Through learning the workings of the French language and close reading of French literature, students explore, via the portal of French “texts”, the background of French culture, including its philosophy, art and history.

Take for example, the reading of L’Etranger by Camus: through an analysis of its style and narrative, and by an understanding of the author’s ideas and an examination of its relationship with other works and its historical context, we consider how and why L’Etranger develops and concludes in the way it does. Students may focus not only on novels and novelists but may deal with poets, such as Rimbaud and Baudelaire, with thinkers, such as Pascal and Rousseau, and with the works of playwrights, such as Racine and Molière. Art criticism of various French writers as well as writings on French music and films also come under the purview of our field.

Graduate students in the master’s program are expected to acquire advanced linguistic skills in French and learn practical approaches to research in the seminar guided by all members of the faculty. The Master’s Thesis shall be written in French. Those students who wish to become professional academics will proceed to the doctoral program to develop their research into a doctoral dissertation.

The department encourages students to study abroad in French-speaking regions, and many of our undergraduate and graduate students have studied at universities in France and Switzerland. An assistant professor from France teaches the traditional methodologies of text interpretation and paper writing. The department also maintains active interactions with institutions from French-speaking regions, inviting researchers to give lectures and organizing international symposia.

For PDF version, click this icon.

• http://media-lang.net/souko/souko/souko/dep_fr_new/ (in Japanese)