加州大学-伯克利

The undergraduate major in French is designed to allow students to acquire a considerable degree of competence in the written and spoken language as well as a familiarity with the literature and culture of France and the French-speaking world. It aims to develop the student’s critical appreciation of texts in French in both literary and cultural contexts. The department thus offers a large selection of courses in different periods and criticism, as well as courses in composition, stylistics, translation, and linguistics. Furthermore, it encourages interdisciplinary studies in French through courses emphasizing the relation between literature and the other arts and between literature, history, and society. Particularly attractive for many students is the opportunity for the historical and critical study of French film. Most courses are conducted in French, and majors are expected to write papers and examinations in that language.

Given the breadth of its program, the French major may interest students desiring a general humanistic education based on the language and literature of the French-speaking world; students planning to teach French at the elementary or secondary level; students who intend to pursue graduate work in preparation for teaching and research at the college level; and students preparing for careers in such areas as international law, business, or government service, which require both training in a major foreign language and/or a general background in a humanistic discipline.

Learning Goals for the Major

• Attain solid (though not flawless) proficiency in reading, writing, understanding, and speaking French.
• Possess some understanding of the history and sociology of the French language.
• Be aware of a variety of ways in which the histories of French and Francophone literature and culture have traditionally been accounted for within French studies.
• Recognize and understand features of a variety of genres and modes in French and Francophone writing (the novel, poetic forms, short fiction, autobiography, film, etc.,), as well as of the vocabulary commonly used to describe them
• Have some familiarity with key rhetorical terms.
• Acquire a basic familiarity with some of the techniques of cultural analysis within French and Francophone studies.
• Be able to articulate specific connections between texts and cultural, artistic, social, and/or political contexts.
• Gain an understanding of literature and of other written texts in interdisciplinary and multicultural contexts.
• Be aware of debates about the nature of literature.
• Be widely read in French literature.