Description

Common Language/Undergraduate Program Mission Statement

In the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures students find forums in which to exercise critical thinking, develop proficiency in linguistic and intellectual communication, and cultivate a heightened sense of cultural awareness.  Our courses guide students in the readings of languages and cultural codes across a number of historical and geographical divides.  They engage students in articulating their own relationship to a variety of texts and to the cultures of which they speak, which can and should become a lifelong endeavor. Our programs reflect the interdisciplinary scholarship of the department’s faculty. Here, students and faculty share a model of inquiry and problem solving, and a common urge to explore the world. A workshop for all, the Department of Romance Languages is an expression of interconnectivity, engaged as it is in a dialogue with the arts and humanities, science and technology, and language itself.

Program Objectives/Graduate Program Mission Statement

The graduate program of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University at Buffalo educates graduate students in the scholarship of the discipline and trains them to develop new knowledge about the languages, literatures, and cultures of the Romance Languages, as well as the cultures and diasporic communities with which they have remained in sustained contact. Graduate students in Romance Languages and Literatures are prepared to participate in critical discussions in the discipline, are able to articulate major shifts and trends in the evolution of those discussions and can articulate their own position within them. RLL graduates acquire competence in theoretical approaches and methodologies that inform their own research, and obtain familiarity with a diversity of critical approaches that allow them to engage meaningfully with the scholarship of colleagues in neighboring disciplines.

Course Description

In this course, we will first explore the multiple French intellectual, literary and artistic movements as they unfolded in the immediate aftermath of the Second French Republic (1848)  and on up to the early 20^th century (1910). We will start with the Romantic period, briefly review the Parnasse “art for artsake” philosophy and then study the relationship between the artistic movement of the IMpresionnists and the “Decadent” Literature.  Most of the semester will be devoted to the in-depth study of Symbolism as the moment in European intellectualism credited as the source of “Modernism”/”Modernity” in arts and literature. Major authors will include: Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Mallarmé. We will pay attention to the singular experimentations of less-known  author as well as to authors’ renewed intermediatic relations between literature and other arts : de Noailles, Vivien, Rops, Lautréamont, Huysmans, Kahn, etc.

Texts:

Required

 

          Web site : http://www.ieeff.org/symbolismf14.html

 

Baudelaire, Charles, Les Fleurs du mal.

Rimbaud, Arthur, Poésies, Une Saison en enfer, Illuminations.

Mallarmé, Stéphane, Poésies, Paris: Gallimard "Poésie"

 

Poems and bibliographies of authors as scheduled.        

 

Filmography:  

Total Eclipse 

 

On the course’s website (University of California – ieeff.org ) you will find all the documents relative to the course, it is your responsibility to print, study and bring them to class. (The instructors reserve the right to amend the following list of readings at any time).

 

Student Learning Outcomes

· Gain a real knowledge of the historical and literary period

·   Familiarization with critical processes and terminology    

· ·Identify and analyze rhetorical strategies in different texts and genres

·         Apply knowledge of cultural and/or theoretical contexts

·         Locate and interpret sources, produce original research

·         Incorporate sources and modes of analysis from multiple disciplines and media

• Understand and approach literary, cultural and cinematrographical materials in a critical manner
• Develop a capacity for cross-cultural inquiry
• Recognize and appreciate cultural differences
• Integrate new cultural materials into personal awareness of the world and personal growth

 

Special for Graduate Students:

·         Perform original research and create new knowledge capable of sustaining peer review

·         Communicate findings and articulate critical positions according to professional academic standards of clarity, logic and relevance

·         Cultivate and maintain sufficient literary and cultural awareness to articulate the value of cultural exposure in personal growth and professional development

·   Become trained in critical discourse and understand the rules of critical inquiry

 Course Requirements

 

 

Requirements and Assignments

 ·   Attendance and tardy policy. Regular attendance at lectures and active engagement in discussion is required to make consistent progress. Attendance will be taken very seriously. Students may be justifiably absent due to religious observances, illness documented by a physician or other appropriate health care professional, conflicts with University sanctioned activities documented by an appropriate University administrator, public emergencies, and documented personal or family emergencies.  The student is responsible for notifying the instructor in writing within 48 hours. Compliance with this policy means that you should come to class at all other times.  An excessive number of class absences may jeopardize your ability to understand the course material and will consequently affect your final grade. More than THREE absences will affect your grade. Please note that these three days are not just free days; they are to be used for illness, emergencies or other unavoidable obligations that keep you from making it to class. After these three absences, your grade will be lowered, for example from an A will be an A-. Late arrivals and early departures disrupt the flow of class and are unacceptable. If tardiness becomes a problem, the following will apply: 2 times tardy = one absence. Leaving class early will follow the same policy.

·  Readings. You should complete the readings by the assigned class period and be ready to discuss them also in connection to film, paintings and any other material assigned for the upcoming lass. Remember, active reading requires writing—so be sure to mark your text and take notes. Readings for a given day should be completed by class time.

·  Preparation. Serious and thoughtful reaction to the readings and the films. Personal reflection and close attention to the readings.

·  Screenings. One or two films will be screened in class or during special sessions designated during the semester. Were you to miss a screening, or decide to watch a movie on your own, you will have to indicate to the faculty under which circumstances you were able to see the movie. All extra class activities for the seminar are mandatory.

