims, comedies and novels become moralists. At the end of the course, the student will have understood that by adopting different postures and adapting different literary genres to their subject, men and women of the Grand Siècle take a critical look at the Ancien Régime and nourish the debate of ideas on issues that are not unrelated to today's concerns: luxury, hierarchical social organization, faith, marriage, gender relations, etc.

This course, offered jointly as a "dialogue course" between the English Department and the Department of French, Literature, and Culture, will be team-taught by a professor from each department. The course will therefore include classes in English, alternating with classes in French concerning the influence of the English novels (by such authors as Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Jane Austen) on literature of the French Enlightenment, including their reception, their translation, and their adaptation, in a study of how the novels under consideration are invested with new meanings through translation. The student will come to recognize that translation functioned as a compromise between the two cultures rather than conforming to today's convention of linguistic and semantic equivalence.

This course, which examines the claims of Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the reception and relevance of this period, will enable students to deepen their knowledge of the aesthetic, philosophical and epistemological questions of 18th-century France. Through a variety of readings, students will discover the diversity of literary production and develop their argumentative and analytical skills. As a window on a world in revolution, this course will help students better understand how a cultural, literary, intellectual and social transformation was woven.

The objective of this course is to identify, through reading and interpretation of “Western” and “Oriental” authors’ works, the often complex and conflicting relations between the East and the West, territories with uncertain boundaries. The student will come to understand that, from narratives of the Crusades, viewed from both sides, to the numerous texts ,which in the 21st century, authors show an interest and a mutual concern. The perspective of the West on the East and the one of the East on the West is measured in terms of confrontation, or at least strangeness. The course will aim to identify the outlines of this love-hate relationship based on a representation of self, viewed as coherent, as necessarily opposed representations of the ‘other’. Finally, the course also aims to deconstruct the usual designations, East and West, by showing that the geographical borders of these two spaces are debatable and debated.

Through textual analysis and lectures, the course aims to give students an in-depth knowledge of the way in which Western travellers, soldiers, missionaries, merchants, diplomats and writers have portrayed China after having stayed there, sometimes for a few weeks, sometimes for several years. Through the reading of published accounts and essays on various sojourns in China, from Marco Polo to Georges Le Fèvre, from William de Rubruck to Catherine de Bourboulon, from Matteo Ricci to Roland Barthes, students will become familiar with the many ways in which this civilisation has been thematised over the ages. Both the difficulties of the journey and the impressions provoked by the encounter with Chinese civilisation are at the heart of this course. The arrival of the Jesuits, the Opium Wars, the Taiping Rebellion, the Boxer Uprising and Maoist guerrilla warfare will all be covered in turn. The discursive construction of an often mysterious East, the topicality of civilisational shock and the question of radical otherness will be addressed through the reading of various texts. By the end of the course, students will have acquired an excellent knowledge of the way in which this imaginary world has been constructed and the many reasons that explain its mutations up to the present day.

Through the study of various literary works, students will explore the ethical, social, political, economic and existential issues surrounding artificial intelligence (AI). By examining the concepts (transhumanism, utilitarianism, the quest for transcendence, the laws of robotics) and genres (apocalypse, dystopia, science fiction, anticipation narrative) used by authors to (re)think the place and roles of humans and machines, students will assess the impact of literature on the perception of technology, and question the contribution of fiction to imagining the development and limits of AI. This course will include a practical dimension concerning the ethical and intelligent use of IAGen for communication and argumentation purposes.

This course examines European literature in translation by studying important works, literary movements, and large themes. While putting emphasis on the diversity of the literature in Europe (Spain, England, Italy, Russia, Germany, etc.), this course will show that definitions of literature and national literature are determined by the social status of the intellectual, of the literary critic and of literature within society. The course will study novels, poetry and drama from Europe, from a selection determined by the teacher, either on a national or on a transnational comparative scale. An important aspect of this course is to determine the place of the masterworks in the evolution of world literature. At the end of the course, students will be able to compare texts from other literary contexts, gain new perspectives in literary history, and explore literature through the lens of literary canons, genres, themes, and forms.

This course studies European theatrical plays in French translation, with particular— but not exclusive—attention to the canons that marked Western theatre. It may then look at the Greek tragedies of Antiquity, the Elizabethan period and the Spanish Golden Age of the Baroque repertoire, as well as creators of the 20th century like the Italian Luigi Pirandello and the German Bertolt Brecht, who were imitated by others. By the end of the course, students will know the seminal works in the history of theatre and their influence on the contemporary dramatic art that continually draws upon them.

