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Contacts
Office: Building 260, Rooms 127-128
Mail Code: 94305-2010
Phone: (650) 723-4183, Fax: (650) 723-0482
Email: fren-ital@stanford.edu
Web Site: https://dlcl.stanford.edu/departments/french-and-italian/about

Courses offered by the Department of French and Italian are listed on the Stanford Bulletin's ExploreCourses web site under the subject codes FRENCH (French General and Literature) and ITALIAN (Italian General and Literature).  For courses in French or Italian language instruction with the subject code FRENLANG or ITALLANG, see the "Language Center" section of this bulletin.

The department is a part of the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages.

French Section

The French section provides students with the opportunity to pursue course work at all levels in French language, literature, cultural and intellectual history, theory, film, and Francophone studies. It understands the domain of French Studies as encompassing the complex of cultural, political, social, scientific, commercial, and intellectual phenomena associated with French-speaking parts of the world, from France and Belgium to Canada, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Three degree programs are available in French: a B.A., a terminal M.A., and a Ph.D. A Ph.D. in French and Italian is also available.

Visiting faculty and instructors contribute regularly to the life of the French section. The section maintains contacts with the Ecole Normale Supérieure, the Institut d'Etudes Politiques, and the Ecole Polytechnique.

A curator for Romance languages oversees the extensive French collection at Green Library. The Hoover Institute on War, Revolution, and Peace also includes materials on 20th-century France and French social and political movements.

Stanford Center for Interdisciplinary Studies

The Stanford Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, founded in partnership with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aims to bridge the disciplines of the humanities, social sciences, sciences, engineering, business, and law, to address historical and contemporary issues. Its programs bring faculty and students from across Stanford's departments and schools in contact with colleagues in France to explore issues of common intellectual concern. The center invites French-speaking scholars to offer courses or give lectures or seminars on campus. It facilitates internships for Stanford students in computer science and engineering in Sophia-Antipolis, France's new high-tech center near Nice.

Stanford in Paris

The Bing Overseas Studies Program in Paris offers undergraduates the opportunity to study in France during Autumn, Winter, and Spring quarters. It provides a wide range of academic options, including course work at the Stanford center and at the University of Paris, independent study projects, and internships. In addition, the program promotes interaction with the local community through volunteer employment, homestays, and internships. The minimum language requirement for admission into Stanford in Paris is one year of French at the college level.

Courses offered in Paris may count toward fulfillment of the requirements of the French major or minor. Students should consult with the Chair of Undergraduate Studies before and after attending the program, in order to ensure that course work and skills acquired abroad can be coordinated appropriately with their degree program. Detailed information, including program requirements and curricular offerings, may be obtained from the "Overseas Studies" section of this bulletin, the Stanford in Paris web site, or the Overseas Studies Program Office in Sweet Hall.

La Maison Française

La Maison Française, 610 Mayfield, is an undergraduate residence that serves as a campus French cultural center, hosting in-house seminars as well as social events, film series, readings, and lectures by distinguished representatives of French and Francophone intellectual, artistic, and political life. Assignment is made through the regular housing draw.

Mission of the Undergraduate Program in French

The mission of the undergraduate in French is to expose students to a variety of perspectives in French language, culture, and history by providing majors and minors with training in writing and communication as well cultural, textual, and historical analysis.  Through such skills, students develop into critical and global thinkers prepared for careers in business, social service, journalism, and government, or for graduate study in French.

Learning Outcomes (Undergraduate)

The department expects undergraduate majors in the program to be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes. These learning outcomes are used in evaluating students and the department's undergraduate program. Students are expected to demonstrate:

  1. oral proficiency in French beyond the interpersonal level with presentational language abilities.
  2. writing proficiency in French beyond the interpersonal level with presentational language abilities.
  3. close reading skills of authentic texts in French.
  4. the ability to develop effective and nuanced lines of interpretation.

Italian Section

The Italian section offers graduate and undergraduate programs in Italian language, literature, culture, and intellectual history. Course offerings range from small, specialized graduate seminars to general courses open to all students on authors such as Dante, Boccaccio, and Machiavelli.

Three degree programs are available in Italian: a B.A., a Ph.D., and Ph.D. in French and Italian. An Italian minor program is available to undergraduates.  

Collections in Green Research Library are strong in the medieval, Renaissance, and contemporary periods; the Italian section is one of the larger constituents of the western European collection at the Hoover Institution for the Study of War, Revolution, and Peace; and the Music Library has excellent holdings in Italian opera.

La Casa Italiana

La Casa Italiana, 562 Mayfield, is an undergraduate residence devoted to developing an awareness of Italian language and culture. It works closely with the Italian Cultural Institute in San Francisco and with other local cultural organizations. It hosts visiting representatives of Italian intellectual, artistic, and political life. A number of departmental courses are taught at the Casa, which also offers in-house seminars. Assignment is made through the regular undergraduate housing draw.

Stanford in Florence

The Bing Overseas Studies Program in Florence affords undergraduates with at least three quarters of Italian language the opportunity to take advantage of the unique intellectual and visual resources of the city and to focus on two areas: Renaissance history and art, and contemporary Italian and European studies. The program is structured to help integrate students into Italian culture through homestays, Florence University courses, the Language Partners Program, research, internship and public service opportunities, and by conducting some of the program's classes in Italian. Many courses offered in Florence may count toward the fulfillment of requirements for the Italian major or minor. Students are encouraged to consult with the Italian undergraduate adviser before and after a sojourn in Florence to ensure that their course selections meet Italian section requirements. Information on the Florence program is available in the "Overseas Studies" section of this bulletin, the Stanford in Florence web site, or at the Overseas Studies office in Sweet Hall.

Mission of the Undergraduate Program in Italian

The mission of the undergraduate program in Italian is to expose students to a variety of perspectives in Italian language, culture, and history by providing majors with training in writing and communication as well as cultural, textual, and historical analysis in order to develop students into critical and global thinkers prepared for careers in business, social service, and government, or for graduate study in Italian.

Learning Outcomes (Undergraduate)

The department expects undergraduate majors in the program to be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes. These learning outcomes are used in evaluating students and the department's undergraduate program. Students are expected to demonstrate:

  1. oral proficiency in Italian beyond the interpersonal level with presentational language abilities.
  2. writing proficiency in Italian beyond the interpersonal level with presentational language abilities.
  3. close reading skills of authentic texts in Italian.
  4. the ability to develop effective and nuanced lines of interpretation.

Graduate Programs in French and Italian

The department offers a Ph.D. and terminal M.A. in French, a Ph.D. in Italian, and a Ph.D. in French and Italian.

Learning Outcomes (Graduate)

The purpose of the master's program is to further develop knowledge and skills in French or Italian and to prepare students for a professional career or doctoral studies. This is achieved through completion of courses, in the primary field as well as related areas, and experience with independent work and specialization.

The Ph.D. is conferred upon candidates who have demonstrated substantial scholarship and the ability to conduct independent research and analysis in French, Italian, or French and Italian. Through completion of advanced course work and rigorous skills training, the doctoral program prepares students to make original contributions to the knowledge of French, Italian, or French and Italian and to interpret and present the results of such research.

Bachelor of Arts in French

The French section offers a major and a minor in French. Students are encouraged to pursue a course of study tailored to their individual needs and interests. A degree in French serves as a stepping stone to entering international business, law, translation, and teaching, or as preparation for graduate studies in French, history, or comparative literature.

The French major allows students to combine their work in French with work from another field such as African studies, linguistics, art history, music, economics, history, education, medicine, international relations, political science, or other foreign languages and literatures. The literature and philosophy specialization offers students the opportunity to pursue interdisciplinary studies at the intersection of literature and philosophy in a structured manner and alongside similarly interested students from a variety of humanistic disciplines.

Declaring the Major

Students declare the major in French through Axess. Students should meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies and the undergraduate student services officer in Pigott Hall, room 128, to discuss appropriate courses and options within the major, and to plan the course of study.

Requirements 

Complete a minimum of 60 units of coursework in the major.

  • These units may not be used towards any other major or minor.
  • Courses applied to the major must be taken for a letter grade, and a grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 or better must be achieved in each course.
  • Limit independent study courses to no more than 12 units of coursework for the major.
  • Relevant courses from other departments or programs and earn credit toward the major as electives with the prior consent of the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
  • Limit to 12 units coursework completed at another university to count toward the major, and only with approval by the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

Coursework

To enroll in all French literature courses, students are highly encouraged to complete FRENLANG 124 Advanced French: Composition, Writing, and Presentation, or successfully tested above this level through the Language Center.

1. Recommended Introductory Course counts toward the major course unit requirement. 

Units
FRENCH 129Camus4-5

2. Required Courses. 3 courses minimum. For 2020-21, FRENCH 129, 131 and 133 fulfill the Writing in the Major (WIM) requirement.

Units
FRENCH 130Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance French Literature4
FRENCH 131Absolutism, Enlightenment, and Revolution in 17th- and 18th-Century France4
FRENCH 132Literature, Revolutions, and Changes in 19th- and 20th-Century France4
FRENCH 133Literature and Society in Africa and the Caribbean (WIM)4

3. Medieval/Early Modern Course. Students must take one course that concerns the period before 1800.  See the Director of Undergraduate Studies for additional appropriate courses. 

Units
FRENCH 130Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance French Literature4

4. Capstone Course. In their senior year students must enroll in a 3 unit Independent Study to prepare a final project that reflects their coursework in the major. In consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies, students choose a project from a menu of options. Options include but are not limited to a creative project or short essay. They will present this project to members of the department before graduation.

5. Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI). Students must take the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) two quarters prior to degree conferral through the Stanford Language Center.

6. Electives. Students must complete a total of 60 units towards the major. A maximum of 30 units can be elective courses. Elective courses can be taken within the following parameters:

  • Coursework within the department. Additional FRENCH courses taught by French faculty (may be taught in English or French) at the 100- or 200- level.
  • Language course work. Up to three language courses in French at or above FRENLANG 21C for a maximum of 13 units.
  • Coursework in other departments relevant to the degree, with approval by the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
  • Bing Overseas Program. Courses taken at the Bing Overseas Studies in Paris program with prior approval of the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
  • Thinking Matters or Education as Self-Fashioning courses taught at least partially by a faculty member of the French and Italian Department. Students may count a maximum of 10 units.
  • Structured Liberal Education. Students may count up to 10 units of SLE towards the major electives. 
  • Digital Humanities course. Student work must reflect French interests. Prior approval of the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Maximum of 5 units.

Bachelor of Arts in French, French and Philosophy Subplan

The French and Philosophy subplan requires a total of 65 units as described below. Students interested in this option should review the Philosophy and Literature web site. Substitutions and transfer credit are not normally permitted for the PHIL 170 series class or the PHIL 180 series class, and are never permitted for PHIL 80, FRENCH 181, or the capstone seminar. Up to 10 units of courses taken in the Philosophy department may be taken 'CR/NC' or 'S/NC'; the remainder must be taken for a letter grade. Once a student has completed the SLE sequence (all three quarters) they may count up to 10 units towards this major. The SLE units can replace one history of philosophy course and one upper-division French course. 

Required French Coursework

1. Advanced Language.  FRENLANG 124 Advanced French: Composition, Writing, and Presentation

2. Required Courses. Students must take three of the following core courses.

Units
FRENCH 130Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance French Literature4
FRENCH 131Absolutism, Enlightenment, and Revolution in 17th- and 18th-Century France4
FRENCH 132Literature, Revolutions, and Changes in 19th- and 20th-Century France4
FRENCH 133Literature and Society in Africa and the Caribbean4

3. Upper division French Courses. At least three courses numbered FRENCH 140 or higher.

4. Students must take the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) two quarters prior to degree conferral through the Stanford Language Center.

Required Philosophy Coursework

  1. Philosophy Writing in the Major.
    Units
    PHIL 80Mind, Matter, and Meaning (WIM) (prerequisite: introductory philosophy course)5
  2. Philosophy and Literature Course. This course should be taken as early as possible in the student's career, normally in the sophomore year.
    Units
    FRENCH 181Philosophy and Literature3-5
  3. Aesthetics, Ethics, Political Philosophy. One course from the PHIL 170 Ethical Theory series.
  4. Language, Mind Metaphysics, and Epistemology. One course from the PHIL 180 series.
  5. History of Philosophy.  Two courses in the history of Philosophy, numbered above PHIL 100.
  6. Two additional elective courses of special relevance to the study of philosophy and literature. A list of approved courses may be found on the Philosophy and Literature web site. Students must consult with the Chair of Undergraduate Studies in French. See https://philit.stanford.edu/undergraduates/undergraduate-special-relevance-courses.
  7. Capstone. Students must do one of the following: (a) take one of the officially-designated Philosophy and Literature capstone seminars listed below; (b) write an honors thesis (see “Honors Program” for instructions); or (c) write a 5,000-word paper on a topic of their choosing, serving as the culmination of their work in the field. To make time to write the paper, students must enroll in a 3-unit, letter-grade independent study with a faculty member (or affiliate) in the Philosophy and Literature Focal Group. The paper must involve both philosophy and literature, and the topic must be approved by the faculty member by the add/drop deadline.
    Units
    COMPLIT 283AModern Notions of 'The Holy'3-5
    PHIL 194WCapstone Seminar: Imagination in Fiction and Philosophy4
    PHIL 194ZCapstone: Living a Meaningful Literary Life4

Honors Program

Students majoring in any DLCL department (i.e., Comparative Literature, French and Italian, German Studies, Iberian and Latin American Cultures, and Slavic Languages and Literatures) who have an overall grade point average (GPA) of 3.3 or above and who maintain a 3.5 (GPA) in their major courses, are eligible to participate in the DLCL's honors program.

Declaring Honors

Prospective honors students must choose a senior thesis adviser from among their home department's regular faculty in their junior year by May 1. During Spring Quarter of the junior year, a student interested in the honors program should consult with the Chair of Undergraduate Studies of their home department to submit a thesis proposal (2-5 pages), DLCL Honors application, and an outline of planned course work for their senior year. When their applications are approved by their home department, students will request honors through Axess.  

Honors theses vary considerably in length as a function of their topic, historical scope, and methodology. They may make use of previous work developed in seminars and courses, but display an enhanced comparative or theoretical scope. Quality rather than quantity is the key criterion. Honors theses range from 40 to 90 pages not including bibliography and notes. 

Honors students are encouraged to participate in the DLCL program hosted by Bing Honors College. This DLCL Honors College is designed to help students develop their projects and is offered at the end of the summer before senior year.  Applications must be submitted through the Bing program. For more information, view the Bing Honors web site.

Program Requirements

A minimum of 10 units total, described below, and a completed thesis is required. Honors essays are due to the thesis adviser no later than 5:00 p.m. on May 15, of the terminal year. If an essay is found deserving of a grade of 'A-' or better by the thesis adviser, honors are granted at the time of graduation.

  1. Spring Quarter of the junior year (optional): DLCL 189C Honors Thesis Seminar, 2-4 units S/NC, under the primary thesis adviser. Drafting or revision of the thesis proposal. The proposal is reviewed by the Chair of Undergraduate Studies and the Director of the department and will be approved or returned for submission.
  2. Autumn Quarter of the senior year (required): DLCL 189A Honors Thesis Seminar, 4 units S/NC, taught by a DLCL appointed faculty member. Course focuses on researching and writing the honors thesis.
  3. Winter Quarter of the senior year (required): DLCL 189B Honors Thesis Seminar, 2-4 units S/NC, under the primary thesis adviser. Focus is on writing under guidance of primary adviser.
  4. Spring Quarter of the senior year (option; mandatory if not taken during junior year): DLCL 189C Honors Thesis Seminar, 2-4 units S/NC, under the primary thesis adviser. Honors essays are due to the thesis adviser and student services officer no later than 5:00 p.m. on May 15 of the terminal year.
  5. Spring Quarter of the senior year (required) DLCL 199 Honors Thesis Oral Presentation, 1 unit S/NC.  Enroll with primary thesis adviser.

The honors thesis in the DLCL embodies Stanford's excellence in course work and research. It is simultaneously one element of the student’s intellectual legacy and part of the University's official history. The faculty considers the honors thesis to be far more than a final paper; rather, it is the product of solid research that contributes to conversations taking place within a larger scholarly community and representative of the intellectual vitality of the discipline. For all of these reasons, DLCL honors theses will be visible to future scholars researching similar questions through full online access through the Stanford Digital Repository (SDR) and may be used as course materials for future Stanford honors preparatory courses. For similar purposes, a printed copy may also be kept in DLCL spaces. Students who wish to limit the availability or formats in which the thesis may be shared may do so by filling out the appropriate form with the DLCL student affairs officer.

Bachelor of Arts in Italian

The Italian section offers a major and a minor. Students are encouraged to pursue a course of study tailored to their individual needs and interests. A degree in Italian serves as a stepping stone to entering international business, law, translation, and teaching, or as preparation for graduate studies in Italian, history, or comparative literature.

The Italian major allows students to combine their work in Italian with work from another field such as linguistics, art history, music, economics, history, education, medicine, international relations, political science, or other foreign languages and literatures. The literature and philosophy specialization offers students the opportunity to pursue interdisciplinary studies at the intersection of literature and philosophy in a structured manner and alongside similarly interested students from a variety of humanistic disciplines.

Declaring the Major

Students declare the major in Italian through Axess. Students should meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies and the DLCL undergraduate student support officer to discuss appropriate courses and options within the major, and to plan the course of study.

Requirements

Complete a minimum of 60 units of course work in the major.

  • These 60 units may not be used towards any other major or minor.
  • Courses applied to the major must be taken for a letter grade, and a grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 or better must be achieved in each course.
  • No more than 12 units of coursework for the major should be taken as independent study courses. 
  • Relevant courses from other departments or programs may also earn credit toward the major as electives with prior approval from the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
  • Limit to 12 units of coursework completed at another university to count toward the major, and only with approval by the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

Coursework

To enroll in all ITALIAN or ITALLANG courses taught in Italian at or above the 100 level, students must have successfully completed ITALLANG 22A or the equivalent. 

1. Recommended Introductory Courses count as electives toward the major.

Units
ITALIAN 148Cinema and the Real: Italian Neo-Realism and the French New Wave3-5
ITALIAN 155The Mafia in Society, Film, and Fiction4

2. Intermediate Language. Students may earn up to 12 units in second-year language courses (maximum 12 units).

Units
ITALLANG 21Second Year Italian, First Quarter4
ITALLANG 22Second-Year Italian, Second Quarter4
ITALLANG 23Second-Year Italian, Third Quarter3-4
or
ITALLANG 21AAccelerated Second-Year Italian, Part 15
ITALLANG 22AAccelerated Second-Year Italian, Part 25

3. Required Courses. Students must take all three of the following core courses at Stanford (12 units). For 2020-21, ITALIAN 128 The Italian Renaissance and the Path to Modernity fulfills the Writing in the Major (WIM) requirement.

Units
ITALIAN 127Inventing Italian Literature: Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarca4
ITALIAN 128The Italian Renaissance and the Path to Modernity (WIM)4
ITALIAN 12919th and 20th Century Literature and Culture: Constructing and Re-Constructing Italy4

4. Capstone Course: In their senior year, students must enroll in a 3-unit Independent Study to prepare a final project that reflects their coursework in the major.  In consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies, students choose a project from a menu of options.  Options include but are not limited to a creative project or short essay.  Students will present this project to the faculty of the department before graduation.

5. Students must take the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) two quarters prior to degree conferral through the Stanford Language Center.

6. Electives. Students must complete a total of 60 units towards the major. A maximum of 33 units can be elective courses. Elective courses can be taken within the following parameters:

  • Coursework within the department. Additional ITALIAN courses taught by Italian faculty (may be taught in English or Italian) at the 100- or 200- level.
  • Coursework in other departments relevant to the degree, on Italian topics, with the approval of the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Maximum of 14 units. 
  • Bing Overseas Program. Courses taken at the Bing Overseas Studies in Florence program with approval of the Chair of Undergraduate Studies.
  • Thinking Matters or Education as Self-Fashioning courses taught at least partially by a faculty member of the French and Italian Department. Students may count a maximum of 10 units.
  • Structured Liberal Education. Students may count 10 units of SLE coursework towards their major elective totals.
  • Digital Humanities Course. Student work must reflect Italian interests. Prior approval of the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Maximum of 5 units.

Italian and Philosophy Subplan

The Italian and Philosophy subplan requires a total of 65 units as described below. Students interested in this subplan should review the Philosophy and Literature website.  Substitutions and transfer credit are not normally permitted for the PHIL 170 series class or the PHIL 180 series class, and are never permitted for PHIL 80, ITALIAN 181 Philosophy and Literature or the capstone seminar. Up to 10 units of courses taken in the Philosophy department may be taken 'CR/NC' or 'S/NC'; the remainder must be taken for a letter grade. Once a student has completed the SLE sequence (all three quarters) they may count up to 10 units towards this major. The SLE units can replace one history of philosophy course and one upper-division ITALIAN course. 

Required Italian Course Work

  • Intermediate Language. Students may earn up to 12 units in second-year language courses (maximum 12 units).
Units
ITALLANG 21Second Year Italian, First Quarter4
ITALLANG 22Second-Year Italian, Second Quarter4
ITALLANG 23Second-Year Italian, Third Quarter3-4

or

Units
ITALLANG 21AAccelerated Second-Year Italian, Part 15
ITALLANG 22AAccelerated Second-Year Italian, Part 25
  • Required ITALIAN Courses.Students must take all three of the following core courses at Stanford (12 units) ITALIAN 128 fulfills the Writing in the Major (WIM) requirement.
Units
ITALIAN 127Inventing Italian Literature: Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarca4
ITALIAN 128The Italian Renaissance and the Path to Modernity4
ITALIAN 12919th and 20th Century Literature and Culture: Constructing and Re-Constructing Italy4
  • Studies in Italian Culture. Students must complete a minimum of 10 additional units (2-3 courses) in ITALIAN coursework (taught in English or Italian).
  • Additional Requirements. Students must take the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) two quarters prior to degree conferral. Students should contact the Language Center to arrange the assessment. 

Required Philosophy Coursework

  1. Philosophy Writing in the Major.
    Units
    PHIL 80Mind, Matter, and Meaning (WIM) (prerequisite: introductory philosophy course)5
  2. Philosophy and Literature Course. This course should be taken as early as possible in the student's career, normally in the sophomore year.
    Units
    FRENCH 181Philosophy and Literature3-5
  3. Aesthetics, Ethics, Political Philosophy. One course from the PHIL 170 Ethical Theory series.
  4. Language, Mind Metaphysics, and Epistemology. One course from the PHIL 180 series.
  5. History of Philosophy.  Two courses in the history of Philosophy, numbered above PHIL 100.
  6. Two additional elective courses of special relevance to the study of philosophy and literature. A list of approved courses may be found on the Philosophy and Literature web site. Students must consult with the Chair of Undergraduate Studies in French. See https://philit.stanford.edu/undergraduates/undergraduate-special-relevance-courses.
  7. Capstone. Students must do one of the following: (a) take one of the officially-designated Philosophy and Literature capstone seminars listed below; (b) write an honors thesis (see “Honors Program” for instructions); or (c) write a 5,000-word paper on a topic of their choosing, serving as the culmination of their work in the field. To make time to write the paper, students must enroll in a 3-unit, letter-grade independent study with a faculty member (or affiliate) in the Philosophy and Literature Focal Group. The paper must involve both philosophy and literature, and the topic must be approved by the faculty member by the add/drop deadline.
    Units
    COMPLIT 283AModern Notions of 'The Holy'3-5
    PHIL 194WCapstone Seminar: Imagination in Fiction and Philosophy4
    PHIL 194ZCapstone: Living a Meaningful Literary Life4

Honors Program

Students majoring in any DLCL department (i.e., Comparative Literature, French and Italian, German Studies, Iberian and Latin American Cultures, and Slavic Languages and Literatures) who have an overall grade point average (GPA) of 3.3 or above and who maintain a 3.5 (GPA) in their major courses, are eligible to participate in the DLCL's honors program.

