Spring 2016, FSU

French 4770/5775: "Sub-Saharan African Francophone Film and Literature"

The broad aim of this course is to explore the aesthetic practices, both filmic and literary, that African artists have developed to respond to shifting political contexts throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. While the course follows a chronological organization, it is organized around the themes of globalization and the "structural adjustment" policies that have fueled new African diasporas, labor movements and decolonization, the Rwandan genocide, and colonial Francophone education. We will analyze three different types of works and develop the appropriate vocabulary to analyze each genre: 1) postcolonial theory; 2) Francophone African film; 3) a survey of Francophone African fiction, from classics such as Oyono's Une Vie de boy and Ousmane Sembène, as well as writers who are redefining the field, such as Véronique Tadjo and Fatou Diome. All written work and class discussion will be conducted in French.

French 3421: "Advanced Grammar and Composition"

This is the second class in a two course series of French grammar and composition in which students will work on developing and improving their written expression. In addition to writing, this course is also an intensive grammar review. 

Fall 2015, FSU.

FRW5765 SPW5195: Comparative Caribbean Literature and Performance

Reggae, salsa, Carnival: the Caribbean region is globally renowned for its performance practices and representations of performance events are ubiquitous in the region's literature. This course is an introduction to the intellectual, cultural, and literary history of the Caribbean region organized around the question: What aspects of these rich traditions of performance do Caribbean writers seek to activate when they include detailed descriptions of performances in their texts? Since performance is the thematic and methodological focus of the course, we will develop a working knowledge of performance studies, research performance practices of the Caribbean, and consider how interaction between the two can provide an approach to comparative Caribbean literary studies. This course is multi-lingual and we will read Anglophone, Francophone, and Hispanophone literary works. Discussion will be conducted in English and all texts will be available in English translation as well as the original Spanish and French and students who can read in the original are expected to do so.

SPN3400: Spanish Reading and Conversation

This is the second course of a two-semester sequence designed to develop communicative proficiency and accuracy in the Spanish language while providing a deeper understanding of Hispanic cultures. Students will practice more complex language tasks while they come to know more about the Spanish-speaking world’s culture, history, and daily life in its complexity and diversity. Students will read short cultural texts and watch films to learn the rudiments of textual analysis, participate in conversation related to personal, literary, or cultural themes, and write short compositions on these topics.

Fall 2013, Reed College.

"Disaster Writing in the Francophone Islands"

Upper-division seminar exploring comparative creolizations in the Caribbean and Polynesian regions with an emphasis on the philosophy and poetics of Édouard Glissant. From the Port-au-Prince earthquake and regular hurricanes in the Caribbean to the nuclear testing in French Polynesia, catastrophe is part of contemporary island imaginaries. In contrast to contemporary apocalyptic scenarios of U.S. writing, the documentary films, plays, poetry, and novels examined in this course focus on modes of cultural continuity and personal survival of disaster--which includes exile and cultural loss. We will consider these texts in their regional linguistic and cultural archipelagic "contact zones," comparing Anglophone, Hispanophone, and Francophone writing in order to ask what research questions are possible when we use reach across archipelagos using comparative francophone studies, and what is illuminated by concentrating on regional contexts? Or, considering the environmental tests of military tests at Ruahini, Tahiti and Vieques, Puerto Rico, what other archipelagic connections can we identify? Conducted in French.

Fall 2010, UCLA.

Spanish 170: "Theatricality and Performance in Hispanophone Caribbean Literature"

The Caribbean is best-known for its performance practices, from Carnival to music. This course focuses on the influence and presence of performance practices on 20th Century Cuban and Puerto Rican literature. What purpose does the representation of musical performance serve for these texts? How does the attempt to depict the live arts in literature prompt aesthetic experimentation? As we examine the interchanges between popular performance practices and literature , these questions will guide our analyses of texts including poetry by Guillén and Palés Matos, Piñera's "Electra Garrigo," Gutierrez Alea's Guantanamera, and Santos-Febres's Sirena Selena.

The assignments are aimed at developing skills in literary analysis as well as essay writing and oral presentation in Spanish.

Spring 2010, UCLA.

Comparative Literature 191: "Historical and Speculative Fiction in the Americas"

Upper-division literature seminar organized around Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and its intertextual references, such as excerpts from Nietzsche and Deleuze on theories of repetition, Derek Walcott's poetic representation of Caribbean history, and the graphic novel The Watchmen to consider the intersection of historical and speculative fiction. This course examines how historical and speculative fiction come together in three texts: Junot Díaz's The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Alan Moore's and Dave Gibbons' graphic novel The Watchmen, and Cherrie Moraga's play "The Hungry Woman." We will focus on the kind of linguistic play that characterizes futuristic communities, the philosophical underpinnings of speculative and historical fiction, and the historical events that give rise to the events in these texts—and how they are fictionalized. As a result, our secondary source readings will allow us to examine the theories of bilingualism and repetition that structure these novels. The assignments are meant to hone your skills in performing oral presentations and developing literature-based research projects.