Programs Offered

Master's Degree

Doctoral Degree

The Department of French and Italian at the University of Colorado Boulder enjoys a national reputation, and is the only PhD granting department in the Rocky Mountain region. The department offers comprehensive coverage of all areas of French and Francophone literature, and has an outstanding record of placing its MA and PhD recipients in desirable positions of employment. The graduate program typically counts an enrollment of 20 to 25 students, drawn from both the U.S. and several foreign countries, pursuing interests from the Middle Ages to 20th c. and Francophone literatures.

Graduate Study in French

The Department of French and Italian at the University of Colorado Boulder offer master's and doctoral French graduate programs. Students wishing to pursue graduate work in French leading to candidacy for an advanced degree should read the Degree Requirements sections carefully.

Faculty

While many faculty teach both undergraduate and graduate students, some instruct students at the undergraduate level only. For more information, contact the faculty member's home department.

Ardizzoni, Michela
Associate Professor, Associate Chair; PhD, Indiana University Bloomington

Bloomfield, Elisabeth Marie Arnould
Associate Professor; PhD, University of California, San Diego

Braider, Christopher
Professor of Distinction Emeritus; PhD, Trinity College, Dublin

Craven, Priscilla
Teaching Professor of Distinction, Senior Instructor; MA, University of Colorado Boulder

Frey, Julia B.
Professor Emerita

Kilbane, Aimee
Assistant Teaching Professor; PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara

Magnanini, Suzanne M.
Associate Professor, Chair; PhD, University of Chicago

Mortimer, Mildred
Professor Emeritus

Motte, Warren F. Jr.
Distinguished Professor; PhD, University of Pennsylvania

Murphy, Kieran Marcellin
Associate Professor; PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara

Samuelson, Charlie
Assistant Professor; PhD, Princeton University

Saurini, Susanna
Associate Teaching Professor; MA, University of L'Aquila

Seno, Cosetta
Associate Professor; PhD, University of California, Berkeley

Torriani, Chiara
Associate Teaching Professor; PhD, Universita Statale Di Milano

Valente-Quinn, Brian Dennis
Associate Professor; PhD, University of California, Los Angeles

Van Nelson, Loredana Alina
Associate Teaching Professor; PhD, University of Colorado Boulder

Vandermarliere, Sandrine
Assistant Teaching Professor; PhD, University of Colorado Boulder

Vasile, Olga
Assistant Teaching Professor; MA, University of Notre Dame

Yamashita, Masano
Associate Professor, Associate Chair; PhD, New York University

Courses

No Italian courses are offered at the graduate level.

Show only these courses...

FREN 5110 (3) French Special Topics

Different topics are offered and, in a number of cases, cross-listed with other departments.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: French

FREN 5120 (3) French Special Topics

Different topics are offered and, in a number of cases, cross-listed with other departments.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: French

FREN 5170 (3) Francophone African Literature

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: French

FREN 5180 (3) Postcolonial Theory and the Francophone World

Explores the major theories and reach of postcolonial thought throughout the Francophone world. Examines the theoretical interventions and contributions of the anti-colonial movement as well as current engagements with decolonial and performance theory. Provides students with a critical background to facilitate advanced graduate research in the humanities. Second part of a two-semester series of graduate seminars on critical theory offered by the Department of French and Italian. Formerly offered as a special topics course.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.

FREN 5250 (3) Medieval and Renaissance Readings

Through close readings of masterpieces of French medieval and Renaissance literature in conjunction with contemporary criticism and theory, explores the contexts of medieval and Renaissance France. Readings in French. May be taught in English to accommodate students in other programs.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 12.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: French

FREN 5310 (3) 17th Century French Tragedy and Poetry

Close readings of tragedies by (among others) Corneille and Racine, placed in the context of baroque and neoclassical political and artistic culture as illustrated by philosophy, painting, and science. Drawing on recent criticism and theory, explores heroic drama's role as a symptom and agent of early modern French social and intellectual history. Readings in French, but may be taught in English.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: French

FREN 5320 (3) 17th Century French Prose

Close readings of major works by, e.g., Descartes, Pascal, La Fayette, La Rochefoucauld, and La Bruyere. Themes include 17th century theories of self, early modern epistemology, notions of honnetete and the critical analysis of human motives and behavior, the emerging novel, and the critique of heroic idealism and of the monarchic absolutism of the Sun King, Louis XIV. Readings in French, but may be taught in English.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: French

FREN 5330 (3) Moliere and 17th Century French Comedy

Close readings of the comedies in context with the works of, e.g., Corneille, Rotrou, Cyrano, Boileau, and La Fontaine. Themes include Moliere and the institution of literary authorship, comedy's role as social critique, the deconstruction of the early modern subject, and the cultural politics of the scandals surrounding L'ecole des femmes and Tartuffe. Readings in French, but may be taught in English.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: French

FREN 5350 (3) French Enlightenment

Focuses on the uses of literature to address the revolutionary philosophical, scientific, religious, and/or sociopolitical questions of the day. Explores Diderot and d'alembert's Encyclopedie, Voltaire and Diderot's philosophical tales and dialogues, Rousseau's Discours, and other writings. Discusses the development of specific literary forms to promote the ideas and goals of the philosophers to reach a changing and diverse readership and to fight censorship.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: French

FREN 5360 (3) 18th Century French Literature

Focuses on the study of a specific literary genre (e.g., theatre, the novel) or on the global production of a major author (e.g., Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau). Discussion stresses both the uniqueness of the genre/writer and their significance as representatives of the century's changing society and culture.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: French

FREN 5420 (3) 19th Century French Literature

A survey of principal works and movements, intended as an introductory course.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: French

FREN 5430 (3) Topics in 19th Century French Prose, Poetry, and Theatre

Topics vary.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: French

FREN 5440 (3) Literary Ludics

Taught in French and English. Focuses on literary structures proposed by author to reader as games. Considers critical texts, both practical and theoretical, with a view toward defining the relation between criticism and its objects.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: French

FREN 5445 (3) Literary Theory, Part I

Covers Western literary theory from Plato to Latour as the first part of a two-semester literary theory course investigating the Western tradition from the Greeks on to post-colonial and empire studies. This initial course follows the history of criticism and its philosophical underpinning up to 20th century trends but does not cover cultural and post-colonial studies. Taught in English.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.

FREN 5450 (3) Proust and Modernity

Introduces Proust's masterwork "In Search of Lost Time" in its English translation. The class offers an overview of the work's structure, themes and context. Particular attention is given to Proust's role as a major theoretician of modernity in philosophy, literature and visual arts. Formerly offered as a special topics course.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.

FREN 5470 (3) 20th Century French Theatre and Poetry

Close readings of plays from the turn of the century to the contemporary period introduce the principal themes and techniques of modernist and postmodernist French theatre. Students are encouraged to consider problems commonly evoked by these texts and to compare the positions that each text takes on such problems as the status and uses of language, the function and limits of the theatre and the dialectic of appearance and reality.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: French

FREN 5770 (2-3) Methods of Teaching French as a Foreign Language

Familiarizes students with current methodology and techniques in foreign language teaching.

Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: French

FREN 6840 (1-3) Independent Study

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 3.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: French

FREN 6940 (1) Master's Candidate for Degree

Registration intended for students preparing for a thesis defense, final examination, culminating activity, or completion of degree.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours.

FREN 8990 (1-10) Doctoral Dissertation

All doctoral students must register for no fewer than 30 hours of dissertation credit as part of the requirements for the degree. For a detailed discussion of doctoral dissertation credit, refer to the Graduate School section.

Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 30.00 total credit hours.
Requisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: French