The objective of this course is to introduce students to the study of non-European literature. Texts will be examined in their French translation. By studying important works, significant literary movements, and large themes, the course will analyze how national literatures are built and how literature is used in context outside the French-speaking literature. While stressing the diversity of literature (Americas, Africa, Asia, Oceania), this course will evaluate emerging literature in their relationship with the European canon. The course may study one region in particular or may elaborate a comparative study of two (or more) regions. At the end of the course, students will be able to understand masterworks originating from another language (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, etc.), to compare these works to the traditions of French-speaking literatures, to gain new perspectives in literary history, and to see the relative universality of canons, genres, themes, and literary forms.

The course provides students an in-depth knowledge of the epistolary novel at the end of the 17th century and during the Enlightenment through the study of its most representative works. The French novel underwent an important change in 1669 with the publication of Guilleragues' novel, Lettres d'une religieuse portugaise, comprised entirely of letters. This new narrative device, which became increasingly popular among novelists, legitimized the expression of love by concealing the identity of the author behind that of the letter writer, giving the impression of an actual eyewitness account. This course aims to define the epistolary novel, to analyze the issues inherent to the letter form novel, as well as to study major works of this genre, including Lettres de la marquise de M*** au comte de R*** (1732) by Crébillon fils, Lettres de Fanni Butlerd (1757) by Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni, Julie ou La Nouvelle Héloïse (1761) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Caliste ou Lettres écrites de Lausanne (1788) by Isabelle de Charriére and Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782) by Choderlos de Laclos.

The objective of this course is to introduce students to two similar literary genres: the travelogue and the travel novel. Since the age of the Great Discoveries, the travelogue gave rise to increasing interest in France. While Paul Le Jeune and Jean de Brébeuf gave a written account of their travels to America, Jean Chardin and Jean-Baptiste Tavernier renewed the way in which the East was perceived. Anchored in reality, the travelogue, which claimed to be objective and transparent, served a double role: to portray the truth and to teach through description. The travelogue became a useful means to fight the accusations of improbability and puerility which weighed down the novel as a genre. This course seeks to define and describe travel literature, to analyse its issues, as well as to study major works of the period including travelogues such as Le Grand Voyage du pays des Hurons (1632) by Gabriel Sagard and Le Voyage autour du monde (1766-1769) by Bougainville, as well as travel novels including Espion turc (1694) by Giovanni Paolo Marana, Lettres persanes (1721) by Montesquieu, Lettres moscovites (1736) by Francesco Locatelli and Lettres d'une Péruvienne (1747) by Françoise de Graffigny.

This course introduces students to a considered analysis of a number of literary genres considered to be on the fringe of the canonical work officially recognized by the literary institution. From fantasy writing to fan fiction, by way of science fiction, the romance novel, erotic literature, the detective novel, spy novel, horror novel, adventure novel and comic strips, students will learn to identify the main literary characteristics of these “subgenres.” They will also be able to diachronically analyze their sociological role and place in popular culture.

This two-semester course is intended for fourth-year students doing an honours degree in French, Literature, and Culture who obtained an average of A- or higher in their French, Literature, and Culture Department courses in their third year. Before registering in this course, students must find a professor to guide them during both semesters, and they must receive the approval of the Department Head. This course is given in the form of guided readings. Students must produce either a significant quantity of written work or a single written piece of a substantial length on a specific theme. Students will develop their critical thinking skills and will use a number of theoretical works published in their area of research.

This course will study the themes of fanaticism, tolerance and religion in a literary perspective and provide a more complete picture of cultural intelligence. Through text analysis and lectures, the student will understand that the notions of tolerance and fanaticism were quite familiar to the Enlightenment French philosophes. By reading works of fiction, essays and treaties, the student will develop a thorough understanding of issues and of ways of thinking underlying the quest for a more equal and tolerant society, a quest that continued to inspire writers such as Victor Hugo and Boris Vian in the 19th and 20th centuries. By reading and studying texts written by essay writers, playwrights and novelists, the student will develop a new way of understanding the world and the ways in which many thinkers interpreted the dangers underlying fanaticism.

