I presently teach a range of language courses in French, and have designed literature and cultural study courses. I am presently teaching a range of language courses (Fall 2019) and am preparing an advanced literature and culture course for the World Languages and Cultures Department for the Spring.

I have taught a wide range of courses in French language, as well as courses in creative writing, and writing and research seminars. Some of the courses below are designed to function as both foreign language and writing/research courses.

Course Descriptions:

The Short Story in French (La Nouvelle)

What, precisely, is the point of a short story? Is it merely a less substantial prose work, meant to capture the attention of a harried audience, or does the form hold other rewards for the careful reader? This course explores the development of the short story in French, beginning with Marguerite de Navarre’s Héptameron (1558), and follows the short form’s waning and waxing fortunes across the centuries. We shall additionally explore the social, literary, and market forces that made and shaped the form, that drove it from the brink of extinction in the 17th and 18th centuries, to newfound prominence in the 19th and 20th. Through comparison to other short forms, we shall seek to define what makes the short story distinct from other compact and episodic forms (La Fontaine’s Fables, the epistolary novel, Baudelaire’s prose poems in Le Spleen de Paris). Readings will include selections from Marguerite de Navarre, Jean de la Fontaine, Madame de Sevigné, Jean de La Bruyère, Montesquieu, Françoise de Graffigny, Honoré de Balzac, Guy de Maupassant, Rachilde, Colette, Madeleine Bourdouxhe, Fatou Diome, and Scholastique Mukasonga.

Inventing Paris: Before, During, and after Haussmann

In 1853, Georges-Eugène Haussmann began an immense construction project in Paris. His plan replaced the winding, narrow streets that had endured since the Middle Ages with broad avenues and grand apartment buildings. This development coincides with the emergence of Paris as both a setting for contemporary literature, and as a literary character in its own right, holding different meanings for its many poets, writers, and painters. In this course students will examine how Paris changed over the course of the nineteenth century by examining poetic and fictional responses to the changing urban landscape. Readings include works by Balzac, Baudelaire, Hugo, Zola, and Maupassant, we will also explore cinematic works by Godard and Varda, in addition to examples of the capital, as represented in new media.

Advanced Composition and Conversation

Designed to improve and reinforce proficiency in spoken and written French through regular exercises of oral communication and free composition. This course offers students the unique opportunity to explore critical thinking and problem solving skills in French through the analysis of short subject films, extracts from longer literary texts, and other authentic written and oral materials.