Winter 2022

FRE 107B / CRN 44457: The Making of Modern France (Part II)
Professor Julia Simon

Read real historical documents, analyze painting and architecture, and re-enact philosophical debates about important social issues in this quarter’s exploration of the political and cultural history of France from the beginning of the seventeenth century through the middle of the nineteenth century. Highlights of our survey will include: Henri IV’s edict of Nantes, which ended the French Religious Wars; Versailles and Louis XIV’s cultural and political project of French absolutism; Enlightenment polemics about economic inequality and religious toleration; the revolution of 1789; the rise of Napoleon; and the industrial transformation of Paris in the nineteenth century. We will engage topics such as the role of women and minorities in society and France’s relationship with the broader world as students hone reading, writing, and speaking skills in French.

FRE 115 / CRN 44458: Medieval French Literature and Society
Professor Noah Guynn

This course will offer an introduction to medieval French literature in modern French translation. Our focus will be on themes of love and marriage, sex and gender, faith and desire, freedom and constraint; and we will discover a variety of narrative and theatrical genres: conte, dit, lai, fabliau, vie de saint, miracle, and roman. Nearly all of the texts are short, though we will end the course with a full-length romance, the exquisite Flamenca. Class discussions will center on practices of storytelling and performance and the ways in which those practices are used to elicit ethical, political, and spiritual reflection. The course has two principal goals: first, to provide a broad understanding of medieval literature in its social and cultural contexts; and, second, to improve analytical skills and expository writing. All reading assignments will be available as PDFs, and we will use Harvard University’s no-cost Perusall platform to make class preparation a collective exercise rather than a solitary one.