AP® French Literature - Saint Ignatius High School

About AP French Literature
AP® French Literature
Teacher’s Guide
Geneviève Delfosse
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
Alexandria, Virginia
connect to college success™
www.collegeboard.com
The College Board: Connecting Students to College
Success
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college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the association is composed of more than 5,400 schools,
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About AP French Literature
Contents
Welcome Letter from the College Board.............................................................v
Equity and Access....................................................................................................vii
Participating in the AP® Course Audit ..............................................................xi
Preface . .......................................................................................................................xii
Chapter 1. About AP French Literature.....................................................................1
Overview: Past, Present, Future.............................................................................................. 1
Course Description Essentials................................................................................................. 2
Key Concepts and Skills .......................................................................................................... 4
Chapter 2. Advice for AP French Literature Teachers.............................................9
Getting Started.......................................................................................................................... 9
Personal Perspectives............................................................................................................. 11
Creating and Sustaining an AP French Literature Course . .............................................. 14
Chapter 3. Course Organization............................................................................... 17
Syllabus Development............................................................................................................. 17
Eight Sample Syllabi............................................................................................................... 19
Chapter 4. The AP Exam in French Literature..................................................... 103
The Course and the Exam: Basic Skills ............................................................................. 103
Structure of the Exam........................................................................................................... 103
Exam Scoring......................................................................................................................... 104
Preparing Your Students....................................................................................................... 105
Chapter 5. Resources for Teachers..........................................................................111
Useful Information Sources.................................................................................................. 111
How to Address Limited Resources.................................................................................... 127
Professional Development.................................................................................................... 127
iii
About AP French Literature
Welcome Letter from the College Board
Dear AP® Teacher:
Whether you are a new AP teacher, using this AP Teacher’s Guide to assist in developing a syllabus for the
first AP course you will ever teach, or an experienced AP teacher simply wanting to compare the teaching
strategies you use with those employed by other expert AP teachers, we are confident you will find this
resource valuable. We urge you to make good use of the ideas, advice, classroom strategies, and sample
syllabi contained in this Teacher’s Guide.
You deserve tremendous credit for all that you do to fortify students for college success. The nurturing
environment in which you help your students master a college-level curriculum—a much better atmosphere
for one’s first exposure to college-level expectations than the often large classes in which many first-year
college courses are taught—seems to translate directly into lasting benefits as students head off to college.
An array of research studies, from the classic 1999 U.S. Department of Education study Answers in the Tool
Box to new research from the University of Texas and the University of California, demonstrate that when
students enter high school with equivalent academic abilities and socioeconomic status, those who develop
the content knowledge to demonstrate college-level mastery of an AP Exam (a grade of 3 or higher) have
much higher rates of college completion and have higher grades in college. The 2005 National Center for
Educational Accountability study shows that students who take AP courses have much higher college
graduation rates than students with the same academic abilities who do not have that valuable AP
experience in high school. Furthermore, a Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS,
formerly known as the Third International Mathematics and Science Study) found that even AP Calculus
students who score a 1 on the AP Exam are significantly outperforming other advanced mathematics
students in the United States, and they compare favorably to students from the top-performing nations
in an international assessment of mathematics achievement. (Visit AP Central ® at http://apcentral
.collegeboard.com for details about these and other AP-related studies.)
For these reasons, the AP teacher plays a significant role in a student’s academic journey. Your AP
classroom may be the only taste of college rigor your students will have before they enter higher education.
It is important to note that such benefits cannot be demonstrated among AP courses that are AP courses in
name only, rather than in quality of content. For AP courses to meaningfully prepare students for college
success, courses must meet standards that enable students to replicate the content of the comparable college
class. Using this AP Teacher’s Guide is one of the keys to ensuring that your AP course is as good as
(or even better than) the course the student would otherwise be taking in college. While the AP Program
does not mandate the use of any one syllabus or textbook and emphasizes that AP teachers should be
granted the creativity and flexibility to develop their own curriculum, it is beneficial for AP teachers to
compare their syllabi not just to the course outline in the official AP Course Description and in chapter 3
of this guide, but also to the syllabi presented on AP Central, to ensure that each course labeled AP meets
the standards of a college-level course. Visit AP Central at apcentral.collegeboard.com for details about
the AP Course Audit, course-specific Curricular Requirements, and how to submit your syllabus for AP
Course Audit authorization.
As the Advanced Placement Program® continues to experience tremendous growth in the twenty-first
century, it is heartening to see that in every U.S. state and the District of Columbia, a growing proportion
of high school graduates have earned at least one grade of 3 or higher on an AP Exam. In some states,
between 18 and 20 percent of graduating seniors have accomplished this goal. The incredible efforts of
Chapter 1Letter
Welcome
AP teachers are paying off, producing ever greater numbers of college-bound seniors who are prepared
to succeed in college. Please accept my admiration and congratulations for all that you are doing and
achieving.
Sincerely,
Marcia Wilbur
Executive Director, Curriculum and Content Development
Advanced Placement Program
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About AP French Literature
Equity and Access
In the following section, the College Board describes its commitment to achieving equity in the
AP Program.
Why are equitable preparation and inclusion important?
Currently, 40 percent of students entering four-year colleges and universities and 63 percent of students at
two-year institutions require some remedial education. This is a significant concern because a student is
less likely to obtain a bachelor’s degree if he or she has taken one or more remedial courses.1
Nationwide, secondary school educators are increasingly committed not just to helping students
complete high school but also to helping them develop the habits of mind necessary for managing the
rigors of college. As Educational Leadership reported in 2004:
The dramatic changes taking place in the U.S. economy jeopardize the economic future of students
who leave high school without the problem-solving and communication skills essential to success
in postsecondary education and in the growing number of high-paying jobs in the economy. To
back away from education reforms that help all students master these skills is to give up on the
commitment to equal opportunity for all.2
Numerous research studies have shown that engaging a student in a rigorous high school curriculum
such as is found in AP courses is one of the best ways that educators can help that student persist and
complete a bachelor’s degree.3 However, while 57 percent of the class of 2004 in U.S. public high schools
enrolled in higher education in fall 2004, only 13 percent had first been fortified with a successful AP
experience in high school.4 Although AP courses are not the only examples of rigorous curricula, there is
still a significant gap between students with college aspirations and students with adequate high school
preparation to fulfill those aspirations.
Strong correlations exist between AP success and college success.5 Educators attest that this is partly
because AP enables students to receive a taste of college while still in an environment that provides more
support and resources for students than do typical college courses. Effective AP teachers work closely
with their students, giving them the responsibility to reason, analyze, and understand for themselves. As
a result, AP students frequently find themselves developing new confidence in their academic abilities and
discovering previously unknown capacities for college studies and academic success.
1. Andrea Venezia, Michael W. Kirst, and Anthony L. Antonio, Betraying the College Dream: How Disconnected K–12 and Postsecondary
Education Systems Undermine Student Aspirations (Palo Alto, Calif.: The Bridge Project, 2003): 8.
2. Frank Levy and Richard J. Murnane, “Education and the Changing Job Market.” Educational Leadership 62(2) (October 2004): 83.
3. In addition to studies from University of California–Berkeley and the National Center for Educational Accountability (2005), see the
classic study on the subject of rigor and college persistence: Clifford Adelman, Answers in the Tool Box: Academic Intensity, Attendance
Patterns, and Bachelor’s Degree Attainment (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, 1999).
4. Advanced Placement Report to the Nation (New York: College Board, 2005).
5. Wayne Camara, “College Persistence, Graduation, and Remediation,” College Board Research Notes (RN-19) (New York: College Board,
2003).
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Chapterand
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1 Access
Which students should be encouraged to register
for AP courses?
Any student willing and ready to do the work should be considered for an AP course. The College Board
actively endorses the principles set forth in the following Equity Policy Statement and encourages schools to
support this policy.
The College Board and the Advanced Placement Program encourage teachers, AP Coordinators,
and school administrators to make equitable access a guiding principle for their AP programs. The
College Board is committed to the principle that all students deserve an opportunity to participate in
rigorous and academically challenging courses and programs. All students who are willing to accept
the challenge of a rigorous academic curriculum should be considered for admission to AP courses.
The Board encourages the elimination of barriers that restrict access to AP courses for students from
ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in the AP
Program. Schools should make every effort to ensure that their AP classes reflect the diversity of their
student population.
The fundamental objective that schools should strive to accomplish is to create a stimulating AP
program that academically challenges students and has the same ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic
demographics as the overall student population in the school. African American and Native American
students are severely underrepresented in AP classrooms nationwide; Latino student participation has
increased tremendously, but in many AP courses Latino students remain underrepresented. To prevent a
willing, motivated student from having the opportunity to engage in AP courses is to deny that student the
possibility of a better future.
Knowing what we know about the impact a rigorous curriculum can have on a student’s future, it is
not enough for us simply to leave it to motivated students to seek out these courses. Instead, we must reach
out to students and encourage them to take on this challenge. With this in mind, there are two factors to
consider when counseling a student regarding an AP opportunity:
1. Student motivation
Many potentially successful AP students would never enroll if the decision were left to their own initiative.
They may not have peers who value rigorous academics, or they may have had prior academic experiences
that damaged their confidence or belief in their college potential. They may simply lack an understanding
of the benefits that such courses can offer them. Accordingly, it is essential that we not gauge a student’s
motivation to take AP until that student has had the opportunity to understand the advantages—not just
the challenges—of such course work.
Educators committed to equity provide all of a school’s students with an understanding of the benefits
of rigorous curricula. Such educators conduct student assemblies and/or presentations to parents that clearly
describe the advantages of taking an AP course and outline the work expected of students. Perhaps most
important, they have one-on-one conversations with the students in which advantages and expectations
are placed side by side. These educators realize that many students, lacking confidence in their abilities,
will be listening for any indication that they should not take an AP course. Accordingly, such educators,
while frankly describing the amount of homework to be anticipated, also offer words of encouragement and
support, assuring the students that if they are willing to do the work, they are wanted in the course.
The College Board has created a free online tool, AP Potential ™, to help educators reach out to
students who previously might not have been considered for participation in an AP course. Drawing
upon data based on correlations between student performance on specific sections of the PSAT/NMSQT®
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About APEquity
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Literature
Access
and performance on specific AP Exams, AP Potential generates rosters of students at your school who
have a strong likelihood of success in a particular AP course. Schools nationwide have successfully
enrolled many more students in AP than ever before by using these rosters to help students (and their
parents) see themselves as having potential to succeed in college-level studies. For more information, visit
http://appotential.collegeboard.com.
Actively recruiting students for AP and sustaining enrollment can also be enhanced by offering
incentives for both students and teachers. While the College Board does not formally endorse any one
incentive for boosting AP participation, we encourage school administrators to develop policies that will
best serve an overarching goal to expand participation and improve performance in AP courses. When
such incentives are implemented, educators should ensure that quality verification measures such as the AP
Exam are embedded in the program so that courses are rigorous enough to merit the added benefits.
Many schools offer the following incentives for students who enroll in AP:
• Extra weighting of AP course grades when determining class rank
• Full or partial payment of AP Exam fees
• On-site exam administration
Additionally, some schools have offered the following incentives for teachers, to reward them for their
additional efforts in including and supporting traditionally underserved students:
• Extra preparation periods
• Reduced class size
• Reduced duty periods
• Additional classroom funds
• Extra salary
2. Student preparation
Because AP courses should be the equivalent of courses taught in colleges and universities, it is important
that a student be prepared for such rigor. The types of preparation a student should have before entering
an AP course vary from course to course and are described in the official AP Course Description book for
each subject (available as a free download at apcentral.collegeboard.com).