This course aims to impart to the student, by means of textual analyses and lectures, a greater knowledge of diverse currents that characterize the francophone essay since the beginning of the 21st century. Through readings of different essays and studies of the specific poetics of this literary genre, the student will become familiar with the ways in which the 21st century essay breaks today's world down into themes. The student will also gain greater awareness of society's profound transformations, its crises, its innovations and its catastrophes, which all contribute to the creation of a new apocalyptic "imaginaire", which can be defined by the loss of stable points of reference. Readings of various essays will allow us to study sequentially the discursive construction of new internal threats, different conspiracy theories, the topic of crisis as a way of interpreting the world, rhetorical anxiety-provoking situations and the stylization of paranoia (Hofstadter). By the end of the course, the student will have acquired a thorough knowledge of the poetics of this genre as well as an enhanced ability to pinpoint and analyze recurrent themes by which the modern essay strives to make sense out of the 21st century.

The course aims to study the different representations of the impact of service and the experience of war on the mental health and substance use disorders of the actors involved. The goal is to provide an overview of issues related to trauma and addictions, first in a general context and then, more specifically, in relation to military experience. The analysis of canonical literary texts on traumatic experiences and addictive behaviors will provide a better understanding of the concepts studied. Finally, students will address these notions in different types of combat-related narratives. At the end of the course, students will have acquired several concepts that allow a more precise knowledge of these phenomena inseparable from the modern representation of war.

This course examines surrealism, the most significant cultural movement of the 20th century. It starts with a review of the 19th-century writers who were the forerunners of the movement and the dada phenomenon, where it all started. It then examines the founding works of André Breton and the key concepts found therein, but also the work of authors including Reverdy, Éluard and Desnos. In addition to looking at different literary genres, students will focus their attention on the visual arts-particularly photography, painting and sculpture-and on contemporary expressions of surrealism that can be found in advertising, film, etc. At the end of the course, students will have a strong understanding of the period during which surrealism flourished most strongly, the inter-war period, as well as the movement's forerunners in the previous century and its many descendants today.

This course aims, through lectures and text analysis, to study the poetics and aesthetics of testimony, from Jean Norton Cru (Témoins [witnesses], 1929) to the present, more specifically war testimony, workers' testimony, journalistic testimony and auto ethnographic testimony. This course aims to give students in-depth knowledge of the art of testimony (narrative techniques, the work of memory, striving for coherence, effects of reality) and a better understanding of the polarity of opinions expressed in often-contradictory testimonies regarding similar experiences. Students will grasp the issues that the various testimonies reveal and, through analyzing the tensions inherent in any recounted experience, gain a better understanding of the significance and the scope of testimonies.

This course will begin by examining the philosophical roots of the notion of "absurd" as they were expressed in the 19th century, such as Kierkegaard's "despair”, and as they developed in the 20thcentury, such as Heidegger's "anxiety." But the main focus will be on the ways in which the notion was expressed by 20th-century writers. The works of Sartre and Camus will be of primary importance, in the three major literary genres they used: essays, stories and theatre. We will also examine the aesthetic change of direction that the absurd took after World War II, with the theatre of derision. At the end of the course, students will be able to identify the absurd in theoretical and fictional works and will be familiar with the different forms it has taken over time.

This course proposes to study various facets of the work of a single author, in the context of his/her time frame. The choice of the author will depend upon the professor teaching the course that particular year. This course aims to present an in-depth perspective on the work of an author of French, Quebec or francophone literature in general. The author's work will be explored whenever possible by referencing at least two genres in which he/she has excelled. By the end of the course, the student, through study of complete works and representative excerpts, will discover the depth of the author's impact on the literature of his/her time and upon posterity. The student will learn in detail the literary currents associated with the author, as well as the distinctive characteristics of his/her writing and his/her thematic and stylistic preoccupations. Finally, this course will allow the student the opportunity to become familiar with the author's era, opening up further important historical, political and sociological considerations.

This course is a study of the ways in which Greek and Roman writers of antiquity represent great heroes. At the end of the course, students will be familiar with the main classical models dealing with heroism and will be able to explain their relationship with mythology and philosophy. They will be able to recognize and analyze the parameters within which the concept of wartime heroism is formed and is justified in the epics of Homer and Virgil; the tragedies of Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides; and the works of Plutarch, Lucan, Apuleius, Caesar and Athanasius of Alexandria.