Declaring Honors

Prospective honors students must choose a senior thesis adviser from among their home department's regular faculty in their junior year by May 1. During Spring Quarter of the junior year, a student interested in the honors program should consult with the Chair of Undergraduate Studies of their home department to submit a thesis proposal (2-5 pages), DLCL Honors application, and an outline of planned course work for their senior year. When their applications are approved by their home department, students will request honors through Axess.  

Honors theses vary considerably in length as a function of their topic, historical scope, and methodology. They may make use of previous work developed in seminars and courses, but display an enhanced comparative or theoretical scope. Quality rather than quantity is the key criterion. Honors theses range from 40 to 90 pages not including bibliography and notes. 

Honors students are encouraged to participate in the DLCL program hosted by Bing Honors College. This DLCL Honors College is designed to help students develop their projects and is offered at the end of the summer before senior year.  Applications must be submitted through the Bing program. For more information, view the Bing Honors web site.

Program Requirements

A minimum of 10 units total, described below, and a completed thesis is required. Honors essays are due to the thesis adviser no later than 5:00 p.m. on May 15, of the terminal year. If an essay is found deserving of a grade of 'A-' or better by the thesis adviser, honors are granted at the time of graduation.

  1. Spring Quarter of the junior year (optional): DLCL 189C Honors Thesis Seminar, 2-4 units S/NC, under the primary thesis adviser. Drafting or revision of the thesis proposal. The proposal is reviewed by the Chair of Undergraduate Studies and the Director of the department and will be approved or returned for submission.
  2. Autumn Quarter of the senior year (required): DLCL 189A Honors Thesis Seminar, 4 units S/NC, taught by a DLCL appointed faculty member. Course focuses on researching and writing the honors thesis.
  3. Winter Quarter of the senior year (required): DLCL 189B Honors Thesis Seminar, 2-4 units S/NC, under the primary thesis adviser. Focus is on writing under guidance of primary adviser.
  4. Spring Quarter of the senior year (option; mandatory if not taken during junior year): DLCL 189C Honors Thesis Seminar, 2-4 units S/NC, under the primary thesis adviser. Honors essays are due to the thesis adviser and student services officer no later than 5:00 p.m. on May 15 of the terminal year.
  5. Spring Quarter of the senior year (required) DLCL 199 Honors Thesis Oral Presentation, 1 unit S/NC.  Enroll with primary thesis adviser.

The honors thesis in the DLCL embodies Stanford's excellence in course work and research. It is simultaneously one element of the student’s intellectual legacy and part of the University's official history. The faculty considers the honors thesis to be far more than a final paper; rather, it is the product of solid research that contributes to conversations taking place within a larger scholarly community and representative of the intellectual vitality of the discipline. For all of these reasons, DLCL honors theses will be visible to future scholars researching similar questions through full online access through the Stanford Digital Repository (SDR) and may be used as course materials for future Stanford honors preparatory courses. For similar purposes, a printed copy may also be kept in DLCL spaces. Students who wish to limit the availability or formats in which the thesis may be shared may do so by filling out the appropriate form with the DLCL student affairs officer.

Minor in French

Declaring the Minor

Students declare the major in French through Axess. Students should meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies and undergraduate student support officer to discuss appropriate courses and options within the minor, and to plan the course of study.

Requirements of the Minor

To earn a minor in French, students must:

  • Complete a minimum of 6 courses at 3 units or more and total 24 units of course work in the department.
  • These 24 units may not be used towards any other major or minor.
  • Courses applied to the minor must be taken for a letter grade, and a grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 or better must be achieved in each course.
  • To enroll in all French literature courses, students are highly encouraged to complete FRENLANG 124 Advanced French: Composition, Writing, and Presentation or successfully tested above this level through the Stanford Language Center.

Coursework for the Minor

1.  Required Courses: Students must take a minimum of three French Literature courses. Two must be from the FRENCH 130 sequence (8 units):

Units
FRENCH 130Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance French Literature4
FRENCH 131Absolutism, Enlightenment, and Revolution in 17th- and 18th-Century France4
FRENCH 132Literature, Revolutions, and Changes in 19th- and 20th-Century France4
FRENCH 133Literature and Society in Africa and the Caribbean4

2.  Electives. A maximum of 12 elective units may be applied to the minor. Prior approval from the Director of Undergraduate Studies is required. The following courses have been pre-approved as electives:

Units
Courses taught in FRENCH department
FRENLANG 21CSecond-Year French: Cultural Emphasis, First Quarter4
FRENLANG 22CSecond-Year French: Cultural Emphasis, Second Quarter4
FRENLANG 23CSecond-Year French: Cultural Emphasis, Third Quarter4
FRENLANG 120Advanced French Oral Communication3
FRENLANG 124Advanced French: Composition, Writing, and Presentation4-5
OSPPARIS courses. Courses taken at the Bing Overseas Studies in Paris program with prior approval of the Chair of Undergraduate Studies (language of instruction must be French)
Education as Self-Fashioning and, Thinking Matters courses taught at least partially by a faculty member in French. Maximum of 5 units. 5
Structured Liberal Education Students may count 5 units of SLE towards the major electives. Maximum of 5 units.
Digital Humanities Course. Student work must reflect French interests. Prior approval of the Chair of Undergraduate Studies. Maximum of 5 units.

Minor in Italian

Declaring the Major

Students declare the minor in Italian through Axess. Students should meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies and undergraduate student support officer to discuss appropriate courses and options within the minor, and to plan the course of study.

Requirements of the Minor

To earn a minor in Italian, students must:

  • Complete a minimum of 6 courses at 3 units or more and total 24 units of coursework in Italian language and culture.
  • These 24 units may not be used towards any other major or minor.
  • Courses applied to the minor must be taken for a letter grade, and a grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 or better must be achieved in each course.
  • To enroll in all ITALIAN or ITALLANG courses taught in Italian at or above the 100 level, students must have successfully completed ITALLANG 22A or the equivalent. Language assessments for placement purposes may be arranged through the Stanford Language Center.

Coursework for the Major

1. Intermediate Language.Students may earn up to 12 units in second-year language courses (maximum 12 units)

Units
ITALLANG 21Second Year Italian, First Quarter4
ITALLANG 22Second-Year Italian, Second Quarter4
ITALLANG 23Second-Year Italian, Third Quarter3-4

or

ITALLANG 21AAccelerated Second-Year Italian, Part 15
ITALLANG 22AAccelerated Second-Year Italian, Part 25

2. Required Courses. Students must take at least two of the following courses taught in Italian at Stanford (minimum 6 units). At least one course must be ITALIAN 127, 128 or 129:

ITALLANG 114Composition, Writing, and Presentation3
ITALLANG 115Academic and Creative Writing3
ITALIAN 127Inventing Italian Literature: Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarca4
ITALIAN 128The Italian Renaissance and the Path to Modernity4
ITALIAN 12919th and 20th Century Literature and Culture: Constructing and Re-Constructing Italy4

* With approval of the Director of Undergraduate Studies, one of these courses may be replaced by a course taken at BOSP Florence.

3. Electives. A maximum of 10 elective units may be applied to the minor. Prior approval from the Chair of Undergraduate Studies is required. The following courses have been pre-approved as electives:

  • Coursework within the ITALIAN department at the 100- or 200- level.
  • Bing Overseas Program. Courses taken at the Bing Overseas Studies in Florence program with prior approval of the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
  • Thinking Matters or Education as Self-Fashioning courses taught at least partially by a faculty member in Italian. Maximum of 5 units.
  • Structured Liberal Education. Students may count 5 units of SLE towards the major electives. Maximum of 5 units.
  • Digital Humanities course. Student work must reflect Italian interests. Prior approval of the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Maximum of 5 units.

Minor in Modern Languages

The Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages offers an undergraduate minor in Modern Languages that permits students to demonstrate strength in two distinct modern languages and their literatures.  See the "Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages" section of this bulletin for further details about the minor and its requirements.

Coterminal Master's Program in French

University requirements for the coterminal M.A. are described in the "Coterminal Bachelor's and Master's Degrees" section of this bulletin. For University coterminal master’s degree application forms, see the Registrar’s Publications page.

Each year the department admits a small number of undergraduates to the coterminal M.A. degree in French. Applications for Autumn Quarter must be submitted by January 31 of the senior year to the director of the department. Students must submit the Coterminal Online Application and include the following:

  • a written statement of purpose
  • two letters of recommendation from faculty at Stanford
  • a transcript.

Students accepted into the coterminal program must have been undergraduate majors in French and must meet all requirements both for the B.A. and the M.A.

University Coterminal Requirements

Coterminal master’s degree candidates are expected to complete all master’s degree requirements as described in this bulletin. University requirements for the coterminal master’s degree are described in the “Coterminal Master’s Program” section. University requirements for the master’s degree are described in the "Graduate Degrees" section of this bulletin.

After accepting admission to this coterminal master’s degree program, students may request transfer of courses from the undergraduate to the graduate career to satisfy requirements for the master’s degree. Transfer of courses to the graduate career requires review and approval of both the undergraduate and graduate programs on a case by case basis.

In this master’s program, courses taken during or after the first quarter of the sophomore year are eligible for consideration for transfer to the graduate career; the timing of the first graduate quarter is not a factor. No courses taken prior to the first quarter of the sophomore year may be used to meet master’s degree requirements.

Course transfers are not possible after the bachelor’s degree has been conferred.

The University requires that the graduate advisor be assigned in the student’s first graduate quarter even though the undergraduate career may still be open. The University also requires that the Master’s Degree Program Proposal be completed by the student and approved by the department by the end of the student’s first graduate quarter.

Master of Arts in French

University regulations pertaining to the M.A. are listed in the "Graduate Degrees" section of this bulletin.

The terminal M.A. in French provides a flexible combination of language, literature, cultural history, and methodology course work designed to enhance the preparation of secondary school, junior college, or college teachers.

Candidates must complete a minimum of 45 units of graduate work, all courses being taken for a letter grade, with a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 3.3, as well as pass the master's examination at the end of their studies. To fulfill the requirements in a single year, enrollment must be for an average of 15 units per quarter.

Candidates must take one cultural history course (to be taken either inside or outside the Department of French and Italian). All remaining units are to be taken in advanced French literature courses (200 level or above), three of which must be concerned with the pre-revolutionary period of French cultural history.

Applicants should consult Graduate Admissions for information related to the application process. Candidates for this degree are not eligible for financial aid or for teaching assistantships.

Examination

The terminal M.A. examination is administered between the third and fifth week of Spring Quarter by a three-member committee, selected each year by the Director of Graduate Studies. It consists of two parts:

  1. Written Exam
    The two-hour written exam tests the candidate's general knowledge of French literature and is based on the French Ph.D. reading list which may be obtained from the Director of Graduate Studies, Student Services Manager, or by referencing the French and Italian Graduate Student Handbook.
    The exam requires that the candidate answer two questions (out of three) in a manner that demonstrates his/her ability to synthesize and draw parallels between periods, genres, and systems of representation on the basis of the standard reading list. One question must be answered in French. Use of a dictionary is allowed.
    If the student's performance on the exam is deemed a 'pass' by two out of three of the members of the examining committee, the student is then permitted to go on to the oral examination (taken later the same week). Should the candidate fail the M.A. written exam, he/she is given a second chance at the end of Spring Quarter.
  2. Oral Exam
    The 90-minute oral exam is based upon the student's answers on the written exam. It examines the candidate's knowledge and understanding of French literary history on the basis of the standard reading list.
    At the conclusion of the oral exam, the examination committee meets in closed session and discusses the student's performance on the written and the oral portions of the examination. If it is judged adequate, the M.A. degree is granted. In no event may the master's written and oral exams be taken more than twice.

Doctor of Philosophy in French

University regulations pertaining to the Ph.D. are listed in the "Graduate Degrees" section of this bulletin.

Degree Requirements

  1. Course work

    A candidate for the Ph.D. degree must complete at least 135 units of graduate-level study. 72 of the 135 units must be taken within the department. All courses counted towards the 135-unit requirement for the PhD be at the graduate level. Excess course work can be taken at the undergraduate level but may not be used towards the Ph.D. requirements. All course work should be selected in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies.

    Required Courses:

    Units
    DLCL 301The Learning and Teaching of Second Languages (must be taken in the first year of studies)3
    DLCL 311Professional Workshop1
    A minimum of five courses on French literature and culture taught at the graduate level. Three of the required five courses must be taken within the first year.15

    Elective Courses— Apart from the required courses above, students are granted considerable freedom in structuring a course of study appropriate to their individual needs. During the first year, most course work is done within the French and Italian department, in order to ensure an adequate preparation for the qualifying examination. Students are encouraged to take a variety of courses in order to be exposed to different periods and issues. Students are not allowed to take Independent Study during their first year. In the second and third years, however, the program of study is tailored to the specific interests of the student.

  2. Examinations

    Completion of all department and University examinations.
  3. Dissertation

    Submission and approval of a dissertation.
  4. Teaching

    Ph.D. students are required to teach a minimum of five courses within their five years of funding.
  5. Language Requirements

    Attaining a native or near-native fluency in French is a requirement to qualify for the Ph.D. degree. Upon entering the program, candidates must contact the Language Center and arrange to take the OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) to determine their fluency in French. An advanced level or above must have been reached by the time candidates take their qualifying exam in Autumn Quarter of the second year of study. If a student fails to score in the advanced bracket of the OPI test upon entering, he/she is tested again at the beginning of the second year. It is the responsibility of the candidates to design a course of study to improve his or her proficiency in French. Candidates who do not meet the minimum language requirement must discuss their plans to meet this requirement with the Director of Graduate Studies.
    In addition, candidates are required to achieve a high level of proficiency in one additional foreign language, with the language in question to be determined by the student and adviser as a function of the student's area of specialization. Such proficiency may be demonstrated either by completing a graduate seminar in the language in question, or by passing an exam that establishes a third-year or above level of competence in writing, reading, and speaking. In the case of ancient Greek and Latin, a high level of proficiency means a level superior to a second-year collegiate level of proficiency in reading and writing. The second foreign language requirement must be completed by the end of the third year.
  6. Candidacy

    Admission to candidacy is an important decision grounded in an overall assessment of a student’s ability to successfully complete the Ph.D. program. Per University policy, students are expected to complete department qualifying procedures and apply for candidacy by the end of the second year in residence. In reviewing a student for admission to candidacy, the faculty considers a student’s academic progress including but not limited to: advanced language proficiency, coursework, performance on the Qualifying Exam (or Field Exam for those with a waiver of the Qualifying Exam), and successful completion of teaching and research assistantships. A student must also have completed at least 3 units of work with each of 4 Stanford faculty members prior to consideration for candidacy. Students applying to candidacy must provide for their annual review a writing sample in French (or English for French native speakers) corresponding to a paper completed for a course taken at Stanford. In addition to successful completion of department prerequisites, a student is only admitted to candidacy if the faculty makes the judgment that the student has the potential to successfully complete the requirements of the degree program. Candidacy is determined by faculty vote. Failure to advance to candidacy results in the dismissal of the student from the doctoral program. Candidacy is valid for five years and students are required to maintain active candidacy through conferral of the doctoral degree. All requirements for the degree must be completed before candidacy expires. The Department of French and Italian conducts regular reviews of each student’s academic performance, both prior to and following successful admission to candidacy. Failure to make satisfactory progress to degree may result in dismissal from the doctoral program. Additional information about University candidacy policy is available in the Bulletin and GAP.

  7. TGR Status

    Doctoral students who have been admitted to candidacy, completed all required courses and degree requirements other than the dissertation, completed 135 units, and submitted a Doctoral Dissertation Reading Committee form, must request Terminal Graduate Registration status to complete their dissertations. Each quarter, all TGR students must enroll in FRENCH 802 TGR Dissertation for zero units, in the appropriate section for their adviser.

Grading

Doctoral students in the department must take required courses for a letter grade if available and are expected to earn a grade of 'B+' or better in each course. Any grade of 'B' or below is considered to be less than satisfactory. Grades of 'B' or below are reviewed by faculty: while the grade will stand, the student may be required to revise and resubmit the work associated with that course.

Examinations

There are three examinations: the qualifying examination, the field examination, and the University oral examination. Students may not take any department or University exam while course work is incomplete.

Qualifying Examination

The first oral examination, which takes place in the week prior to autumn quarter of the second year of study, tests the student's knowledge of language and literature and his/her aptitude for critical thinking. The examining committee, determined by the Director of French and Italian, schedules the precise exam date and time.

The exam is based on a standard reading list covering major works from all periods of literature in the language(s) of study, from the Middle Ages to present day. The list may be expanded to reflect a student's particular interests, but not abridged. The reading list may be obtained from the Director of Graduate Studies, the student services manager, or by referencing the French and Italian student handbook.

The exam is 90 minutes in length and consists of two parts:

  1. A 20-minute presentation by the candidate on a topic to be determined by the student. This presentation may be given in English or in the language of study and should engage, in a succinct manner, an issue or set of issues of broad relevance to the literary history of the language(s) of study. The presentation must not simply be a text read aloud, but rather must be given from notes. It is meant to be suggestive and not exhaustive, so as to provoke further discussion. You may bring a single letter-sized page of notes, printed in 12-point font, with no full sentences except for quotations; you must hand it in at the end of the exam.
  2. A 70-minute question and answer period in which the examining committee follows up on the candidate's presentation and discusses the reading list with the student. At least part of this portion of the exam takes place in the language(s) of study. The student is expected to demonstrate a solid knowledge of the texts on the reading list and of the basic issues which they raise, as well as a broader sense of the cultural/literary context into which they fit and demonstrate the ability to formulate an original point of view on such texts and contexts.

Students who do not pass the qualifying exam their first time may be placed on probation with limited enrollment and be allowed to retake the exam at the end of Autumn Quarter. Should the student not pass the retake exam, his or her studies in the Ph.D. program are concluded.

Students already holding an advanced degree in the relevant area may request to be excused from the Qualifying Exam. However, the student must present a formal request for a waiver to the Director of Graduate Studies by the end of autumn quarter of the first year. Such a request must document the course work completed elsewhere and include all relevant reading lists. Only in cases where taking the Qualifying Exam would involve considerable repetition of already competed work is such a waiver likely to be granted.

Field Examination

The second oral examination takes place in week prior to Autumn Quarter of the third year of study. Students waived from the qualifying exam take the field exam in the week prior to Autumn Quarter of the second year of study. The exam is 100 minutes in length and consists of two parts:

  1. A 20-minute presentation by the student on a topic (a particular literary genre or a broad theoretical, historical, or interdisciplinary question) freely chosen and developed by the individual student working in collaboration with his/her adviser and the Director of Graduate Studies. The student should design this research project so that it has the focus of an article or a seminar he/she might teach. The student should discuss the proposed topic with the Director of Graduate Studies before the end of the quarter preceding the quarter in which he/she plans to take the exam; together they choose a committee of three faculty members with interests close to the proposed topic. In most cases, one of these committee members is the student's adviser. This presentation is followed by a 20-minute discussion.
  2. A 60-minute discussion of a reading list, assembled by the student, which covers about a century of writing. The reading list should include works in all genres relevant to the period covered and should be around two single-spaced pages in length. The list may well include critical and scholarly works or texts from outside the traditional domain of literary studies in the chosen tradition (such as film, philosophy, other literary traditions), but such coverage should be regarded as supplemental except in rare instances where the Director and faculty advisers have agreed to define these materials as the student's field. Students are required to discuss the reading list for the examination with the Director of Graduate Studies and with members of their committee during the quarter preceding the examination. A final reading list must be submitted to the committee no later than two weeks preceding the examination. Each member of the committee is assigned a 20-minute period to question the candidate on the reading list and its intellectual-historical implications. The aim of these questions is to establish the student's credentials as a specialist in the period of his/her choosing, so the core of the reading list must be made up of texts that are essential to any specialist. It follows that reading lists must not focus on the narrow area of the student's research interest. The tendency to bias reading lists towards the dissertation topic, be it an author or a genre, does not cancel the obligation to cover the major figures and genres. It is understandable that some students, by their third year, have become so deeply committed to their work toward the dissertation that they wish to use the preparation period for the examination as part of their dissertation research. Certainly, some of the exam work may prove relevant, but students should also remember that the examination is the central means of certifying their expertise in a literary period.

The University Oral Examination

This examination takes the form of a dissertation proposal defense. It is to be taken no later than Spring Quarter of the student's third year. Students must have completed all course work and language requirements before the quarter in which they take the University oral examination. One quarter prior to the University oral examination, students must schedule the exam date and time as well as work with their primary adviser to obtain an outside chair for the examination.

Two weeks before the exam, the student must submit to the committee a 25-35 page proposal, which must contain the following parts:

  1. a clear presentation of the student's central thesis
  2. a synthetic overview of the dissertation
  3. a description of the methodology that is used in the dissertation
  4. an in-depth discussion of current secondary sources on the topic.

The student must also append a bibliography, but this does not take the place of number 4. The proposal must be prepared in close consultation with the dissertation director during the months preceding the exam.

The exam committee consists of four members, in addition to a committee chair from outside the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages, whose principal functions are to keep track of time and to call on the four members of the committee who question the candidate on the talk and on the reading list.

After a 20-minute presentation on the part of the candidate, each member of the committee (apart from the committee chair) questions the student for 20 minutes. At the end of the hour and forty minutes, the faculty readers vote on the outcome of the exam. If the outcome is favorable, (four out of five votes in favor of the student passing), the student is free to proceed with work on the dissertation. If the proposal is found to be unsatisfactory, the dissertation readers may ask the student to revise and resubmit the dissertation prospectus and to schedule a second exam. A student who fails a second time will be released from the Ph.D. program and awarded a terminal M.A. degree.

Advising

Given the interdisciplinary nature of the Ph.D. programs and the opportunity they afford each student to create an individualized program of study, regular consultation with an adviser is of the utmost importance. The adviser for all entering graduate students is the Director of Graduate Studies, whose responsibility it is to assist students with their course planning and to keep a running check on progress in completing the course, teaching, and language requirements. By the end of the second year of study, each student should have chosen a faculty adviser whose expertise is appropriate to his/her own area of research and interests.

Yearly Review

The faculty provide students with timely and constructive feedback on their progress toward the Ph.D. In order to evaluate students' progress and to identify potential problem areas, the department's faculty reviews the academic progress of each student at the end of the academic year. The yearly reviews are primarily intended to identify developing problems that could impede progress. In most cases, students are simply given constructive feedback, but if more serious concerns warrant, a student may be placed on probation with specific guidelines for addressing the problems detected. Possible outcomes of the yearly review include (1) continuation of the student in good standing, or (2) placing the student on probation, with specific guidelines for the period on probation and the steps to be taken in order to be returned to good standing. For students on probation at this point (or at any other subsequent points), possible outcomes of a review include: (1) restoration to good standing; (2) continued probation, again with guidelines for necessary remedial steps; or (3) termination from the program. Students leaving the program at the end of the first or second year are usually allowed to complete the requirements to receive an M.A. degree, if this does not involve additional residency or financial support.

Ph.D. Minor for Graduate Students in French or Italian

The Ph.D. may be combined with a minor in a related field, including Comparative Literature, Linguistics, Modern Thought and Literature, Art History, History, Music, Philosophy, and Spanish. Ph.D. candidates in French may minor in Italian, and vice versa. Students interested in a minor should design their course of study with their advisor(s).