Unfortunately, many schools have developed a set of gatekeeping or screening requirements that go far
beyond what is appropriate to ensure that an individual student has had sufficient preparation to succeed
in an AP course. Schools should make every effort to eliminate the gatekeeping process for AP enrollment.
Because research has not been able to establish meaningful correlations between gatekeeping devices and
actual success on an AP Exam, the College Board strongly discourages the use of the following factors as
thresholds or requirements for admission to an AP course:
• Grade point average
• Grade in a required prerequisite course
• Recommendation from a teacher
• AP teacher’s discretion
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Chapterand
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1 Access
• Standardized test scores
• Course-specific entrance exam or essay
Additionally, schools should be wary of the following concerns regarding the misuse of AP:
• Creating “Pre-AP courses” to establish a limited, exclusive track for access to AP
• Rushing to install AP courses without simultaneously implementing a plan to prepare students and
teachers in lower grades for the rigor of the program
How can I ensure that I am not watering down the quality
of my course as I admit more students?
Students in AP courses should take the AP Exam, which provides an external verification of the extent
to which college-level mastery of an AP course is taking place. While it is likely that the percentage
of students who receive a grade of 3 or higher may dip as more students take the exam, that is not an
indication that the quality of a course is being watered down. Instead of looking at percentages, educators
should be looking at raw numbers, since each number represents an individual student. If the raw number
of students receiving a grade of 3 or higher on the AP Exam is not decreasing as more students take the
exam, there is no indication that the quality of learning in your course has decreased as more students
have enrolled.
What are schools doing to expand access and improve
AP performance?
Districts and schools that successfully improve both participation and performance in AP have
implemented a multipronged approach to growing an AP program. These schools offer AP as capstone
courses, providing professional development for AP teachers and additional incentives and support for
the teachers and students participating at this top level of the curriculum. The high standards of the AP
courses are used as anchors that influence the 6–12 curriculum from the “top down.” Simultaneously,
these educators are investing in the training of teachers in the pre-AP years and are building a vertically
articulated, sequential curriculum from middle school to high school that culminates in AP courses—a
broad pipeline that prepares students step-by-step for the rigors of AP so that they will have a fair shot at
success in an AP course once they reach that stage. An effective and demanding AP program necessitates
cooperation and communication between high schools and middle schools. Effective teaming among
members of all educational levels ensures rigorous standards for students across years and provides them
with the skills needed to succeed in AP. For more information about Pre-AP® professional development,
including workshops designed to facilitate the creation of AP Vertical Teams® of middle school and high
school teachers, visit AP Central.
Advanced Placement Program
The College Board
About AP French Literature
Participating in the AP Course Audit
Overview
The AP Course Audit is a collaborative effort among secondary schools, colleges and universities, and the
College Board. For their part, schools deliver college-level instruction to students and complete and return
AP Course Audit materials. Colleges and universities work with the College Board to define elements
common to college courses in each AP subject, help develop materials to support AP teaching, and receive
a roster of schools and their authorized AP courses. The College Board fosters dialogue about the AP
Course Audit requirements and recommendations and reviews syllabi.
Starting in the 2007-08 academic year, all schools wishing to label a course “AP” on student transcripts,
course listings, or any school publications must complete and return the subject-specific AP Course Audit
form, along with the course syllabus, for all sections of their AP courses. Approximately two months after
submitting AP Course Audit materials, schools will receive a legal agreement authorizing the use of the
“AP” trademark on qualifying courses. Colleges and universities will receive a roster of schools listing the
courses authorized to use the “AP” trademark at each school.
Purpose
College Board member schools at both the secondary and college levels requested an annual AP Course
Audit in order to provide teachers and administrators with clear guidelines on curricular and resource
requirements that must be in place for AP courses and to help colleges and universities better interpret
secondary school courses marked “AP” on students’ transcripts.
The AP Course Audit form identifies common, essential elements of effective college courses, including
subject matter and classroom resources such as college-level textbooks and laboratory equipment. Schools
and individual teachers will continue to develop their own curricula for AP courses they offer—the AP
Course Audit will simply ask them to indicate inclusion of these elements in their AP syllabi or describe
how their courses nonetheless deliver college-level course content.
AP Exam performance is not factored into the AP Course Audit. A program that audited only those
schools with seemingly unsatisfactory exam performance might cause some schools to limit access to
AP courses and exams. In addition, because AP Exams are taken and exam grades reported after college
admissions decisions are already made, AP course participation has become a relevant factor in the college
admissions process. On the AP Course Audit form, teachers and administrators attest that their course
includes elements commonly taught in effective college courses. Colleges and universities reviewing
students’ transcripts can thus be reasonably assured that courses labeled “AP” provide an appropriate level
and range of college-level course content, along with the classroom resources to best deliver that content.
For More Information
You should discuss the AP Course Audit with your department head and principal. For more information,
including a timeline, frequently asked questions, and downloadable AP Course Audit forms, visit
apcentral.collegeboard.com/courseaudit.
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Chapter 1
Preface
First of all, I would like to offer a cordial welcome to all the readers of this Teacher’s Guide—new teachers
who are just beginning in the AP Program, veteran educators who would like to stay abreast of some of
the latest approaches to teaching the AP French Literature course, and potential instructors who may be
hoping to start an AP course in their own schools. Experienced teachers already know, and new ones soon
will learn, how rewarding it is to introduce eager and talented high school students to the bountiful and
extensive tradition of French literary works.
If I were asked to reflect on the accomplishments of my career as an educator, I would probably mention as
foremost among them the implementation of a strong AP French Literature program in a school dedicated
to the study of mathematics, science, and technology. Since the opening in 1986 of Thomas Jefferson High
School for Science and Technology, a magnet school located in northern Virginia, its AP French Language
program has thrived. However, it took several years of effort to initiate a correspondingly strong AP French
Literature program.
In this guide, novice teachers will find a wealth of useful information on the strategies and resources
needed to start a new AP French Literature course. There is an overview of the Course Description in
chapter 1, with special attention given to the key concepts and skills that students should master, and an
important section explaining how the AP French Literature Exam is created and scored. Chapter 2 has
information on starting and sustaining an AP course and helpful teaching advice and tips.
One of the most valuable parts of this guide is chapter 3, where you will find syllabi shared by eight
colleagues, all experienced French literature teachers. Six of these instructors teach AP classes in high
schools, some public and some private. The two other contributors are university professors who regularly
teach a survey of French literature, the college equivalent of the high school AP French Literature course.
Since I was a member of the AP French Development Committee for five years, and I currently act as a
Table Leader at the AP French Reading, where the essays and spoken responses are scored, I have recent
and direct experience with all phases of the AP Exam, which is discussed in chapter 4. In addition, I served
for three years as Content Adviser for French resources on AP Central, and in the last chapter of this book,
I will discuss resources and Internet sites that can enrich an AP French Literature program.
In closing, I would like to send a personal message to all high school French teachers whose schools do not
currently have an AP French program: no matter how long you have been teaching and no matter where
you teach, you too can start a small section of AP French Literature. In my opinion, the best strategy to
build up such a program is to reach the students early in their French learning career. I often point out to
all my beginning students that they became literate in their mother tongue by reading a lot; in the same
fashion, they have to read a lot in French if they want to reach true proficiency. The AP French Literature
course will enable them to achieve real linguistic competence through the study and enjoyment of great
literary works.
I hope this guide inspires both new and experienced teachers to be proactive about creating an AP French
Literature program in schools where there is none. It should also validate the commitment of veteran AP
teachers and encourage them to continue their efforts to keep their AP French Literature courses strong
and vibrant.
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About AP French Literature
Preface
Geneviève Delfosse
Geneviève Delfosse has been teaching French courses at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and
Technology in Alexandria, Virginia, for more than 20 years. She began teaching AP French Literature
with just a few students and facilitated the growth of a solid program that maintains its enrollment in a
school dedicated to scientific research and mathematical studies. Ms. Delfosse was a member of the AP
French Development Committee from 1997 to 2002, and she has served as a Table Leader at the AP French
Reading for many years. She is currently chair of the Development Committee for the College Board’s SAT
Subject Tests™ in French. Ms. Delfosse has chaired “Le Grand Concours,” a national competition sponsored
by the American Association of Teachers of French, since 2004. She received National Board Certification®
in 2002. Ms. Delfosse divides her time between teaching and the vineyard that she started a few years ago
with her husband, Claude.
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Chapter 1
About AP French Literature
Overview: Past, Present, Future
French has always been one of the two most widely studied modern languages in American schools.
Consequently, French literature has always been and still is one of the two most widely studied world
literatures in high schools in this country. It is thus not surprising that French language and literature were
among the first AP courses offered. From 1956 to 1969, the AP Program in French consisted of just one
course and one examination, which contained both a language and a literature component. It was only in
1970 that it became two separate courses and exams. In the 1980s, the format of the AP French Literature
Exam changed when it was decided that, to emphasize the learning of analytical skills as opposed to recall
of specific texts, the multiple-choice section would include, along with excerpts from required works,
passages taken from works not on the reading list.
The number of students taking both AP French Exams has regularly increased, with just under
9 percent of the combined total sitting for the examination in French Literature. In 2007, 2,068 students
took the AP French Literature Exam, an increase of about 6 percent over the previous year and an upsurge
of some 43 percent since 1995. Because of the growing number of schools offering AP programs and the
increasing competition among students seeking to be admitted into the best colleges and universities, it is
likely that the AP French Literature program will continue to grow, especially as French is often a language
chosen for study by the brightest and most ambitious students.
The goal of the AP French Literature course is not to teach French literary history but rather to
introduce the most advanced students to French literature through representative works of prose, poetry,
and drama from the Renaissance to our time. The reading list also includes titles representing francophone
literature. Because those works cannot really be understood unless they are situated in the cultural
and historical context in which they were written, students must also be provided with the necessary
background information. Even more important, they should be given the tools that will allow them
to understand as well as to analyze the texts. These include specific literary terminology and concepts
characteristic of French literature, plus methods useful in approaching different types of literary works in
several genres.
Because doing well in the AP French Literature course and on its accompanying exam may enable
students to receive credit for college work usually done by French majors or minors in their third year, the
course is and should be extremely demanding; it should focus on the same skills—including the writing
of analytical, critical essays—as the college course. Indeed, its content is similar to that of the typical
introductory French literature course offered in American colleges and universities. A survey conducted
in 2005 confirmed that works on the then current reading list were among those most often taught in
such classes. This survey was used by the members of the AP French Development Committee to establish
the list of required works for 2008 and 2009. The members of the committee selected texts that also have
exceptional aesthetic qualities and universal appeal—ones that students can appreciate and that deal with
issues they can relate to. The committee also made sure that the works on the list are as diverse as possible
Chapter 1
and that they cover several periods and three genres: prose, poetry, and drama. In addition, it considered
the length and the availability of the texts. In selecting the works and in creating the exams, the committee
always takes into account the potential concerns of teachers. Indeed, three members of that committee
are themselves high school teachers who usually teach literature as well as language and who thus know
firsthand the challenges presented by the course.
Many resources are available to enhance the delivery of the AP French Literature course. This
Teacher’s Guide contains a great deal of information and tips that will provide indispensable help to new
and experienced teachers alike. In addition, the AP Program offers comprehensive online support and
information through AP Central and other sites for education professionals at www.collegeboard.com.
Particularly useful is the AP French Literature Home Page, which supplies all the basic course and exam
information—including questions from past exams, scoring guidelines, and sample student responses and
statistics, as well as various teaching resource materials (an annotated guide to French online resources,
teaching tips, sample syllabi, lists of various resources, and French-related Web sites), information about
upcoming workshops, and feature articles. It also allows French teachers to exchange ideas and tips, to
discuss professional issues via e-mail, and to subscribe to an online newsletter.
