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PrincetonUniversity |
Department of French and ItalianThe Roman Empire once occupied most of Western Europe. As Latin-speaking soldiers and administrators settled down over the first centuries of the common era, their language slowly changed, but in different ways in different parts of the empire. Some of these diverging dialects became the languages of separate nations: but modern-day French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian remain recognizable branches of the same tree, which is called Romance. The colonial adventures of many of the Romance-speaking nations have, in their turn, spread Latin-based languages to a huge portion of the whole world, and, taken together, the Romance languages are the third most populous language-family in the world (after Chinese and English). Learning one or more of the Romance languages gives you a means of access to a thousand years of literature and history, and to a very significant portion of the contemporary worldand its future. The Department of French and Italian at Princeton teaches these two languages and literatures at the 100, 200, 300, and 400 level. The department offers four tracks for concentrators: concentration in one language and literature, French or Italian; concentration in two languages and literatures (one of which must be French or Italian); concentration in French or Italian with history; and concentration in French or Italian with linguistics. The department also offers a top-rated graduate program in French. There are 16 faculty members in the department; more than half of them are native speakers of French or Italian. They include people of international distinction in all the main branches of the subjects taught, from medieval literature to contemporary French and Italian film, as well as younger faculty of exceptional promise. All faculty teach undergraduate classes; precepts are limited to 13 students in language-instruction courses, and are only occasionally much larger in literature and other courses. From July 2001, the Department of French and Italian will be found in Dillon Court, in temporary but comfortable modern accommodation, during the refurbishment of our historic "home base," East Pyne. We expect to return in the summer of 2003 to splendidly updated offices in the East Pyne building, which will also house the university's Language Resources Center, a 70-seat auditorium equipped for film projection, and many other state-of-the-art facilities for faculty and for students. Telephone numbers and e-mail addresses will not change during relocation. The department offers language courses in French and Italian from beginners' level through to advanced. The 101-102-107 sequence is designed to bring students to a level at which they can operate effectively in speaking, reading, and writing the foreign language. There are also intensive, accelerated courses in French and Italian in the spring semester (102-7), and a separate sequence (105-108) for students having acquired elementary French in high school. Selected students interested in pursuing the study of French or Italian beyond the language requirement may be allowed to complete their language requirement sequence through summer study at Annecy (France) or at the University of Macerata (Italy). Many students obtain advanced placement on the basis of their high school work and enter 200-level courses in the freshman year. Higher levels accompany further study of the literature and culture of the countries concerned. Real competence in a foreign language is not acquired easily or quickly; and it is not acquired by language study alone. The department offers a wide range of 200, 300, and 400 level courses in the literatures and civilizations of Italy, France, and the French-speaking world. All periods of literature, from the medieval to the contemporary, are covered; but there are also many courses dealing with the culture and social institutions of the relevant countries, as well as with film in the modern period. Students who elect to concentrate in French or Italian are often simultaneously enrolled in special programs, such as European Cultural Studies, Study of Women and Gender, Latin American Studies, or Theater and Dance. French and Italian concentrators may also apply for admission to a special certificate program at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Many students who aim to become engineers, microbiologists, economists, or historians, also wish to maintain and extend their knowledge of a Romance language. Indeed, it is a terrible waste to abandon years of language-learningand in this area as in others, if you don't use it, you lose it. To encourage the wider study of the Romance languages throughout the student body, the department offers the Certificate in Language and Culture. The requirement is three 300-level courses in the language, and the writing of an appropriate piece of independent work using sources in the language and focusing on some aspect of its culture, history, or literature. In appropriate casesand there are many, especially for historians, art historians, anthropologists, musicians, economists, and students of English and other literaturesthe independent work may be the student's senior thesis. Studying another language in depth is not only a way of acquiring an additional instrument of communication, precious though that is. Learning another language teaches you about language itself. By the same token, it also teaches you to make more effective use of your own tongue. That is why language learning has always been considered a fundamental component of a liberal education. Studying a foreign literature and culture is also a way of asking questions about any literature and culture, including one's own. As the Romance languages are both the everyday means of expression and communication of immense populations in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, and the repository of several great literatures and