Ph.D. Minor in French Literature

The department offers a minor in French Literature. The requirement for a minor in French is completion of 24 units of graduate course work in the French section. Interested students should consult the Director of Graduate Studies.

Doctor of Philosophy in Italian

University regulations pertaining to the Ph.D. are listed in the "Graduate Degrees" section of this bulletin.

Degree Requirements

  1. Course work

    A candidate for the Ph.D. degree must complete at least 135 units of graduate-level study. 72 of the 135 units must be taken within the department. All courses counted towards the 135-unit requirement for the PhD be at the graduate level. Excess coursework can be taken at the UG level, but not used towards the PhD requirements. All course work should be selected in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies.

    Required Courses—

    Units
    DLCL 301The Learning and Teaching of Second Languages (must be taken in the first year of studies)3
    DLCL 311Professional Workshop1
    A minimum of five courses on Italian literature and culture taught at the graduate level. Three of the required five courses must be taken within the first year.15

    Elective Courses— Apart from the required courses above, students are granted considerable freedom in structuring a course of study appropriate to their individual needs. During the first year, most course work is done within the French and Italian department, in order to ensure an adequate preparation for the qualifying examination. Students are encouraged to take a variety of courses in order to be exposed to different periods and issues. Students are not allowed to take Independent Study during their first year. In the second and third years, however, the program of study is tailored to the specific interests of the student.

  2. Examinations

    Completion of all department and University examinations.
  3. Dissertation

    Submission and approval of a dissertation.
  4. Teaching

    Ph.D. students are required to teach a minimum of five courses within their five years of funding.
  5. Language Requirements

    Attaining a native or near-native fluency in Italian is a requirement to qualify for the Ph.D. degree. Upon entering the program, candidates must contact the Language Center and arrange to take the OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) to determine their fluency in Italian. An advanced level or above must have been reached by the time candidates take their qualifying exam in the Autumn Quarter of the second year of study. If a student fails to score in the advanced bracket of the OPI test upon entering, he/she is tested again at the beginning of the second year. It is the responsibility of the candidates to design a course of study to improve their proficiency in Italian. Candidates who do not meet the minimum language requirement must discuss their plans to meet this requirement with the Director of Graduate Studies. By the end of the third year, students must have passed a reading examination in one additional foreign language. If the candidate's period of concentration is earlier than the Romantic period, this must be Latin; if Romantic or later, French.
  6. Candidacy

    Admission to candidacy is an important decision grounded in an overall assessment of a student’s ability to successfully complete the Ph.D. program. Per University policy, students are expected to complete department qualifying procedures and apply for candidacy by the end of the second year in residence. In reviewing a student for admission to candidacy, the faculty considers a student’s academic progress including but not limited to: advanced language proficiency, course work, performance on the Qualifying Exam (or Field Exam for those with a waiver of the Qualifying Exam), and successful completion of teaching and research assistantships. A student must also have completed at least 3 units of work with each of four Stanford faculty members prior to consideration for candidacy.  Students applying to candidacy must provide for their annual review a writing sample in Italian (or English for Italian native speakers) corresponding to a paper completed for a course taken at Stanford. In addition to successful completion of department prerequisites, a student is only admitted to candidacy if the faculty makes the judgment that the student has the potential to successfully complete the requirements of the degree program. Candidacy is determined by faculty vote. Failure to advance to candidacy results in the dismissal of the student from the doctoral program. Candidacy is valid for five years and students are required to maintain active candidacy through conferral of the doctoral degree. All requirements for the degree must be completed before candidacy expires. The Department of French and Italian conducts regular reviews of each student’s academic performance, both prior to and following successful admission to candidacy. Failure to make satisfactory progress to degree may result in dismissal from the doctoral program. Additional information about University candidacy policy is available in the Bulletin and GAP.

  7. TGR Status

    Doctoral students who have been admitted to candidacy, completed all required courses and degree requirements other than the dissertation, completed 135 units, and submitted a Doctoral Dissertation Reading Committee form, must request Terminal Graduate Registration status to complete their dissertations. Each quarter, all TGR students must enroll in  ITALIAN 802 TGR Dissertation for zero units, in the appropriate section for their adviser.

Grading

Doctoral students in the department must take required courses for a letter grade if available and are expected to earn a grade of 'B+' or better in each course. Any grade of 'B' or below is considered to be less than satisfactory. Grades of 'B' or below are reviewed by faculty: while the grade will stand, the student may be required to revise and resubmit the work associated with that course.

Examinations

There are three examinations: the qualifying examination, the field examination, and the University oral examination. Students may not take any department or University exam while course work is incomplete.

Qualifying Examination

The first oral examination, which takes place in the first two weeks of October of the second year of study, tests the student's knowledge of language and literature and his/her aptitude for critical thinking. The examining committee, determined by the Director of French and Italian, schedules the precise exam date and time.

The exam is based on a standard reading list covering major works from all periods of literature in the language(s) of study, from the Middle Ages to present day. The list may be expanded to reflect a student's particular interests, but not abridged. The reading list may be obtained from the Director of Graduate Studies, the student services manager, or by referencing the French and Italian student handbook.

The exam is 90 minutes in length and consists of two parts:

  1. A 20-minute presentation by the candidate on a topic to be determined by the student. This presentation may be given in English or in the language of study and should engage, in a succinct manner, an issue or set of issues of broad relevance to the literary history of the language(s) of study. The presentation must not simply be a text read aloud, but rather must be given from notes. It is meant to be suggesting and not exhaustive, so as to provoke further discussion.
  2. A 70-minute question and answer period in which the examining committee follows up on the candidate's presentation and discusses the reading list with the student. At least part of this portion of the exam takes place in the language(s) of study. The student is expected to demonstrate a solid knowledge of the texts on the reading list and of the basic issues which they raise, as well as a broader sense of the cultural/literary context into which they fit and demonstrate the ability to formulate an original point of view on such texts and contexts.

Students who do not pass the qualifying exam their first time may be placed on probation with limited enrollment and be allowed to retake the exam at the end of Autumn Quarter. Should the student not pass the retake exam, his/her studies in the Ph.D. program are concluded.

Students already holding an advanced degree in the relevant area may request to be excused from the Qualifying Exam. However, the student must present a formal request for a waiver to the Director of Graduate Studies by the end of autumn quarter of the first year. Such a request must document the course work completed elsewhere and include all relevant reading lists. Only in cases where taking the Qualifying Exam would involve considerable repetition of already competed work is such a waiver likely to be granted.

Field Examination

The second oral examination takes place in the Autumn Quarter of the third year of study. The exam is 100 minutes in length and consists of two parts:

  1. A 20-minute presentation by the student on a topic (a particular literary genre or a broad theoretical, historical, or interdisciplinary question) freely chosen and developed by the individual student working in collaboration with his/her adviser and the Director of Graduate Studies. The student should design this research project so that it has the focus of an article or a seminar he/she might teach. The student should discuss the proposed topic with the Director of Graduate Studies before the end of the quarter preceding the quarter in which he/she plans to take the exam; together they choose a committee of three faculty members with interests close to the proposed topic. (In most cases, one of these committee members is the student's adviser.) This presentation is followed by a 20-minute discussion.
  2. A 60-minute discussion of a reading list, assembled by the student, which covers about a century of writing. The reading list should include works in all genres relevant to the period covered and should be around two single-spaced pages in length. The list may well include critical and scholarly works or texts from outside the traditional domain of literary studies in the chosen tradition (such as film, philosophy, other literary traditions), but such coverage should be regarded as supplemental except in rare instances where the Director and faculty advisers have agreed to define these materials as the student's field. Students are required to discuss the reading list for the examination with the Director of Graduate Studies and with members of their committee during the quarter preceding the examination. A final reading list must be submitted to the committee no later than two weeks preceding the examination. Each member of the committee is assigned a 20-minute period to question the candidate on the reading list and its intellectual-historical implications. The aim of these questions is to establish the student's credentials as a specialist in the period of his/her choosing, so the core of the reading list must be made up of texts that are essential to any specialist. It follows that reading lists must not focus on the narrow area of the student's research interest. The tendency to bias reading lists towards the dissertation topic, be it an author or a genre, does not cancel the obligation to cover the major figures and genres. It is understandable that some students, by their third year, have become so deeply committed to their work toward the dissertation that they wish to use the preparation period for the examination as part of their dissertation research. Certainly, some of the exam work may prove relevant, but students should also remember that the examination is the central means of certifying their expertise in a literary period.

The University Oral Examination

This examination takes the form of a dissertation proposal defense. It is to be taken no later than Autumn Quarter of the student's fourth year. Students must have completed all course work and language requirements before the quarter in which they take the University oral examination. One quarter prior to the University oral examination, students must schedule the exam date and time as well as work with their primary adviser to obtain an outside chair for the examination.

Two weeks before the exam, the student must submit to the committee a 25-35 page proposal, which must contain the following parts:

  1. a clear presentation of the student's central thesis
  2. a synthetic overview of the dissertation
  3. a description of the methodology that is used in the dissertation
  4. an in-depth discussion of current secondary sources on the topic.

The student must also append a bibliography, but this does not take the place of number 4. The proposal must be prepared in close consultation with the dissertation director during the months preceding the exam.

The exam committee consists of four members, in addition to a committee chair from outside the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages, whose principal functions are to keep track of time and to call on the four members of the committee who question the candidate on the talk and on the reading list.

After a 20-minute presentation on the part of the candidate, each member of the committee (apart from the committee chair) questions the student for 20 minutes. At the end of the hour and forty minutes, the faculty readers vote on the outcome of the exam. If the outcome is favorable, (four out of five votes in favor of the student passing), the student is free to proceed with work on the dissertation. If the proposal is found to be unsatisfactory, the dissertation readers may ask the student to revise and resubmit the dissertation prospectus and to schedule a second exam. A student who fails a second time will be released from the Ph.D. program and awarded a terminal M.A. degree.

Advising

Given the interdisciplinary nature of the Ph.D. programs and the opportunity they afford each student to create an individualized program of study, regular consultation with an adviser is of the utmost importance. The adviser for all entering graduate students is the Director of Graduate Studies, whose responsibility it is to assist students with their course planning and to keep a running check on progress in completing the course, teaching, and language requirements. By the end of the second year of study, each student should have chosen a faculty adviser whose expertise is appropriate to his/her own area of research and interests.

Yearly Review

The faculty provide students with timely and constructive feedback on their progress toward the Ph.D. In order to evaluate students' progress and to identify potential problem areas, the department's faculty reviews the academic progress of each student at the end of the academic year. The yearly reviews are primarily intended to identify developing problems that could impede progress. In most cases, students are simply given constructive feedback, but if more serious concerns warrant, a student may be placed on probation with specific guidelines for addressing the problems detected. Possible outcomes of the yearly review include (1) continuation of the student in good standing, or (2) placing the student on probation, with specific guidelines for the period on probation and the steps to be taken in order to be returned to good standing. For students on probation at this point (or at any other subsequent points), possible outcomes of a review include: (1) restoration to good standing; or (2) continued probation, again with guidelines for necessary remedial steps; or (3) termination from the program. Students leaving the program at the end of the first or second year are usually allowed to complete the requirements to receive an M.A. degree, if this does not involve additional residency or financial support.

Ph.D. Minor for Graduate Students in French or Italian

The Ph.D. may be combined with a minor in a related field, including Comparative Literature, Linguistics, Modern Thought and Literature, Art History, History, Music, Philosophy, and Spanish. Ph.D. candidates in French may minor in Italian, and vice versa. Students interested in a minor should design their course of study with their adviser(s).

Ph.D. Minor in Italian Literature

The department offers a minor in Italian Literature. The requirement for a minor in Italian is a minimum of 24 units of graduate course work in Italian literature. Interested students should consult the Director of Graduate Studies.

Doctor of Philosophy in French and Italian

University regulations pertaining to the Ph.D. are listed in the "Graduate Degrees" section of this bulletin.

Degree Requirements

  1. Course work—

    A candidate for the Ph.D. degree must complete at least 135 units of graduate-level study. 72 of the 135 units must be taken within the department. All courses counted towards the 135-unit requirement for the PhD be at the graduate level. Excess coursework can be taken at the UG level, but not used towards the PhD requirements. All course work should be selected in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies.
    Required courses—
  2. Units
    DLCL 301The Learning and Teaching of Second Languages (must be taken in first year of studies)3
    DLCL 311Professional Workshop1
    A minimum of four advanced courses on French literature and culture, and four advanced courses on Italian literature and culture. Four of the required eight courses must be taken within the first year.24

    Elective Courses—Apart from the required courses above, students are granted considerable freedom in structuring a course of study appropriate to their individual needs. During the first year, most course work is done within the French and Italian department, in order to ensure an adequate preparation for the qualifying examination. Students are encouraged to take a variety of courses in order to be exposed to different historical periods and issues. Students are not allowed to take Independent Study during their first year. In the second and third years, however, the program of study is tailored to the specific interests of the student.

  3. Examinations

    Successful completion of all department and University examinations.
  4. Dissertation

    Submission and approval of a dissertation. The dissertation topic must include a substantial quotient of material from both the French and Italian tradition, and the dissertation must include either (1) at least one chapter on French materials and one chapter on Italian materials, or (2) at least two chapters focusing on a comparison between French and Italian materials.
  5. Teaching

    Ph.D. students are required to teach a minimum of five courses within their five years of funding. Of these five courses the student is required to teach at least one French language course and one Italian language course.
  6. Language Requirements

    Attaining a native or near-native fluency in both French and Italian is the individual responsibility of all candidates in the Ph.D. program, and remedial course work needed to achieve such fluency cannot count towards the Ph.D. degree.
    For students specializing in areas (a) medieval and renaissance and (b) renaissance and early modern, proficiency in Latin equivalent to a second year collegiate level of proficiency (the equivalent of CLASSICS 11LCLASSICS 12L , and CLASSICS 13L) in reading is also required. Such proficiency may be demonstrated by successfully completing a course in the language in question (at least second-year level, but preferably a graduate seminar); or by passing an exam that establishes a second-year or above level of competence. In no case is passage of a standard reading competence exam considered sufficient.
    For students specializing in area (c) modern and contemporary, proficiency in a third language (beyond French and Italian) is not required; students are, however, encouraged to acquire competency in a third language or area that is relevant to their research (e.g. German).
    The language requirements should be completed as soon as possible, but in any case not later than the end of the third year.
  7. Candidacy

    Admission to candidacy is an important decision grounded in an overall assessment of a student’s ability to successfully complete the Ph.D. program. Per University policy, students are expected to complete department qualifying procedures and apply for candidacy by the end of the second year in residence. In reviewing a student for admission to candidacy, the faculty considers a student’s academic progress including but not limited to: advanced language proficiency, course work, performance on the qualifying exam (or field exam for those with a waiver of the qualifying exam), and successful completion of teaching and research assistantships. A student must also have completed at least 3 units of work with each of 4 Stanford faculty members prior to consideration for candidacy. Students applying to candidacy must provide for their annual review a writing sample in French and Italian (or English for French and/or Italian native speakers) corresponding to a paper completed for a course taken at Stanford. In addition to successful completion of department prerequisites, a student is only admitted to candidacy if the faculty makes the judgment that the student has the potential to successfully complete the requirements of the degree program. Candidacy is determined by faculty vote. Failure to advance to candidacy results in the dismissal of the student from the doctoral program. Candidacy is valid for five years and students are required to maintain active candidacy through conferral of the doctoral degree. All requirements for the degree must be completed before candidacy expires. The Department of French and Italian conducts regular reviews of each student’s academic performance, both prior to and following successful admission to candidacy. Failure to make satisfactory progress to degree may result in dismissal from the doctoral program. Additional information about University candidacy policy is available in the Bulletin and GAP.

  8. TGR Status

    Doctoral students who have been admitted to candidacy, completed all required courses and degree requirements other than the dissertation, completed 135 units, and submitted a Doctoral Dissertation Reading Committee form, must request Terminal Graduate Registration status to complete their dissertations. Each quarter, all TGR students must enroll in FRENCH 802 TGR Dissertation or ITALIAN 802 TGR Dissertation for zero units, in the appropriate section for their adviser.

Grading

Doctoral students in the department must take required courses for a letter grade if available and are expected to earn a grade of 'B+' or better in each course. Any grade of 'B' or below is considered to be less than satisfactory. Grades of 'B' or below are reviewed by faculty: while the grade stands, the student may be required to revise and resubmit the work associated with that course.

Examinations

There are three examinations: the qualifying examination, the field examination, and the University oral examination. Students may not take any department or University exam while coursework is incomplete.

Qualifying Examination

The first oral examination, which takes place in the first two weeks of October of the second year of study, tests the student's knowledge of language and literature and his/her aptitude for critical thinking. The examining committee, determined by the Director of French and Italian, schedules the precise exam date and time.

Students may take either two qualifying exams, one in French and one in Italian, or a single qualifying exam in French and Italian. The combined French and Italian qualifying exam covers one of three periods, (a) medieval and renaissance, (b) renaissance and early modern, or (c) modern and contemporary. For each period it is based on a standard reading list. The list may be expanded to reflect a student's particular interests, but not abridged. One third of the combined exam takes place in English, one third in French, and one third in Italian (with the student free to choose which portion transpires in which language). The reading lists may be obtained from the Directors of Graduate Studies, the student services manager, or by referencing the French and Italian student handbook.

The exam is 90 minutes in length and consists of two parts:

  1. A 20-minute presentation by the candidate on a topic to be determined by the student. This presentation may be given in English or in the language of study and should engage, in a succinct manner, an issue or set of issues of broad relevance to the literary history of the language(s) of study. The presentation must not simply be a text read aloud, but rather must be given from notes. It is meant to be suggesting and not exhaustive, so as to provoke further discussion.
  2. A 70-minute question and answer period in which the examining committee follows up on the candidate's presentation and discusses the reading list with the student. At least part of this portion of the exam takes place in the languages of study. The student is expected to demonstrate a solid knowledge of the texts on the reading list and of the basic issues which they raise, as well as a broader sense of the cultural/literary context into which they fit, and demonstrate the ability to formulate an original point of view on such texts and contexts.

Students who do not pass the qualifying exam their first time may be placed on probation with limited enrollment and be allowed to retake the exam at the end of Autumn Quarter. If the student does not pass the second exam, his/her studies in the Ph.D. program will be concluded.

If, at the qualifying exam stage, a student's work is judged insufficient for admission to candidacy for the Ph.D., the student may petition to continue in French only or Italian only. This petition is reviewed by the qualifying exam committee, the relevant Director of Graduate Studies, and the Director of the Department of French and Italian.

Students already holding an advanced degree in the relevant area may request to be excused from the Qualifying Exam. However, the student must present a formal request for a waiver to the Director of Graduate Studies by the end of autumn quarter of the first year. Such a request must document the course work completed elsewhere and include all relevant reading lists. Only in cases where taking the Qualifying Exam would involve considerable repetition of already competed work is such a waiver likely to be granted.

Field Examination

The second oral examination takes place in the Autumn Quarter of the third year of study. The exam is 100 minutes in length and consists of two parts:

  1. A 20-minute presentation by the student on a topic (a particular literary genre or a broad theoretical, historical, or interdisciplinary question) freely chosen and developed by the individual student working in collaboration with his/her adviser and the Director of Graduate Studies. The student should design this research project so that it has the focus of an article or a seminar he/she might teach. The student should discuss the proposed topic with the Directors of Graduate Studies before the end of the quarter preceding the quarter in which he/she plans to take the exam; together they choose a committee of three faculty members with interests close to the proposed topic. (In most cases, one of these committee members is the student's adviser.) This presentation is followed by a 20-minute discussion.
  2. A 60-minute discussion of a reading list, assembled by the student, which covers about a century of writing. The reading list should include works in all genres relevant to the period covered and should be around two single-spaced pages in length. The list may well include critical and scholarly works or texts from outside the traditional domain of literary studies in the chosen tradition (such as film, philosophy, other literary traditions), but such coverage should be regarded as supplemental except in rare instances where the Director and faculty advisers have agreed to define these materials as the student's field. Students are required to discuss the reading list for the examination with the Directors of Graduate Studies and with members of their committee during the quarter preceding the examination. A final reading list must be submitted to the committee no later than two weeks preceding the examination. Each member of the committee is assigned a 20-minute period to question the candidate on the reading list and its intellectual-historical implications. The aim of these questions is to establish the student's credentials as a specialist in the period of his/her choosing, so the core of the reading list must be made up of texts that are essential to any specialist. It follows that reading lists must not focus on the narrow area of the student's research interest. The tendency to bias reading lists towards the dissertation topic, be it an author or a genre, does not cancel the obligation to cover the major figures and genres. It is understandable that some students, by their third year, have become so deeply committed to their work toward the dissertation that they wish to use the preparation period for the examination as part of their dissertation research. Certainly, some of the exam work may prove relevant, but students should also remember that the examination is the central means of certifying their expertise in a literary period.

The University Oral Examination

This examination takes the form of a dissertation proposal defense. It is to be taken no later than Autumn Quarter of the student's fourth year. Students must have completed all course work and language requirements before the quarter in which they take the University oral examination. One quarter prior to the University oral examination, students must schedule the exam date and time as well as work with their primary adviser to obtain an outside chair for the examination.

Two weeks before the exam, the student must submit to the committee a 25-35 page proposal. This proposal must contain the following parts:

  1. a clear presentation of the student's central thesis
  2. a synthetic overview of the dissertation
  3. a description of the methodology that is used in the dissertation
  4. an in-depth discussion of current secondary sources on the topic.

The student must also append a bibliography, but this does not take the place of number 4. The reading list should include works in both French and Italian in all genres relevant to the period covered. The proposal must be prepared in close consultation with the dissertation director during the months preceding the exam.

The exam committee consists of four members, in addition to a committee chair from outside the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages, whose principal functions are to keep track of time and to call on the four members of the committee who question the candidate on the talk and on the reading list.

After a 20-minute presentation on the part of the candidate, each member of the committee (apart from the committee chair) questions the student for 20 minutes. At the end of the hour and forty minutes, the faculty readers vote on the outcome of the exam. If the outcome is favorable (four out of five votes in favor of the student passing), the student is free to proceed with work on the dissertation. If the proposal is found to be unsatisfactory, the dissertation readers may ask the student to revise and resubmit the dissertation prospectus and to schedule a second exam. A student who fails a second time will be released from the Ph.D. program and awarded a terminal M.A. degree.

Advising

Given the interdisciplinary nature of the Ph.D. programs and the opportunity they afford each student to create an individualized program of study, regular consultation with an adviser is of the utmost importance. The adviser for all entering graduate students is the Director of Graduate Studies, whose responsibility it is to assist students with their course planning and to keep a running check on progress in completing the course, teaching, and language requirements. By the end of the second year of study, each student should have chosen a faculty adviser whose expertise is appropriate to his/her own area of research and interests.

Yearly Review

The faculty provide students with timely and constructive feedback on their progress toward the Ph.D. In order to evaluate students' progress and to identify potential problem areas, the department's faculty reviews the academic progress of each student at the end of the academic year. The yearly reviews are primarily intended to identify developing problems that could impede progress. In most cases, students are simply given constructive feedback, but if more serious concerns warrant, a student may be placed on probation with specific guidelines for addressing the problems detected. Possible outcomes of the yearly review include (1) continuation of the student in good standing, or (2) placing the student on probation, with specific guidelines for the period on probation and the steps to be taken in order to be returned to good standing. For students on probation at this point (or at any other subsequent points), possible outcomes of a review include: (1) restoration to good standing; or (2) continued probation, again with guidelines for necessary remedial steps; or (3) termination from the program. Students leaving the program at the end of the first or second year are usually allowed to complete the requirements to receive an M.A. degree, if this does not involve additional residency or financial support.

