FRN 420/520
Major Currents of French Thought
LKamm
Office Hours:
I, 352; Tues. & Thurs., 1:30 - 3:00, after class, or by appointment.
Email:
lkamm
Phone: x8336
Goals
Readings
Requirements, Responsibilities, & Grades
Syllabus
Essays
Course-related Items of Interest
Goals: This course examines the individual's relationship to
self and society as manifested in representative texts from French literature
dating from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. We will study such themes
as
- individual creativity as a potential threat to "acceptable" social
stability
- whether there can be moral responsibility without political
engagement
- interrelationships of advances in science, the law, and the arts on
the one hand and social & individual morality on the other hand
- ennui as a
leitmotif in French literature
Weekly essays and oral presentations will
promote development of your written and oral skills, independent thinking, and
group discussion. A final paper, to be developed from the essays and
presentations, will challenge you to relate your various responses to the
intellectual content of the issues raised.
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Readings:
- Montaigne, De
l'apologie de Raimond Sebond
- Descartes, Discours de la
méthode
- Pascal, Pensées
- Rousseau, Les
Deux Discours
- Diderot, Le Neveu de
Rameau
- Voltaire, Candide
- Chateaubriand,
René
- Sartre, Huis Clos
- Camus, L'Etranger
- Beckett, En Attendant Godot
- Genet, Le Balcon
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Responsibilities:
- Attendance -
because of the seminar format of the course, no more than one absence is allowed.
- Short papers/essays - for each reading assignment, you are expected to write
approximately a two page paper in which you deal with a personal and/or scholarly
response to the week's assignment; you will be required to post these papers
through the course list-server (details to be discussed during our first meeting).
This will allow everyone to read everyone
else's papers and to be prepared to discuss them in the context of the assignment
when we actually meet in class.
- Report - select a topic related to one of the authors or works from the above
list; subject to my approval of your selection, prepare approximately a 10-minute
presentation to the class. These presentations will begin after the Spring
Break.
- Paper - 5-7 pages in length, the paper may be drawn from some aspect(s) of
your shorter papers and/or presentation, though you are also free to focus on
another topic. Note: I do not expect the paper to be a major research project.
However, I do expect it to show some good awareness of and reference to at least
a couple of secondary sources. Topics are up to you but subject to my approval.
(For those who have difficulty coming up with topics, I can always make
suggestions.)
Papers will be graded on intent, content, reasoning, language, neatness, effort,
accuracy. Five points to keep in mind: 1) develop a thesis statement, 2)
discuss the main points covered in readings and in class discussions and make
connections with the thesis, 3) incorporate relevant evidence to prove thesis, 4)
make connections among related concepts, ideas, and events, 5) reach a conclusion
based on the analysis of the evidence. Grades: based on
class participation, short papers/journals, presentation, and final paper
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Syllabus
Week 1 -- Introduction, explanation of writing component, expectations and
responsibilities.
Week 2 -- Montaigne
Week 3 -- Descartes
Week 4 -- Pascal
Week 5 -- Rousseau
Week 6 -- Voltaire
Week 7 -- Diderot
Week 8 -- Chateaubriand
Week 9 -- Sartre
Week 10 -- Camus
Week 11 -- Beckett
Week 12 -- Genet
Week 13 -- Summaries & Conclusions
Week 14 -- Papers
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Weekly Essays
This course requires each of you to submit a 2-page
essay for each week's assignment and to read everyone else's essays for the week
prior to coming to class. The three-fold purpose of this sharing is to
- promote a professional environment of constructive criticism
- encourage responsible, serious and professional commentary
- make it
possible for students to follow up one another's comments and engage in further
discussion privately or collectively
The DIERE method of journal & essay writing:
Description -- what happened, to whom, where, when?
Interpretation -- what I think it means
Emotion -- how I feel about it
Relation(ship) -- how it connects, relates to other things I know
Evaluation -- what I think about it in terms of my own values
Related Items of Interest
To Lew Kamm's Welcome page
UMass Dartmouth homepage
Comments? Please email me.
Lew Kamm
Chancellor Professor of French Literature
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
285 Old Westport Rd.
N.
Dartmouth, MA 02747-2300
LKamm@umassd.edu
This HTML document created by: Lew Kamm
On: February 12, 1998
Last
Revised: 09/15/05