Teaching the AP French Literature course is extremely gratifying. It is a chance to work with the
brightest and the most motivated high school students and to take them beyond the study of the language,
to give them the opportunity to use their language skills to discover some of the most compelling novels,
plays, and poems ever written, and in the process to experience a new world of ideas and emotions.
Pascal Ifri
Chair, AP French Development Committee
Washington University
St. Louis, Missouri
Course Description Essentials
For the novice AP French Literature teacher, the AP French Course Description is an essential resource.
It can be downloaded for free from AP Central by going to the AP French Literature Course Home Page
(http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/frenchlit) or purchased in a hard-copy version from the College Board
Store (http://store.collegeboard.com). The goal of the course is for students to acquire knowledge and skills
that will enable them to write intelligently and effectively about a collection of authors and texts chosen to
reflect several centuries and genres in the French literary panorama. During the year, students will discuss,
appreciate, and come to understand representative works of French literature selected for their timelessness
and universal appeal. The “appreciation” aspect of the class is, in my opinion, one of the most important,
and a lifelong enjoyment of French and francophone literature should be the legacy of having taken an
AP French Literature course in high school.
In the Course Description, teachers will find the required AP French Literature reading list, a body of
works of prose, poetry, and drama selected by the Development Committee to represent different periods
and literary styles. The high school AP French Literature course should correspond in scope and challenge
to the introductory course in French literature that students take in their third year of study in college.
The parallel between the AP course offered at the high school level and the teaching of French literature
at the college level is further enhanced by the fact that half the members of the Development Committee
are college professors. They work along with the high school teachers on the committee to create the
AP Exam and the associated course that links the demands of university scholarship with the realities of
secondary education.
About AP French Literature
The reading list comprises characteristic works by male and female authors from the French
Renaissance up to the modern age and also includes a writer from the francophone world (Aimé Césaire).
The list changes periodically so that AP Exams will present new topics and challenges for students. The
selections are not altered all at once: usually two or three works are added and others are removed, with
ample warning time given to teachers. The committee is always receptive to suggestions from high school
teachers, and some authors “survive” on the list for many years. Candide and Pierre et Jean have been
entrenched for some time, because they are rich, rewarding works, much enjoyed by the students.
The Course Description also provides samples of the multiple-choice and free-response questions from
the AP French Literature Exam. New teachers should become very familiar with this material, as well as
with the exam format. The six-member Development Committee creates the AP French Literature Exam.
They work along with the Chief Reader, who oversees the scoring and grading of the exams, a process
known as the Reading. The committee members are assisted by two ETS consultants conversant with
French literature, who provide advice about sound test-writing practices, including reliability and freedom
from bias. The Course Description also outlines the most important principles of AP Exam security, which
must be strictly enforced.
Over the years, several studies have been conducted to compare the performance of high school AP
French Literature students with that of college students taking a French literature survey course. In such
a study, college professors volunteer to administer a shortened version of the AP French Literature Exam
to their students, who care about doing well on it since it counts toward their course grade. The college
students’ brief versions of the exam are then scored at the annual Reading along with those of all the high
school students who took the AP Exam. These studies have shown that the performance of the high school
AP French Literature students is comparable to that of the college students, validating the rigor of the
secondary AP French Literature program.
The Course Description also contains a bibliography. Teachers are advised that in-depth study of a few
selected works is preferable to extensive but superficial coverage, as the goal of the class is to teach students
how to read, analyze, and interpret French literary texts on their own.
Required Reading List for the 2008 and 2009 AP French
Literature Exams
Novels
Duras, Moderato cantabile
Maupassant, Pierre et Jean
Voltaire, Candide
Plays
Césaire, Une tempête
Corneille, Le Cid
Molière, L’école des femmes
Poetry
Apollinaire: “Le pont Mirabeau,” “Les colchiques,” “Mai,” “Automne”
Chapter 1
Baudelaire: “Correspondances,” “Hymne à la beauté,” “L’invitation au voyage,” “Chant d’automne,” “Spleen”
(“Quand le ciel . . .”), “Recueillement” (from Les fleurs du mal)
Du Bellay: “Heureux qui comme Ulysse a fait un beau voyage,” “Si notre vie est moins qu’une journée”
Labé: “On voit mourir toute chose animée,” “Je vis, je meurs: je me brûle et me noye”
La Fontaine: “Les animaux malades de la peste,” “Le chêne et le roseau,” “La mort et le bûcheron,” “Le loup
et l’agneau”
Key Concepts and Skills
The goal of the AP French Literature course is to teach students how to read, critically analyze, and write
fluently and perceptively about a representative body of French literature.
Reading Proficiency
It is assumed that students enrolling in this course will have advanced language skills. From personal
experience, I know that students in their fourth or fifth year of language study display a wide range of
reading abilities. It becomes very important for the teacher to implement strategies that defuse anxiety and
enable the students (and teacher) to check on comprehension. Without understanding fully what they read,
students cannot proceed to the subsequent steps—analysis and appreciation.
In my own section of AP French Literature, the students always work in groups of four. As homework,
I give them, say, a set of 15 questions to answer on La Fontaine’s “Le loup et l’agneau.” The questions can
be detail-oriented (“Cherchez des exemples d’allitération.” Possible answer, mimicking the “rrrr” sound of
the growling wolf: “Qui te rend si hardi de troubler mon breuvage?”), or they can require more insightful
analysis, focusing on the evolution of the wolf’s personality, for instance. In their groups, the students
have time to discuss, always in French, the questions from their homework that seemed hardest to them.
We often will consider the most challenging questions as a whole class. Students are much less afraid
of misinterpreting a text, especially poetry, if they talk about it first in small groups. Building on this
experience, you will soon learn which aspects of each text are the most difficult for students to understand,
and you can then pay special attention to these passages, thereby ensuring that the students are able to
interpret what they read.6
Another technique I use to ascertain that students understand individual poems is to assign each group
une strophe with precise instructions: search for one image and interpret it; observe the rhythm and its
connotations; or pick two words that are loaded emotionally. Students work collaboratively in small groups
and then report to the entire class. Once they become more proficient in literary analysis, they can be
“in charge” of a certain section of a work and explain it to the others, deciding which aspects to present
and highlight.
The discussions in my classroom are always in French, and unless there is a repeated mistake that can
be corrected very unobtrusively (“une poème,” for instance), I never interrupt the students while they speak.
They will get plenty of guidance and correction when I deal with their written work. (Sixty percent of the
AP Exam is devoted to free-response essay questions.) However, the conversation in French that routinely
6. The analysis question given here is mine, but you can find similar questions in Tous les poèmes pour le course avancé by André O.
Hurtgen, or the Wayside Study Guides. Information on these resources can be found in chapter 5.
About AP French Literature
takes place in an AP French Literature classroom contributes greatly to the improvement of the speaking
and listening proficiency of all students, and this in turn aids their written expression.
Literary Terminology
Although AP French Literature students undoubtedly need to learn the essentials of a literary vocabulary,
I think that less is better in this case. They do not need to memorize one hundred terms dealing with
literary analysis; learning a list of the most common stylistic terms typically used on AP Exam questions
should suffice—allitération, apostrophe, personnification, métonymie, métaphore, comparaison, euphémisme,
anaphore, allégorie, inversion, hyperbole, accumulation, gradation, litote, oxymore, antiphrase, antithèse,
opposition, rejet, for example. In my opinion, vocabulary-building exercises are a more profitable use of
time. Most students in midyear surveys confess that they feel very frustrated by the limitations of their
vocabulary, especially regarding verbs and adjectives. This is why they resort to so many anglicisms. It is
much more important and effective to give them a set of certain key terms for each author (“vocabulaire
pour parler de Du Bellay” and so forth). For instance, when studying that poet, all students will know the
adjective triste but may use it too repetitively. Working with a visual organizer, you can group the students
and ask them to come up with an array of other adjectives that express sadness, such as élégiaque, pensif,
nostalgique, mélancolique, amer, and stoïque. They should also know how to express the concept of
homesickness (le mal du pays), to cite yet another of the essential vocabulary resources needed to write
successfully about Du Bellay. At the end of such group activities, distribute a complete list of the vocabulary
contributions of all the groups (plus any additional words you may feel are necessary), and then require the
students to use this terminology in the essays that they subsequently write on that author’s works.
Cultural and Political Contexts of the Readings
Students should be able to analyze and appreciate a selected literary work on its own, without even knowing
who the author is—and, indeed, they are required to do this on the AP Exam when they answer questions
on a text that they have never seen. Based on my own experience, however, I see that students love to read
about the authors and each one’s time and milieu. I must say that most of the authors on the reading list
had lives that appeal to a teenager’s imagination. Nevertheless, given that I have only one school year in
which to prepare the students for the AP Exam, that leaves me with about three weeks per author, including
weekends and holidays, and thus not much time for historical, political, and sociological investigations.
I generally assign a Web quest dealing with each author on selected Internet sites. Students share their
findings during the first class session on that writer. This avoids the dreaded “teacher lecture” and gives
the students an opportunity to lead the discussion in class. The activity can be as simple as a quick pass
around the room, with each student required to contribute one sentence about the author and his or her
time—no repetitions allowed. Or you could ask more thought-provoking questions, such as “Quelle était la
conception de la réussite au dix-neuvième siècle?” Each group of students then writes several bulleted items
on a big piece of newsprint regarding the political, economic, and cultural currents typical of a certain era.
I have also devised some creative-writing assignments for which some knowledge of the author’s
biography and era is needed: for example, “Imaginez que vous êtes Louise Labé: ecrivez une lettre à votre
amant qui vois a fait souffrir” to complement the study of the sonnet “Las! que me sert, que si parfaitement”
that was formerly on the reading list. Students will have visited several Web sites to gather information on
the poet’s life (see chapter 5 for complete references to all sources mentioned here) and will have learned
about the very special education that this Renaissance woman had: she learned martial arts, wore pants,
and studied science, for instance. She married a rope maker but apparently enjoyed great freedom in her
Chapter 1
marriage. Such assignments give the students plenty of material to include in their writings and provide
them with the opportunity to invent a story rather than do the usual literary analysis. Letters are another
excellent source of inspiration.
If we have time, we might see some excerpts from movies—for example, the excellent Molière series
by Ariane Mnouchkine. I find that students taking European history are great leaders for such classroom
discussions. Rather than focusing on the dates and wars, teachers should highlight the key sociological and
political issues of a given era: “la condition féminine au dix-septième siècle,” for instance.
Literary Analysis
This is probably the hardest skill for students to acquire. I have observed that those who can perform
insightful analysis of literature in their native language also tend to have good literary analysis skills in
another language. Some students develop this ability very quickly in the class. Others struggle and during a
timed essay too often fall back into paraphrasing rather than analyzing.
The new teacher should not assume that students have the innate skill of putting into words what they
feel when they read a piece of literature. Again, group work will spare students from feeling inadequate and
educate all of them on the immense array of perceptions that one small poem can evoke. When analyzing
the images of Baudelaire’s “Chant d’automne,” for instance, I ask the classroom groups to write on a piece of
newsprint all the feelings and emotions suggested by the poem. We then post these sheets around the room,
and the sum of the students’ observations makes for a very “insightful analysis” indeed.