cultures closely related to that of ancient Rome, students of French and Italian can expect to acquire both an invaluable skill and a broad education appropriate to the variety of the contemporary world, the increasing intensity of international exchanges, and the growing role of communications in all aspects of modern life. Graduates in French and Italian go on to a wide variety of careers. Some undertake graduate study in literature, others enter the world of business or are recruited for management training programs. Princeton graduates have entered law schools and have also followed pre-med programs and won admission to the most prestigious medical schools in the country. Whether you are planning a career in the humanities, government, science, or business, the study of a foreign language, literature, and culture offers a useful and challenging option in your university education. Students entering the department are expected to have acquired a sound knowledge of either French or Italian by the end of their sophomore year, usually by successfully completing two 200-level courses. Concentrators take eight upperlevel courses in the department. (Up to three of these may be courses offered by other departments in specific areas of related interest, such as the history, art history, archaeology, music, literature, or film of the language of concentration.) The focus of interest ranges from literature and literary history to the critical study of ideology and culture. In French there is a complete "civilization" cycle, covering the Civilization of the French Middle Ages, the Ancien Régime, and Contemporary French Civilization. Italian offers a similar cycle, as well as a course in Italian cinema. Visiting faculty frequently offer additional courses that expand the range of the department's offerings. In the fall semester of their junior year, concentrators write their first junior paper (JP) of about 4,000 words, and in the spring semester, their second, longer JP of some 5,000 - 8,000 words. These pieces of independent work, through which elementary research skills are acquired, may be written in English or in the language of concentration, but a summary of the paper in the other language is always required. Both in the selection of topics and in the preparation of the paper, students work closely with a faculty adviser. The highlight of senior year is the Senior Thesis, a substantial piece of independent work which crowns a student's academic experience at Princeton. Early selection of the topic is strongly encouraged, as the department is very willing to assist with genuine and well-thought-out proposals for research travel and other possible costs in the summer preceding senior year or in the fall break. The senior thesis is an opportunity to master a specific area of interest and to write an extensive treatment of a topic. Recent senior theses have covered a very wide range of academic interests, from literature to politics, from film to race relations: French modern fiction: "Claude Simon: The AntiNovel" opera: "Semiotics of Bizet's Carmen" film: "Agnès Varda: glaneuse d'images, artisan du tournage "Politics: "The Educatiuon of Second-Generation North-African Immigrants in France" French outside France "The Writings of Albert Memmi, Tunisian Jewish Novelist and Sociologist" "La Domination de l'élite urbaine au Sénégal" Italian film: "Lo specchio materno: considerazioni sul rapporto madre-figlia. The evolving craft of the female film-maker in contemporary France and Italy" literature: "Becoming Authors in Twentieth-Century Turin: The Autobiographical Writing of Natalia Ginzburg and Primo Levi" Study and Work Abroad: Concentrators in French or Italian are strongly encouraged to spend a semester (or a year) in Italy or in a Frenchspeaking country, usually in their junior year. A number of programs are recommended on the basis of positive experience by Princeton students over the years. Courses taken abroad in approved programs may fulfill departmental requirements up to a limit of two course credits per term. Grades, however, are not calculated into the student's total grade point average for awards and honors. PrincetoninFrance, a long-established and successful program based in the department, offers students an opportunity to spend from six to nine weeks of the summer working in France in a variety of positions: banks, stores, factories, hospitals, summer camps, even the French Senate. Salaries cover normal living expenses, and scholarship funds are available to help with transportation costs, where needed. Special Facilities: Princeton's Firestone Library is one of the great treasure-houses of the world, and its holdings are particularly rich in the Romance languages and literatures. The social science section of the library is unusually well stocked with materials pertaining to contemporary France and Italy. The library subscribes to numerous foreign periodicals, as well as to many French and Italian newspapers and magazines. Further opportunities for research are provided by special collections, such as the Marquand Art Library or the rare books division of Firestone. The latter contains both old and new materials; among the latter, for example, is a valuable collection of pamphlets and other materials documenting life in France during World War II as well as a remarkably full collection of the publications of the Collège de 'Pataphysique. Concentrators also have the use of the departmental lounge, where they will find not only coffee and biscuits, but a selection of newspapers and magazines from France, Quebec, and Italy and a tri-standard VCR, suitable for tapes recorded in Europe (PAL and SECAM) as well as in North America. If you would like to find out more about Princeton's Department of French and Italian, please write to the Departmental Representative, Department of French and Italian, Dillon Court West, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544-5264, or call (609) 2584500.
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