Whether or not students plan a career involving the use of
French, the French section offers a broad curriculum, approachable
professors, individualized instruction in small classes and a
certain esprit de corps which brings together students and
professors in a common pursuit.
French courses numbered 101 through 209 (grammar, phonetics,
conversation and composition, stylistics) are primarily devoted to
the mastery of skills necessary to read, understand, speak and
write French. These classes emphasize active us of the language
while introducing students to literary and cultural texts of the
French-speaking world.
Advanced courses include French Studies, literature, film and
interdisciplinary seminars. In the introductory literature
courses, we consider literary texts from several periods in the
context of a genre or problem, such as "Identity and Otherness" or
"Women's Writing." The advanced literature courses introduce
students to literary movements in their historical context, such
as "The Renaissance" or "Francophone Literature in Africa and the
Caribbean." Literary study is supported by library holdings which
are unusually extensive for an undergraduate institution.