Linsay Sainte-Claire
Office
Le Chateau 114
Tel
(802) 443-5468
Email
lsainteclaire@middlebury.edu
Office Hours
Fall 2023: On Academic Leave

Courses Taught

Course Description

Independent Study
Approval Required

Terms Taught

Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023

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Course Description

Senior Thesis
A senior thesis is normally completed over two semesters. During Fall and Winter terms, or Winter and Spring terms, students will write a 35-page (article length) comparative essay, firmly situated in literary analysis. Students are responsible for identifying and arranging to work with their primary language and secondary language readers, and consulting with the program director before completing the CMLT Thesis Declaration form. (Approval required.)

Terms Taught

Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023

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Course Description

Intensive Beginning French
For students who have not previously studied French, an introduction to listening, speaking, reading, and writing in French, providing the syntactic and semantic foundation of the French language in a concentrated program of grammar presentation, drills, laboratory work, and discussion. Primary emphasis will be placed on the student's active use of the language, and weekly attendance at the French language table will be required. This course does not fulfill the foreign language distribution requirement. Students are expected to continue with FREN 0102 in the winter term after successfully completing FREN 0101, and with FREN 0201in the spring. 6 hrs. lect./disc.

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Fall 2021

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Course Description

Beginning French
This course is a continuation of FREN 0101, dealing with more complex French. Oral skills are stressed and students participate in the French language table at lunch. This course does not fulfill the foreign language distribution requirement. (FREN 0101)

Terms Taught

Winter 2021, Winter 2023

Requirements

WTR

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Course Description

Intermediate French I
Emphasis on increased control and proficiency in the language through audiovisual, conversational, and drill methods. Readings and film enlarge the student's view of French life and culture. (FREN 0102 or by placement) 5 hrs. lect./disc.

Terms Taught

Spring 2022, Spring 2023

Requirements

LNG

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Course Description

Toward Liberated Expression
A course designed to increase and perfect the ability to express oneself in spoken and written French. Emphasis on precision, variety, and vocabulary acquisition. Sections limited to 15 students. (FREN 0201, 0203 or placement) This requirement for the major and the minor may be satisfied by placement at a higher level. 3 hrs. lect./disc.

Terms Taught

Spring 2021

Requirements

LNG

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Course Description

Introduction to Francophone Literature
This course was formerly offered as FREN 0231 and therefore students who have taken that course are not able to register for FREN 0223.
In this course we will study significant literary and socio-political movements that took place in the Francophone world during the twentieth century. Through the critical study and textual analysis of poetry, fiction, and essays, we will explore movements such as Négritude (Sub-Saharan Africa, Antilles and French Guiana), Antillanité and Créolité (Antilles), Indigénisme and Spiralisme (Haiti), as well as “colonial” and “post-independence” literatures from the Maghreb and Sub-Saharan Africa. The goal is to familiarize students with the critical role African and Diasporic writers played in the history of colonization and decolonization of the French empire. (FREN 0209, 0210 or placement) (Not open to students who have completed FREN 0231) 3 hrs. lect./disc.

Terms Taught

Spring 2023

Requirements

EUR, LIT, LNG

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Course Description

Introduction to Francophone Literature
In this course we will study significant literary and socio-political movements that took place in the Francophone world during the twentieth century. Through the critical study and textual analysis of poetry, fiction, and essays, we will explore movements such as Négritude (Sub-Saharan Africa, Antilles and French Guiana), Antillanité and Créolité (Antilles), Indigénisme and Spiralisme (Haiti), as well as “colonial” and “post-independence” literatures from the Maghreb and Sub-Saharan Africa. The goal is to familiarize students with the critical role African and Diasporic writers played in the history of colonization and decolonization of the French empire. (FREN 0209, 0210 or placement) 3 hrs. lect./disc.

Terms Taught

Spring 2021, Spring 2022

Requirements

AAL, EUR, LIT, LNG

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Course Description

Childhood and Education in the Caribbean
In this course we will study contemporary Caribbean writers’ unease with, and denunciation of, a European post-colonial school system implanted in the French Caribbean that ignored the socio-economic and linguistic reality of the population, and therefore alienated them. How did the French curriculum shape the identity of Caribbean children? What methods did these writers use to resist assimilation? By focusing on first-person narratives from a variety of French Caribbean countries we will study topics such as colonization, alienation, diversity, inclusion, and equity. Writers will include Chamoiseau, Condé, Pineau, Victor, and Tyrolien. (FREN 0220-0230 or by waiver) 3 hrs. lect.

Terms Taught

Fall 2022

Requirements

AMR, LIT, LNG

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Course Description

Body Politics in Francophone Fictions
How do political, social, and cultural forces shape women’s experience of and beliefs about their own bodies? In this course we will analyze the social construction of women’s bodies through the very intimate lens of the family in contemporary Francophone fictions. We will see that personal power weighs as much as institutional and disciplinary powers on the degree of control young women retain over their bodies. Students will also learn to define and analyze the historical, political and socio-cultural conditions surrounding these representations. Authors will include Duras, Beti, Condé, Lahens, and Marouane. (FREN 0220-0230 or by waiver) 3 hrs. lect.

Terms Taught

Fall 2020

Requirements

AMR, CMP, LIT, LNG

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Course Description

Madness in Caribbean Literature
How have contemporary French Caribbean writers sought to understand madness and what can we learn from their literary representation of madness? How is madness said to exist in the Caribbean? What is its relationship with science, magico-religious beliefs, power, and community? We will examine these questions in this course through the reading and critical analysis of novels and essays by Carpentier, Chamoiseau, Fanon, Glissant, Pineau and Schwarz-Bart, among others. We will also investigate if, and how, these representations distance themselves from a positivist French conception of sanity and insanity. (FREN 0220-0232 or by waiver) 3 hrs. lect.

Terms Taught

Fall 2021

Requirements

EUR, LIT, LNG

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Course Description

Independent Project
Qualified students may be permitted to undertake a special project in reading and research under the direction of a member of the department. Students should seek an advisor and submit a proposal to the department well in advance of registration for the term in which the work is to be undertaken. (Approval required)

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023

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Course Description

Senior Honors Essay
For this one-term course, qualified senior majors who wish to be considered for Honors in French must submit a proposal well in advance of registration for the term in which the work is to be undertaken. (Approval required; see requirements.)

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023

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Course Description

Senior Honors Thesis
Qualified senior majors who wish to be considered for Honors in French must submit a proposal well in advance of registration for the term in which the work is to be undertaken. (Approval required; see requirements above.)

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023

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Course Description

Politics and Delusion in Francophone Literature
How does politics shape identity? What roles have politics played in shaping the French Caribbean culture and imagination, and how have they impacted people and landscapes? Are these policies challenged? By whom? In this seminar we’ll explore such questions by reading, writing about, and discussing several francophone novels. We will focus on the significance of historical experiences such as colonization, departmentalization, and dictatorship through themes of alienation, assimilation, and emancipation. The analysis of these imagined or experienced accounts by Césaire, Chamoiseau, Chauvet and Juminer will help us further understand notions of power, privilege, and justice. No knowledge of French is required.

Terms Taught

Fall 2022

Requirements

CW, LIT

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Publications