Ph.D. Minor for Graduate Students in French or Italian

The Ph.D. may be combined with a minor in a related field, including Comparative Literature, Linguistics, Modern Thought and Literature, Art History, History, Music, Philosophy, and Spanish. Ph.D. candidates in French may minor in Italian, and vice versa. Students interested in a minor should design their course of study with their advisor(s).

Ph.D. Minor in French Literature

The department offers a minor in French Literature. The requirement for a minor in French is completion of 24 units of graduate course work in the French section. Interested students should consult the Director of Graduate Studies.

Ph.D. Minor in Italian Literature

The department offers a minor in Italian Literature. The requirement for a minor in Italian is a minimum of 24 units of graduate course work in Italian literature. Interested students should consult the Director of Graduate Studies.

 

COVID-19 Policies

On July 30, the Academic Senate adopted grading policies effective for all undergraduate and graduate programs, excepting the professional Graduate School of Business, School of Law, and the School of Medicine M.D. Program. For a complete list of those and other academic policies relating to the pandemic, see the "COVID-19 and Academic Continuity" section of this bulletin.

The Senate decided that all undergraduate and graduate courses offered for a letter grade must also offer students the option of taking the course for a “credit” or “no credit” grade and recommended that deans, departments, and programs consider adopting local policies to count courses taken for a “credit” or “satisfactory” grade toward the fulfillment of degree-program requirements and/or alter program requirements as appropriate.


Undergraduate Degree Requirements

Grading

The Department of French and Italian counts all courses taken in academic year 2020-21 with a grade of 'CR' (credit) or 'S' (satisfactory) towards satisfaction of undergraduate degree requirements that otherwise require a letter grade.

French Degrees Required Courses Policy

In academic year 2020-21, as Stanford operates on a four-quarter system, students may opt not to be enrolled in one of the four quarters of the year. Students may therefore be unable to take a FRENCH core class (FRENCH 130, 131, 132, 133) because they are on leave during the quarter it is offered. In these cases, the Chair of Undergraduate Studies will, in coordination with the student’s departmental advisor, suggest appropriate substitute classes and approve one of them.

Italian Degrees Required Courses Policy 

In academic year 2020-2021, as Stanford operates on a four-quarter system, students may opt not to be enrolled in one of the four quarters of the year. Students may therefore be unable to take a ITALIAN core class (ITALIAN 127, 128, 129) because they are on leave during the quarter it is offered. In these cases, the Chair of Undergraduate Studies will, in coordination with the student’s departmental advisor, suggest appropriate substitute classes and approve one of them.

Graduate Degree Requirements

Grading

Doctoral students in the department must take required courses for a letter grade  and are expected to earn a grade of 'B' or better in each required course. In other courses, doctoral students are expected to earn a grade of 'B' or better in each course taken for a letter grade in AY 2020-21 that will count towards their degree requirement. Any grade of 'B-' or below is considered to be less than satisfactory. Grades of 'B' or below are reviewed by faculty: while the grade will stand, the student may be required to revise and resubmit the work associated with that course. For courses taken for CR/NC, instructors will be asked to submit written assessment to the student and the department of what would be the equivalent letter grade to allow for review of satisfactory academic achievement by the DGS and department.

Graduate Advising Expectations

The Department of French and Italian is committed to providing academic advising in support of graduate student scholarly and professional development. The overall goal of advising, both in the DLCL and the department, is to help graduate students make academic and career choices wisely, and think ahead, in order to craft a long-term plan for their graduate student career and beyond. When most effective, the advising relationship entails collaborative and sustained engagement by both the adviser and the advisee. As a best practice, advising expectations should be periodically discussed and reviewed to ensure mutual understanding. Both the adviser and the advisee are expected to maintain professionalism and integrity. Advising is both an academically invaluable form for the transmission of expertise, as well as a key aspect of creating a strong departmental and Stanford community.

Faculty Advisers

Faculty advisers guide students in key areas such as selecting courses, designing and conducting research, developing of teaching pedagogy, navigating policies and degree requirements, and exploring academic opportunities and professional pathways.

  • Upon enrolling, students plan their work under the direction of the Chair of Graduate Studies or a faculty member designated by the program. When the student selects a more specialized adviser, the transition should involve oral or written communication between both advisers and the student concerning the student's progress, goals, and expectations. It is possible for doctoral students to choose two main advisers at the dissertation stage, provided all agree this is academically sound. 
  • Faculty advisers should meet with assigned students to discuss their selection of courses and to plan from a broader, longer-term perspective, including discussion of Program milestones and a basic timeline; an overview of Department and DLCL offerings beyond courses; student goals and interests and DLCL or Stanford programs that may be relevant; and (for doctoral students) how to transfer previous graduate coursework.
  • Faculty advisers and graduate students should meet at least once per quarter to assess the advisee's course of study, performance over the past quarter, and plans for the next quarter, as well as longer term plans. If a student has two advisers, the student should meet at least once per quarter with each adviser and at least once per year with both advisers at the same time. 
  • For doctoral students, faculty should help their advisees plan for exams, research grant applications, develop research projects, and plan ahead for both the academic job market and the job search beyond academia.
  • Faculty advisers should provide feedback about the student's progress to the department during the Annual Review process. For more information about the Annual Review, see the Graduate Handbook.

Graduate Students

Graduate students are active contributors to the advising relationship, proactively seeking academic and professional guidance and taking responsibility for informing themselves of policies and degree requirements for their graduate program.

  • Upon enrolling, students plan their work under the direction of the Chair of Graduate Studies or a faculty member designated by the program. As the student develops a field of expertise, the student choose a program adviser to replace the Chair of Graduate Studies role. The transition should involve oral or written communication between both advisers and the student concerning the student's progress, goals, and expectations. 
  • Graduate students and faculty advisers and should meet at least once per quarter to assess the advisee's course of study, performance over the past quarter, and plans for the next quarter, as well as longer term plans. If a student has two advisers, the student should meet at least once per quarter with each adviser and at least once per year with both advisers at the same time. 
  • Students should consult with their advisers on all academic matters, including coursework, conference presentations and publications, research travel, and teaching plans. 
  • Students should provide a thorough self-evaluation each year for the annual review. For more information about the Annual Review, see the Graduate Handbook.

For a statement of University policy on graduate advising, see the "Graduate Advising" section of this bulletin.

Faculty in French and Italian

Director: Laura Wittman

Chair of Graduate Studies: Cécile Alduy (French), Laura Wittman (Italian)

Chairs of Undergraduate Studies: Marisa Galvez (French for Autumn), Fatoumata Seck (French for Winter/ Spring), Sarah Prodan (Italian)

Professors: Cécile Alduy, Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Dan Edelstein, Joshua Landy, Robert Harrison

Associate Professors: Marisa Galvez, Laura Wittman

Assistant Professors: Sarah Prodan, Fatoumata Seck

Lecturers: Andrei Pesic

Courtesy Professors: Keith Baker, Margaret Cohen, Paula Findlen

Courtesy Associate Professor: James P. Daughton

Emeriti: (Professors) Jean-Marie Apostolidès, John G. Barson, Robert G. Cohn, John Freccero, Hans U. Gumbrecht, Ralph M. Hester, Elisabeth Mudimbe-Boyi, Carolyn Springer  

Overseas Studies Courses in French

The Bing Overseas Studies Program (BOSP) manages Stanford international and domestic study away programs for Stanford undergraduates. Students should consult their department or program's student services office for applicability of Overseas Studies courses to a major or minor program.

The BOSP course search site displays courses, locations, and quarters relevant to specific majors.

For course descriptions and additional offerings, see the listings in the Stanford Bulletin's ExploreCourses or Bing Overseas Studies.

Due to COVID-19, all BOSP programs have been suspended for Autumn Quarter 2020-21. All courses and quarters of operation are subject to change.


Units
OSPPARIS 30The Avant Garde in France through Literature, Art, and Theater4
OSPPARIS 32French History and Politics: Understanding the Present through the Past5
OSPPARIS 54The Artist's World: The Workshop, Patronage and Public in 19th and 20th Century France4
OSPPARIS 92Building Paris: Its History, Architecture, and Urban Design4
OSPPARIS 186FContemporary African Literature in French4

Overseas Studies Courses in Italian

The Bing Overseas Studies Program (BOSP) manages Stanford international and domestic study away programs for Stanford undergraduates. Students should consult their department or program's student services office for applicability of Overseas Studies courses to a major or minor program.

The BOSP course search site displays courses, locations, and quarters relevant to specific majors.

For course descriptions and additional offerings, see the listings in the Stanford Bulletin's ExploreCourses or Bing Overseas Studies.

Due to COVID-19, all BOSP programs have been suspended for Autumn Quarter 2020-21. All courses and quarters of operation are subject to change.


Units
OSPFLOR 34The Virgin Mother, Goddess of Beauty, Grand Duchess, and the Lady: Women in Florentine Art4
OSPFLOR 41The Florentine Sketchbook: A Visual Arts Practicum4
OSPFLOR 48Sharing Beauty in Florence: Collectors, Collections and the Shaping of the Western Museum Tradition4
OSPFLOR 49On-Screen Battles: Filmic Portrayals of Fascism and World War II5
OSPFLOR 54High Renaissance and Mannerism: the Great Italian Masters of the 15th and 16th Centuries4
OSPFLOR 58Space as History: Social Vision and Urban Change4
OSPFLOR 67The Celluloid Gaze: Gender, Identity and Sexuality in Cinema4
OSPFLOR 71A Studio with a View: Drawing, Painting and Informing your Aesthetic in Florence4
OSPFLOR 111YFrom Giotto to Michelangelo: The Birth and Flowering of Renaissance Art in Florence4
OSPFLOR 115YBuilding the Cathedral and the Town Hall: Constructing and Deconstructing Symbols of a Civilization4

French Courses

FRENCH 12Q. Humanities Core: Great Books, Big Ideas -- Europe, Middle Ages and Renaissance. 3-4 Units.

This three-quarter sequence asks big questions of major texts in the European and American tradition. What is a good life? How should society be organized? Who belongs? How should honor, love, sin, and similar abstractions govern our actions? What duty do we owe to the past and future? The second quarter focuses on the transition from the Middle Ages to Modernity, Europe's re-acquaintance with classical antiquity and its first contacts with the New World. Authors include Dante, Shakespeare, Machiavelli, Cervantes, and Milton. N.B. This is the second of three courses in the European track. These courses offer an unparalleled opportunity to study European history and culture, past and present. Take all three to experience a year-long intellectual community dedicated to exploring how ideas have shaped our world and future. Students who take HUMCORE 11 and HUMCORE 12Q will have preferential admission to HUMCORE 13Q (a WR2 seminar).
Same as: DLCL 12Q, HUMCORE 12Q, ILAC 12Q

FRENCH 13. Humanities Core: Great Books, Big Ideas -- Europe, Modern. 3 Units.

This three-quarter sequence asks big questions of major texts in the European and American tradition. What is a good life? How should society be organized? Who belongs? How should honor, love, sin, and similar abstractions govern our actions? What duty do we owe to the past and future? This third and final quarter focuses on the modern period, from the rise of revolutionary ideas to the experiences of totalitarianism and decolonization in the twentieth century. Authors include Locke, Mary Shelley, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Weber, Primo Levi, and Frantz Fanon.
Same as: DLCL 13, HISTORY 239C, HUMCORE 13, PHIL 13

FRENCH 36. Dangerous Ideas. 1 Unit.

Ideas matter. Concepts such as revolution, tradition, and hell have inspired social movements, shaped political systems, and dramatically influenced the lives of individuals. Others, like immigration, universal basic income, and youth play an important role in contemporary debates in the United States. All of these ideas are contested, and they have a real power to change lives, for better and for worse. In this one-unit class we will examine these "dangerous" ideas. Each week, a faculty member from a different department in the humanities and arts will explore a concept that has shaped human experience across time and space. Some weeks will have short reading assignments, but you are not required to purchase any materials.
Same as: ARTHIST 36, COMPLIT 36A, EALC 36, ENGLISH 71, ETHICSOC 36X, HISTORY 3D, MUSIC 36H, PHIL 36, POLISCI 70, RELIGST 36X, SLAVIC 36

FRENCH 75N. Narrative Medicine and Near-Death Experiences. 3 Units.

Even if many of us don't fully believe in an afterlife, we remain fascinated by visions of it. This course focuses on Near-Death Experiences and the stories around them, investigating them from the many perspectives pertinent to the growing field of narrative medicine: medical, neurological, cognitive, psychological, sociological, literary, and filmic. The goal is not to understand whether the stories are veridical but what they do for us, as individuals, and as a culture, and in particular how they seek to reshape the patient-doctor relationship. Materials will span the 20th century and come into the present. Taught in English.
Same as: ITALIAN 75N

FRENCH 87N. The New Wave: How The French Reinvented Cinema. 3-4 Units.

Focus on the French New Wave's cinematic revolution of 1959-1962. In a few years, the Nouvelle Vague delivered landmark works such as Truffaut's 400 Blows, Godard's Breathless, Chabrol's Les Cousins or Resnais' Hiroshima mon amour, and changed forever the way we make and think about movies. Why did these films look so radically fresh? What do they say about France's youth culture in the early 60s? How is the author's theory behind them still influencing us today? Focus is on cultural history, aesthetic analysis, interpretation of narrative, sound and visual forms. Taught in English. NOTE: Class meets Tuesday/Thursday 12:00-1:20pm; film screenings Monday 6:00-8:50pm in room 540-108.

FRENCH 110. French Painting from Watteau to Monet. 3-5 Units.

This course offers a survey of painting in France from 1700 to around 1900. It introduces major artists, artworks, and the concepts used by contemporary observers and later art historians to make sense of this extraordinarily rich period. Overarching themes discussed in the class will include the dueling legacies of coloristic virtuosity and classical formalism, new ways of representing visual perception, the opposing artistic effects of absorption and theatricality, the rise and fall of official arts institutions, and the participation of artists and artworks in political upheaval and social change. The course ends with an interrogation of the concept of modernity and its emergence out of dialogue and conflict with artists of the past. Students will learn and practice formal analysis of paintings, as well as interpretations stressing historical context.
Same as: ARTHIST 110, ARTHIST 310, FRENCH 310

FRENCH 118. Literature and the Brain. 3 Units.

Recent developments in and neuroscience and experimental psychology have transformed the way we think about the operations of the brain. What can we learn from this about the nature and function of literary texts? Can innovative ways of speaking affect ways of thinking? Do creative metaphors draw on embodied cognition? Can fictions strengthen our "theory of mind" capabilities? What role does mental imagery play in the appreciation of descriptions? Does (weak) modularity help explain the mechanism and purpose of self-reflexivity? Can the distinctions among types of memory shed light on what narrative works have to offer?.
Same as: COMPLIT 138, COMPLIT 238, ENGLISH 118, ENGLISH 218, FRENCH 218, PSYC 126, PSYCH 118F

FRENCH 120. Coffee and Cigarettes: The Making of French Intellectual Culture. 4-5 Units.

Examines a quintessential French figure "l'intellectuel" from a long-term historical perspective. We will observe how this figure was shaped over time by such other cultural types as the writer, the artist, the historian, the philosopher, and the moralist. Proceeding in counter-chronological order, from the late 20th to the 16th century, we will read a collection of classic French works. As this course is a gateway for French studies, special emphasis will be placed on oral proficiency. Taught in French; readings in French.

FRENCH 121. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Politics, Philosophy, and Literature. 3-5 Units.

"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." This seminar explores the work of one of the most important and enigmatic thinkers about the problems of modern society: Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Students will read a selection of his most important works in dialogue with other important thinkers of his time. They will grapple with Rousseau's political philosophy in his critique of modernity and his vision for remaking politics, as well as his moral philosophy and influential fictional visions of education and love. We will discuss not only Rousseau's landmark contributions to debates about authenticity, transparency, and self-interest, but also his troubling views on gender. The class will conclude with Rousseau's autobiography and its profound meditation on the formation of selfhood. Taught in French.
Same as: FRENCH 221A

FRENCH 124A. Napoleon. 3-5 Units.

Who was Napoleon? A fierce patriot or a traitor of the Revolution? A beloved emperor or a merciless dictator? There is not one single or indeed final answer to these questions: in this course we shall learn to make a distinction between the historical figure (his life and actual deeds) and the literary character (how his detractors or enthusiasts represented him). We will explore the multi-faceted representations of Napoleon with a particular focus on his portraits in poems, novels, essays, paintings and sculptures. The syllabus will include readings and excerpts from Balzac, Stendhal, Dumas, Hugo, Thackeray, Tolstoy, Manzoni, Foscolo, Calvino. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 124C

FRENCH 129. Camus. 4-5 Units.

"The admirable conjunction of a man, of an action, and of a work" for Sartre, "the ideal husband of contemporary letters" for Susan Sontag, reading "Camus's fiction as an element in France's methodically constructed political geography of Algeria" for Edward Said, Camus embodies the very French figure of the "intellectuel engagé," or public intellectual. From his birth in 1913 into a poor European family in Algeria to the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957, from the Mediterranean world to Paris, Camus engaged in the great ethical and political battles of his time, often embracing controversial positions. Through readings and films, we will explore his multiple legacies. Readings from Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Assia Djebar, Kamel Daoud, Mouloud Feraoun, Alice Kaplan, Edward Said, Edwidge Danticat. Students will work on their production of written French, in addition to speaking French and reading comprehension. Taught in French. Students are highly encouraged to complete FRENLANG 124 or to successfully test above this level through the Language Center. This course fulfills the Writing in the Major (WIM) requirement.
Same as: COMPLIT 229B, CSRE 129, HISTORY 235F

FRENCH 130. Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance French Literature. 4 Units.

In this introductory course, we will read some key texts of literature written in French between 1100 and 1600, paying special attention to how gender, ethnicity and love played a role in the doing and undoing of communities. What does it mean to be a woman writer when most things were written by men? What does it mean to be a man, at court or at war? What did people learn when traveling to Asia or to the New Continent, and how did it impact the way people conceived of ethnicity? How did people think of ethnic difference in their midst? How can love strengthen an empire, and how can one be sincere when copying a love-poem? These cultural questions will be answered with special attention to literary form. Different genres might have yielded different possibilities to not just represent, but also imagine ways of living together; perhaps the very structure of a sentence allows one to construe one¿s own identity. While the course will be taught in French, no knowledge of Old French, Latin, or Occitan is required. All readings will be done in modern French or English translation. Assignments and discussions are all in French. Students are highly encouraged to complete FRENLANG 124 or to successfully test above this level through the Language Center.

FRENCH 131. Absolutism, Enlightenment, and Revolution in 17th- and 18th-Century France. 4 Units.

The literature, culture, and politics of France from Louis XIV to Olympe de Gouges. How this period produced the political and philosophical foundations of modernity. Readings may include Corneille, Molière, Racine, Lafayette, Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, Beaumarchais, and Gouges. Taught in French. Students are highly encouraged to complete FRENLANG 124 or to successfully test above this level through the Language Center. This course fulfills the Writing in the Major (WIM) requirement.

FRENCH 132. Literature, Revolutions, and Changes in 19th- and 20th-Century France. 4 Units.

This course will explore several important texts of 19th- and 20th-Century French literature, with the aim of following the evolution of the main literary movements during those centuries of important cultural and social changes. We will study texts related to movements such as Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism, Surrealism, the Absurd, the Nouveau Roman in all major genres (prose, poetry, theater, film) and will regularly refer to other arts, such as painting and music. Authors include Chateaubriand, Musset, Balzac, Flaubert, Maupassant, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Apollinaire, Proust, Céline, Radiguet, Ionesco, Robbe-Grillet, Duras, Gary. All readings, discussion, and assignments are in French. Students are highly encouraged to complete FRENLANG 124 or to successfully test above this level through the Language Center.

FRENCH 133. Literature and Society in Africa and the Caribbean. 4 Units.

This course explores texts and films from Francophone Africa and the Caribbean in the 20th and 21st centuries. The course will explore the connections between Sub-Saharan Africa, the Maghreb and the Caribbean through both foundational and contemporary works while considering their engagement with the historical and political contexts in which they were produced. This course will also serve to improve students' speaking and writing skills in French while sharpening their knowledge of the linguistic and conceptual tools needed to conduct literary analysis. The diverse topics discussed in the course will include national and cultural identity, race and class, gender and sexuality, orality and textuality, transnationalism and migration, colonialism and decolonization, history and memory, and the politics of language. Readings include the works of writers and filmmakers such as Djibril Tamsir Niane, Léopold Senghor, Aimé Césaire, Albert Memmi, Patrick Chamoiseau, Leonora Miano, Leila Slimani, Dani Laferrière and Ousmane Sembène. Taught in French. Students are highly encouraged to complete FRENLANG 124 or to successfully test above this level through the Language Center. This course fulfills the Writing in the Major (WIM) requirement.
Same as: AFRICAAM 133, AFRICAST 132, COMPLIT 133A, COMPLIT 233A, CSRE 133E, JEWISHST 143

FRENCH 140. Paris: Capital of the Modern World. 4-5 Units.

This course explores how Paris, between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, became the political, cultural, and artistic capital of the modern world. It considers how the city has both shaped and been shaped by the tumultuous events of modern history- class conflict, industrialization, imperialism, war, and occupation. It will also explore why Paris became the major world destination for intellectuals, artists and writers. Sources will include films, paintings, architecture, novels, travel journals, and memoirs. Course taught in English with an optional French section.
Same as: FRENCH 340, HISTORY 230C, URBANST 184

FRENCH 148. Cinema and the Real: Italian Neo-Realism and the French New Wave. 3-5 Units.

Between the 1940s and 1960s, in Italy and France, a handful of movie directors revolutionized the art of cinema. In the wake of World War II they entirely re-defined the aesthetics of the 7th art in films such as "Bicycle Thieves," "400 Blows," "Rome Open City," and "Breathless." These works shared an aesthetic and a philosophy of "the real" - they eschewed big studios and sets in favor of natural light, on-location shooting, and non-professional actors to capture the present moment. This survey course will explore how the dialogue between Italian neo-realism and the French New Wave has yielded some of the most revolutionary filmic masterpieces of both traditions, while raising theoretical and philosophical questions about form, time, space, fiction, representation, and reality. Films: Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio de Sica, Luchino Visconti, Federico Fellini, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais and Agnès Varda.
Same as: FRENCH 248, ITALIAN 148, ITALIAN 248

FRENCH 149. Love at First Sight: Visual Desire, Attraction, and the Pleasures of Art. 3-5 Units.

Why do dating sites rely on photographs? Why do we believe that love is above all a visual force? How is pleasure, even erotic pleasure, achieved through looking? While the psychology of impressions offers some answers, this course uncovers the ways poets, songwriters, and especially artists have explored myths and promoted ideas about the coupling of love and seeing. Week by week, we will be reflecting on love as political critique, social disruption, and magical force. And we will do so by examining some of the most iconic works of art, from Dante's writings on lovesickness to Caravaggio's Narcissus, studying the ways that objects have shifted from keepsakes to targets of our cares. While exploring the visual roots and evolutions of what has become one of life's fundamental drives, this course offers a passionate survey of European art from Giotto's kiss to Fragonard's swing that elicits stimulating questions about the sensorial nature of desire and the human struggle to control emotions.
Same as: ARTHIST 119, ARTHIST 319, FRENCH 349, ITALIAN 149, ITALIAN 349

FRENCH 150. Season and Off-Season of North-African Cinema and Literature. 3-5 Units.

