FREN 2013 - Contemporary France

Taught through the Department of European Languages, and Linguistics, this course provides a comprehensive introduction to contemporary France through the prisms of history, politics, society, and culture. It is designed to contribute to your understanding of how a modern French citizen thinks and feels in the twentieth-first century. Taught in French at the intermediate level, the course provides opportunities for students to improve their language skills in the areas of speaking, writing, listening and reading. Through this course you will develop: 1) an understanding of some of the most important issues currently facing France; 2) an awareness of France’s place in the world, and 3) an appreciation of France’s diverse and dynamic culture. Students enrolling in Contemporary France will undertake activities and discussions using a variety of literary and audio-visual texts such as literature, film and music. This textual engagement will afford students the opportunity to acquire cultural knowledge as well as sociolinguistic competence pertinent to French Studies. The course will examine life in France from different perspectives and voices, from its diversified artistic landscape to its taste for intellectualism, and what led to the development of French culture as we know it today. Does the well-known national motto 'Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité' still represent an ultimately deeply divided society? An analysis of different media of expression will serve to feed current debates and give the keys to understand the place of the French in France and the place of France in the world.