Mouvements

FRE4610.01
Course System Home Terms Spring 2026 Mouvements

Course Description

Summary

This course will examine movement–travel, migration, and transition–in the French-speaking world. We’ll examine the travel tale as philosophical form (Candide), the sonnet, Orientalism, the graphic novels of Marjane Satrapi, films of Josephine Baker, queer movement in the work of Abdellah Taïa, the North Atlantic Triangle (Maboula Soumahoro), and the gender transition of Océan. Students will write a variety of critical and creative texts, make individual and group presentations, and develop their reading skills. Conducted in French. Intermediate-high level.

Learning Outcomes

  • Analyze the intersection of travel and migration with questions of class, race, and sexuality
    Effectively communicate ideas in the target language, both orally and in writing
    Perfect your spoken French in a formal setting and progress in spontaneous, interactive communication.
    Enrich your vocabulary and develop an ease with increasingly complex syntactical structures.
    Narrating, describing, and arguing in paragraph-level connected discourse

Prerequisites

Appropriate level of previous study required. Entering students will be placed based on their record of previous study of French. Other students should consult Stephen Shapiro for registration.

Please contact the faculty member : sshapiro@bennington.edu

Corequisites

Attendance at CSL Speakers Series. Participation (two times per term) in French Table.

Instructor

  • Stephen Shapiro

Day and Time

MO,TH 10:00am-11:50am

Delivery Method

Fully in-person

Length of Course

Full Term

Academic Term

Spring 2026

Area of Study

Credits

4

Course Level

4000

Maximum Enrollment

20

Course Frequency

Every 2-3 years