FREN 438: La France contemporaine
Introductory Remarks
Developing cultural literacy is an integral part of becoming an educated citizen of the world. The definition of cultural literacy includes interest and understanding of social norms as well as politics and current events in a particular country. In France, cultural literacy in many forms is particularly valued, especially in professional life, where the expectation is that you will be able to converse on a wide range of topics outside your field of specialization. This course is designed to provide you with some tools for developing cultural literacy in the French context. Through an introduction to the politics, culture, and society of present-day France, as well as some aspects of recent French history, you should come away from this class with a deeper understanding of social norms and institutional structures, as well as the ability to follow and understand French media coverage of events as they unfold in French politics and society. In your travels at home or abroad, you should feel comfortable discussing and debating social, political, and cultural issues and current events relating to France.
REQUIRED MATERIALS
Laurence Wylie and Jean-François Brière, Les Français (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2001). This is a wonderfully interesting,
often subjective, and occasionally dated book. It contains the late Laurence
Wylie's analysis of life in France, and French social structures, updated
by Jean-François Brière. It also contains a wealth of useful
information about French institutions. At times, you
may take issue with Wylie because of personal experience, counter-examples
found in movies or media, or just plain common sense. I see Wylie's book as
a springboard for discussion, and I encourage you to engage with its arguments
in class and in your journals.
The course website is an essential resource, to be consulted often and explored fully.
Additional readings assigned can be found on the course website or on the materials page in Toolkit. Links to the readings are directly off the schedule page.
French-English dictionary: I recommend Harrap's or Collins-Robert. The larger the better.
Films assigned are on reserve at Robertson Media Center.
Pocket-sized notebook for keeping track of
vocabulary.
GRADE BREAKDOWN
Your grade in this course will be based on the following:
Written work which has been prepared in advance (such as the term paper), will be graded 50% on the quality of the written French and 50% on the content. Written work which is prepared in class will be graded 25% on the quality of the French, 75% on the content. The grading criteria will be made available to you.
DETAILS ON REQUIRED WORK
Attendance, preparation, participation, "devoirs" and "revues de presse" (25%):
This is not a lecture course. Much of its success depends on your willingness
to come to class prepared for discussion. I expect you to watch the news from
FR2 at least three days a week in addition to the assigned readings and films.
The news can be seen on the web from France
2, without subtitles. "JT" is Journal télévisé. The one we watch is the "JT de 20 heures."
You will be expected to comment on specifics of the television news, as well as your reading/listening via online print media and radio sources, in class discussions.
Based on my notes, I assign participation grades at the end of each week. Everyone starts out with a 60 (D-) in this grade category. You can pull this grade up by participating actively in class discussion and group work, by demonstrating preparation (bringing books and articles to class with notes, underlining, words looked up, comments showing familiarity and mastery of the materia, contributing comments that show your knowledge of current events and their press coverage). You can pull it down by being absent, by arriving late, by keeping quiet (even if you are prepared), by speaking English, by disrespectful behavior, or by superficial attempts to contribute to class without having done the necessary preparation.
There is no formal attendance policy. However, regular attendence is expected and absences will affect your performance and your participation grade.
Assignments for "devoirs" are linked directly off the course schedule.
You will write four "revues de presse" over the semester relating to your chosen project topic. Details here.
One term paper, 5-7 pages (as part of a group project/website; paper grade is individual) 25%
In the second week of the semester, you will be selecting groups to prepare a collaborative project that will be published in the form of a website. The goal of the website is to update the Wylie/Brière textbook you will be reading this semester. Each group will select a theme in contemporary French society to explore in detail. The group will prepare an analysis of the treatment of the theme in Wylie/Brière, a proposal of how it needs to be expanded/updated, a collective introduction and framework for the site, and an individually written research paper on a topic relating to the theme. The papers will become part of the site and each will be graded individually. Details here.
Group work (25%)
In the course of preparing the group project mentioned above, you will be involved in group collaboration at many levels. Each student will receive an individual grade on his or her performance in the context of the group. This grade will be based on a combination of instructor and peer assessment of group dynamics and of the final product your group creates. A 20-minute group presentation will be part of this grade, as will the collaborative sections of the web project. Details here.
Final essay/exam (25%)
The final exam will be in essay format and a study guide will be provided.
Instructions for Assignments: all documents explaining your assignments are linked from the schedule but can also be found below.
Devoir 1
Devoir 2
Devoir 3
Revues de presse
Group project overview
Project proposal
Project prospectus
Group evaluation form
Analysis of your own progress (form)
Research portfolio: checklist