Rather than simply explain a poem to the students, you should formulate questions that make them
reflect on the emotional connotations attached to the key words of that specific text. Thus, when studying
Apollinaire’s “Les colchiques,” I ask the student groups questions such as: “Dans le premier vers, qu’est-ce
qui rend la présence du danger ambiguë?” or “Qu’évoquent pour vous les cernes?”
Students must also learn how to quote succinctly and pertinently in order to make a point about the
text. I always tell my students that literary study is a three-step affair: observe, recognize, and interpret.
Given my students’ innate proclivities, I make an analogy between literary analysis and a scientific
investigation: First you observe some cells under the microscope; then you discern something—repeated
patterns, some of them larger than others; and finally you formulate your hypothesis. Literary meaning
can be teased out in the same manner. Gifted students tend to be very anxious about interpretation because
they want to be “right” most of the time. I think it is very important to reassure them that if they can base
their interpretation on the text itself, they are on the right track.
Oral and Written Work in Class
Obviously, oral discussions, within the groups and as a whole class, should precede the written assignments
done for each work on the reading list. Because our school is on a block schedule, students can work
cooperatively during the longer periods to “rehearse” writing answers to free-response questions from
an AP French Literature Released Exam. I ask them to create an outline for a textual analysis question.
After discussing it among themselves and writing their observations on a big piece of paper, the students
share their findings with the rest of the class; I act as a coach to make sure that no important points are
overlooked. Students benefit immensely from this ungraded and thus nonstressful activity. Needless to say,
they also need frequent opportunities to do graded, timed-writing exercises under the very same conditions
that they will face at the AP Exam.
About AP French Literature
Previous exams provide great insight into understanding the exam format. They are also good
preparation for the multiple-choice section, as students will have to answer interpretative questions on texts
that they have never seen before when they take the actual AP Exam in May. In addition to purchasing the
Released Exams (available at the College Board Store), be sure to visit the AP Central Web site, which has
all of the French Literature Exam’s free-response questions (both the textual analysis and the longer essay)
for the past several years, with some actual student answers accompanied by a discussion and justification
of the scores. Because the reading list changes periodically, some essay topics from past exams may not be
applicable if the author is no longer included.
Students should write frequently—a mixture of spontaneous personal reactions to a poem or a question,
formal essays, and guided analyses. When you return the written work, it is very important for students
to understand where they went wrong and what a good, “insightful and complete” answer to the given
question would have encompassed. Often, I give them a one-page checklist of what a successful essay should
have discussed.
Another good technique to improve writing skills is to ask the class to create a list of “les douze erreurs
à ne pas faire” for each essay they hand in. This is a checklist of errors committed by a significant number
of students on any given assignment—for example, “Pierre adresse sa mère” instead of “Pierre s’adresse à sa
mère.” To motivate all students to really focus on these common errors, I give occasional short quizzes on
the lists, current or past.
This general overview of the curriculum, goals, and expectations for the AP French Literature course
should leave you with a clear understanding of the “big picture.” Chapter 2 will narrow the focus to provide
practical advice about day-to-day classroom teaching strategies; how to strengthen relationships with
parents, colleagues, and administrators; and where to turn for help when you need it.
Chapter 2
Advice for AP French
Literature Teachers
All teachers prepare their courses during the summer, and the AP French Literature course requires more
planning than usual. First of all, new teachers must become familiar with the required reading list—and
even veterans must accommodate themselves to the changes that occur on a routine basis. First-time AP
teachers especially may not have read all the works on the list or may have studied them years ago. This can
be a daunting situation that leaves you wondering where you can even begin to find the answers to your
many questions and concerns. Let me start with the most essential and accessible material.
Getting Started
AP Central
For the best general overview, if you have not already done so, go to the AP Central Web site (apcentral
.collegeboard.com) and register and log on to the AP French Literature Home Page (apcentral.collegeboard
.com/frenchlit). There you will find not only the most basic information, such as the official Course
Description and a full account of the AP Exam, but a wealth of other materials as well—feature articles,
sample syllabi, and lesson plans, for example.
I particularly recommend that you click on the Teachers’ Resources link to find numerous reviews of
books, articles, and Web sites useful for the course, with direct links to the current supplier of the material
in question or to the sites themselves. For instance, there you will come across a review of the “Profil d’une
Œuvre” series from Hatier, which comprises individual study guides for many of the works on the AP
French Literature reading list. These short publications will be of immense help to teachers who are getting
ready to teach the course for the first time. Among the excellent Web sites listed is Apollinaire par le Club
des Poètes (http://franceweb.fr/poesie/apolli3.htm), which combines facts and images about the poet’s life
along with many of his works. The Teachers’ Resources section also supplies a link to another outstanding
Apollinaire site (www.wiu.edu/Apollinaire), which in the section titled “Apollinaire: Son et lumière”
contains actual movie footage of Apollinaire and his friends—very moving to watch almost one hundred
years later—with a reading of “Le pont Mirabeau” by the poet himself. Using the Teachers’ Resources
database, new and seasoned instructors will also find quite a few recommendations for movies that
complement the reading list, again with precise information on cost and availability.
Be sure to also review chapter 5 of this Teacher’s Guide, which has an extensive list of print, Web, and
film resources for teaching the course, organized by author.
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Electronic Discussion Groups
AP Central is also where the new teacher can subscribe to an electronic discussion group (EDG)—a Webbased method of communication for all members of the AP community, including not only secondary
school teachers but also college faculty, AP Coordinators, and Exam Readers. Messages posted on the AP
French EDG can be viewed by the whole group and responded to individually. There is also an e-mail
option. Joining is simple: just scroll down the French Literature Home Page, and click on “Registration for
Electronic Discussion Groups.” This is a fabulous forum for both novice and experienced teachers. Any
question posted, whatever its nature—say, about the meaning of a certain line of poetry or good strategies
to stimulate student interest—will be quickly answered by any number of supportive colleagues across the
nation. You can ask for resources, ideas, topics for essays, or classroom strategies. Or you might hear about
a good movie or song that could accompany the teaching of a particular author. Years ago, when venturing
into an AP course, teachers felt very isolated. Technology has opened the walls of the classroom, and the
answer to any of our questions is at our fingertips.
Workshops and Summer Institutes
Another excellent step while preparing to teach the AP French Literature course for the first time is to
register for an AP Summer Institute. These weeklong intensive seminars, taught by College Board–approved
professionals at regionally sponsoring institutions, provide in-depth study of the course content, as well
as practical, detailed suggestions for classroom teaching. The close connection forged with your peers is
another invaluable component of the experience. If you cannot manage to attend an institute, a one-day
workshop will give you a clearer view of the AP French Literature Program and its demands. To find AP
Summer Institutes and workshops near you, click on the Institutes and Workshops tab on the AP Central
Home Page. Sometimes, AP French Literature will be combined with AP French Language training.
Released Exams
Teachers readying themselves for their initial AP French Literature class should assume the role of
student and spend some time becoming acquainted with the 2002 AP French Literature Released Exam,
which can be ordered from the College Board Store on AP Central. It is most constructive to take the
exam under the very same conditions that students do and to write the two essays under the same time
constraints that they face.
You will notice that the 2002 multiple-choice questions cover some authors who are no longer on the
reading list, such as Mariama Bâ and Pierre de Ronsard. Nevertheless, it is still a good idea to have students
attempt the older exam questions in class. Students need the experience of being assessed on texts that they
have never seen before, because that is now part of the AP Exam. In addition, the free-response questions
for all of the AP Exams from the last several years are available on AP Central. Besides analyzing the nature
of the exam, it is extremely important for new teachers to understand how it is assessed—that is, to become
familiar with the official guidelines that are used to score the essays. This process is also fully described in
the Released Exam publications.
AP Coordinator
This is also a good time to get to know your school’s AP Coordinator, a person appointed by your principal
to act as a liaison between the school and the AP Program. AP Coordinators are responsible for all the
organizational tasks connected with administering the AP Exams, such as ordering the correct number
of exams, assigning proctors, and returning all the exam materials. Developing a good rapport with this
person will help make all of the procedures connected with exam day as unstressful as possible. Once
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the whole picture of the AP Exam becomes clear, new teachers will be much more confident in establishing
their own plans to lead their students to success. (Chapter 4 of this Teacher’s Guide is devoted to an analysis
of the AP French Literature Exam and how to prepare students for it.)
Checklist for New AP French Literature Teachers
Become familiar with the College Board’s Web site for AP teachers, AP Central (apcentral.
collegeboard.com), and other sites for education professionals at www.collegeboard.com.
Read the French Literature section of the AP French Course Description (available as a free download
from AP Central).
Design your syllabus, making sure it meets the AP French Literature Curricular Requirements: go to
apcentral.collegeboard.com/courseaudit for information on submitting your syllabus for audit review.
Register for the AP French Electronic Discussion Group (EDG) on AP Central so that you can share
questions and ideas with colleagues.
Sign up for an AP Summer Institute or workshop to learn tips and techniques for teaching the French
Literature class.
Review the teaching tips in chapter 2 and the sample syllabi in chapter 3 for more ideas on teaching
techniques, assessments, and student activities.
Learn about the AP French Literature Exam and how to prepare your students for it: see chapter 4 of
this guide or visit the French Literature Exam Pages on AP Central. The 2002 AP French Literature
Released Exam is available at store.collegeboard.com.
Review the list of resources in chapter 5, as well as the items in the Teachers’ Resources section of AP
Central. You’ll find lots of books, Web sites, and films on the authors and works on the reading list, as
well as basic reference books and contact information for professional associations.
Good luck! You’re in for an exciting year.
Personal Perspectives
“The preceding information is all well and good,” the novice teacher now may be thinking, “but I’m still
anxious about this assignment. I need some hands-on advice ‘from the trenches’ about how to handle this
demanding course.” Although the sample syllabi found in chapter 3 will help tremendously in this respect,
here I would like to share my own experience (along with some comments from other educators), which
might provide some tips and ideas for new teachers and also reassure them that there is no perfect and
unique way to teach the AP course. I have taught this class for more than 10 years, and each year I approach
it a bit differently.
In the Classroom
The daily strategies used in the AP French Literature course will depend on the size of the class and your
school’s calendar. In my high school, we often have more than 20 students per section, so collaborative work
is very appropriate and has been quite successful. Novice teachers should adopt a routine that is not too
cumbersome for them, realizing that there is no perfect system. The important part is to gently prod the
students to reflect on their reading, to share both their insights and perplexities with the rest of the class,
and to improve their writing skills. This constant triad of reading for comprehension, class discussion, and
writing in and outside the class with appropriate feedback and follow-up activities is the core of the AP
French Literature course.
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One Piece at a Time
In my classes, a successful approach to reading French literature is one I call “divide and conquer.” After
reading a page or two in a chapter and understanding the vocabulary contextually, the students are asked to
divide the passage into sections. First they have to justify their decision about how to break it up. Next, they
choose in each section a word, an expression, or a full sentence that they think is the most important—and then
explain why their choice is significant. A discussion naturally ensues, with all students involved, and I write on
the board the phrases or words selected as well as the reasons for their inclusion. This always leads to a better
understanding of the passage studied.
—Renée White, The Greenhill School,
Addison, Texas
Whatever the strategies you employ, most class time should be spent discussing themes, literary
devices, development of characters, and imagery—using French exclusively. I think it is always important
to establish a link between the work studied and the personal world of the students. For instance, before
tackling the love poems of Louise Labé, I ask students to imagine that they are songwriters creating a new
love song. What emotions, good or bad, would they describe?