This courses aims, through text analysis and lectures, to give students an in-depth knowledge of various concepts of ancient rhetoric. Through reading different treatises and studies, students will become familiar with the ways in which rhetoric was defined during the Greek and Roman antiquities, they will understand the nature of its components and sub-components, and they will learn the rhetorical and logical foundations of argument analysis. The rhetoric of philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Cicero, Quintilian and Apsines will be studied in order to understand the historical mistrust of rhetoric and the way its merits have been defended. At the end of the course, students will have learned what characterizes ethos, logos, pathos, syllogism, enthymeme, hypotyposis, topos, paralogism, etc., so as to better analyze the way in which persuasive speeches are constructed.

This course aims, through text analysis and lectures, to give students an in-depth knowledge of various concepts of rhetoric from the 18th century to present. Through reading different treatises and studies, students will become familiar with the ways in which the modern world has transformed our understanding of rhetoric. The rhetoric of philosophers such as Dumarsais, Fontanier, Schopenhauer, Chaïm Perelman, Stephen Toulmin, Marc Angenot and Michel Meyer will be examined from various angles in order to understand how this discipline has developed over the past three centuries. At the end of the course, students will have learned the cognitive advantages and limits of metaphorical production, ethical and eristic rhetoric, the foundations of problematology, and the relationship between persuasion and a given axiological system. Students will acquire the skills necessary for recognizing and using a large number of argumentative techniques in accordance with their purpose.

This course is a study of the development of the French-Canadian novel before the Quiet Revolution. After discussing a few basic historical and theoretical principles, we will examine the novels that mark the important phases of this development. Emphasis will be placed on themes and ideologies in a sociohistoric context.

This course is a study of the new directions that the Quebec novel has taken in the wake of the sea change brought about by the Quiet Revolution. We will focus on the expression of a new nationalist sentiment in novels. We will cover the concept of the socially engaged writer, new styles of writing, the emergence of women's writing and, above all, the growing importance of migrant literature. This will lead us to reconsider the relationship between the various literatures of French-speaking Canada in the context of minority literatures.

From Marguerite de Navarre to Annie Ernaux, Madame de La Fayette, Mme Riccoboni, Madame de Staël and George Sand to name only a few, women have long since carved out a place for themselves in literary history. Through a close reading of diverse texts - including fairy tales, short stories and novels - students will understand the conditions women authors faced and the reception of their works. They will be able to analyze the main themes raised in the works studied, to identify the strategies used to question the place and roles of women in society and to formulate a critical reflection on the publications of women writers from the Renaissance to today.

This course is a study of Quebec poetry from its origins up to the mid-20th century. After reviewing the beginnings of written poetry in French Canada, we will examine Quebec poetry specifically: the Literary and Patriotic Movement of Quebec; the Montreal literary school; the regionalist poets and the exotic poets, including the argument that brought them into conflict; and lastly, the solitude generation. We will situate these poetic movements in their respective sociocultural contexts and will see the role they played in the community. Their aesthetic characteristics will also be pointed out. To accomplish this, we will study numerous representative poets, but will look at a few of them more closely, such as Nelligan, DesRochers, Saint-Denys Garneau and Grandbois.

This course is a study of French-Canadian poetry, principally Quebec poetry, since the publication of Refus global in 1948. The movements and periods we will examine include automatism, including the works of Claude Gauvreau, Paul-Marie Lapointe and Roland Giguère; poésie du pays [Quebec nationalist poetry], including the works of Paul Chamberland, Gérald Godin, Gaston Miron and Michèle Lalonde; formalism and feminism, including the works of Nicole Brossard and France Théoret; the counterculture and more contemporary poetry. We will analyze the often close relationship between the poet and society. Also, we will draw parallels with French poetry and the visual arts. Lastly, we will focus our attention on songs.

After an overview of the history of drama in French Canada, this course will study the real development of this literary genre from 1950 to 1970. The plays of some major playwrights will receive particular attention.

Cultural trips will be obligatory if circumstances and financial resources allow.

This course will study dramatic production in French Canada since 1970.It will show the diversity and originality of that production through the works of important playwrights.

Cultural trips will be obligatory if circumstances and financial resources allow.

Students enrolled in this course will primarily study plays of major playwrights of 17th century France, but also of the 18th and 19th centuries. Different genres, such as historic tragedies, comedy ballet, romantic drama, etc., will be included. By the end of the semester, students will have a solid knowledge of the mechanics of drama, its esthetics and style, as well as of the social, political, moral and psychological content of the plays selected. Students will be able to understand how the plays studied echo their era and how they resonate with today’s readers.

