Class Schedule for Winter 2024

Beginning with the Middle Ages and continuing to its most recent creations, French and Francophone poetry offer a beautiful concert of voices. This expression of the soul ranges from marginal to canonical and from individual experiences to group movements, including the Pléiade, romanticism, symbolism, surrealism and Négritude. This class will address the concept of the inspiration of the poet, the different forms of poems (ode, sonnet, fable, prose poem, calligramme, etc.), the basic technical elements of poetic composition (verses, rhythm, rime, rhetorical figures), and the principal movements from Louise Labé to Aimé Césaire, from Rimbaud to rap artist or singers using poetry. This class is not a survey but an exploration, like a voyage, through the poetic interpretations of the world by French and Francophone poets. This class is for intermediate students and is designed to improve communication skills in French and gain cultural knowledge.