The group discussions help students understand the works, of course, but they also help generate an
adequate vocabulary to discuss a particular author. For instance, in the previous activity on Labé’s love
poems, students might share a wealth of vocabulary, such as le mépris, la colère, l’anticipation, l’extase, le
regret. I act as a moderator to record, and possibly enrich, the students’ exchanges. As they mention a new
emotion, I write it on the board and elicit words associated with the one vocabulary word provided by the
students. They review, or maybe learn, that une déception goes with décevoir and déçu with décevant, to
mention just one grouping of words. The use of visual organizers is most helpful to associate or contrast
emotions mentioned by students regarding any particular poem or literary work.
Defining the Terms
In teaching an introductory course in French literature and literary analysis for many years at Brown, I found
that it is important to give students a firm grounding in literary and rhetorical devices and to provide some clear
guidelines that enable them to distinguish the major genres (novel, play, poem). The best way to approach this
is to provide definitions of the literary terms students are likely to encounter and timely handouts to go along
with each part of the course: for the novel, handouts on narrative technique; for drama, information on the
distinction between the written text and its performance, and on the differences between seventeenth-century
classical plays and modern drama; for poetry, brief descriptions of French rhyme and rhythm, and definitions
and illustrations of important poetic devices. More detailed handouts are provided for the study of metaphor,
simile, and symbol, because they are found in all genres. In the past several years, I added another dimension
to the course by focusing on emotions—those represented in the literary text and the reader’s own affective
responses. This concentration on emotions encourages student participation in the discussions, as we analyze
the representation of love, jealousy, fear, anger, and other moods and draw distinctions between sympathy and
empathy in considering compassion. These deliberations inevitably lead to interesting considerations of ethics
that could be applied both to the literary characters’ behavior and to the students’ own lives.
—Inge Wimmers, Brown University,
Providence, Rhode Island
Movies and songs can also provide a welcome break in the sustained pace of an AP French Literature
course. I reserve those for the days I know I will be absent from class, and I have prearranged with the
substitute teachers to present this material. But because I often find myself pressed for time—given that I
teach the class in just one year, with only eight or nine class periods allotted to each author—I show only
a few films, such as the modern version of Pierre et Jean, downloaded from TV5 (a French station that our
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school receives via satellite). Teachers who have the luxury of presenting the course over two years can
adopt a more relaxed pace and encourage students to enrich their literary study with exploration of such
other arts as music, painting, or film. You can find a wealth of movie suggestions in the Teachers’ Resources
section of AP Central.
Reading Comprehension
To help students fully understand each of the works on the reading list, I have created a sequence of
homework questions for each chapter of the novels and for every poem, ranging from 12 questions for
some of the shorter pieces to 20 or more for long poems such as “Les animaux malades de la peste.” Some
of the queries are factual and ask the students to restate what a verse means, for instance. Most of them,
however, require interpretation and insightful comments. When the students arrive in class, they discuss
what they consider to be the “hard” questions from their assignments for 15 minutes within their groups. I
then ask each group to answer one of those challenging questions. Students take notes on their homework,
and at the end of the class, I collect and grade it. I do not penalize them for crossing out their initial
answer and jotting down a new interpretation to some questions. They will be penalized, however, if they
leave questions unanswered or answered only superficially. Students have reported that this classroom
group work is the best preparation for the AP Exam. I try to vary the format: sometimes, I ask students to
construct their own questions. This is not always successful, unfortunately, because they tend to produce
too many factual, yes/no questions or to phrase them in such a way that their classmates do not fully
understand them.
You do not have to invent all 20 questions yourself; there are plenty of wonderful sources available,
many of them reviewed in the Teachers’ Resources section on AP Central or discussed on the French
Literature EDG. You will learn that there are many free available resources to make the life of the novice
teacher much easier.
Writing
Assessment in the AP French Literature course should first and foremost evaluate how well students
understand and explicate literary works in written French. I often use textual analysis or general essay
questions from previous AP Exams; questions from the last several exams are posted on AP Central. I
also create such questions myself or ask students to devise their own topics. These in-class writings are
completed during the regular 50-minute period, without any resource or dictionary.
Students also write on topics at home: we call these journaux for lack of a better name. I require that
these pieces start with a short introduction and end with a brief conclusion, but the journaux do not need to
be as long or as structured as the timed AP Exam essays written in class, and they only count half as much.
Students are permitted to use dictionaries on these assignments and can take as much time as they want.
Some of them use editing software, such as Le Patron, which I allow for writing done at home. I try to
incorporate a “creative” journal entry for each author studied. For instance, for Voltaire, I ask the students
to place Candide and Cacambo in some American city, imitating the Parisian adventures of chapter 22 of
Candide. For Maupassant, I ask them to impersonate one of the characters from Pierre et Jean and write
to the author, complaining about the harsh way they have been treated in the novel. Those imaginative
assignments break the monotony of our literary analysis essays. They also encourage the students to use
a much broader vocabulary and syntax than the one normally used in an analyse dirigée—and are also
immensely entertaining to read and grade!
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Mail Call
One exercise that works well for my AP French Literature class is to have each student prepare two carefully
worded questions via e-mail the night before class. Questions can be on a theme of discussion, a rhetorical
device in a poem, or sometimes simply a vocabulary word that baffles the student. In class, questions are
projected on the board, and students are invited to correct themselves before a collective reexamination
provides a final check. Because the questions are short and almost everyone gets some red marks, students
do not feel too embarrassed. Although the quick feedback from peers as well as from the teacher on students’
written skills is obviously useful, this exercise also gets everyone in class prepared to write about the content of
texts and encourages discussion from the students’ own perspectives.
—Yuan Gao, Peddie School,
Hightstown, New Jersey
Oral Work
Students in my class also give oral reports—for instance, presenting a La Fontaine fable with a partner. In
addition, I require several memorizations and recitations of poems from the reading list throughout the
year. Even though there is no oral component on the AP French Literature Exam, I feel it is very important
for students to maintain their oral fluency and good pronunciation. I make class participation a significant
portion of the grade in this course, and exclusive use of French in the classroom and frequent, spontaneous
contributions are a requirement to secure an A.
Finally, when both teacher and students feel the pressure of too much reading, too much writing,
too many assessments, it is time to . . . play! Students are the best source of “games” for the AP French
Literature class. Mine love to create epilogue-skits—for example, L’école des femmes, 20 years later. They
also love the “citation” game: students quote something, and the other team must guess who said that line.
Creating and Sustaining an AP French
Literature Course
It is my fervent belief that all secondary school French programs should have not only an AP French
Language course but also an AP French Literature section. French teachers must be proactive about
introducing and supporting an AP French Literature program in their schools.
Working with Parents, Colleagues, and Administrators
All the French teachers in any school must work together as a team to develop and sustain a strong AP
French Literature program. They should agree on which short excerpts of literature will be read at specific
levels. They should advertise the AP course option to all their students, and, ideally, there should be a
rotation among the instructors who teach the class. In any discipline, courses resting only on one educator
are at much risk, and the AP French Literature course is no exception.
My colleagues and I talk to parents and guardians whenever we have the opportunity, during “back
to school night” or “Elective Fair evening,” for instance. Personally, I have found these adults to be the
most supportive group. Often, they have themselves taken advanced French courses in college and get very
nostalgic when I show them the reading list at one of the informational evenings!
It is also extremely important to talk often about the French literature program to the guidance director
and the guidance counselors, who are obviously extremely influential in course selection. Some of them
14
Advice for APAbout
French
AP
Literature
French Literature
Teachers
might remember from their own experience that AP language courses used to be extremely selective, and
they may not encourage students who are not receiving As in their French classes to take an additional
advanced language class. We need to spread the word that if a student is hardworking and loves French and
reading, success will surely follow.
To secure the future of an AP course, French teachers must reach the parents and the students, but they
must also obtain the support of their administrators. Often, the AP French Literature class will be labeled
“too small” to be taught separately, especially in public schools where the average enrollment is closer to 30
than to 20 students per section. The French department has to enlighten all the administrative staff about
the great benefits reaped by students’ taking the AP course. In most secondary schools, there is a major
emphasis on “writing across the curriculum”; the AP French Literature course will improve the writing
skills of all the students in French and in English. Such steps should help create a self-sustaining French
literature section in most secondary institutions.
Recruiting Students: Promote Your Course Early and Often
In nearly every school, there are always a few outstanding students who decide on their own to register for
AP French Literature. But teachers must reach out to the other French pupils, the ones who do not consider
the course because they think it is too much work or too hard. They may also be under the impression
that it is reserved only for the best students in the program. In order to have a robust section of AP French
Literature year after year, you and your fellow French teachers have to join forces and promote this option,
starting at the introductory stage.
I often teach first-year students taking second-level French at Thomas Jefferson High, and throughout
the year, as we memorize simple short poems such as Verlaine’s “Le ciel est par dessus le toit . . .” and read
brief literary excerpts, I tell them that I expect to see them all, three years later, in the AP French Literature
class. If the first contact with French literature is a positive one, students will be more receptive two or three
years later to the idea of dedicating one more year to the study of French and francophone literature. To
further aid the recruitment effort, each March we send some of the current AP students to talk to younger
classmates before registration time and to share with these undecided students the joys and benefits of the
AP French Literature course.
Moreover, we encourage extracurricular activities that familiarize the students with world language
literature: in the Modern Foreign Language Tournament, a regional event that takes place at Thomas
Jefferson High, our French students have the opportunity to perform a scene from a play or recite a poem of
their choice in front of several judges. In our after-class activities, we show films based on classic novels and
seize all opportunities to make French literature come alive on our campus. We are lucky enough to live
within driving distance of the French Embassy and Maison Française in Washington, D.C., and our French
Club and Honor Society advertise the French plays that our students can attend there. Our students are very
gifted in mathematics—their first interest—but they also appreciate advanced language courses as a muchneeded component of a well-rounded education.
Now that you have a good sense of how to get an AP French Literature course started, a feel for how to
run the class, and an overview of the basic support apparatus that you can draw upon, it is time to construct
your own blueprint for the course: the syllabus. The next chapter will guide you through that process and
provide real nuts-and-bolts help in the form of eight examples contributed by experienced AP teachers and
university professors.
15
Chapter 3
Course Organization
Syllabus Development
Before even attempting to create a syllabus, the novice teacher must become completely familiar with the
reading list. The two most important decisions regarding the syllabus are the order in which to present the
authors and the time dedicated to each. Dividing the available time between the first day of school and the
date of the AP French Literature Exam, you will find that you have, depending on your school’s calendar,
between two and three weeks per author. For instance, for the 2007-08 academic year, I established the
following schedule (which includes weekends and holidays, as students have homework assignments during
those times).
Voltaire
September 4–September 27
La Fontaine
September 28–October 17
Maupassant
October 18–November 13
Baudelaire
November 14–December 4
Molière
December 5–December 26
Duras
December 27–January 16
Apollinaire
January 17–February 9
Césaire
February 10–February 27
Labé and Du Bellay
February 28–March 14
Corneille
March 15–April 18
AP Exam Review
April 19–exam date
It is very easy to get behind schedule, and the novice teacher should not panic if some units occasionally
take longer to complete than planned. Just try to make up the time with the next one, so that things do not
spiral out of control. When days are lost because of bad weather, for instance, I try to speed up a bit with
the next author. In spite of careful planning, unforeseen delays and interruptions will occur, however. Many
a year, our review time was reduced to just two or three classes, and students had to review outside of class.
You can always consider scheduling some of these sessions in the evening or on a Saturday, if necessary.
17
Chapter 3
1
Put the Calendar to Work
The AP French Literature course is both challenging and rewarding. In order to make it accessible to advanced
students, I suggest organizing the syllabus to complement the academic school year. In June, gather the
students who have registered for the course, and hand them all the books and the syllabus. During the summer,
have them read two of the three novels on the reading list. In September start with one of the major works
immediately, scheduling the other major works after students’ vacations, such as Thanksgiving, winter break, or
Presidents’ Day. Insert the poetry between these works. Generally, you can get more done during the second
semester, as students by then have some experience with textual analysis.