Cultural trips will be encouraged pending favourable circumstances and available budget.

This course aims to provide students a better understanding of the profound changes taking place in the field of French literature in the aftermath of World War II, which determined the shape of contemporary literature in France.

Through a detailed study of several important literary movements such as the OuLiPo, and through specific examples from the "age of suspicion" inaugurated by the Nouveau Roman to the death of the two great figures Roland Barthes and Jean-Paul Sartre, this course will capture the innovations developed by writers of that time, in terms of poetics and theory, by situating them in their context.

This course offer students an in depth understanding of current French literature, as well as an understanding of the issues to the contemporary era, not only within the study of literature, but also outside its boundaries.

The 1980s saw a new generation of writers appear, which, although they inherited from the formalists and experimental novels of their predecessors, as well as from their theoretical concerns, implemented a return to the notion of the story and to the traditional novel. This shift also concerns the practice of the previous generation of writers, whose writing also tends to become transitive, with different aesthetic modes.

The course will begin by focusing on this turning point and by offering a portrait of the following thirty years. Several major works of this time will then be considered, while particular attention will be paid to the innovations that characterize their relationship with reality.

This course aims to reveal to the student the multiple connections between literature and other art forms. Through study of literary works of fiction and works of art criticism, the student will, by the end of the course, come to an understanding of the love-hate relationship between authors and artists (common esthetic movements, solidarity or rivalry between different arts and between artists, etc.). Moreover, the student will observe the functions and representations of work of art as integrated into the literary text (Hugo's Gavroche taken from Delacroix's La liberté guidant le people, Vinteuil's sonata as it appears in Proust's Un amour de Swann, for example) and will describe the manner in which writing itself aspires to become a work of art (the sculptural solidity of a work of literature for the Parnassiens, the cathedral-like structure of Proust's writings, for example).

Through lectures and analysis of texts, this course will equip students with technical and theoretical knowledge of various discourses that represent power or use it to change opinions. The course will begin with a look back at previous centuries to illustrate the discursive use of power in relation to forms of social unrest such as revolutions, conscription, wars, crises and recessions. Through their reading of essays, pamphlets, treaties and opinion pieces, students will learn to decode the ways in which cultural, political, military, economic and bureaucratic powers interfere with discourse production. They will also see how those powers can be praised, criticized or rejected using a variety of arguments. Students will become familiar with a number of modes of domination and with how discourses have objectified them. By the end of the course, they will have acquired valuable skills in the discursive representation of power, its nature, its evolution and its complexity.

This course provides an overview of the development of the major currents of thought in French Canada, from the beginning of the colony (writings of New France) up to the eve of the 20thcentury. Emphasis will be placed primarily on the different themes and ideologies in a sociohistoric context, and the importance of the narrative style of the works will also be considered. We will look at the birth of numerous literary genres: essay, travel writing, poetry, drama, story and novel.

This course picks up where FRF483 leaves off. Students will continue to examine written works that reveal a collective identity, both inside and outside Quebec; naturally, the universal scope of the themes and ideologies that developed will also be considered. We will focus our attention on narrative prose (stories and novels), popular music and the work of a number of stand-up comedians, to illustrate the development of nationalist thought.

An introduction to the diverse manifestations of French-Canadian literature outside Québec. A study of French-Canadian culture---especially Acadian, Franco-Ontarian and Franco-Manitoban--- through their literary works. After a brief look at the history of the French presence in Canada, we will examine the sociopolitical and cultural connections between the French minorities of l'Acadie, of Ontario and of western Canada and, inevitably, the relationship of these minorities with Quebec. Special attention will be given to the literary concept of l'exiguïté, in connection with the search for identity and with the evolution of these minorities in the context of multiculturalism.

This course will study the literature and culture of francophone societies outside France, Canada and Africa. More specifically, it will concentrate on the literature of the Americas (Antilles, Louisiana), of Europe (Belgium, Switzerland) and of French Polynesia (New Caledonia). It will analyze the evolution of these literatures and, if need be, of the oral traditions particular to the culture studied. A main theme of this course will be the sometimes problematic relationship of these literatures with metropolitan France. The goal of the course is to lead the student to a better understanding of lesser-known francophone cultures.