This course explores the emergence of Francophone cinema and literature from North Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco) in the post-independence era: aesthetics, language metissage and hybridization, ethnic interactions, gender relations, collective imagination and collective memory, nationalism, popular culture, religion, urbanism, post-colonialism, migration, and the Arab Spring will be covered. Special attention will be given to Moroccan cinema, and to the notions of francophone/maghrebi/"beur"/diasporic cinema and literature. Readings from Franz Fanon, Albert Memmi, Kateb Yacine, Albert Camus, Reda Bensmaia, Assia Djebar, Colette Fellous, Abdelkebir Khatibi, Michel de Certeau, Benjamin Stora, Lucette Valensi, Abdelwahab Meddeb. Movies include Viva Laldjérie, Rome plutot que vous, Les Sabots en or, Les Silence des Palais, Halfaouine, Satin Rouge, Le Chant des Mariées, and Mort à Vendre. Taught in French. Films in French and Arabic with English subtitles.
Same as: FRENCH 350

FRENCH 152. French Painting from the Revolution to Impressionism. 3-5 Units.

This course offers a survey of painting in France from 1700 to around 1900. It introduces major artists, artworks, and the concepts used by contemporary observers and later art historians to make sense of this extraordinarily rich period. Overarching themes discussed in the class will include the dueling legacies of coloristic virtuosity and classical formalism, new ways of representing visual perception, the opposing artistic effects of absorption and theatricality, the rise and fall of official arts institutions, and the participation of artists and artworks in political upheaval and social change. The course ends with an interrogation of the concept of modernity and its emergence out of dialogue and conflict with artists of the past. Students will learn and practice formal analysis of paintings, as well as interpretations stressing historical context.
Same as: FRENCH 352

FRENCH 153. « Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité » : French Political Myths and Concepts. 3-5 Units.

"Liberté, égalité, fraternité," but also "laïcité," "diversité," "parité," "universalisme" : the French have forged over the last two centuries key political concepts that are articulated together in a unique way and shape the political consciousness, modes of engagements, aspirations and current debates of what has been called "the most political nation in the world." Along with mythologies such as the People, the Nation, the providential Leader, or the "enemy from within," they are at the centre of semantic and political battles, tugged over by the Left, the Right, populist movements, activists and counter-cultures. How did they emerge? How do they apply today? How does theory compare to practices, principles to day-to-day realities? An introduction through case-studies, films, paintings, cartoons, and texts from political theory, history, politics and literature. Taught in English.
Same as: FRENCH 353

FRENCH 154. Film & Philosophy. 3 Units.

Issues of authenticity, morality, personal identity, and the value of truth explored through film; philosophical investigation of the filmic medium itself. Screenings to include Blade Runner (Scott), Do The Right Thing (Lee), The Seventh Seal (Bergman), Fight Club (Fincher), La Jetée (Marker), Memento (Nolan), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Kaufman). Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 154A, ENGLISH 154F, ITALIAN 154, PHIL 193C, PHIL 293C

FRENCH 154E. Film & Philosophy CE. 3 Units.

Issues of authenticity, morality, personal identity, and the value of truth explored through film; philosophical investigation of the filmic medium itself. Screenings to include Blade Runner (Scott), Do The Right Thing (Lee), The Seventh Seal (Bergman), Fight Club (Fincher), La Jetée (Marker), Memento (Nolan), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Kaufman). Taught in English. Satisfies the WAY CE.
Same as: ITALIAN 154E, PHIL 193E, PHIL 293E

FRENCH 166. Food, Text, Music: A Multidisciplinary Lab on the Art of Feasting. 3-5 Units.

Students cook a collection of unfamiliar recipes each week while learning about the cultural milieus in which they originated. The course focuses on the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, a time of great banquets that brought together chefs, visual artists, poets, musicians, and dancers. Students read late-medieval cookbooks under the guidance of professional chefs, learn songs and poetry with the help of visiting performers, and delve into a burgeoning scholarly literature on food history and sensory experience. We will also study trade routes and food networks, the environmental impact of large-scale banquets, the science of food, and the politics of plenty. This course may count towards the Medieval component of the French major, and corresponds to DLCL 121, a course requirement for the Medieval Studies Minor. Students interested in applying for course must email the professor (jrodin@stanford.edu) by 20 September with a statement of up to 350 words that includes: (a) reasons for wanting to take the class; (b) relevant background in cooking/medieval studies/etc.; (c) stated commitment to attend all ten course meetings; and (d) any dietary restrictions/preferences.
Same as: FRENCH 266, FRENCH 366, MUSIC 133, MUSIC 333

FRENCH 175. CAPITALS: How Cities Shape Cultures, States, and People. 3-5 Units.

This course takes students on a trip to major capital cities, at different moments in time: Renaissance Florence, Golden Age Madrid, Colonial Mexico City, Enlightenment and Romantic Paris, Existential and Revolutionary St. Petersburg, Roaring Berlin, Modernist Vienna, and bustling Buenos Aires. While exploring each place in a particular historical moment, we will also consider the relations between culture, power, and social life. How does the cultural life of a country intersect with the political activity of a capital? How do large cities shape our everyday experience, our aesthetic preferences, and our sense of history? Why do some cities become cultural capitals? Primary materials for this course will consist of literary, visual, sociological, and historical documents (in translation); authors we will read include Boccaccio, Dante, Sor Juana, Montesquieu, Baudelaire, Gogol, Irmgard Keun, Freud, and Borges. Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take the course for a Letter Grade.
Same as: COMPLIT 100, DLCL 100, GERMAN 175, HISTORY 206E, ILAC 175, ITALIAN 175, URBANST 153

FRENCH 181. Philosophy and Literature. 3-5 Units.

What, if anything, does reading literature do for our lives? What can literature offer that other forms of writing cannot? Can fictions teach us anything? Can they make people more moral? Why do we take pleasure in tragic stories? This course introduces students to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature. It addresses key questions about the value of literature, philosophical puzzles about the nature of fiction and literary language, and ways that philosophy and literature interact. Readings span literature, film, and philosophical theories of art. Authors may include Sophocles, Dickinson, Toni Morrison, Proust, Woolf, Walton, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Students master close reading techniques and philosophical analysis, and write papers combining the two. This is the required gateway course for the Philosophy and Literature major tracks. Majors should register in their home department.
Same as: CLASSICS 42, COMPLIT 181, ENGLISH 81, GERMAN 181, ILAC 181, ITALIAN 181, PHIL 81, SLAVIC 181

FRENCH 185. Texts and Contexts: French-English Translation. 3-5 Units.

This course introduces students to the ways in which translation has shaped the image of France and the Francophone world. What texts and concepts were translated, how, where, and to what effect? Students will work on a translation project throughout the quarter and translate texts from French to English and English to French. Topics may include the role of translation in the development of cultures; the political dimension of translation, translation in the context of migration, and the socio-cultural frameworks that shape translations. Case studies: Camus, Fanon, Glissant, de Beauvoir, Meddeb, Duras. Prior knowledge of French language required.
Same as: COMPLIT 285, CSRE 285, FRENCH 285

FRENCH 187. Sex, Gender, and Violence: French Women Writers Today. 1-5 Unit.

Long before the 2017 #Metoo campaign, French women writers have explored through powerful fictions and autobiographies the different shades of economic, social, psychological, physical, or sexual violence that is exerted against, but also by and between, women. How does literature - the power of words - address, deconstruct or comfort power dynamics (during sex and between the sexes) that are usually silenced, taboo or unspeakable? Themes explored: sex and gender, sex and power, rape culture, sexual and moral taboos (incest, abortion, pornography, infanticide, lesbianism), the body as social stigma or source of meaning. Special attention given to narrative and descriptive strategies designed to avert, expose, deconstruct or account for specifically feminine experiences (rape, orgasm, pregnancy). Authors include Marie Darrieusecq, Christine Angot, Annie Ernaux, Marie NDiaye, Virginie Despentes, Leila Slimani, Ivan Jablonka along with feminist theory. Taught in French.
Same as: FEMGEN 187X, FEMGEN 287X, FEMGEN 387X, FRENCH 287, FRENCH 387

FRENCH 192. Women in French Cinema: 1958-. 3-5 Units.

Women as objects and subjects of the voyeuristic gaze inherent to cinema. The myth of the feminine idol in French films in historical and cultural context since the New Wave until now. The mythology of stars as the imaginary vehicle that helped France to change from traditional society to modern, culturally mixed nation. The evolution of female characters, roles, actresses, directors in the film industry. Filmmakers include Vadim, Buñuel, Truffaut, Varda, Chabrol, Colline Serreau, Tonie Marshall. Discussion in English; films in French with English subtitles.
Same as: FEMGEN 192, FILMSTUD 112

FRENCH 199. Individual Work. 1-12 Unit.

Restricted to French majors with consent of department. Normally limited to 4-unit credit toward the major. May be repeated for credit.

FRENCH 205. Songs of Love and War: Gender, Crusade, Politics. 3-5 Units.

Analysis of medieval love, satirical and Crusade lyrics of the trouabdours. Study of deictic address, corporeal subjectivity, the female voice, love debates, and the body as a figure of political conflict. Course readings include medieval treatises on lyric and modern translations of the troubadour tradition. Works by Ovid, Bernart de Ventadorn, Bertran de Born, La Comtessa de Dia, Thibaut de Champagne, Raimon Vidal, Dante, and Pound. Taught in English. Course includes a lab component for creation of multi-media translation projects: trobar. stanford.edu.
Same as: FEMGEN 205

FRENCH 214. Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett. 3-5 Units.

In this course we will read the main novels and plays of Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett, with special emphasis on the existentialist themes of their work. Readings include The Late Mattia Pascal, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Henry IV; Nausea, No Exit, "Existentialism is a Humanism"; Molloy, Endgame, Krapp's Last Tape, Waiting for Godot. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 281E, COMPLIT 381E, FRENCH 314, ITALIAN 214, ITALIAN 314

FRENCH 218. Literature and the Brain. 3 Units.

Recent developments in and neuroscience and experimental psychology have transformed the way we think about the operations of the brain. What can we learn from this about the nature and function of literary texts? Can innovative ways of speaking affect ways of thinking? Do creative metaphors draw on embodied cognition? Can fictions strengthen our "theory of mind" capabilities? What role does mental imagery play in the appreciation of descriptions? Does (weak) modularity help explain the mechanism and purpose of self-reflexivity? Can the distinctions among types of memory shed light on what narrative works have to offer?.
Same as: COMPLIT 138, COMPLIT 238, ENGLISH 118, ENGLISH 218, FRENCH 118, PSYC 126, PSYCH 118F

FRENCH 219. The Renaissance Body in French Literature and Medicine. 3-5 Units.

If the Renaissance is famous for discovering unknown continents and ancient texts the body too was a new territory of conquest. How did literature respond to the rise of an anatomical gaze in the arts and in medicine and how did it stage the aesthetic religious philosophical and moral issues related to such a promotion or deconstruction of the body? Does literature aim at representing the body or does it use it instead as a ubiquitous signifier for intellectual emotional and political ideas? The locus of desire, pleasure and disease, the body also functioned as a reminder of human mortality and was caught in the web of gender issues, religious controversies and new norms of behavior. Texts from prose fiction (Rabelais) poetry (Scève Ronsard Labé D'Aubigné) essays (Montaigne) and emblem literature. Extra documents include music scores tapestries paintings philosophical and anatomical plates from medical treatises. Taught in French.
Same as: FRENCH 319

FRENCH 220. Rethinking Francophonie in the 21st Century. 3-5 Units.

This course is a critical examination of literature from the Francophone world of the 20th and 21st centuries. Students will travel through time and space with a selection of novels, poems, epics, memoirs, essays, manifestos and short stories. In this historical and cultural journey through Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, the Caribbean, Canada, Vietnam and Mauritius, our objective will be to provide a reassessment, of what "Francophonie" means in the 21st century. While exploring francophone societies we will examine several canonical texts together with more recent works and consider their engagement with the historical and political contexts in which they were produced. Topics discussed in the course will include: race and representation, national and cultural identity, immigration and nationalism, transnationalism and diaspora, littérature-monde, language politics, postcolonialism and universalism. Readings will include the works of: Aimé Césaire, Lyonnel Trouillot, Edouard Glissant, Boubacar Boris Diop, Alain Mabanckou, Kim Thúy, Ananda Devi, Fatou Diome, Simone Swartz-Bart, Abdelkader Khatibi, among others. Taught in French.

FRENCH 221A. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Politics, Philosophy, and Literature. 3-5 Units.

"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." This seminar explores the work of one of the most important and enigmatic thinkers about the problems of modern society: Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Students will read a selection of his most important works in dialogue with other important thinkers of his time. They will grapple with Rousseau's political philosophy in his critique of modernity and his vision for remaking politics, as well as his moral philosophy and influential fictional visions of education and love. We will discuss not only Rousseau's landmark contributions to debates about authenticity, transparency, and self-interest, but also his troubling views on gender. The class will conclude with Rousseau's autobiography and its profound meditation on the formation of selfhood. Taught in French.
Same as: FRENCH 121

FRENCH 228. Science, technology and society and the humanities in the face of the looming disaster. 3-5 Units.

How STS and the Humanities can together help think out the looming catastrophes that put the future of humankind in jeopardy.
Same as: ITALIAN 228, POLISCI 233F

FRENCH 228E. Getting Through Proust. 3-5 Units.

Selections from all seven volumes of "In Search of Lost Time". Focus on issues of personal identity (perspective, memory, life-narrative); interpersonal relations (friendship, love, homosexuality, jealousy, indirect expression); knowledge (objective truth, subjective truth, necessary illusions); redemption (enchantment, disenchantment, re-enchantment); aesthetics (music, painting, fiction); and Proust's own style (narrative sequence, sentence structure, irony, metaphor, metonymy, metalepsis). Taught in English; readings in French or English.

FRENCH 230. Giambattista Vico & Claude Lévi-Strauss. 3-5 Units.

An intensive reading of Vico's New Science with special emphasis on Vico's theory of anthropogenesis, myth, and the poetic origins of human consciousness. Vico's thought will be placed in relation to Lévi-Strauss's theories of myth and so-called "primitive thought". Readings include Vico's New Science and Lévi-Strauss's "The Structural Study of Myth", and the first chapters of his book The Savage Mind. Taught in English.
Same as: FRENCH 330, ITALIAN 327

FRENCH 236. Casablanca - Algiers - Tunis : Cities on the Edge. 3-5 Units.

Casablanca, Algiers and Tunis embody three territories, real and imaginary, which never cease to challenge the preconceptions of travelers setting sight on their shores. In this class, we will explore the myriad ways in which these cities of North Africa, on the edge of Europe and of Africa, have been narrated in literature, cinema, and popular culture. Home to Muslims, Christians, and Jews, they are an ebullient laboratory of social, political, religious, and cultural issues, global and local, between the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries. We will look at mass images of these cities, from films to maps, novels to photographs, sketching a new vision of these magnets as places where power, social rituals, legacies of the Ottoman and French colonial pasts, and the influence of the global economy collude and collide. Special focus on class, gender, and race.
Same as: AFRICAAM 236B, COMPLIT 236A, CSRE 140S, FRENCH 336, HISTORY 245C, URBANST 140F

FRENCH 238. Art and the Market. 3-5 Units.

This course examines the relationship between art and the market, from the château-builders of the French Renaissance to avant-garde painters in the nineteenth-century Salon des Refusés. Using examples drawn from France, this course explores the relationship between artists and patrons, the changing status of artists in society, patterns of shifting taste, and the effects of museums on making and collecting art. Students will read a mixture of historical texts about art and artists, fictional works depicting the process of artistic creation, and theoretical analyses of the politics embedded in artworks. They will engage in sustained analysis of individual artworks, as well as the market structures in which such artworks were produced and bought. The course will be taught in English, with the option of readings in French for departmental majors.
Same as: ARTHIST 238C

FRENCH 239. The Afterlife of the Middle Ages. 3-5 Units.

Literary works that evoke a medieval past in contrast to a historical present, and critical texts that treat aspects of the medieval or medievalism. How does the concept of medievalism emerge and evolve through the ages? Topics include periodization, philology, critical theory, the study of Gothic architecture, and the use of the term medieval in modern political discourse and postcolonial studies. Authors include Burckhardt, Camille, Chateaubriand, Chrétien de Troyes, Didi-Huberman, Jauss, Michelet, Panofsky, Pound, films by Dreyer and Bergman, and contemporary poetry. Taught in English.
Same as: FRENCH 339

FRENCH 246. Body over Mind. 3-5 Units.

How does modern fiction, aided by modern philosophy, give the lie to Descartes' famous "I think therefore I am"? And how does writing convey the desire for a different, perhaps stronger, integration of mind and body? Does the body speak a particular truth that we must learn to hear, that the mind is not always connected to? How do modern metaphors for the mind-body connection shape our experience? These questions will be explored via the works of major French and Italian writers and thinkers, including Pirandello, Calvino, Camus, Houellebecq, Sartre, and Agamben.
Same as: FRENCH 346, ITALIAN 346

FRENCH 248. Cinema and the Real: Italian Neo-Realism and the French New Wave. 3-5 Units.

Between the 1940s and 1960s, in Italy and France, a handful of movie directors revolutionized the art of cinema. In the wake of World War II they entirely re-defined the aesthetics of the 7th art in films such as "Bicycle Thieves," "400 Blows," "Rome Open City," and "Breathless." These works shared an aesthetic and a philosophy of "the real" - they eschewed big studios and sets in favor of natural light, on-location shooting, and non-professional actors to capture the present moment. This survey course will explore how the dialogue between Italian neo-realism and the French New Wave has yielded some of the most revolutionary filmic masterpieces of both traditions, while raising theoretical and philosophical questions about form, time, space, fiction, representation, and reality. Films: Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio de Sica, Luchino Visconti, Federico Fellini, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais and Agnès Varda.
Same as: FRENCH 148, ITALIAN 148, ITALIAN 248

FRENCH 249. The Algerian Wars. 3-5 Units.

From Algiers the White to Algiers the Red, Algiers, the Mecca of the Revolutionaries in the words of Amilcar Cabral, this course offers to study the Algerian Wars since the French conquest of Algeria (1830-) to the Algerian civil war of the 1990s. We will revisit the ways in which the war has been narrated in literature and cinema, popular culture, and political discourse. A special focus will be given to the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962). The course considers the racial representations of the war in the media, the continuing legacies surrounding the conflict in France, Africa, and the United States, from Che Guevara to the Black Panthers. A key focus will be the transmission of collective memory through transnational lenses, and analyses of commemorative events and movies. nReadings from James Baldwin, Assia Djebar, Albert Camus, Frantz Fanon, Mouloud Feraoun. Movies include "The Battle of Algiers," "Days of Glory," and "Viva Laldjérie." nTaught in English.
Same as: CSRE 249, HISTORY 239G, JEWISHST 249

FRENCH 252. Art and Power: From Royal Spectacle to Revolutionary Ritual. 3-5 Units.

From the Palace of Versailles to grand operas to Jacques-Louis David's portraits of revolutionary martyrs, rarely have the arts been so powerfully mobilized by the State as in early modern France. This course examines how the arts were used from Louis XIV to the Revolution in order to broadcast political authority across Europe. We will also consider the resistance to such attempts to elicit shock-and-awe through artistic patronage. By studying music, architecture, garden design, the visual arts, and theater together, students will gain a new perspective on works of art in their political contexts. But we will also examine the libelous pamphlets and satirical cartoons that turned the monarchy¿s grandeur against itself, ending the course with an examination of the new artistic regime of the French Revolution. The course will be taught in English with the option of French readings for departmental majors.
Same as: ARTHIST 252A

FRENCH 257. Simone Weil, Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, and Adriana Cavarero. 3-5 Units.

What does it mean to say the personal is the political, or, in the case of Arendt, that the personal is not political, especially if you are a woman? This course explores how Weil, De Beauvoir, Arendt, and Caverero contend with the question of personhood, in its variegated social, political, ethical, and gendered dimensions. Particular attention will be given to a philosophy of social change and personal transformation, and to the enduring relevance of these women's thought to issues of our day. Texts include selections from "Gravity and Grace," "The Second Sex," "The Ethics of Ambiguity," "The Human Condition," "Between Past and Future," "Stately Bodies," and "Relating Narratives.".
Same as: COMPLIT 257, COMPLIT 357A, FEMGEN 257X, FEMGEN 357X, FRENCH 357, ITALIAN 257, ITALIAN 357

FRENCH 260A. Transcultural Perspectives of South-East Asian Music and Arts. 2-4 Units.

This course will explore the links between aspects of South-East Asian cultures and their influence on modern and contemporary Western art and literature, particularly in France; examples of this influence include Claude Debussy (Gamelan music), Jacques Charpentier (Karnatak music), Auguste Rodin (Khmer art) and Antonin Artaud (Balinese theater). In the course of these interdisciplinary analyses - focalized on music and dance but not limited to it - we will confront key notions in relation to transculturality: orientalism, appropriation, auto-ethnography, nostalgia, exoticism and cosmopolitanism. We will also consider transculturality interior to contemporary creation, through the work of contemporary composers such as Tran Kim Ngoc, Chinary Ung and Tôn-Thât Tiêt. Viewings of sculptures, marionette theater, ballet, opera and cinema will also play an integral role. To satisfy a Ways requirement, this course must be taken for at least 3 units. In AY 2020-21, a letter grade or `CR¿ grade satisfies the Ways requirement. WIM credit in Music at 4 units and a letter grade.
Same as: COMPLIT 148, COMPLIT 267, MUSIC 146N, MUSIC 246N

FRENCH 261. War and Peace: Writings by and about Veterans in the 20th and 21st Centuries. 2-5 Units.

Since the aftermath of World War One, and with increasing urgency in contemporary America, stories about and by veterans are assigned a double role: that of exposing the horror of war yet also defending the possibility of a just war, and that of healing both veterans themselves and the society they return to. Key questions for this course are: Given the current practice of using writing and the hero¿s journey as a model for healing veterans and making their voices heard in our culture, can we look back to post-World-War-One culture and see if writing fulfills a similar function? And given how many post-World-War-One veterans became famous writers, how do we assess the interplay between literature, poetry, memoir, journalism, personal letters, photo accounts? Is there a connection between artistic innovation and the capacity to heal?.
Same as: FRENCH 361, ITALIAN 261, ITALIAN 361

FRENCH 262. Symbolism in Literature and the Arts. 3-5 Units.

This course will deal with the some of the 19th and 20th century authors and artists associated with Symbolism. We will focus on some key theoretical essays about the symbol, as well as on symbolist poetry, novels, visual arts, cinema, and music. In reading authors such as Coleridge, Blake, Poe, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Mallarmé, Valéry, Pascoli, Campana, d¿Annunzio, and Savinio, we will explore the nature and uses of the symbol in art.
Same as: FRENCH 362, ITALIAN 262, ITALIAN 362

FRENCH 264. Crossing the Atlantic: Race and Identity in the African Diaspora. 3-5 Units.

This course interrogates the relationship between literature, culture, race and identity in the African diaspora. We will analyze racial discourses through literature, and various forms of cultural expression while examining the role of class and gender in these configurations. As we follow the historical and geographical trajectories of people of African descent in different parts of the world, students will explore literary and political movements with the objective of examining how race has been constructed and is performed in different regions of the diaspora. Our readings will take us from Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyana, France, and Senegal to Cuba, Brazil, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Topics discussed will include: Race, identity, gender, class, memory, oral tradition, Afro-Caribbean religions, Negrismo, Négritude, Antillanité, Créolité, colonialism, modernity and national belonging. Readings will include the works of: Jean Price-Mars, Léopold Senghor, Aimé Césaire, Léon Damas, Frantz Fanon, Nicolás Guillén, Nancy Morejon, Maryse Condé, Patrick Chamoiseau, Edouard Glissant, among others. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 264, CSRE 265

FRENCH 265. The Problem of Evil in Literature, Film, and Philosophy. 3-5 Units.