—Jane Kairet, Cincinnati Country Day School,
Cincinnati, Ohio
After deciding how much time to spend on each author, you must decide on the order in which they
will be studied. I have tried many options—for example, grouping the authors by themes. It seems to me
that several years ago, I was able to read more supplementary works, in addition to the required reading
list, and this type of grouping was then possible. Since our school moved to a block schedule, we can now
engage in more classroom activities, but students cannot read as much as they did outside the class. I
therefore gave up on the thematic grouping and switched to a chronological order. The downside of this
choice is that you have to start with Du Bellay and Labé, not the easiest selections on the list. There is also
sometimes too much poetry at once. The advantage of the chronological option, however, is that it shows
the students how centuries link with each other and illustrates the progression of social ideals from the
Middle Ages to the Renaissance, then to the classical age, and so on.
I followed this formula for many years, but at the students’ suggestion, I have opted more recently for
a random sequence—mixing the genres, starting with the most “popular” (one of the novels) and then
alternating between prose and poetry. Given the length of the reading list and the fact that our school year
begins after Labor Day and the AP Exam occurs in early May, I find that I absolutely must assign one of the
long works as summer reading. I think summer work is essential for maintaining the students’ language
skills; this is true not only for AP French Literature but also for AP French Language students.
By Chronology
There is clearly no one “right way” to organize this syllabus. A “literary” approach might suggest organizing
it by genre, whereas a cautious teacher might prefer to offer the texts beginning with those perceived to be
easiest for the anglophone high school reader. However, there are advantages to approaching the reading list
chronologically, despite the linguistic challenges of the older texts. A chronological approach, beginning with the
Pléiade’s question of how to create not only a literature but a language worthy of greatness, sets students off
on a coherent discovery of French literature. It helps them fit the texts they read into a broader understanding
of French history, culture, religion, philosophy, aesthetics, and values. Although teachers may wish to provide
background material to link the works on the reading list, these texts themselves offer a “fil d’Ariane,” a thread
of understanding, through the labyrinth of French history and culture and its Canadian and African diaspora.
—Deborah Bradley, Falmouth Academy,
Falmouth, Massachusetts
18
About AP
Course
French
Organization
Literature
By Genre
In my opinion, structuring the syllabus for the AP French Literature course by genres is a more manageable
approach, both for the students and for beginner teachers. Consider starting with the novels, then the plays,
and then move on to the poetry. Poetry is the most difficult genre for students to assimilate, so you need to
devote enough class time to every poem in order to ensure that your pupils have a thorough and intellectually
sophisticated understanding of each one. Because it takes a long time to read the novels, I suggest starting
some of them during the preceding academic year—right after the AP French Language Exam, for instance.
Pierre et Jean is easily understood by the students and not too difficult to read.
—Geneviève Brand, William H. Hall High School,
West Hartford, Connecticut
I try to vary the approach from author to author, but basically, as we start a new unit, the first of the
seven or eight classes allotted to that writer is dedicated to the political, sociological, and economic specifics
of his or her time. I always prepare a “prereading” packet of questions that assesses what the students
already know about that period, to build on knowledge they already have. Students are asked to visit
several Web sites for each author and answer those prereading questions at home. In class, they share their
findings while I circulate among the groups to make sure accurate information is being communicated. We
sometimes use games to review all the gathered information; in other instances students write a summary
at home to consolidate that new information.
The rest of the six or seven classes left for that author will be spent discussing the works on the reading
list, taking quizzes, writing timed essays in class, and sometimes watching an appropriate movie that
complements the work being studied. In addition to the written work mentioned, students engage in group
debates, pair presentations, and individual memorization. For each author, they write approximately three
journaux (see chapter 2) at home and one 50-minute essay question (taken from a released AP Exam) in
class. Because some scheduling flexibility is necessary in high school, I do not publish a precise syllabus
listing all the dates and all the assignments at the beginning of the year. I use Blackboard software to
publish homework assignments for all my classes, and I post a complete folder of homework and activities
for each author as we start—that is, three weeks of assignments at most.
Finally, you will need to plan for one more big concern: what to do with the students after the AP
Exam, a time period that in some school districts can translate into another six weeks of instruction. The
electronic discussion group on AP Central will provide a lot of excellent suggestions for the new teacher.
Some teachers have students read another classic work. Some classes put on a play. Others make a foray
into the world of French film. In our school, by student demand, we do not do any additional reading
but instead switch to French music, a different medium that is also the poetry of young people. There are
fabulous sites on the Internet where you can search for songs to illustrate a specific topic, in particular,
www.espacefrancophone.org. Whatever postexam activity you choose, it should be designed to promote
your students’ continuing engagement with, and lively appreciation of, French and francophone literature
and culture.
Eight Sample Syllabi
Gathered together in the following pages is a wealth of information in the form of the actual syllabi used by
eight secondary school and university teachers in their AP and college French literature classes. Each one
contains a detailed course timetable, an explanation of how students are evaluated, a section on teaching
strategies, and examples of successful student activities.
19
Chapter 3
1
The collection begins with six high school syllabi covering a wide range of academic environments
and calendars—public, private, and religious schools from towns and cities in all regions of the country,
most running on quarters or semesters, and one operating on a trimester system. Milton Alan Turner, at
Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland, puts the latest technology to good use, using PDAs loaded with
bilingual dictionaries and e-books of all the noncopyrighted works on the reading list to supplement the
printed texts. At St. John’s School in Houston, Jacqueline Vest begins with the more readily understood
novels, saving the bulk of the poetry for the second half of the school year. She presents a smorgasbord
of innovative teaching strategies, along with the related student handouts. For Gloria Van Dam, from
Chapel Hill High School in North Carolina, the school year begins in August and ends in June. Those of
you who also have some time after the AP Exam will especially want to see how she has used this period
for supplementary reading or other special projects. Verna Lofaro, who teaches at Cherry Creek High
School in Greenwood Village, Colorado, works through the reading list in chronological order using an
interdisciplinary approach—with one exception. She assigns one of the more accessible texts as summer
reading so that she can use the students’ first writing assignment to evaluate their skill levels. Katherine
Fair, at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, works on a trimester system, with the fall term
taught in France. A strong proponent of seminar-style classes in which everyone becomes “the teacher,”
her syllabus is full of practical suggestions for how to achieve this high level of student participation. Elsie
Augustave, at Stuyvesant High School in New York City, devotes a lot of time at the beginning of the course
to bolstering the students’ skills in literary analysis through very close readings of L’école des femmes and
Candide, then is able to cover the other texts more quickly.
The last two syllabi are from university professors, each of whom provides a clear example of the
introductory college French literature class that the high school AP courses are designed to reproduce.
Margaret Gray, at Indiana University, organizes the reading in her 16-week, one-semester course by
chronological order. There is a certain amount of overlap with the authors on the AP French Literature
reading list (Labé and La Fontaine, for example). Her syllabus also contains a very good list of relevant
Web sites. Virginia Krause’s course at Brown University covers French literature from the medieval
period through the seventeenth century in its one-semester time frame. She teaches from a broad cultural
perspective that encourages students to see the connections between literature and other artistic genres, as
well as theology and history. She makes a special effort also to link these older texts with modern concerns
and events.
I am now going to let these colleagues share their suggestions and ideas, along with their syllabi for the
French literature courses that they teach. Novice and experienced teachers alike are sure to find something
to use immediately in their own classrooms.
Important Note: The AP Course Audit
The syllabi included in this Teacher’s Guide were developed prior to the establishment of the 2008–2009
AP French Literature reading list and the initiation of the AP Course Audit and the identification
of the current AP French Literature Curricular Requirements. These syllabi contain rich resources
and will be useful in generating ideas for your AP course. In addition to providing detailed course
planners, the syllabi contain descriptions of classroom activities and assignments, along with
helpful teaching strategies. However, they should not be used in their entirety as models that would
be authorized under the guidelines of the AP Course Audit. To view the current AP Curricular
Requirements and examples of syllabi that have been developed since the launch of the AP Course
Audit and therefore meet all of the AP French Literature Curricular Requirements, go to the Course
Audit pages on AP Central (apcentral.collegeboard.com/courseaudit).
20
About AP
Course
French
Organization
Literature
Sample Syllabus 1
Milton Alan Turner
Saint Ignatius High School
Cleveland, Ohio
School Profile
School Location and Environment: Founded in 1888, Saint Ignatius is a four-year Jesuit high school for
boys. The school has a 17-acre campus with 18 buildings, located in close proximity to downtown Cleveland
in the historic Ohio City neighborhood. Students are admitted selectively based on previous school records,
admission test results, and teacher/principal recommendations. They represent all economic backgrounds
and come from 150 different schools, 40 cities, and 7 counties in northeastern Ohio. More than 95 percent
of the students are Roman Catholic.
The Saint Ignatius curriculum is exclusively college preparatory, and all students are required to
take three years of a modern language (French or Spanish) or a classical language (Latin). Our current
class of 337 seniors includes 24 students recognized as National Merit Semifinalists, 3 National Hispanic
Recognition Program Scholars, 1 National Achievement Scholarship Semifinalist, and 30 National Merit
Commended Students. AP courses play a major role in our curriculum and are offered in 16 different
subjects. All students in AP classes are required to take the appropriate AP Exam for that subject; students
are limited to a maximum of three AP courses in a given year.
Saint Ignatius has a professional staff of 102 members, 84 percent of whom hold advanced degrees.
Teachers have an average of 15 years instructional experience, and 60 percent of the faculty has spent 10 or
more years at the school.
Grades: 9–12
Type: Private Roman Catholic college-preparatory school for boys
Total Enrollment: 1,434
Ethnic Diversity: In our student population, 3.3 percent are multiracial, 2.4 percent are Asian, 2.2 percent
are Hispanic/Latino, 1.5 percent are African American, and less than 1 percent are Native American.
College Record: More than 99 percent of our graduates matriculate into a four-year college within one year
of graduation.
Personal Philosophy
In addition to my own personal love of literature, the AP French Literature course is important to me
for two reasons. The first is that current high school students actually seem to enjoy reading. This may
be the result of the “Harry Potter” phenomenon, but I would rather credit English teachers and parents.
The second is that students enjoy discussion and debate. The study of literature naturally lends itself to
discussion and allows the students to develop higher-level skills such as critical reading, critical writing,
and critical thinking.
It is my philosophy that all students can meet the high standards of a demanding curriculum such as
those of the AP Program given the proper training and encouragement. As a result, the course has an open
enrollment policy—every student committed to doing the work is usually accepted into the course. My
21
Chapter 3
1
primary goal is to provide students with the methods and vocabulary necessary for literary analysis. Rather
than insist on a specific or “stock” interpretation of the works, I encourage students to experiment with the
texts and write personal analyses. That is not to say that all analyses and interpretations are equal. I impress
upon the students that there are good and bad analyses as well as valid and not-so-valid interpretations. The
key is how well these analyses are supported by evidence from the text.
Class Profile
Saint Ignatius offers one section of AP French Literature, and enrollment ranges between 6 and 16 students
each year. The class meets under a traditional schedule: in other words, five days a week for 40-minute
periods. Most students enroll directly from French 3. Although it is preferred that students first take
French 4, this is impossible for most of them, because usually no more than a handful of students in
grade 9 are able to place into French 2. The vast majority of ninth-grade students have had no previous
experience in languages and take French 1. Therefore, as seniors, they may choose between French 4, AP
French Language, or AP French Literature. Most students are enrolled in at least one other AP class (most
commonly English Literature and Composition or English Language and Composition), but for some this is
their only AP course.
