What is the good life, and what is a good life? Saints seem to live perfectly good lives, but stories about them often grapple with this question, encouraging audiences to think deeply about their own lives in ways that go beyond any one ethical system. Looking at old and new stories of parent-child struggles, spectacular sinning and redemption, gender transformation, and daily moral predicaments, we will explore what it means to live well.

Normally, only French majors may enroll in this course and only by written permission from the department chair prior to the end of the first week of classes.

Preliminary research for thesis. Prerequisite: Admission to the Distinguished Majors Program.

Composition and defense of thesis. Prerequisite: FREN 4998 and good standing in the Distinguished Majors Program. Note: The prerequisite to all 5000-level literature courses is two 4000-level literature courses with an average grade of B, or the instructor's permission.

Topics may include genres (romance, poetry, hagiography, chanson de geste, allegory), themes (love, war, nature), single authors (Chrétien de Troyes, Machaut) and cultural and literary issues (gender, religion, authorship, rewritings).

Topics may include Montaigne, the European novella, poetic recreations of the ancients, literary Lyon, and Rabelais and his world.

This course provides the opportunity to offer a new topic in the subject area of French literature and general linguistics.

Study of various aspects of nineteenth-century French/ Francophone literature. Genre, theme, specific chronological concentration, and approach will vary. May be repeated for credit with different topics.

Independent Study

Introduces the pedagogical approaches currently practiced in second-language courses at the university level. Critically examines the theories underlying various methodologies, and their relation to teaching. Assignments include development and critique of pedagogical material; peer observation and analysis; and a final teaching portfolio project.