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UC Center Program
French & European Studies
FALL 2006 Semester
The Program in French and European Studies is the creation of faculty and administrators at the University of California. It is designed to immerse students in several dimensions of French culture and life.
The program begins with a 12-day practicum focusing on language learning, with special attention paid to the acquisition practical skills for living in Paris. Every week excursions will allow students to discover the city.
After the practicum students take one language and three upper-division courses in the Social Sciences and the Humanities intended to provide windows into French history, identity, visual culture, literature, politics and economics in relation to a broader European civilization, and to the United States.
The program is intended as rewarding experience abroad, and it is also a gateway for some students who may choose to extend their stay in France for a second semester at the University of Bordeaux.
ATTENDANCE POLICY
Attendance to all classes (including sections and screenings) is mandatory. Students are allowed one unexcused absence per course, after which they will be expected to provide a medical note. Additional unexcused absences will result in a grade penalty equal to:
- 1/4 of a letter grade for courses meeting twice a week and for sections
- 1/2 of a letter grade for courses meeting once a week (i.e. 3 hour class)
* Note that the listed [areas of study] represent EAP recommendations; final decisions about credit for departmental majors remain with individual departments. Courses meet either twice a week (1.5 hour class) or once a week (3 hour class) plus a possible section (1 hour class) run by a UC graduate student.
INTRODUCTORY PRACTICUM
 Practicum - Main Page
COURSE OFFERINGS FOR FALL 2006
French Courses
French - Section I (Clémence)
French - Section II (Merrill)
French - Section III (Viers)
French - Section IV (Tabeling)
Content Courses
PCC 111. Histories of Paris.
Professor Mark Meigs
Using the buildings and space of Paris as a laboratory, this course surveys key events in the histories of Paris and France. The course will focus on the social and cultural history of the city in its material dimensions; the relation of streets and buildings to the unfolding events of French history, and the meanings of local topography within the enduring mythologies of the city. A central goal of the course is to teach students to read and write critically about the history of Paris and the cityscape around them. Includes a one-hour discussion section and some excursions. [History, Architecture, Urban Studies, Sociology] 6.0 credits
PCC 116. Debating French Identities
Professor Stéphane Dufoix
This course explores recent political debates about French identity in light of the challenges posed by immigration (especially non-European immigration), feminism, economic and cultural globalization (considered an American-directed movement), and France's peculiar version of “multiculturalism”. Includes a one-hour discussion section. [Political Science, Sociology, History, French] 6.0 credits
PCC 117. The Political History of Modern France
Professor Pierre Girard
This course is to be an interpretative introduction to the political history of modern France. It considers politics in a social perspective. It will assume little prior knowledge. It aims to look backward from the present to examine the distinctive features of contemporary France, tracing their origins, investigating continuities and transformations. Within a political narrative structure which provides the framework for the course, each chapter, prepared by several readings and some site visits will explore the continuity of one topic since the beginning of the nineteenth century, but will focus upon one or two decisive periods or events able to shed light on the whole era. The interplay between these different themes is to build a progressive synthesis. This history will illuminate the French political campaign of 2007, both for the President and the members of the “Assemblée Nationale”. Watching political meetings will be a real test of our knowledge and understanding. Students will follow and analyse the campaign organization and topics, and also the campaign themes of the various political parties. That will be our serial story inside the course. [History, France, French civilization, Politics] 6.0 quarter credits.
PCC 123. Paris in Literature
Professor Peter Connor
This course looks at the representation of Paris in French literature of the modern period. Readings have been chosen to introduce students to Paris’s multiple and changing identities. Each week is devoted to a theme which will allow us to discuss different myths associated with Paris, with France and with the French. Beginning with Balzac’s powerful representation of the city as the locus of power, corruption and social inequality, we will trace key developments in the way French novelists, poets and filmmakers have conceptualized their capital city. We will in the course of the semester become familiar with some of the important literary movements of the modern period: realism (Balzac), naturalism (Zola), surrealism (Breton) etc. [Literature, Comp Lit, Urban Studies, History, French] 6.0 credits
PCC 125. Art on Display: the Museums of Paris
Professor Sarah Linford
This course aims to give students an understanding of the workings of Paris museums, institutionally and ideologically. Focusing primarily on art museums of modern and contemporary French art we examine museums as institutions of critical discourse, that is, as sites of selective collecting, classifying, displaying and legitimizing certain cultural and artistic narratives. This course will provide basic knowledge of modern and contemporary French art and, above all, a critical, behind-the-scenes view of museums generally. [Art History, Visual Studies, Media, Communications] 5.0 credits.
PCC 128. Theater in France
Professor Will Bishop
This course is an introduction to the French theatrical tradition and its different techniques for staging drama from the 17th century to the present. Through an extensive yet manageable reading list of plays in translation, the course considers what role theater has played in the political, social, cultural, and aesthetic life of France. We will also pursue the place of theater in France through class excursions to sites that are important for understanding the place of theater in Paris’s present and past. According to the offerings of the theatrical season, we will spend an extended amount of time at work on one of the plays in the syllabus in preparation for attending a contemporary performance of that play. We will also be interested in theater’s relation to film, and will watch and discuss several film versions of or related to the plays we’re reading in class. [Literature, Comp Lit, History, French, Dramatic Arts] 6.0 quarter credits
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