French and Francophone Studies
Degree Types: PhD
The PhD Program in French and Francophone Studies focuses on literary and cultural production from the Francophone world. The program is distinguished by a deep exploration of the continued impact French literature and culture has on modern literary theory, philosophy, and critical thought.
The research and teaching of our faculty exhibits particular strength in the areas of twentieth-century literature and contemporary theory, film and visual culture across periods, Francophone studies, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century studies, and gender studies.
The program is strongly committed to interdisciplinary study and allows students to tailor courses to extend beyond traditional boundaries. Students benefit from a wide array of resources - including Northwestern Library's outstanding Africana collection - and from close interaction with experts in related fields of gender studies, film, art history, philosophy, and comparative literature.
Additional resources:
French and Francophone Studies: PHD
Learning objective(s)/Students should be able to…
- Demonstrate comparative knowledge of and ability to effectively present theoretical/interpretive approaches.
- Demonstrate ability to plan and conduct a lesson in a French language course and assess proficiency in French.
- Demonstrate knowledge of literary and cinematic works across multiple genres and periods, the ability to conduct sophisticated readings of such works, and the ability to effectively present those readings.
- Demonstrate Effective Language Teaching.
- Articulate/elaborate:
- an original interpretive approach to a corpus related to the future dissertation topic and
- a methodological approach related to the future dissertation topic.
- Articulate and Present an Original Research Project for the Dissertation.
- Produce Original Interdisciplinary Scholarship.
French and Francophone Studies Courses
FRENCH 401-0 Print Culture: Authors (1 Unit)
Content varies. Studies of one or several major literary or cultural figures of French and Francophone studies. Emphasizes their status within literary history or the cultural context of their work.
FRENCH 403-0 Foreign Language Teaching: Theory and Practice (1 Unit)
French and Italian Language Teaching: Theory and Practice Theoretical foundation in and practical applications of Second Language Acquisition and Applied Linguistics to the teaching of French and Italian. Analysis and design of pedagogical materials. Self-reflection and analysis of teaching style and teaching philosophy.
FRENCH 410-0 Studies in Medieval Literature (1 Unit)
Content varies. Samples: Romances by Chretien de Troyes, Christine de Pizan, and Marie de France.
FRENCH 420-0 Studies in the 16Th Century (1 Unit)
Content varies. Samples: Renaissance poetry; Rabelais; Montaigne.
FRENCH 421-0 Visual Culture:Cinema, Performance Studies & Multimedia (1 Unit)
Content varies. Contemporary French cinema and film history, television and multimedia cultures, courses on film directors.
FRENCH 422-0 Visual Culture: Art History & Literature (1 Unit)
Content varies: painting and literature, the circulation of works of art, the history of the relationship between literature and the visual arts.
FRENCH 430-0 Studies in the 17Th Century (1 Unit)
Content varies. Samples: the moralists; power and knowledge in classical theatre; the critique of rationality.
FRENCH 432-0 French, Francophone & Transnational Studies (1 Unit)
Studies of migration and diasporic discourses from missionary discourses and pre-modern travelers to contemporary globalized movements.
FRENCH 440-0 Studies in the 18th Century (1 Unit)
Content varies. Samples: The rise of the public sphere; Diderot's aesthetics; Rousseau and the French Revolution; the global eighteenth century.
FRENCH 450-1 Studies in the 19Th Century (1 Unit)
Content varies. Samples: Literature and/of the city; literature and revolution.
FRENCH 460-0 Studies in 20Th Century Literature (1 Unit)
Content varies. Samples: Literature and cultural authority in 20th century France; l'aimance, l'amour, le corps de l'écriture.
FRENCH 465-0 Topics in Francophone Colonial and Postcolonial Studies (1 Unit)
Content varies. Literature and culture of one or several geopolitical areas such as the Caribbean, the Maghreb, Sub-Saharan Africa or Vietnam.
FRENCH 470-0 Topics in Literary Studies (1 Unit)
Content varies. Studies of a motif, theme, genre or theoretical issue across languages.
FRENCH 490-0 Special Topics in Literature (1 Unit)
Content varies. Samples: literature of the African diaspora; women's autobiography.
FRENCH 492-0 Topics in Culture and Society (1 Unit)
Content varies. Samples: culture and politics of the 1920s and 1930s; early modern print culture; the Situationist International.
FRENCH 493-0 Topics in Literary Theory (1 Unit)
Topics in Literary Theory. Content varies (e.g., Post-structuralist Theory, Feminist Theory, Post-colonial Theory, Materialist/Marxist Theory, Media Theory).
FRENCH 494-0 Interdisciplinary, Theoretical, and Critical Approaches (1 Unit)
Content varies. An examination of theoretical discourses from disciplines other than literature (linguistics, philosophy, psychoanalysis, historiography) and their relationship to the French and Francophone world; history of ideas.
FRENCH 495-0 Practicum in Scholarly Writing, Publication, & Research (1 Unit)
Required of all second year students. Under faculty supervision, students revise and expand a paper written in the first or second year of course work for submission for publication.
FRENCH 498-0 Independent Reading (1 Unit)
FRENCH 499-0 Independent Study (1 Unit)
May be repeated for credit. Permission of instructor and department required. Please contact department for permission number.
FRENCH 590-0 Research (1-3 Units)
Independent investigation of selected problems pertaining to thesis or dissertation. May be repeated for credit. Please see department for permission number.
FRENCH 596-0 PhD Thesis Tutorial (1 Unit)