Course Overview
The purpose of this course, as stated in the AP French Course Description, is “to introduce students who
have advanced language skills to the formal study of a representative body of literary texts in French”
[see page 25 in the 2008, 2009 Course Description]. It is the equivalent of a third-year college-level course,
usually called something like Introduction to French Literature.
The AP French Literature course has the following objectives, also drawn directly from the Course
Description:
• To enable students “to gain proficiency in the fundamental language skills that enable them to read
and understand prose and verse of moderate difficulty and mature content, [and to] formulate and
express critical opinions and judgments in correct oral and written French.”
• To help students “to develop the ability to read and analyze critically and to discuss perceptively
representative works of French literature.”
All modern language courses at Saint Ignatius are based on proficiency principles as promulgated by the
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Classes include close reading and
extensive discussion of texts, with particular attention to character and theme, structure and style, and how
these elements are related to overall interpretation. To reach these goals, students learn the techniques of
literary analysis as well as a basic vocabulary of critical terms, both of which they need to use appropriately
when studying French literary texts. Class discussion and essay writing in French are important
components of this course, and all the students are required to take the AP French Literature Exam.
Texts
Giraudoux, Jean. La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu. Paris: Larousse-Bordas, 1998.
Hébert, Anne. Œuvre poétique, 1950–1990. Paris: Boréal, 1993.
Laye, Camara. L’enfant noir. Paris: Presse Pocket, 2001.
Molière. L’école des femmes. Paris: Larousse-Bordas, 2003.
22
About AP
Course
French
Organization
Literature
For the rest of the poems, Candide, and Pierre et Jean, the students receive a photocopied booklet
I prepared several years ago. The texts were taken from online resources, which I then reformatted in
Microsoft Word format.
Course Planner
Because most students enter the class with only three years of preparation, the course is organized so that
most of the first semester covers poetry. As the students’ vocabulary and reading skills develop, we begin
studying plays and novels. Otherwise, the works are studied in roughly historical order. In recent years, I
have changed the timing for studying Giraudoux’s La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu to tie its theme of war
versus pacifism to current events (such as the war in Iraq or elections in Iraq).
After the AP Exam, the students view movies, which they then evaluate in the same way that they
analyzed the literary texts. There is no final exam following the AP Exam.
A rough schedule of the school year is as follows:
First Semester
First Quarter
Week 1: À la folie . . . pas du tout (film) and literary terms
Week 2: Louise Labé, “On voit mourir toute chose animée”
Week 3: Louise Labé, “Je vis, je meurs: je me brûle et me noye,” “Oh si j’estois en ce beau sein ravie”
Week 4: Louise Labé, “Las! que me sert, que si parfaitement”
Week 5: Joachim Du Bellay, “Heureux qui comme Ulysse a fait un beau voyage”
Week 6: Joachim Du Bellay, “France, mère des arts, des armes, et des lois”
Week 7: Joachim Du Bellay, “Si notre vie est moins qu’une journée,” “Ces cheveux d’or sont les liens, Madame”
Week 8: Voltaire, Candide
Week 9: Voltaire, Candide
(No quarter exam)
Second Quarter
Week 1: Voltaire, Candide
Week 2: Jean de La Fontaine, “Le loup et l’agneau”
Week 3: Jean de La Fontaine, “Les animaux malades de la peste”
Week 4: Jean de La Fontaine, “Le chêne et le roseau,” “La mort et le bûcheron”
Week 5: Jean Giraudoux, La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu
Week 6: Jean Giraudoux, La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu
Week 7: Jean Giraudoux, La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu
Week 8: Charles Baudelaire, “L’invitation au voyage,” “Hymne à la beauté”
Week 9: Charles Baudelaire, “Chant d’automne”
Semester exam: AP French Literature Released Exam (multiple-choice section)
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Chapter 3
1
Second Semester
Third Quarter
Week 1: Charles Baudelaire, “Correspondances,” “Spleen” (“Quand le ciel . . .”)
Week 2: Charles Baudelaire, “Recueillement”
Week 3: Molière, L’école des femmes
Week 4: Molière, L’école des femmes
Week 5: Molière, L’école des femmes
Week 6: Guy de Maupassant, Pierre et Jean
Week 7: Guy de Maupassant, Pierre et Jean
Week 8: Guy de Maupassant, Pierre et Jean
Week 9: Guillaume Apollinaire, “Le pont Mirabeau,” “Mai”
Quarter exam: AP French Literature Released Exam (multiple-choice section)
Fourth Quarter
Week 1: Guillaume Apollinaire, “Les colchiques,” “Automne”
Week 2: Camara Laye, L’enfant noir
Week 3: Camara Laye, L’enfant noir
Week 4: Anne Hébert, “Baigneuse,” “Le piano,” “Les grandes fontaines”
Week 5: Anne Hébert, “Une fois seulement,” “Nos mains au jardin”
Week 6: Prepare for the AP Exam—student-prepared author reviews
Week 7: AP Exam
Week 8: Films
Week 9: Course evaluation
(No semester exam)
Teaching Strategies
Since 2003, every student of AP French Literature at Saint Ignatius has been given a Windows Mobile
Pocket PC handheld computer or personal data assistant (PDA) to use for the year. Each of the PDAs is
loaded with the Microsoft Reader program, the Microsoft Reader French-English and English-French
Pocket Dictionaries, and electronic versions or “e-books” of all the noncopyrighted works on the required
reading list (everything except the works of Giraudoux, Laye, and Hébert).
Students can open any book by clicking on its title. They can read the book, search the text, add
bookmarks, highlight passages, or add notes or annotations. If while reading, they run across an unfamiliar
word, they can click on it to search the French-English Pocket Dictionary and read the corresponding entry.
The students still receive copies of traditional texts of all the works. The e-books are not intended to
be replacements but rather supplements, particularly for students coming directly from third year, to help
make the challenge of reading advanced texts less daunting.
24
About AP
Course
French
Organization
Literature
After many of the assigned readings from the novels and plays—for example, after certain acts of a
play or chapters of a novel—the students take short 10-point quizzes. The format for these quizzes is either
true/false or identification of quotations, where the student must match selected quotes with the character
who said them (from a list of characters provided). These assessments are merely intended to make sure
the students have done the required reading and are prepared at least on a preliminary level to discuss the
works. Classroom discussion and the resulting compositions are really the heart of the course.
I introduce the first few poems by projecting them on a SMARTBoard ™. I model how to begin
analyzing the poems by identifying the various stanzas (quatrains, tercets), rhyme schemes (embrassées,
croisées), and examples of various literary devices (métaphore, apostrophe, litote). After talking about la
forme, we begin discussing le fond and how the structural elements emphasize or reinforce the author’s
intent or the meaning of the poem. With the subsequent poems, I have individual students go to the
SMARTBoard and identify these elements themselves, often having them use different colors to mark
specific devices or rhyme schemes.
The poems are displayed from either the Poésie Française Web site or from the e-book versions of the
text in Microsoft Reader. Using Reader has the advantage of allowing students to access the French-English
Pocket Dictionary for unfamiliar expressions by using the “Lookup” function.
During the first semester, students write their compositions at home and may use dictionaries. During
the second semester, all of the compositions are written in class without dictionaries to simulate the AP
Exam conditions. Early in the year, two or three class periods may be dedicated to a single poem (one period
identifying the structure and one to two periods discussing the meaning). After exploring the structure and
meaning of the poems, I have the students write drafts of explications de texte in class. I have access to a
mobile cart of 15 wireless laptop computers with a printer, so during the first semester I encourage them to
write drafts and make revisions on the computer. I employ this strategy in an attempt to address lingering
language deficiencies some students may have coming directly from French 3 and to help make them
familiar, and eventually comfortable, with this style of writing. At the beginning of the year, I also give them
the following handout of useful expressions to help logically organize the ideas presented in their essays.
Termes de Composition
un conte/un conteur (une conteuse)
un poème/un/poète/une poétesse
une pièce/un (une) dramaturge
un roman/un romancier (une romancière)
un personnage (principal) (main) character
d’abord (auparavant)/ensuite/puis/enfin
au début at first/in the beginning
au fur et à mesure as you go along/progress/advance
• au fur et à mesure que le poème progresse
à la fin at/in the end
cependant however
quand même all the same/anyway/even though/even if
pourtant/néanmoins nevertheless
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Chapter 3
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d’un autre côté on the one hand
de l’autre côté/par contre on the other hand
quant à as for
• quant à Baudelaire
selon/d’après/au dire de according to
au contraire on the contrary
au contraire de unlike
• au contraire de Maupassant
de même similarly/likewise
de même que just as
en tout cas/de toute façon in any case
en aucun cas under no circumstances
le cas échéant/en cas de besoin if necessary/if need be
par conséquent therefore/consequently/as a result
par hasard by chance
par exemple for example
en réalité actually
la raison pour laquelle the reason why
le moment où the moment (time) when
à vrai dire to tell the truth/truth be told
en dire long to speak volumes
pour ainsi dire so to speak
cela dit having said that (that having been said)
cela (ça) va sans dire it goes without saying
vraisemblable plausible/likely
vraisemblablement in all probability/likelihood
en effet/en fait in effect/in fact
il s’agit de it’s a question (matter) of/it deals with
faire face à to deal with/to face (problems/obstacles)
éprouver/ressentir to feel (emotions)
commencer à + infinitif to start
• il commence à décrire
commencer par + infinitif to start by
• il commence par décrire
26
About AP
Course
French
Organization
Literature
finir par + infinitif to end up/to eventually (do something)
• il finit par décrire
de façon que + subjonctif so that
• de façon qu’il y ait
bien que + subjonctif even though
• bien qu’il y ait
pour que + subjonctif so that/in order that
• pour qu’il y ait
pourvu que + subjonctif so that/in order that
• pourvu qu’il y ait
en + participe présent by/while/upon (doing something)
• en faisant, en se levant
d’une façon (manière) + adjectif féminin in a (particular) way/*-ly
• d’une façon comique, d’une manière intelligente
quelque chose de + adjectif masculin
• quelque chose de nouveau
rien de + adjectif masculin
• rien de nouveau
avant de + infinitif before (doing something)
• avant de parler, avant d’arriver
après + infinitif passé after (doing/having done something)
• après avoir parlé, après être arrivé(e)(s)
avant que (n’) + subjonctif before
• avant qu’il ne soit trop tard
pour conclure in conclusion
Student Evaluation
Although students take short comprehension quizzes on the novels and plays, compositions account for the
greatest percentage of their grades. Most of these writing assignments are drawn from the free-response
essay questions of previous AP Exams. The second- and the third-quarter exams are taken from the
multiple-choice section of an AP French Literature Released Exam. There is no first-quarter exam and no
final exam at the end of the second semester. The semester grades are weighted by category as follows:
Compositions
70 percent
Exams 20 percent
Quizzes 10 percent
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Whenever possible, the students are graded using the AP French Literature Scoring Guidelines for
content and language (available on AP Central).
