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| "Hill Town," by Charles Prendergast (1863-1948). From the Williams College Museum of Art, a gift of Mrs. Charles Prendergast. |
French at Williams is a small, intimate program that manages to accommodate students with varying levels of language proficiency and different interests. Most classes and seminars have limited enrollments so that students can practice their language skills in class. All the language courses and almost all of the upper-level literature and cultural studies courses are taught entirely in French. Students benefit doubly from the intense instruction and individual attention.
In our language courses, we use a dynamic communicative and multimedia approach. The scope of our offerings in literature and culture is very extensive, and our courses span all the major periods and works of French and Francophone literature, from the Renaissance to Revolutionary France and from modern French poetry to contemporary Caribbean fiction. The focus may be on a particular historical period (Renaissance), a specific francophone literature ("Short Stories from North Africa"), or a genre (nineteenth-century novel). Other courses examine a literary movement (Romanticism or Surrealism) or an author (Roland Barthes); and many courses take an interdisciplinary approach (literature, art and society in Second Empire France). In keeping with our interdisciplinary emphasis, students majoring in French may count toward their degree courses in other departments that concern French and Francophone art, music, philosophy and history. All these different approaches lend depth and richness to the French program taught by a well-versed faculty, highly regarded in their respective areas of expertise and internationally recognized for their scholarly achievements.
The French program endorses a limited number of study abroad options for students wishing to continue study in France or in a Francophone country. These options are all sponsored by respected institutions of higher education in the United States. Any interested student should consult a member of the French faculty for further information on these recommended options. The Department of Romance Languages strongly believes that immersion in the language and culture adds an important dimension to the students’ studies and deepens their appreciation of French and Francophone language, literature and culture.
In addition, the program imports contemporary French culture to Williams via two foreign teaching associates, who besides their instructional aid, organize a variety of social and cultural activities with a French focus and have been known to accompany students on week-end trips to Montreal.