·  Papers. You will be expected to write two take-home papers. The first paper is due by mid-term, the second paper is due by the final exam period.  Graduate students papers are expected to be no less than 10 pages each. The papers, double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font, must be emailed to the instructor (jjtparis7@gmail.com).  Suggested topics will be discussed  in class and will be posted on the course’s website two weeks prior to the due date. Should you use any sources other than those assigned, you must acknowledge them in a bibliography. Late papers will not be accepted -unless you have a certified medical excuse. Retain your marked papers in a folder for reference. Papers will be graded with due regard not only to content and organization, but also to presentation, grammar, spelling, and punctuation (see the last part of the syllabus “Academic Integrity”).

·  Module: Each student will be asked to write short assignments during the semester.

Evaluation

 ·  Take-home papers, 45% of final grade each

·  Participation & short weekly assignments and unannounced homework 10% 

      Grading Scale: (in %)

94-100 A                                               83-86   B                                               73-76 C69-67  D+

90-93   A-                                             80-82   B-70-72 C-66-65  D

87-89   B+                                             77-79 C+64-0    F                                                                                                                                                               

Accessibility services. Students with documented disabilities or needs who require accommodations for this course must first contact Accessibility Resources:  716 645 2608, or www.buffalo.edu/accessibility.  Please be sure to make arrangements as soon as possible so that proper documentation indicating recommended accommodations can be made accessible.  If you suspect that you may have a learning disability or you are simply frustrated with your performance, please come see me.

Student athletes must provide an official letter with the dates of their meets and travel days during the first weeks of classes.

 University incomplete grading policy A grade of incomplete (“I”) indicates that additional course work is required to fulfill the requirements of a given course. Students may only be given an “I” grade if they have a passing average in coursework that has been completed and have well-defined parameters to complete the course requirements that could result in a grade better than the default grade. An “I” grade may not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course.  Please consult Policies & Procedures, Grading, Explanation of Grades of your undergraduate catalog for a full explanation of the policy.

Conduct

 ·  Regardless of the nature of your absence, you will be held responsible for all work missed as well as for that which is due the following class.

·  In case of an ongoing problem such as a personal crisis or chronic illness, which requires being absent for two weeks or more, the student should resign from the course and retake it.

·  If a student needs to depart early, do so quietly after having cleared it with the instructor at the beginning of the class session.

·  Students who join the class for the first time after add/drop are responsible for catching up on the missed material.

· Students are expected to follow the guidelines for appropriate behavior outlined in the Undergraduate Catalog. Disruptive behavior will not be tolerated.

·  Students are expected to turn off and put away all electronics before entering the class (e.g. cellular phones, music players, computers). Those who are sending emails, checking messages or texting during class, will be considered absent for the day. Repeat offenders will face grading penalties.

·  Please, ask permission to record a lecture.  Video recording of the films is not allowed. You are encouraged to participate actively in this class, but you must be mindful of its size. Organize your questions and comments—possibly in writing—before coming to class so as to be as concise as possible. Express your disagreements without hostility.

·  Any break of these rules, or any other form of disruptive behavior will have an effect on your final grade or might precipitate more serious disciplinary measures.

Academic Integrity Guidelines

                Originality and insight are the twin hallmarks of good academic work.  Moreover,  the value and credibility of that work rest in the certainty that it was carried out entirely and only by the one whose name is on the paper.  Students  are called upon to be honest about the work they submit, from daily or weekly exercises to finished term papers.  This includes short essays, exams, or casual reaction papers as well. 

                Students are subject to all University policies concerning academic dishonesty,  a partial definition of which is spelled out in the opening phrases of the policy statement:

Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, the following:

·         Previously submitted work. Submitting academically required material that has been previously submitted—in whole or in substantial part—in another course, without prior and expressed consent of the instructor.

·         Plagiarism. Copying or receiving material from any source and submitting that material as one’s own, without acknowledging and citing the particular debts to the source (quotations, paraphrases, basic ideas), or in any other manner representing the work of another as one’s own.

·         Cheating. Soliciting and/or receiving information from, or providing information to, another student or any other unauthorized source (including electronic sources such as cellular phones and PDAs), with the intent to deceive while completing an examination or individual assignment.

(See http://undergraduatecatalogue.buffalo.edu/policies/course/integrity.shtml.)

Students should take the time to read the statement in full and familiarize themselves with the procedure, safeguards, and sanctions for plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty, such as falsifying or submitting work that is not one’s own.  The sanctions range from a failing grade for the assignment or failure in the course to expulsion from the University and a notation on the student’s transcript. 

                The format for citing sources in written work is readily available in on-line and print manuals such as the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research papers.  The typical pitfalls in formal writing include:

·         Ideas -- whether borrowed, paraphrased, or otherrwise disguised – that are not one’s own

·         Wording obtained from websites, books, or articles that is not put in quotes or indented in the text to indicate that it is not the student’s own

·         Failure to provide exact information references (author, title, date, publisher and page number, or in the case of websites, the URL).

While students are not required to provide sources for information that is regarded as public knowledge, the source of all new information must be provided in the body of the text via the academic mechanism of in-text citation, footnotes, or endnotes, together with a bibliography of works consulted.   It is always a good idea to check with your instructor if you have questions regarding how to show where you obtained information.