FREN 341 - La France de l’Ancien Régime

FDR: HL
Credits: 3

Fall 2017, FREN 341-01: Introduction à la littérature médiévale d’expression française (3). This course aims to introduce students to strategies for reading, understanding, interpreting, and discussing medieval literature written in French. We read the most important works in written medieval Francophonia (including Northern France, Italy, England, and the Holy Land) and explore how these narrative traditions continue to inform our cultural imaginary today. Students acquire a general timeline of medieval history through a series of student-centered presentations. Topics range from gender studies, manuscript studies, history, chivalry, the notion of the quest, beasts and dragons, and the way the Middle Ages are read and reused today. Texts include excerpts from La Chanson de Roland; the Roman de Renart; the Quatre fils Aymon; the Roman de Silence; and the Roman de Perceval. All course discussion, content, and student work is entirely in French, and we continue to review advanced stylistics in French through written compositions. (HL) McCormick.