Conceptions of evil and its nature and source, distinctions between natural and moral evil, and what belongs to God versus to the human race have undergone transformations reflected in literature and film. Sources include Rousseau's response to the 1755 Lisbon earthquake; Hannah Arendt's interpretation of Auschwitz; Günther Anders' reading of Hiroshima; and current reflections on looming climatic and nuclear disasters. Readings from Rousseau, Kant, Dostoevsky, Arendt, Anders, Jonas, Camus, Ricoeur, Houellebeck, Girard. Films by Lang, Bergman, Losey, Hitchcock.
Same as: POLISCI 338E

FRENCH 266. Food, Text, Music: A Multidisciplinary Lab on the Art of Feasting. 3-5 Units.

Students cook a collection of unfamiliar recipes each week while learning about the cultural milieus in which they originated. The course focuses on the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, a time of great banquets that brought together chefs, visual artists, poets, musicians, and dancers. Students read late-medieval cookbooks under the guidance of professional chefs, learn songs and poetry with the help of visiting performers, and delve into a burgeoning scholarly literature on food history and sensory experience. We will also study trade routes and food networks, the environmental impact of large-scale banquets, the science of food, and the politics of plenty. This course may count towards the Medieval component of the French major, and corresponds to DLCL 121, a course requirement for the Medieval Studies Minor. Students interested in applying for course must email the professor (jrodin@stanford.edu) by 20 September with a statement of up to 350 words that includes: (a) reasons for wanting to take the class; (b) relevant background in cooking/medieval studies/etc.; (c) stated commitment to attend all ten course meetings; and (d) any dietary restrictions/preferences.
Same as: FRENCH 166, FRENCH 366, MUSIC 133, MUSIC 333

FRENCH 272. Body Doubles: From the Fantastic Short Story to Science-Fiction. 2-5 Units.

How do we imagine our bodies through language, at times almost completely refashioning a physical double, be it idealized or abject? How do such body doubles intersect with our sense of self, defining or redefining sexual identity, spiritual aspirations, illness and recovery, and the senses themselves, as our window into reality? This course focuses on short stories from the late 19th- and early 20th-century fantastic genre, and science fiction stories from the following turn of the century, 100 years later: in these revealing instances, body doubles often seem to acquire a will of their own, overwhelming normal physical identity.
Same as: FRENCH 372, ITALIAN 272, ITALIAN 372

FRENCH 279. How the French Reinvented Cinema: The New Wave. 3-5 Units.

Focus on the French New Wave's cinematic revolution of 1959-1962. In a few years, the Nouvelle Vague delivered landmark works such as Truffaut's 400 Blows, Godard's Breathless, Chabrol's The Cousins or Resnais' Hiroshima mon amour, and changed forever the way we make and think about movies. Why did these films look so radically fresh? What do they say about France's youth culture in the early 60s? How is the author's theory behind them still influencing us today? Focus is on cultural history, aesthetic analysis, interpretation of narrative, sound and visual forms. Graduate and Junior/Senior level. Taught in English. NOTE: Class meets Thursday 1:30-4:20pm; film screenings Monday 6:00-8:50pm in room 540-108.
Same as: FRENCH 379

FRENCH 281. Women in Africa and the Caribbean: Tales of Agency. 3-5 Units.

This course explores forms of women¿s agency in African and Caribbean cultural productions. Drawing on literature, visual art and feminist theory we will grapple with the concept of agency in different socio-historical and economic contexts while examining texts and films at the intersection of race, gender and agency. In addition to considering the acts of subversion, negotiation, resistance and transgression, throughout the semester, our investigations of gendered agency will pay particular attention to creativity as a tool to challenge power relations specific to each context explored. Topics include race, class, nationalism, métissage, oral tradition, Afro-Caribbean religions, sexuality, marriage, food and the body. Taught in English.

FRENCH 285. Texts and Contexts: French-English Translation. 3-5 Units.

This course introduces students to the ways in which translation has shaped the image of France and the Francophone world. What texts and concepts were translated, how, where, and to what effect? Students will work on a translation project throughout the quarter and translate texts from French to English and English to French. Topics may include the role of translation in the development of cultures; the political dimension of translation, translation in the context of migration, and the socio-cultural frameworks that shape translations. Case studies: Camus, Fanon, Glissant, de Beauvoir, Meddeb, Duras. Prior knowledge of French language required.
Same as: COMPLIT 285, CSRE 285, FRENCH 185

FRENCH 286. Poetry and Philosophy. 2-5 Units.

When and why do philosophers resort to poetry?nWhat is the relationship between poetic metaphor and philosophical argumentation?nWhy is the poetic often associated with empathy - recently touted as an essential human characteristic - whereas philosophy is considered more objective?nWhat is poetry's role in the pursuit of wisdom or the good life?nAuthors include Nietzsche, Heidegger, Bataille, Agamben, Ricoeur, Derrida, Irigaray, Wyschogrod, and Cavarero.
Same as: FRENCH 386, ITALIAN 286, ITALIAN 386

FRENCH 287. Sex, Gender, and Violence: French Women Writers Today. 1-5 Unit.

Long before the 2017 #Metoo campaign, French women writers have explored through powerful fictions and autobiographies the different shades of economic, social, psychological, physical, or sexual violence that is exerted against, but also by and between, women. How does literature - the power of words - address, deconstruct or comfort power dynamics (during sex and between the sexes) that are usually silenced, taboo or unspeakable? Themes explored: sex and gender, sex and power, rape culture, sexual and moral taboos (incest, abortion, pornography, infanticide, lesbianism), the body as social stigma or source of meaning. Special attention given to narrative and descriptive strategies designed to avert, expose, deconstruct or account for specifically feminine experiences (rape, orgasm, pregnancy). Authors include Marie Darrieusecq, Christine Angot, Annie Ernaux, Marie NDiaye, Virginie Despentes, Leila Slimani, Ivan Jablonka along with feminist theory. Taught in French.
Same as: FEMGEN 187X, FEMGEN 287X, FEMGEN 387X, FRENCH 187, FRENCH 387

FRENCH 290. Magic, Science, and Religion. 3-5 Units.

With the rise of the human sciences in the later nineteenth century, "magic," "science," and "religion" came to be understood as entirely separate domains, with different versions of truth and divergent methods of inquiry. But how has this division broken down in the past 150 years? How is it, for example, that other people's religion is "merely magic"? How does science still draw on religious categories, in particular to claim the universe is meaningful? How have new forms of magic shaped new age, global culture? We will examine these questions by pairing literary texts with readings from anthropology, history of science, religious studies, and cultural criticism. This course is taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 290A, COMPLIT 390A, FRENCH 390, ITALIAN 290, ITALIAN 390

FRENCH 292. Romancing the Stone: Crystal Media from Babylon to Superman. 3-5 Units.

This seminar investigates the importance of rock crystal and its imitations as material, medium, and metaphor from antiquity until modernity. The objects examined include rings, reliquaries, lenses, and the Crystal Aesthetic in early twentieth-century architecture and even Superman's Fortress of Solitude. The texts range from Pliny to Arabic Poetry to Romance Literature to modern manifestos.
Same as: ARTHIST 292, ARTHIST 492, FRENCH 392

FRENCH 307A. Proust and His World. 3-5 Units.

This course is a chance to read together Proust's <e>A la recherche du temps perdu</e>. This seven-volume novel is a stylistic tour de force, a brilliant meditation on defining elements of modernity, and an eccentric meander through art, history and the self. We will look closely at Proust's narrative edifice, and its poetic achievements. We will augment our reading of the novel with secondary selections that enable us to explore the many themes and questions raised by the work, ranging from fashion as a serious mode of modern expression to the phenomenology of memory to the decadence of French culture on the eve of the First World War. We'll look at the importance of Proust for structuralist and post-structuralist critics of the 1960s-1980s, whose paradigms continue to resonate today. We'll also consider together the interest and limits of a single-author course, and the value of absorptive, "slow" reading in our multi-tasking era. Supplementary readings might include selections from Charles Baudelaire, John Ruskin, Henri Bergson, Gérard Genette, Gilles Deleuze, Eve Sedgwick, Maurice Samuels, and Caroline Weber. Reading knowledge of French strongly recommended.
Same as: COMPLIT 307

FRENCH 310. French Painting from Watteau to Monet. 3-5 Units.

This course offers a survey of painting in France from 1700 to around 1900. It introduces major artists, artworks, and the concepts used by contemporary observers and later art historians to make sense of this extraordinarily rich period. Overarching themes discussed in the class will include the dueling legacies of coloristic virtuosity and classical formalism, new ways of representing visual perception, the opposing artistic effects of absorption and theatricality, the rise and fall of official arts institutions, and the participation of artists and artworks in political upheaval and social change. The course ends with an interrogation of the concept of modernity and its emergence out of dialogue and conflict with artists of the past. Students will learn and practice formal analysis of paintings, as well as interpretations stressing historical context.
Same as: ARTHIST 110, ARTHIST 310, FRENCH 110

FRENCH 314. Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett. 3-5 Units.

In this course we will read the main novels and plays of Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett, with special emphasis on the existentialist themes of their work. Readings include The Late Mattia Pascal, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Henry IV; Nausea, No Exit, "Existentialism is a Humanism"; Molloy, Endgame, Krapp's Last Tape, Waiting for Godot. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 281E, COMPLIT 381E, FRENCH 214, ITALIAN 214, ITALIAN 314

FRENCH 319. The Renaissance Body in French Literature and Medicine. 3-5 Units.

If the Renaissance is famous for discovering unknown continents and ancient texts the body too was a new territory of conquest. How did literature respond to the rise of an anatomical gaze in the arts and in medicine and how did it stage the aesthetic religious philosophical and moral issues related to such a promotion or deconstruction of the body? Does literature aim at representing the body or does it use it instead as a ubiquitous signifier for intellectual emotional and political ideas? The locus of desire, pleasure and disease, the body also functioned as a reminder of human mortality and was caught in the web of gender issues, religious controversies and new norms of behavior. Texts from prose fiction (Rabelais) poetry (Scève Ronsard Labé D'Aubigné) essays (Montaigne) and emblem literature. Extra documents include music scores tapestries paintings philosophical and anatomical plates from medical treatises. Taught in French.
Same as: FRENCH 219

FRENCH 320. The Posthumanistic Subject. 3-5 Units.

The course will examine the need to rethink the traditional western idea of the strong subject. Through close readings of works by Agamben, Braidotti, Derrida, Deleuze, Hall, Haraway, Latour, Wolfe, among others, this course will explore posthumanist theories of individual and collective subjectivity that challenge traditional ways of defining the human and the non-human subject/person and promote fundamental reconsideration of issues such as agency, autonomy, essence, freedom, dignity, otherness, substance, personhood, sociality, and life itself. The course would consider, how we can empower the subject and community in order to develop a desired model of participatory democracy. Prerequisite: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 321. Giambattista Vico. 1-5 Unit.

An intensive reading of Vico's New Science. Emphasis will be on Vico's philosophy of history and theories of poetic wisdom, myth, and language. Vico will be put in dialogue with René Descartes, Rousseau, Auguste Compte, Claude Lévi Strauss, and Paul Feyerabend, whose ideas about myth and science converge in striking ways with Vico's.
Same as: ITALIAN 321

FRENCH 322. Decadence and Modernism from Mallarmé to Marinetti. 1-2 Unit.

One hundred years ago, artists feared their work was incompatible with modern economic systems, secular bourgeois values, and materialist science. Accused of being decadent, they took up this term of derision and made it into a program of rebellion that has shaped modern art. This course explores decadent rebellion, with an eye toward how the last turn of the century might be similar to our current one. Writers include Huysmans, Poe, Mallarmé, Nietzsche, Nordau, d'Annunzio, Valéry, Ungaretti, Marinetti, and Breton; we will also consider parallels in the visual arts.

FRENCH 327. Genres of the Novel. 5 Units.

Provides students with an overview of some major genres in the history of the modern novel, along with major theorists in the critical understanding of the form. Novels might include works by Cervantes, Defoe, Lafayette, Radcliffe, Goethe, Scott, Balzac, Melville, and Woolf. Theorists might include Lukacs, Bakhtin, Jameson, Gallagher, Barthes, Kristeva, and Bourdieu. *PLEASE NOTE: Course for graduate students only.*.
Same as: COMPLIT 327, ENGLISH 327

FRENCH 329. Rethinking Francophone Literature in the 21st Century. 3-5 Units.

This course is a critical examination of literature from the Francophone world of the 20th and 21st centuries. Students will travel through time and space with a selection of novels, poems, essays, and short stories. In this historical and cultural journey through Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, the Caribbean, Canada, Vietnam and Mauritius, our objective will be to provide a reassessment of what Francophone studies mean in the 21st century. Topics discussed in the course will include race and representation, national and cultural identity, immigration and nationalism, transnationalism and diaspora, "littérature-monde," the politics of language, postcolonialism and universalism. Readings will include the works of Dani Laferrière, Bessora, Ken Bugul, Alain Mabanckou, Kim Thúy, Ananda Devi, Abdourahman Waberi, Véronique Tadjo and Abdelkebir Khatibi. Taught in French.
Same as: CSRE 329

FRENCH 330. Giambattista Vico & Claude Lévi-Strauss. 3-5 Units.

An intensive reading of Vico's New Science with special emphasis on Vico's theory of anthropogenesis, myth, and the poetic origins of human consciousness. Vico's thought will be placed in relation to Lévi-Strauss's theories of myth and so-called "primitive thought". Readings include Vico's New Science and Lévi-Strauss's "The Structural Study of Myth", and the first chapters of his book The Savage Mind. Taught in English.
Same as: FRENCH 230, ITALIAN 327

FRENCH 331. The Craft of Confession and Its Cultural Contexts. 5 Units.

Course examines medieval treatises and literature relating to the practice of confession as well as modern examples, with a focus on medieval concern with a sincere and authentic confession in theological, ethical, and aesthetic terms. Study includes expressions of subjectivity, institutional frameworks of confession, and the phenomenon as an instrument for political activity such as crusade. Texts: Augustine¿s Confessions, pastoral treatises, Aquinas, Arthurian romances concerning the grail legend, crusade lyric, and Foucault; films such as Dreyer and martyrdom videos. Taught in French.

FRENCH 336. Casablanca - Algiers - Tunis : Cities on the Edge. 3-5 Units.

Casablanca, Algiers and Tunis embody three territories, real and imaginary, which never cease to challenge the preconceptions of travelers setting sight on their shores. In this class, we will explore the myriad ways in which these cities of North Africa, on the edge of Europe and of Africa, have been narrated in literature, cinema, and popular culture. Home to Muslims, Christians, and Jews, they are an ebullient laboratory of social, political, religious, and cultural issues, global and local, between the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries. We will look at mass images of these cities, from films to maps, novels to photographs, sketching a new vision of these magnets as places where power, social rituals, legacies of the Ottoman and French colonial pasts, and the influence of the global economy collude and collide. Special focus on class, gender, and race.
Same as: AFRICAAM 236B, COMPLIT 236A, CSRE 140S, FRENCH 236, HISTORY 245C, URBANST 140F

FRENCH 339. The Afterlife of the Middle Ages. 3-5 Units.

Literary works that evoke a medieval past in contrast to a historical present, and critical texts that treat aspects of the medieval or medievalism. How does the concept of medievalism emerge and evolve through the ages? Topics include periodization, philology, critical theory, the study of Gothic architecture, and the use of the term medieval in modern political discourse and postcolonial studies. Authors include Burckhardt, Camille, Chateaubriand, Chrétien de Troyes, Didi-Huberman, Jauss, Michelet, Panofsky, Pound, films by Dreyer and Bergman, and contemporary poetry. Taught in English.
Same as: FRENCH 239

FRENCH 340. Paris: Capital of the Modern World. 4-5 Units.

This course explores how Paris, between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, became the political, cultural, and artistic capital of the modern world. It considers how the city has both shaped and been shaped by the tumultuous events of modern history- class conflict, industrialization, imperialism, war, and occupation. It will also explore why Paris became the major world destination for intellectuals, artists and writers. Sources will include films, paintings, architecture, novels, travel journals, and memoirs. Course taught in English with an optional French section.
Same as: FRENCH 140, HISTORY 230C, URBANST 184

FRENCH 343. In Defense of Poetry. 3-5 Units.

Beginning with the account of the quarrel between philosophy and poetry in Plato's Republic, we will read definitions and defenses of poetry by authors such as Cicero, Horace, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Sidney, Shelley, and Pound, among others. While we will try to historicize these authors' defenses as much as possible, we will also read them from the perspective of contemporary efforts to defend literature and the humanities. Topics of central concern will be the connection between poetry and ethics, the conflict between poetry and the professions of business, law, and medicine, poetry's place in the university, the political role of the poet, questions of poetic language and form, and the relevance of defenses of poetry to literary theory.

FRENCH 346. Body over Mind. 3-5 Units.

How does modern fiction, aided by modern philosophy, give the lie to Descartes' famous "I think therefore I am"? And how does writing convey the desire for a different, perhaps stronger, integration of mind and body? Does the body speak a particular truth that we must learn to hear, that the mind is not always connected to? How do modern metaphors for the mind-body connection shape our experience? These questions will be explored via the works of major French and Italian writers and thinkers, including Pirandello, Calvino, Camus, Houellebecq, Sartre, and Agamben.
Same as: FRENCH 246, ITALIAN 346

FRENCH 349. Love at First Sight: Visual Desire, Attraction, and the Pleasures of Art. 3-5 Units.

Why do dating sites rely on photographs? Why do we believe that love is above all a visual force? How is pleasure, even erotic pleasure, achieved through looking? While the psychology of impressions offers some answers, this course uncovers the ways poets, songwriters, and especially artists have explored myths and promoted ideas about the coupling of love and seeing. Week by week, we will be reflecting on love as political critique, social disruption, and magical force. And we will do so by examining some of the most iconic works of art, from Dante's writings on lovesickness to Caravaggio's Narcissus, studying the ways that objects have shifted from keepsakes to targets of our cares. While exploring the visual roots and evolutions of what has become one of life's fundamental drives, this course offers a passionate survey of European art from Giotto's kiss to Fragonard's swing that elicits stimulating questions about the sensorial nature of desire and the human struggle to control emotions.
Same as: ARTHIST 119, ARTHIST 319, FRENCH 149, ITALIAN 149, ITALIAN 349

FRENCH 350. Season and Off-Season of North-African Cinema and Literature. 3-5 Units.

This course explores the emergence of Francophone cinema and literature from North Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco) in the post-independence era: aesthetics, language metissage and hybridization, ethnic interactions, gender relations, collective imagination and collective memory, nationalism, popular culture, religion, urbanism, post-colonialism, migration, and the Arab Spring will be covered. Special attention will be given to Moroccan cinema, and to the notions of francophone/maghrebi/"beur"/diasporic cinema and literature. Readings from Franz Fanon, Albert Memmi, Kateb Yacine, Albert Camus, Reda Bensmaia, Assia Djebar, Colette Fellous, Abdelkebir Khatibi, Michel de Certeau, Benjamin Stora, Lucette Valensi, Abdelwahab Meddeb. Movies include Viva Laldjérie, Rome plutot que vous, Les Sabots en or, Les Silence des Palais, Halfaouine, Satin Rouge, Le Chant des Mariées, and Mort à Vendre. Taught in French. Films in French and Arabic with English subtitles.
Same as: FRENCH 150

FRENCH 352. French Painting from the Revolution to Impressionism. 3-5 Units.

This course offers a survey of painting in France from 1700 to around 1900. It introduces major artists, artworks, and the concepts used by contemporary observers and later art historians to make sense of this extraordinarily rich period. Overarching themes discussed in the class will include the dueling legacies of coloristic virtuosity and classical formalism, new ways of representing visual perception, the opposing artistic effects of absorption and theatricality, the rise and fall of official arts institutions, and the participation of artists and artworks in political upheaval and social change. The course ends with an interrogation of the concept of modernity and its emergence out of dialogue and conflict with artists of the past. Students will learn and practice formal analysis of paintings, as well as interpretations stressing historical context.
Same as: FRENCH 152

FRENCH 353. « Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité » : French Political Myths and Concepts. 3-5 Units.

"Liberté, égalité, fraternité," but also "laïcité," "diversité," "parité," "universalisme" : the French have forged over the last two centuries key political concepts that are articulated together in a unique way and shape the political consciousness, modes of engagements, aspirations and current debates of what has been called "the most political nation in the world." Along with mythologies such as the People, the Nation, the providential Leader, or the "enemy from within," they are at the centre of semantic and political battles, tugged over by the Left, the Right, populist movements, activists and counter-cultures. How did they emerge? How do they apply today? How does theory compare to practices, principles to day-to-day realities? An introduction through case-studies, films, paintings, cartoons, and texts from political theory, history, politics and literature. Taught in English.
Same as: FRENCH 153

FRENCH 357. Simone Weil, Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, and Adriana Cavarero. 3-5 Units.

What does it mean to say the personal is the political, or, in the case of Arendt, that the personal is not political, especially if you are a woman? This course explores how Weil, De Beauvoir, Arendt, and Caverero contend with the question of personhood, in its variegated social, political, ethical, and gendered dimensions. Particular attention will be given to a philosophy of social change and personal transformation, and to the enduring relevance of these women's thought to issues of our day. Texts include selections from "Gravity and Grace," "The Second Sex," "The Ethics of Ambiguity," "The Human Condition," "Between Past and Future," "Stately Bodies," and "Relating Narratives.".
Same as: COMPLIT 257, COMPLIT 357A, FEMGEN 257X, FEMGEN 357X, FRENCH 257, ITALIAN 257, ITALIAN 357

FRENCH 361. War and Peace: Writings by and about Veterans in the 20th and 21st Centuries. 2-5 Units.

Since the aftermath of World War One, and with increasing urgency in contemporary America, stories about and by veterans are assigned a double role: that of exposing the horror of war yet also defending the possibility of a just war, and that of healing both veterans themselves and the society they return to. Key questions for this course are: Given the current practice of using writing and the hero¿s journey as a model for healing veterans and making their voices heard in our culture, can we look back to post-World-War-One culture and see if writing fulfills a similar function? And given how many post-World-War-One veterans became famous writers, how do we assess the interplay between literature, poetry, memoir, journalism, personal letters, photo accounts? Is there a connection between artistic innovation and the capacity to heal?.
Same as: FRENCH 261, ITALIAN 261, ITALIAN 361

FRENCH 362. Symbolism in Literature and the Arts. 3-5 Units.

This course will deal with the some of the 19th and 20th century authors and artists associated with Symbolism. We will focus on some key theoretical essays about the symbol, as well as on symbolist poetry, novels, visual arts, cinema, and music. In reading authors such as Coleridge, Blake, Poe, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Mallarmé, Valéry, Pascoli, Campana, d¿Annunzio, and Savinio, we will explore the nature and uses of the symbol in art.
Same as: FRENCH 262, ITALIAN 262, ITALIAN 362

FRENCH 365. The Problem of Evil in Philosophy, Literature, and Film. 5 Units.

This workshop will explore how the existence of evil in the world has been perceived, felt, analyzed, conceptualized, and dealt with over time, from the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and tsunami to our post-Auschwitz, post-Hiroshima era. We'll take it for granted that "the problem of evil is the guiding force of modern thought" (Susan Neiman, Evil in Modern Thought.) We'll ask why this is apparently no longer the case. Such philosophers as Rousseau, Voltaire, Diderot, Leibniz, Kant, Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, Günther Anders, Hans Jonas and Ivan Illich will be our guides. One could argue, however, that theology, metaphysics or moral philosophy are not up to the task of making sense of evil if they are not aided by literature and, today, film. Fiction can often articulate ideas that escape the grasp of philosophy. NOTE: Enrollment is capped and limited to graduate students: To be considered for enrollment in this course, please submit by March 13, 2020 a letter of motivation fleshing out the state of your own research or reflections in this domain. This letter should be sent to the instructor at jpdupuy@stanford.edu.

