FREN LANG,SOC,CULTRE THRU PARIS

Prerequisites: 2 years of college French Paris may be referred to as the capital of modernity, as the city of romance and pleasure, as the center of social and political powers, or as a privileged stage for crises and revolutions. Analyzing and researching the meanings of these diverse representations would expose students to key aspects of French and Francophone political, social, and cultural history. This is a proposal for a course intended for students who, having completed their language requirement in French, would like to better their knowledge of French language and society. It would offer students the opportunity to study representations of Paris over the centuries as a way to practice writing, reading, and conversation in French and as a way to deepen their understanding of French and Francophone cultures. Materials for the course would include major literary texts as well as paintings, movies and popular songs, but also museum websites, local newspapers and local ads, brochures from retail and food malls, restaurant menus, postcards... such variety can be utilitarian and intellectually compelling at the same time. It would allow students not only to study language registers and vocabulary contextualization but also work on finding patterns and making connections.