Course description:
FRE 363 satisfies the ways of knowing requirement in Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric. It also counts as one of three 300-level courses required for the French and Francophone Studies major and minor. Classes and assignments will be given in French.
Seventy-five years after Jacques Cartier’s first transatlantic voyage and one year after English settlers stepped ashore at Jamestown in 1607, Samuel de Champlain founded what would become the oldest continuously-inhabited city in North America. Since that time, the story of the early French colonists and their descendants has been an ever-evolving narrative about encounters with the Other: with indigenous peoples who had inhabited the Saint Lawrence valley for millennia; with British settlers, soldiers, and United Empire Loyalists who would forever change the destiny of the Catholic, French-speaking Canadiens; with American and English Canadian industrialists who sought ways to exploit the province’s vast natural resources; and with successive waves of immigrants who continue to weave their respective beliefs and cultural practices into the pure laine of traditional Québec society.
In FRE 363, we will examine ways in which four centuries of interactions have been represented in text, film, and song. Always mindful of the strong symbolic influence of a nation’s mythes fondateurs to shape the collective imagination, we will discuss events and individuals that have shaped Québec society. After exploring works that reflect traditional themes of québécois literature, we will dive into texts that illustrate the emergence since the 1960s of a vibrant, multi-ethnic, French-speaking society.
- Teacher: Carole Kruger