FRENCH 366. Food, Text, Music: A Multidisciplinary Lab on the Art of Feasting. 3-5 Units.

Students cook a collection of unfamiliar recipes each week while learning about the cultural milieus in which they originated. The course focuses on the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, a time of great banquets that brought together chefs, visual artists, poets, musicians, and dancers. Students read late-medieval cookbooks under the guidance of professional chefs, learn songs and poetry with the help of visiting performers, and delve into a burgeoning scholarly literature on food history and sensory experience. We will also study trade routes and food networks, the environmental impact of large-scale banquets, the science of food, and the politics of plenty. This course may count towards the Medieval component of the French major, and corresponds to DLCL 121, a course requirement for the Medieval Studies Minor. Students interested in applying for course must email the professor (jrodin@stanford.edu) by 20 September with a statement of up to 350 words that includes: (a) reasons for wanting to take the class; (b) relevant background in cooking/medieval studies/etc.; (c) stated commitment to attend all ten course meetings; and (d) any dietary restrictions/preferences.
Same as: FRENCH 166, FRENCH 266, MUSIC 133, MUSIC 333

FRENCH 368A. Imagining the Oceans. 5 Units.

How has Western culture constructed the world's oceans since the beginning of global ocean exploration? How have imaginative visions of the ocean been shaped by marine science, technology, exploration, commerce and leisure? Primary authors read might include Cook, Banks, Equiano, Ricketts, and Steinbeck; Defoe, Cooper, Verne, Conrad, Woolf and Hemingway; Coleridge, Baudelaire, Moore, Bishop and Walcott. Critical readings include Schmitt, Rediker and Linebaugh, Baucom, Best, Corbin, Auden, Sontag and Heller-Roazen. Films by Sekula, Painlevé and Bigelow. Seminar coordinated with a 2015 Cantor Arts Center public exhibition. Visits to the Cantor; other possible field trips include Hopkins Marine Station and SF Maritime Historical Park. Open to graduate students only.
Same as: COMPLIT 368A, ENGLISH 368A

FRENCH 369. Introduction to the Profession of Literary Studies. 1-2 Unit.

A survey of how literary theory and other methods have been made institutional since the nineteenth century. The readings and conversation are designed for entering Ph.D. students in the national literature departments and comparative literature.
Same as: COMPLIT 369, DLCL 369, GERMAN 369, ITALIAN 369

FRENCH 372. Body Doubles: From the Fantastic Short Story to Science-Fiction. 2-5 Units.

How do we imagine our bodies through language, at times almost completely refashioning a physical double, be it idealized or abject? How do such body doubles intersect with our sense of self, defining or redefining sexual identity, spiritual aspirations, illness and recovery, and the senses themselves, as our window into reality? This course focuses on short stories from the late 19th- and early 20th-century fantastic genre, and science fiction stories from the following turn of the century, 100 years later: in these revealing instances, body doubles often seem to acquire a will of their own, overwhelming normal physical identity.
Same as: FRENCH 272, ITALIAN 272, ITALIAN 372

FRENCH 377. Medieval Lyric: How Lyric Moves. 3-5 Units.

Through the study of various vernacular premodern traditions, this graduate level course examines the qualities that make texts "lyric" and place them into conversation with contemporary theories of lyric. The course will situate medieval lyric within the critical discourse of poetics, the Global South, the archive, and anachrony. We will consider the movement of verse within and among various material contexts (song, manuscript, artworks, objects, tombstones). Poets considered: troubadours, trouvères, Galician-Portugese cantigas d'amigo, Stilnovists, Dante, Petrarchan poetry, Jean Renart, Charles d'Orléans, Villon, Pound, Brazilian Concrete Poetry.
Same as: COMPLIT 377, ITALIAN 377

FRENCH 379. How the French Reinvented Cinema: The New Wave. 3-5 Units.

Focus on the French New Wave's cinematic revolution of 1959-1962. In a few years, the Nouvelle Vague delivered landmark works such as Truffaut's 400 Blows, Godard's Breathless, Chabrol's The Cousins or Resnais' Hiroshima mon amour, and changed forever the way we make and think about movies. Why did these films look so radically fresh? What do they say about France's youth culture in the early 60s? How is the author's theory behind them still influencing us today? Focus is on cultural history, aesthetic analysis, interpretation of narrative, sound and visual forms. Graduate and Junior/Senior level. Taught in English. NOTE: Class meets Thursday 1:30-4:20pm; film screenings Monday 6:00-8:50pm in room 540-108.
Same as: FRENCH 279

FRENCH 380. Critical Poetics. 3-5 Units.

After recent critiques of "close" methods of literary criticism and reading practices, what claims can we make today about the literary object? Can we ever return to broad and general categories of poetics that were formulated by the major syncretic works of twentieth-century literary criticism by figures such as Auerbach, Curtius, and Frye? This course will discuss recent debates around literariness and concepts of poetics that move past a hermeneutic of suspicion and embrace the productive energies of form and affect produced by literary texts, including new methods of data analysis and concepts of genres in historical time.

FRENCH 386. Poetry and Philosophy. 2-5 Units.

When and why do philosophers resort to poetry?nWhat is the relationship between poetic metaphor and philosophical argumentation?nWhy is the poetic often associated with empathy - recently touted as an essential human characteristic - whereas philosophy is considered more objective?nWhat is poetry's role in the pursuit of wisdom or the good life?nAuthors include Nietzsche, Heidegger, Bataille, Agamben, Ricoeur, Derrida, Irigaray, Wyschogrod, and Cavarero.
Same as: FRENCH 286, ITALIAN 286, ITALIAN 386

FRENCH 387. Sex, Gender, and Violence: French Women Writers Today. 1-5 Unit.

Long before the 2017 #Metoo campaign, French women writers have explored through powerful fictions and autobiographies the different shades of economic, social, psychological, physical, or sexual violence that is exerted against, but also by and between, women. How does literature - the power of words - address, deconstruct or comfort power dynamics (during sex and between the sexes) that are usually silenced, taboo or unspeakable? Themes explored: sex and gender, sex and power, rape culture, sexual and moral taboos (incest, abortion, pornography, infanticide, lesbianism), the body as social stigma or source of meaning. Special attention given to narrative and descriptive strategies designed to avert, expose, deconstruct or account for specifically feminine experiences (rape, orgasm, pregnancy). Authors include Marie Darrieusecq, Christine Angot, Annie Ernaux, Marie NDiaye, Virginie Despentes, Leila Slimani, Ivan Jablonka along with feminist theory. Taught in French.
Same as: FEMGEN 187X, FEMGEN 287X, FEMGEN 387X, FRENCH 187, FRENCH 287

FRENCH 390. Magic, Science, and Religion. 3-5 Units.

With the rise of the human sciences in the later nineteenth century, "magic," "science," and "religion" came to be understood as entirely separate domains, with different versions of truth and divergent methods of inquiry. But how has this division broken down in the past 150 years? How is it, for example, that other people's religion is "merely magic"? How does science still draw on religious categories, in particular to claim the universe is meaningful? How have new forms of magic shaped new age, global culture? We will examine these questions by pairing literary texts with readings from anthropology, history of science, religious studies, and cultural criticism. This course is taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 290A, COMPLIT 390A, FRENCH 290, ITALIAN 290, ITALIAN 390

FRENCH 392. Romancing the Stone: Crystal Media from Babylon to Superman. 3-5 Units.

This seminar investigates the importance of rock crystal and its imitations as material, medium, and metaphor from antiquity until modernity. The objects examined include rings, reliquaries, lenses, and the Crystal Aesthetic in early twentieth-century architecture and even Superman's Fortress of Solitude. The texts range from Pliny to Arabic Poetry to Romance Literature to modern manifestos.
Same as: ARTHIST 292, ARTHIST 492, FRENCH 292

FRENCH 395. Philosophical Reading Group. 1 Unit.

Discussion of one contemporary or historical text from the Western philosophical tradition per quarter in a group of faculty and graduate students. For admission of new participants, a conversation with Professor Robert Harrison is required. May be repeated for credit. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 359A, ITALIAN 395

FRENCH 398. Intensive Reading in French/Italian. 10 Units.

Enrollment is limited to French/Italian Ph.D. students. Course is designed for French/Italian Ph.D. students to prepare for department milestone exams.
Same as: ITALIAN 398

FRENCH 399. Individual Work. 1-12 Unit.

For students in French working on special projects or engaged in predissertation research.

FRENCH 801. TGR Project. 0 Units.

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FRENCH 802. TGR Dissertation. 0 Units.

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Italian Courses

ITALIAN 75N. Narrative Medicine and Near-Death Experiences. 3 Units.

Even if many of us don't fully believe in an afterlife, we remain fascinated by visions of it. This course focuses on Near-Death Experiences and the stories around them, investigating them from the many perspectives pertinent to the growing field of narrative medicine: medical, neurological, cognitive, psychological, sociological, literary, and filmic. The goal is not to understand whether the stories are veridical but what they do for us, as individuals, and as a culture, and in particular how they seek to reshape the patient-doctor relationship. Materials will span the 20th century and come into the present. Taught in English.
Same as: FRENCH 75N

ITALIAN 101. Italy: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. 3 Units.

Renowned for its rich cultural tradition, Italy is also one of the most problematic nations in Europe. This course explores the contradictions at the heart of Italy by examining how art and literature provide a unique perspective onto modern Italian history. We will focus on key phenomena that contribute both positively and negatively to the complex "spirit" of Italy, such as the presence of the past, political realism and idealism, revolution, corruption, decadence, war, immigration, and crises of all kinds. Through the study of historical and literary texts, films, and news media, the course seeks to understand Italy's current place in Europe and its future trajectory by looking to its past as a point of comparison. Taught in English.

ITALIAN 115. Virtual Italy. 4-5 Units.

Classical Italy attracted thousands of travelers throughout the 1700s. Referring to their journey as the "Grand Tour," travelers pursued intellectual passions, promoted careers, and satisfied wanderlust, all while collecting antiquities to fill museums and estates back home. What can computational approaches tell us about who traveled, where and why? We will read travel accounts; experiment with parsing; and visualize historical data. Final projects to form credited contributions to the Grand Tour Project, a cutting-edge digital platform. No prior programming experience necessary.
Same as: CLASSICS 115, ENGLISH 115, HISTORY 238C

ITALIAN 127. Inventing Italian Literature: Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarca. 4 Units.

This course examines the origins of Italian literature in the late Middle Ages. We will read selections from Dante's Vita Nuova and Inferno; Petrarca's Canzoniere; and Boccaccio's Decameron. Taught in Italian. Recommended: ITALLANG 22A or equivalent level of proficiency.

ITALIAN 128. The Italian Renaissance and the Path to Modernity. 4 Units.

Are humans free and self-determining agents possessed of infinite potential or limited beings subject to the vagaries of fortune? What is the relationship between love and beauty? Is it better for a leader to inspire love or fear? These are the kind of questions Renaissance thinkers asked and we will pursue in our study of the literature, art, and history of Italy from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries. In this course, you will become acquainted with major writers, thinkers, and artists, and key ideas, innovations, and movements. Examining masterpieces of literature (poetry and prose), art (painting, drawing and sculpture), theater and music, including works of the High Renaissance, we will explore such topics as love, power, faith, reason, and contingency in human affairs. With the themes of discovery, invention and adaption as our guide, we will reflect on perennial tensions between imitation and inspiration, tradition and innovation, and conformity and transgression in Renaissance and early modern Italy. Taught in Italian. Recommended: ITALLANG 22A or equivalent (2 years of Italian). This course fulfills the Writing in the Major (WIM) requirement.

ITALIAN 129. 19th and 20th Century Literature and Culture: Constructing and Re-Constructing Italy. 4 Units.

This course will explore 19th and 20th century Italian history through a literary and cinematic lens. The Italian Risorgimento and unification in the mid-19th century opened a series of debates that resonated throughout the 20th century and its political and social turns: by looking at several works of literature, essays, films, and visual art, students will reflect on the cultural, historical, political, and social dynamics that shaped the Belpaese throughout the past two centuries. The construction of modern Italy will be analyzed as both an ideological and aesthetic process, to provide students with a grasp of how Italian-ness has been shaped from the 19th century to today. This course is both an introduction to modern Italian literature and culture, and a continuation of the study of the Italian language. All class discussion, reading, and writing will be in Italian. Recommended: ITALLANG 22A or equivalent.

ITALIAN 138. The Politics of Love in 20th-Century Italy. 3-5 Units.

Italy is often associated with love and passion, both in its literary and cinematic representations as well as in the tourism industry, promising visitors unprecedented opportunities for romance and excitement.nHow has this conception of Italy emerged and developed? Does it still hold us captive today? How has the idea of a "romantic Italy" shifted over the years, as Italian society itself has undergone significant transformations?nWe will explore these questions through literature (both poetry and prose), philosophy, history, and film. Topics will include sexuality, love, gender, marriage, and divorce, and the way they have been debated in modern Italian society and politics. The course will be taught in English and the materials will be discussed in translation.

ITALIAN 142. The Good Life: Renaissance Perspectives on Perennial Questions. 3-5 Units.

What constitutes a good life? What conditions and relationships enable one to live well, and what attitudes and activities, systems and structures bring them about or make them possible? Renaissance men and women asked such questions, turning to study of the classical past and to close observation of their contemporary world in search of satisfying answers. This course will explore their reflections and investigations, experimentations and creations, examining seminal conceptions and ideals of the Renaissance through their expression in text and image. Topics will include beauty and love; virtue and honor; excellence and exceptionalism; freedom and justice; power and authority; leadership and governance; wealth and prosperity; work and service; education and religion; health and medicine; family, friendship and community. Focusing on Italian contexts with reference to broader European and global trends, discussion and analysis will center on discrepancies between the real and the ideal in Renaissance society and culture. Taught in English. NOTE: New Italian Studies Assistant Professor Sarah Prodan will teach this course.

ITALIAN 148. Cinema and the Real: Italian Neo-Realism and the French New Wave. 3-5 Units.

Between the 1940s and 1960s, in Italy and France, a handful of movie directors revolutionized the art of cinema. In the wake of World War II they entirely re-defined the aesthetics of the 7th art in films such as "Bicycle Thieves," "400 Blows," "Rome Open City," and "Breathless." These works shared an aesthetic and a philosophy of "the real" - they eschewed big studios and sets in favor of natural light, on-location shooting, and non-professional actors to capture the present moment. This survey course will explore how the dialogue between Italian neo-realism and the French New Wave has yielded some of the most revolutionary filmic masterpieces of both traditions, while raising theoretical and philosophical questions about form, time, space, fiction, representation, and reality. Films: Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio de Sica, Luchino Visconti, Federico Fellini, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais and Agnès Varda.
Same as: FRENCH 148, FRENCH 248, ITALIAN 248

ITALIAN 149. Love at First Sight: Visual Desire, Attraction, and the Pleasures of Art. 3-5 Units.

Why do dating sites rely on photographs? Why do we believe that love is above all a visual force? How is pleasure, even erotic pleasure, achieved through looking? While the psychology of impressions offers some answers, this course uncovers the ways poets, songwriters, and especially artists have explored myths and promoted ideas about the coupling of love and seeing. Week by week, we will be reflecting on love as political critique, social disruption, and magical force. And we will do so by examining some of the most iconic works of art, from Dante's writings on lovesickness to Caravaggio's Narcissus, studying the ways that objects have shifted from keepsakes to targets of our cares. While exploring the visual roots and evolutions of what has become one of life's fundamental drives, this course offers a passionate survey of European art from Giotto's kiss to Fragonard's swing that elicits stimulating questions about the sensorial nature of desire and the human struggle to control emotions.
Same as: ARTHIST 119, ARTHIST 319, FRENCH 149, FRENCH 349, ITALIAN 349

ITALIAN 152. Boccaccio's Decameron: The Ethics of Storytelling. 3-5 Units.

This course involves an in-depth study of Boccaccio's Decameron in the context of medieval theories of poetry and interpretation. The goal is to understand more fully the relationship between literature and lived experience implied by Boccaccio's fictions. We will address key critical issues and theoretical approaches related to the text. Taught in English translation, there will be an optional supplementary Italian discussion section during weeks 2-9.
Same as: ITALIAN 352

ITALIAN 154. Film & Philosophy. 3 Units.

Issues of authenticity, morality, personal identity, and the value of truth explored through film; philosophical investigation of the filmic medium itself. Screenings to include Blade Runner (Scott), Do The Right Thing (Lee), The Seventh Seal (Bergman), Fight Club (Fincher), La Jetée (Marker), Memento (Nolan), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Kaufman). Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 154A, ENGLISH 154F, FRENCH 154, PHIL 193C, PHIL 293C

ITALIAN 154E. Film & Philosophy CE. 3 Units.

Issues of authenticity, morality, personal identity, and the value of truth explored through film; philosophical investigation of the filmic medium itself. Screenings to include Blade Runner (Scott), Do The Right Thing (Lee), The Seventh Seal (Bergman), Fight Club (Fincher), La Jetée (Marker), Memento (Nolan), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Kaufman). Taught in English. Satisfies the WAY CE.
Same as: FRENCH 154E, PHIL 193E, PHIL 293E

ITALIAN 155. The Mafia in Society, Film, and Fiction. 4 Units.

The mafia has become a global problem through its infiltration of international business, and its model of organized crime has spread all over the world from its origins in Sicily. At the same time, film and fiction remain fascinated by a romantic, heroic vision of the mafia. Compares both Italian and American fantasies of the Mafia to its history and impact on Italian and global culture. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 155A

ITALIAN 175. CAPITALS: How Cities Shape Cultures, States, and People. 3-5 Units.

This course takes students on a trip to major capital cities, at different moments in time: Renaissance Florence, Golden Age Madrid, Colonial Mexico City, Enlightenment and Romantic Paris, Existential and Revolutionary St. Petersburg, Roaring Berlin, Modernist Vienna, and bustling Buenos Aires. While exploring each place in a particular historical moment, we will also consider the relations between culture, power, and social life. How does the cultural life of a country intersect with the political activity of a capital? How do large cities shape our everyday experience, our aesthetic preferences, and our sense of history? Why do some cities become cultural capitals? Primary materials for this course will consist of literary, visual, sociological, and historical documents (in translation); authors we will read include Boccaccio, Dante, Sor Juana, Montesquieu, Baudelaire, Gogol, Irmgard Keun, Freud, and Borges. Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take the course for a Letter Grade.
Same as: COMPLIT 100, DLCL 100, FRENCH 175, GERMAN 175, HISTORY 206E, ILAC 175, URBANST 153

ITALIAN 179. Italian Art, Italian Food: Florence and the Banquet of Culture. 1 Unit.

This class is being offered in collaboration with Stanford in Florence, Bing Overseas Studies Program. This online activity course transports students to three world-class Florentine museums - the Uffizi, the Accademia and the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. Students will be accompanied by the respective museum directors who will discuss their collections and take questions from the students. The visits are all double sessions: the first dedicated to the history of the collection and the second focused on the principal masterpieces each museum contains. Stanford in Florence resident art historian, Timothy Verdon, will guide students on these visits beginning in the recently re-installed Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, which he directs, and then moving on to the Uffizi where he will be joined by its Director, Eike Schmidt, and finally, he will go the Accademia Gallery where the Director, Dr. Cecilie Hollberg, will discuss her museum. After each set of two museum visits, the course will feature a cooking class (three in total), taught by Florentine chef Maria Valiani, and inspired by the artists and works found in the museums themselves. One unit of credit, CR/NC.

ITALIAN 181. Philosophy and Literature. 3-5 Units.

What, if anything, does reading literature do for our lives? What can literature offer that other forms of writing cannot? Can fictions teach us anything? Can they make people more moral? Why do we take pleasure in tragic stories? This course introduces students to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature. It addresses key questions about the value of literature, philosophical puzzles about the nature of fiction and literary language, and ways that philosophy and literature interact. Readings span literature, film, and philosophical theories of art. Authors may include Sophocles, Dickinson, Toni Morrison, Proust, Woolf, Walton, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Students master close reading techniques and philosophical analysis, and write papers combining the two. This is the required gateway course for the Philosophy and Literature major tracks. Majors should register in their home department.
Same as: CLASSICS 42, COMPLIT 181, ENGLISH 81, FRENCH 181, GERMAN 181, ILAC 181, PHIL 81, SLAVIC 181

ITALIAN 190. The Celluloid Gaze: Gender, Identity and Sexuality in Cinema. 4 Units.

This course examines femininity and gender representation in cinema. The rich tradition of film theory, from the key semiotic approaches of the 1970s-1990s until the current and equally influential methodologies, will provide the framework for an informed analysis of the films. Topics: the question of the gaze, the power of looking, of being looked at, and of looking back; women as disruption in the patriarchal/cultural text; maternity both as a sign of normalcy as well as a locus for obsession and manic concerns; the woman¿s body as a place of illness and sexuality. Our main object of investigation will be Italian cinema but we will also analyze a few Hollywood films which have inspired much feminist debate; we will focus as well on recent cinematic re-conceptualizations of gender and sexuality. Students will become familiar with key theoretical concepts such as the gaze, desire, intersectionality, masochism and masquerade, as well as modes of feminist resistance to traditional gender hierarchies. Taught in English.

ITALIAN 199. Individual Work. 1-12 Unit.

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ITALIAN 200. Italian Modernities: Lecture Series and Course. 1-2 Unit.

Over the course of the whole year, we will invite 6 speakers to present work on modern Italian culture and literature; these sessions will be supplemented by seminar meetings in which we discuss the work of our guests and prepare writing projects that relate to them. May be repeated for credit.
Same as: ITALIAN 300

ITALIAN 206. Dante and the Romantics. 5 Units.

Dante Alighieri has profoundly influenced literary tradition. The Romantic poets admired Dante¿s capacity to find spiritual redemption in moments of personal crisis, melancholy, and alienation. They drew inspiration from his protomodern blend of lyric and epic, of romance and dream vision, and of allegorical pilgrimage and spiritual autobiography. Prophetic poets like P.B. Shelley and John Keats turned to Dante in their dying attempts at epic. William Blake illustrated The Divine Comedy and adapted the Dantean style of visionary world-making in his own illuminated poetry. T.S. Eliot (a belated Romantic in poems like ¿The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock¿) used Dante¿s technique of the dramatic monologue as a vehicle to explore character. This course will focus on The Inferno and its lasting legacy on the poetry of modernity.
Same as: ENGLISH 206

ITALIAN 214. Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett. 3-5 Units.

In this course we will read the main novels and plays of Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett, with special emphasis on the existentialist themes of their work. Readings include The Late Mattia Pascal, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Henry IV; Nausea, No Exit, "Existentialism is a Humanism"; Molloy, Endgame, Krapp's Last Tape, Waiting for Godot. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 281E, COMPLIT 381E, FRENCH 214, FRENCH 314, ITALIAN 314

ITALIAN 216. Michelangelo Architect. 5 Units.

The architecture of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), "Father and Master of all the Arts," redefined the possibilities of architectural expression for generations. This course considers his civic, ecclesiastic, and palatial works. It proceeds from his beginnings in Medicean Florence to his fulfillment in Papal Rome. It examines the anxiety of influence following his death and his enduring legacy in modernism. Topics include: Michelangelo's debt to Classical and Early Renaissance prototypes; his transformation of the canon; the iterative sketch as disegno; architecture and the body; the queering of architectural language; sketch, scale, and materiality; Modernism and Michelangelo. The historiography of Michelangelo has predominantly favored studies in painting and sculpture. Our focus on architecture encourages students to test new ideas and alternative approaches to his work.
Same as: ARTHIST 416A, CEE 33A

ITALIAN 228. Science, technology and society and the humanities in the face of the looming disaster. 3-5 Units.

