Develops students' creative writing skills in French through analysis and discussion of techniques, experimentation with those techniques, and production of various literary genres. Enables students to explore the new possibilities for creativity and self-expression that are presented by writing in a foreign language. Weekly writing assignments using a process-based approach, including peer response, group work, and classroom collaboration. Discussion of literary texts to be read outside class, and weekly time spent on writing laboratory. Students will produce four polished pieces of creative writing. Content will vary from year to year.

Completion of French 102 or its equivalent required for enrollment. This class is taught entirely in French. Borrowing from historian Pierre Nora’s idea of “lieux de mémoire” (privileged spaces for the construction of collective memory), we will undertake a creative exploration of our individual spaces of memory as form of autobiography. Just as Nora’s way of looking at French history works from the meaning of spaces, broadly conceived, we will bypass chronological narrative and the autobiographical storyline in favor of a kind of individual mapmaking. The exploration of spaces of memory will take us through elements of the creative writing process and we will work on the craft of writing in French via pastiche, targeted exercises, free writing, rewriting and editing. Students will engage in a practice of daily composition to gain fluency and ease in writing creatively in French. Collaborative activities will include discussing drafts with other students. At the end of the semester, students will assemble a collection of their “lieux de mémoire” and contribute to a class anthology. The course will also include short readings connected to the specific themes and tasks at hand. These excerpts will include passages from Rousseau, Proust, Colette, Montaigne, Djebar, Ernaux and Edouard Louis among others.

Discussion and class activities will be conducted in French.

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Requirements class fulfills