How STS and the Humanities can together help think out the looming catastrophes that put the future of humankind in jeopardy.
Same as: FRENCH 228, POLISCI 233F

ITALIAN 232B. Heretics, Prostitutes and Merchants: The Venetian Empire. 5 Units.

Between 1200-1600, Venice created a powerful empire at the boundary between East and West that controlled much of the Mediterranean, with a merchant society that allowed social groups, religions, and ethnicities to coexist. Topics include the features of Venetian society, the relationship between center and periphery, order and disorder, orthodoxy and heresy, the role of politics, art, and culture in the Venetian Renaissance, and the empire's decline as a political power and reinvention as a tourist site and living museum.
Same as: HISTORY 232B

ITALIAN 233. When Worlds Collide: The Trial of Galileo. 4-5 Units.

In 1633, the Italian mathematician Galileo was tried and condemned for advocating that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the cosmos. The Catholic Church did not formally admit that Galileo was right until 1992. Examines the many factors that led to the trial of Galileo and looks at multiple perspectives on this signal event in the history of science and religion. Considers the nature and definition of intellectual heresy in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and examines the writings of Galileo's infamous predecessor Giordano Bruno (burned at the stake in 1600). Looks closely at documents surrounding the trial and related literature on Renaissance and Reformation Italy in order to understand the perspectives of various participants in this famous event. Focal point of seminar involves the examination of the many different histories that can be produced from Galileo's trial. What, in the end, were the crimes of Galileo?.
Same as: HISTORY 235D, HISTORY 335D, ITALIAN 333

ITALIAN 237. Michelangelo: Gateway to Early Modern Italy. 3-5 Units.

Revered as one of the greatest artists in history, Michelangelo Buonarroti's extraordinarily long and prodigious existence (1475-1564) spanned the Renaissance and the Reformation in Italy. The celebrity artist left behind not only sculptures, paintings, drawings, and architectural designs, but also an abundantly rich and heterogeneous collection of artifacts, including direct and indirect correspondence (approximately 1400 letters), an eclectic assortment of personal notes, documents and contracts, and 302 poems and 41 poetic fragments. This course will explore the life and production of Michelangelo in relation to those of his contemporaries. Using the biography of the artist as a thread, this interdisciplinary course will draw on a range of critical methodologies and approaches to investigate the civilization and culture of Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Course themes will follow key tensions that defined the period and that found expression in Michelangelo: physical-spiritual, classical-Christian, tradition-innovation, individual-collective.
Same as: ARTHIST 218A, ARTHIST 418A, ITALIAN 337

ITALIAN 240. Great Minds of the Italian Renaissance and their World. 3-5 Units.

What enabled Leonardo da Vinci to excel in over a dozen fields from painting to engineering and to anticipate flight four hundred years before the first aircraft took off? How did Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel Ceiling? What forces and insights led Machiavelli to write "The Prince"? An historical moment and a cultural era, the Italian Renaissance famously saw monumental achievements in literature, art, and architecture, influential developments in science and technology, and the flourishing of multi-talented individuals who contributed profoundly, expertly, and simultaneously to very different fields. In this course on the great thinkers, writers, and achievers of the Italian Renaissance, we will study these ¿universal geniuses¿ and their world. Investigating the writings, thought, and lives of such figures as Leonardo da Vinci, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Galileo Galilei, we will interrogate historical and contemporary ideas concerning genius, creativity, and the phenomenon of ¿Renaissance man¿ known as polymathy. Taught in English.
Same as: ITALIAN 340

ITALIAN 248. Cinema and the Real: Italian Neo-Realism and the French New Wave. 3-5 Units.

Between the 1940s and 1960s, in Italy and France, a handful of movie directors revolutionized the art of cinema. In the wake of World War II they entirely re-defined the aesthetics of the 7th art in films such as "Bicycle Thieves," "400 Blows," "Rome Open City," and "Breathless." These works shared an aesthetic and a philosophy of "the real" - they eschewed big studios and sets in favor of natural light, on-location shooting, and non-professional actors to capture the present moment. This survey course will explore how the dialogue between Italian neo-realism and the French New Wave has yielded some of the most revolutionary filmic masterpieces of both traditions, while raising theoretical and philosophical questions about form, time, space, fiction, representation, and reality. Films: Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio de Sica, Luchino Visconti, Federico Fellini, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais and Agnès Varda.
Same as: FRENCH 148, FRENCH 248, ITALIAN 148

ITALIAN 257. Simone Weil, Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, and Adriana Cavarero. 3-5 Units.

What does it mean to say the personal is the political, or, in the case of Arendt, that the personal is not political, especially if you are a woman? This course explores how Weil, De Beauvoir, Arendt, and Caverero contend with the question of personhood, in its variegated social, political, ethical, and gendered dimensions. Particular attention will be given to a philosophy of social change and personal transformation, and to the enduring relevance of these women's thought to issues of our day. Texts include selections from "Gravity and Grace," "The Second Sex," "The Ethics of Ambiguity," "The Human Condition," "Between Past and Future," "Stately Bodies," and "Relating Narratives.".
Same as: COMPLIT 257, COMPLIT 357A, FEMGEN 257X, FEMGEN 357X, FRENCH 257, FRENCH 357, ITALIAN 357

ITALIAN 261. War and Peace: Writings by and about Veterans in the 20th and 21st Centuries. 2-5 Units.

Since the aftermath of World War One, and with increasing urgency in contemporary America, stories about and by veterans are assigned a double role: that of exposing the horror of war yet also defending the possibility of a just war, and that of healing both veterans themselves and the society they return to. Key questions for this course are: Given the current practice of using writing and the hero¿s journey as a model for healing veterans and making their voices heard in our culture, can we look back to post-World-War-One culture and see if writing fulfills a similar function? And given how many post-World-War-One veterans became famous writers, how do we assess the interplay between literature, poetry, memoir, journalism, personal letters, photo accounts? Is there a connection between artistic innovation and the capacity to heal?.
Same as: FRENCH 261, FRENCH 361, ITALIAN 361

ITALIAN 262. Symbolism in Literature and the Arts. 3-5 Units.

This course will deal with the some of the 19th and 20th century authors and artists associated with Symbolism. We will focus on some key theoretical essays about the symbol, as well as on symbolist poetry, novels, visual arts, cinema, and music. In reading authors such as Coleridge, Blake, Poe, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Mallarmé, Valéry, Pascoli, Campana, d¿Annunzio, and Savinio, we will explore the nature and uses of the symbol in art.
Same as: FRENCH 262, FRENCH 362, ITALIAN 362

ITALIAN 265. Word and Image. 3-5 Units.

What impact do images have on our reading of a text? How do words influence our understanding of images or our reading of pictures? What makes a visual interpretation of written words or a verbal rendering of an image successful? These questions will guide our investigation of the manifold connections between words and images in this course on intermediality and the relations and interrelations between writing and art from classical antiquity to the present. Readings and discussions will include such topics as the life and afterlife in word and image of Ovid's "Metamorphoses," Dante's "Divine Comedy," Ludovico Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso," and John Milton's "Paradise Lost;" the writings and creative production of poet-artists Michelangelo Buonarroti, William Blake, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti; innovations in and correspondences between literature and art in the modern period, from symbolism in the nineteenth century through the flourishing of European avant-garde movements in the twentieth century.
Same as: ARTHIST 265A, ARTHIST 465A, COMPLIT 225, ITALIAN 365

ITALIAN 272. Body Doubles: From the Fantastic Short Story to Science-Fiction. 2-5 Units.

How do we imagine our bodies through language, at times almost completely refashioning a physical double, be it idealized or abject? How do such body doubles intersect with our sense of self, defining or redefining sexual identity, spiritual aspirations, illness and recovery, and the senses themselves, as our window into reality? This course focuses on short stories from the late 19th- and early 20th-century fantastic genre, and science fiction stories from the following turn of the century, 100 years later: in these revealing instances, body doubles often seem to acquire a will of their own, overwhelming normal physical identity.
Same as: FRENCH 272, FRENCH 372, ITALIAN 372

ITALIAN 286. Poetry and Philosophy. 2-5 Units.

When and why do philosophers resort to poetry?nWhat is the relationship between poetic metaphor and philosophical argumentation?nWhy is the poetic often associated with empathy - recently touted as an essential human characteristic - whereas philosophy is considered more objective?nWhat is poetry's role in the pursuit of wisdom or the good life?nAuthors include Nietzsche, Heidegger, Bataille, Agamben, Ricoeur, Derrida, Irigaray, Wyschogrod, and Cavarero.
Same as: FRENCH 286, FRENCH 386, ITALIAN 386

ITALIAN 290. Magic, Science, and Religion. 3-5 Units.

With the rise of the human sciences in the later nineteenth century, "magic," "science," and "religion" came to be understood as entirely separate domains, with different versions of truth and divergent methods of inquiry. But how has this division broken down in the past 150 years? How is it, for example, that other people's religion is "merely magic"? How does science still draw on religious categories, in particular to claim the universe is meaningful? How have new forms of magic shaped new age, global culture? We will examine these questions by pairing literary texts with readings from anthropology, history of science, religious studies, and cultural criticism. This course is taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 290A, COMPLIT 390A, FRENCH 290, FRENCH 390, ITALIAN 390

ITALIAN 300. Italian Modernities: Lecture Series and Course. 1-2 Unit.

Over the course of the whole year, we will invite 6 speakers to present work on modern Italian culture and literature; these sessions will be supplemented by seminar meetings in which we discuss the work of our guests and prepare writing projects that relate to them. May be repeated for credit.
Same as: ITALIAN 200

ITALIAN 312. Feminist Activists. 3-5 Units.

Is it true that European, and Italian, feminism is more cultural and artistic, whereas American feminists foreground political and economic issues? How can we understand the connections and disjunctions between activism and literature in both contexts, and in the history of feminism from the early twentieth centuty to the present? How do these different strands of feminism come together today in global thinking? We will read both feminist fiction and theory to discuss these questions; authors include Aleramo, Woolf, Banti, McCarthy, Bulter, and Cavarero.

ITALIAN 314. Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett. 3-5 Units.

In this course we will read the main novels and plays of Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett, with special emphasis on the existentialist themes of their work. Readings include The Late Mattia Pascal, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Henry IV; Nausea, No Exit, "Existentialism is a Humanism"; Molloy, Endgame, Krapp's Last Tape, Waiting for Godot. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 281E, COMPLIT 381E, FRENCH 214, FRENCH 314, ITALIAN 214

ITALIAN 321. Giambattista Vico. 1-5 Unit.

An intensive reading of Vico's New Science. Emphasis will be on Vico's philosophy of history and theories of poetic wisdom, myth, and language. Vico will be put in dialogue with René Descartes, Rousseau, Auguste Compte, Claude Lévi Strauss, and Paul Feyerabend, whose ideas about myth and science converge in striking ways with Vico's.
Same as: FRENCH 321

ITALIAN 325. Petrarch & Petrarchism: Fragments of the Self. 3-5 Units.

In this course we will examine Francis Petrarch's book of Italian lyric poems, Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, and its reception in early modern France, England, and Spain. Readings from Petrarch's epistolary and ethical writings will contextualize historically and intellectually the aesthetics and ethics of the fragment in his poetry. With this foundation, we will investigate the long-lasting impact of Petrarch's work on Renaissance poetry and humanism, with attention to both the literary and the material aspects of its reception. Taught in English.

ITALIAN 327. Giambattista Vico & Claude Lévi-Strauss. 3-5 Units.

An intensive reading of Vico's New Science with special emphasis on Vico's theory of anthropogenesis, myth, and the poetic origins of human consciousness. Vico's thought will be placed in relation to Lévi-Strauss's theories of myth and so-called "primitive thought". Readings include Vico's New Science and Lévi-Strauss's "The Structural Study of Myth", and the first chapters of his book The Savage Mind. Taught in English.
Same as: FRENCH 230, FRENCH 330

ITALIAN 332B. Heretics, Prostitutes and Merchants: The Venetian Empire. 4-5 Units.

Between 1200-1600, Venice created a powerful empire at the boundary between East and West that controlled much of the Mediterranean, with a merchant society that allowed social groups, religions, and ethnicities to coexist. Topics include the features of Venetian society, the relationship between center and periphery, order and disorder, orthodoxy and heresy, the role of politics, art, and culture in the Venetian Renaissance, and the empire's decline as a political power and reinvention as a tourist site and living museum.
Same as: HISTORY 332B

ITALIAN 333. When Worlds Collide: The Trial of Galileo. 4-5 Units.

In 1633, the Italian mathematician Galileo was tried and condemned for advocating that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the cosmos. The Catholic Church did not formally admit that Galileo was right until 1992. Examines the many factors that led to the trial of Galileo and looks at multiple perspectives on this signal event in the history of science and religion. Considers the nature and definition of intellectual heresy in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and examines the writings of Galileo's infamous predecessor Giordano Bruno (burned at the stake in 1600). Looks closely at documents surrounding the trial and related literature on Renaissance and Reformation Italy in order to understand the perspectives of various participants in this famous event. Focal point of seminar involves the examination of the many different histories that can be produced from Galileo's trial. What, in the end, were the crimes of Galileo?.
Same as: HISTORY 235D, HISTORY 335D, ITALIAN 233

ITALIAN 337. Michelangelo: Gateway to Early Modern Italy. 3-5 Units.

Revered as one of the greatest artists in history, Michelangelo Buonarroti's extraordinarily long and prodigious existence (1475-1564) spanned the Renaissance and the Reformation in Italy. The celebrity artist left behind not only sculptures, paintings, drawings, and architectural designs, but also an abundantly rich and heterogeneous collection of artifacts, including direct and indirect correspondence (approximately 1400 letters), an eclectic assortment of personal notes, documents and contracts, and 302 poems and 41 poetic fragments. This course will explore the life and production of Michelangelo in relation to those of his contemporaries. Using the biography of the artist as a thread, this interdisciplinary course will draw on a range of critical methodologies and approaches to investigate the civilization and culture of Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Course themes will follow key tensions that defined the period and that found expression in Michelangelo: physical-spiritual, classical-Christian, tradition-innovation, individual-collective.
Same as: ARTHIST 218A, ARTHIST 418A, ITALIAN 237

ITALIAN 340. Great Minds of the Italian Renaissance and their World. 3-5 Units.

What enabled Leonardo da Vinci to excel in over a dozen fields from painting to engineering and to anticipate flight four hundred years before the first aircraft took off? How did Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel Ceiling? What forces and insights led Machiavelli to write "The Prince"? An historical moment and a cultural era, the Italian Renaissance famously saw monumental achievements in literature, art, and architecture, influential developments in science and technology, and the flourishing of multi-talented individuals who contributed profoundly, expertly, and simultaneously to very different fields. In this course on the great thinkers, writers, and achievers of the Italian Renaissance, we will study these ¿universal geniuses¿ and their world. Investigating the writings, thought, and lives of such figures as Leonardo da Vinci, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Galileo Galilei, we will interrogate historical and contemporary ideas concerning genius, creativity, and the phenomenon of ¿Renaissance man¿ known as polymathy. Taught in English.
Same as: ITALIAN 240

ITALIAN 346. Body over Mind. 3-5 Units.

How does modern fiction, aided by modern philosophy, give the lie to Descartes' famous "I think therefore I am"? And how does writing convey the desire for a different, perhaps stronger, integration of mind and body? Does the body speak a particular truth that we must learn to hear, that the mind is not always connected to? How do modern metaphors for the mind-body connection shape our experience? These questions will be explored via the works of major French and Italian writers and thinkers, including Pirandello, Calvino, Camus, Houellebecq, Sartre, and Agamben.
Same as: FRENCH 246, FRENCH 346

ITALIAN 349. Love at First Sight: Visual Desire, Attraction, and the Pleasures of Art. 3-5 Units.

Why do dating sites rely on photographs? Why do we believe that love is above all a visual force? How is pleasure, even erotic pleasure, achieved through looking? While the psychology of impressions offers some answers, this course uncovers the ways poets, songwriters, and especially artists have explored myths and promoted ideas about the coupling of love and seeing. Week by week, we will be reflecting on love as political critique, social disruption, and magical force. And we will do so by examining some of the most iconic works of art, from Dante's writings on lovesickness to Caravaggio's Narcissus, studying the ways that objects have shifted from keepsakes to targets of our cares. While exploring the visual roots and evolutions of what has become one of life's fundamental drives, this course offers a passionate survey of European art from Giotto's kiss to Fragonard's swing that elicits stimulating questions about the sensorial nature of desire and the human struggle to control emotions.
Same as: ARTHIST 119, ARTHIST 319, FRENCH 149, FRENCH 349, ITALIAN 149

ITALIAN 352. Boccaccio's Decameron: The Ethics of Storytelling. 3-5 Units.

This course involves an in-depth study of Boccaccio's Decameron in the context of medieval theories of poetry and interpretation. The goal is to understand more fully the relationship between literature and lived experience implied by Boccaccio's fictions. We will address key critical issues and theoretical approaches related to the text. Taught in English translation, there will be an optional supplementary Italian discussion section during weeks 2-9.
Same as: ITALIAN 152

ITALIAN 357. Simone Weil, Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, and Adriana Cavarero. 3-5 Units.

What does it mean to say the personal is the political, or, in the case of Arendt, that the personal is not political, especially if you are a woman? This course explores how Weil, De Beauvoir, Arendt, and Caverero contend with the question of personhood, in its variegated social, political, ethical, and gendered dimensions. Particular attention will be given to a philosophy of social change and personal transformation, and to the enduring relevance of these women's thought to issues of our day. Texts include selections from "Gravity and Grace," "The Second Sex," "The Ethics of Ambiguity," "The Human Condition," "Between Past and Future," "Stately Bodies," and "Relating Narratives.".
Same as: COMPLIT 257, COMPLIT 357A, FEMGEN 257X, FEMGEN 357X, FRENCH 257, FRENCH 357, ITALIAN 257

ITALIAN 361. War and Peace: Writings by and about Veterans in the 20th and 21st Centuries. 2-5 Units.

Since the aftermath of World War One, and with increasing urgency in contemporary America, stories about and by veterans are assigned a double role: that of exposing the horror of war yet also defending the possibility of a just war, and that of healing both veterans themselves and the society they return to. Key questions for this course are: Given the current practice of using writing and the hero¿s journey as a model for healing veterans and making their voices heard in our culture, can we look back to post-World-War-One culture and see if writing fulfills a similar function? And given how many post-World-War-One veterans became famous writers, how do we assess the interplay between literature, poetry, memoir, journalism, personal letters, photo accounts? Is there a connection between artistic innovation and the capacity to heal?.
Same as: FRENCH 261, FRENCH 361, ITALIAN 261

ITALIAN 362. Symbolism in Literature and the Arts. 3-5 Units.

This course will deal with the some of the 19th and 20th century authors and artists associated with Symbolism. We will focus on some key theoretical essays about the symbol, as well as on symbolist poetry, novels, visual arts, cinema, and music. In reading authors such as Coleridge, Blake, Poe, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Mallarmé, Valéry, Pascoli, Campana, d¿Annunzio, and Savinio, we will explore the nature and uses of the symbol in art.
Same as: FRENCH 262, FRENCH 362, ITALIAN 262

ITALIAN 365. Word and Image. 3-5 Units.

What impact do images have on our reading of a text? How do words influence our understanding of images or our reading of pictures? What makes a visual interpretation of written words or a verbal rendering of an image successful? These questions will guide our investigation of the manifold connections between words and images in this course on intermediality and the relations and interrelations between writing and art from classical antiquity to the present. Readings and discussions will include such topics as the life and afterlife in word and image of Ovid's "Metamorphoses," Dante's "Divine Comedy," Ludovico Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso," and John Milton's "Paradise Lost;" the writings and creative production of poet-artists Michelangelo Buonarroti, William Blake, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti; innovations in and correspondences between literature and art in the modern period, from symbolism in the nineteenth century through the flourishing of European avant-garde movements in the twentieth century.
Same as: ARTHIST 265A, ARTHIST 465A, COMPLIT 225, ITALIAN 265

ITALIAN 369. Introduction to the Profession of Literary Studies. 1-2 Unit.

A survey of how literary theory and other methods have been made institutional since the nineteenth century. The readings and conversation are designed for entering Ph.D. students in the national literature departments and comparative literature.
Same as: COMPLIT 369, DLCL 369, FRENCH 369, GERMAN 369

ITALIAN 372. Body Doubles: From the Fantastic Short Story to Science-Fiction. 2-5 Units.

How do we imagine our bodies through language, at times almost completely refashioning a physical double, be it idealized or abject? How do such body doubles intersect with our sense of self, defining or redefining sexual identity, spiritual aspirations, illness and recovery, and the senses themselves, as our window into reality? This course focuses on short stories from the late 19th- and early 20th-century fantastic genre, and science fiction stories from the following turn of the century, 100 years later: in these revealing instances, body doubles often seem to acquire a will of their own, overwhelming normal physical identity.
Same as: FRENCH 272, FRENCH 372, ITALIAN 272

ITALIAN 377. Medieval Lyric: How Lyric Moves. 3-5 Units.

Through the study of various vernacular premodern traditions, this graduate level course examines the qualities that make texts "lyric" and place them into conversation with contemporary theories of lyric. The course will situate medieval lyric within the critical discourse of poetics, the Global South, the archive, and anachrony. We will consider the movement of verse within and among various material contexts (song, manuscript, artworks, objects, tombstones). Poets considered: troubadours, trouvères, Galician-Portugese cantigas d'amigo, Stilnovists, Dante, Petrarchan poetry, Jean Renart, Charles d'Orléans, Villon, Pound, Brazilian Concrete Poetry.
Same as: COMPLIT 377, FRENCH 377

ITALIAN 386. Poetry and Philosophy. 2-5 Units.

When and why do philosophers resort to poetry?nWhat is the relationship between poetic metaphor and philosophical argumentation?nWhy is the poetic often associated with empathy - recently touted as an essential human characteristic - whereas philosophy is considered more objective?nWhat is poetry's role in the pursuit of wisdom or the good life?nAuthors include Nietzsche, Heidegger, Bataille, Agamben, Ricoeur, Derrida, Irigaray, Wyschogrod, and Cavarero.
Same as: FRENCH 286, FRENCH 386, ITALIAN 286

ITALIAN 390. Magic, Science, and Religion. 3-5 Units.

With the rise of the human sciences in the later nineteenth century, "magic," "science," and "religion" came to be understood as entirely separate domains, with different versions of truth and divergent methods of inquiry. But how has this division broken down in the past 150 years? How is it, for example, that other people's religion is "merely magic"? How does science still draw on religious categories, in particular to claim the universe is meaningful? How have new forms of magic shaped new age, global culture? We will examine these questions by pairing literary texts with readings from anthropology, history of science, religious studies, and cultural criticism. This course is taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 290A, COMPLIT 390A, FRENCH 290, FRENCH 390, ITALIAN 290

ITALIAN 395. Philosophical Reading Group. 1 Unit.

Discussion of one contemporary or historical text from the Western philosophical tradition per quarter in a group of faculty and graduate students. For admission of new participants, a conversation with Professor Robert Harrison is required. May be repeated for credit. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 359A, FRENCH 395

ITALIAN 398. Intensive Reading in French/Italian. 10 Units.

Enrollment is limited to French/Italian Ph.D. students. Course is designed for French/Italian Ph.D. students to prepare for department milestone exams.
Same as: FRENCH 398

ITALIAN 399. Individual Work. 1-12 Unit.

Repeatable for Credit.

ITALIAN 802. TGR Dissertation. 0 Units.

.