Content
9
Language
5
Category
Cohesive and insightful/Very good
7–8
4
Well developed/Good
5–6
3
Satisfactory/Adequate
3–4
2
Unsatisfactory/Weak
1–2
1
Incoherent/Inadequate
Ideally, this system would convert directly to an A–F grading scale. But because most students are coming
from French 3 and because an AP grade of 3 means a student is qualified, I convert these scores as follows:
28
Content
7–9
Language
4–5
Grade
A
5–6
3
B
3–4
2
C
2
1
D
1
—
F
Our school’s grading scale is as follows:
A+
98–100 percent
A
95–97 percent
A-
93–94 percent
B+
90–92 percent
B
87–89 percent
B-
85–86 percent
C+
82–84 percent
C
79–81 percent
C-
77–78 percent
D+
75–76 percent
D
72–74 percent
D-
70–71 percent
F
0–69 percent
About AP
Course
French
Organization
Literature
Teacher Resources
Software
Microsoft French-English and English-French Pocket Dictionaries.
www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/dictionaries.asp.
Microsoft Reader for desktop and notebook PCs. A French Text-to-Speech Package can be downloaded
from the site.
www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/pc.asp.
Microsoft Reader for Windows Pocket PC.
www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/ppc.asp.
Study Guides
Carlier, Christophe. “Pierre et Jean”: Guy de Maupassant. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 1999.
Curial, Hubert. “Fables,” livres VII à XII: La Fontaine. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 1993.
Dumeste, Marie-Hélène. “Candide”: Voltaire. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 2003.
Frois, Étienne, and Adeline Lesot. “La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu”: Giraudoux. Profil d’une Œuvre.
Paris: Hatier, 1998.
Morhange-Bégué, Claude, and Pierre Lartigue. “Alcools”: Guillaume Apollinaire. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris:
Hatier, 2000.
Films
À la folie . . . pas du tout (He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not). 2002. Directed by Laetitia Colombani.
Distributed by Columbia TriStar Home Video (Sony Pictures Entertainment), 2003. 92 minutes.
Jean Giraudoux: “La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu.” 1981. Directed by Raymond Rouleau. Distributed by
Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 2002. 110 minutes.
Molière: “L’école des femmes.” 1999. Directed by Éric Vigner. Distributed by Films for the Humanities and
Sciences, 2002. 141 minutes.
Pierre et Jean. 1973. Directed by Michel Favart. Distributed by LCJ/Warner Home Video France, 2000.
95 minutes. N.B.: Only available in PAL/SECAM Zone 2 European format.
Web Sites
Films for the Humanities and Sciences. Films Media Group. Web site that offers educational videos in DVD
and VHS formats.
www.films.com.
Fnac.com. French Web site for books and videos.
www.fnac.com.
Lettres.net. Lexique des termes littéraires. Web site for French study and teaching offering definitions of
literary terms.
www.lettres.net/lexique.
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Poésie française. Webnet. This site contains more than 6,000 French-language poems from the Renaissance
to the twentieth century.
http://poesie.webnet.fr.
Toute la Poésie. Approche théorique du poème. French poetry site including technical explanations of
meter, rhyme, and stanzas.
www.toutelapoesie.com/dossiers/theorie_du_poeme/approche_theorique_du_poeme.htm.
Turner, Milton Alan. AP French Literature E-Text Pilot Project. Saint Ignatius High School. A Web page I
created for students and teachers on using electronic texts or e-books of the public-domain works on the
required reading list.
www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/etexts.htm.
Turner, Milton Alan. AP French Literature Links. Saint Ignatius High School. Web page I created for
students as well as other teachers of AP French Literature.
www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/apfrlit.htm.
Student Activities
Activity 1: À la folie . . . pas du tout
As the first activity of the school year, I show the film À la folie . . . pas du tout (He Loves Me, He Loves Me
Not). The movie tells the same story from the points of view of two different characters, first of Angélique,
a young art student, and then of Loïc, a cardiologist. After watching the film, we discuss the importance of
narrative voice and its effect on our understanding of the events and the characters. We then discuss the
importance of an author’s choices. I highlight the importance of not only what information is given but
also what information is withheld. The students are asked to reflect not only on what is explicitly stated but
also on what is unsaid and the inferences we are forced (or led) to draw. We end by discussing the relevance
of symbols, such as the heart, Loïc’s profession, and the name “Angélique.”
After discussing the film, I give the students the following handout of various literary terms adapted
from the Toute la Poésie and Lettres.net Web sites, and we begin applying them to our first poem, usually a
work by Louise Labé.
Termes Littéraires
LES RIMES
Les rimes sont des reprises de phonèmes situés en fin de vers.
• Rime pauvre: Reprise de la même voyelle (battu/perdu).
• Rime suffisante: Reprise d’un groupe constitué d’une voyelle et d’une consone (final/Bancale).
• Rime riche: Reprise d’au moins trois phonèmes (porte/morte; cheval/rival).
• Les rimes féminines sont celles qui se terminent par un e muet (mouette, délire, heure, vivre).
• Les rimes masculines sont les autres (ardeur, vision, mourir).
NB: Remarquez que mourir est une rime masculine alors que vivre est une rime féminine.
• Les rimes plurielles sont celles qui se terminent par un s, x, ou z (amas, tas, heureux).
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About AP
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Organization
Literature
• Les rimes singulières sont les autres.
NB: Il est interdit de faire rimer une syllabe plurielle et une syllabe singulière.
Disposition des rimes:
• Rimes plates: AA BB CC
• Rimes croisées: ABAB CDCD
• Rimes embrassées: ABBA CDDC
• Rimes redoublées (reprises au moins trois fois): AAAB
• La rime interne est une rime placée à la césure.
LES MÈTRES
Le mètre est la longueur du vers.
Principaux mètres pairs:
• L’alexandrin: 12 syllabes
• Le décasyllabe: 10 syllabes
• L’octosyllabe: 8 syllabes
• L’hexasyllabe: 6 syllabes
Principaux mètres impairs:
• L’ennéasyllabe: 9 syllabes
• L’heptasyllabe: 7 syllabes
• Le pentasyllabe: 5 syllabes
LE COMPTE DES SYLLABES DANS LES VERS
La versification française est syllabique, c’est-à-dire qu’elle est fondée, comme l’indique son nom, sur le
nombre de syllabes.
Elle diffère de la versification métrique, qui repose sur la quantité des syllabes longues et brèves (vers
grecs et latins), et de la versification rythmique, qui dépend de la place des syllabes accentuées ou atones
(vers anglais ou allemands).
Le nombre de syllabes du vers est le plus souvent, du dix-septième siècle jusqu’à la fin du dix-neuvième,
un nombre pair: 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2. Les vers impairs de 7, 5, et 3 syllabes, et même d’une syllabe, ont
cependant été parfois utilisés à toutes les époques littéraires. Les vers impairs de 13, 11, et 9 syllabes, il faut
les chercher dans la poésie de la fin du dix-neuvième siècle (chez Verlaine, par exemple).
Deux difficultés arrêtent et trompent parfois les débutants dans le compte des syllabes. Ces difficultés
portent sur l’e caduc et sur la diphtongue.
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L’E CADUC
Que ce soit à la fin ou dans le corps des mots, l’e caduc compte toujours comme syllabe, quand il est placé
entre deux consonnes:
• Il s’élide devant un mot commençant par une voyelle ou un h muet:
La Nature est un temple où de vivants piliers (Baudelaire, Correspondances)
• Ce vers se prononce et se compte de la maniére suivante:
La / Na /tu /r’es /tun /tem /pl’ou/ de /vi /vants/ pi /liers (Baudelaire, Correspondances)
• L’e caduc, même suivi des consonnes s, nt, ne compte pas à la fin du vers.
• Dans le corps du vers, l’e caduc, suivi des consonnes s, nt, compte cependant toujours pour une
syllabe, même devant une voyelle ou un h muet.
• Dans les troisièmes personnes des verbes en -aient, l’e étant considéré comme nul parce que les
lettres ent ne se prononcent jamais, ces mots peuvent entrer dans le corps du vers, même devant
une consonne.
LA DIÉRÈSE ET LA SYNÉRÈSE
Quand plusieurs voyelles se suivent dans un mot et forment ou non diphtongue, il est essentiel de savoir si
elles forment une ou deux syllabes, car la régularité et la diction du poème en dépend.
Exemples:
• La diérèse:
“Ayant l’expansion des choses infinies” (Baudelaire, Correspondances):
“expansion” contient 4 syllabes et doit être lu “ex / pan / si / on.”
La diérèse illustre parfaitement le sens même du mot et permet de maintenir l’alexandrin.
• La synérèse:
“La Nature est un temple où de vivants piliers” (Baudelaire, Correspondances):
“piliers” contient deux syllabes et doit être lu “pi / ljé.”
LA CÉSURE
On appelle ainsi une coupe, un repos placé dans un vers nécessairement après une syllabe accentuée. Dans
l’alexandrin ou vers de 12 syllabes, on doit, en principe, observer un repos au milieu du vers, c’est-à-dire
entre la sixième et la septième syllabe. Chaque moitié du vers se nomme hémistiche:
• La Nature est un temple
// où de vivants piliers (Baudelaire, Correspondances)
Hémistiche 1 césure Hémistiche 2
Dans ce vers comme dans presque tous les vers, le repos de la césure est faible, et n’est marqué par
aucune ponctuation, mais il n’en est pas moins sensible, grâce à l’accent qui porte sur la dernière syllabe du
mot Minos.
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About AP
Course
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Organization
Literature
L’alexandrin classique a donc deux accents fixes (sur la sixième et la douzième syllabe), mais il en a
d’autres qui sont mobiles, et qui partagent le plus souvent chaque hémistiche en deux parties.
• Exemple:
“Les parfums, / les couleurs
//
et les sons / se répondent ” (Baudelaire, Correspondances)
coupe césure coupe
D’après cela, on peut établir cette règle que tout alexandrin a quatre accents: les deux premiers fixes,
ceux de la césure et de la rime; les deux autres mobiles et tombant, selon que le veut l’harmonie, sur telle ou
telle syllabe dont ils accentueront l’effet.
L’HIATUS
L’hiatus est le choc de deux voyelles, l’une finale, l’autre initiale. Ce choc est surtout désagréable lorsqu’une
voyelle se rencontre avec elle-même.
Exemples:
• Vêtus de hoquetons et jouant de l’harmonica (Apollinaire, Les Colchiques)
• Qui cache les hameaux pauvres et vergogneux (Apollinaire, Automne)
La collision des deux voyelles (e+o et e+a) produit un son désagréable en accord avec le sujet du poème
et l’expérience décrite par le poète.
LA STROPHE
La strophe, dite aussi stance, est la division régulière d’un poème, comprenant un certain nombre de vers
soumis à un rythme déterminé. On en distingue plusieurs sortes.
• Distique: La strophe de deux vers, ou, composée de deux vers à rime plate, forme un sens complet.
• Tercet: La strophe de trois vers.
• Quatrain: La strophe de quatre vers. C’est la strophe qui admet le plus de combinaisons, et on la fait
avec des vers de toute longueur.
• Quintil: La strophe de cinq vers. C’est fait au moyen d’une rime redoublée.
• Sizain: La strophe de six vers.
• Septain: La strophe de sept vers.
• Huitain: La strophe de huit vers.
• Neuvain: La strophe de neuf vers.
• Dizain: La strophe de 10 vers. C’est la grande strophe lyrique; elle ne se fait habituellement qu’en vers
de huit syllabes.
• Onzain: La strophe de 11 vers.
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• Douzain: La strophe de 12 vers. Il ne se fait habituellement qu’en vers de huit syllabes. C’est la plus
longue strophe qui ait été employée.
Douze vers est une limite qui, dans le poème classique, n’est pas ordinairement dépassée; car au-delà,
il n’est pas aisé de constituer une période rythmique. Toutefois, on trouve chez Ronsard des strophes de 14,
15, 16, 18, 19, et 20 vers. André Chénier a employé la strophe de 19 vers.
Comme le vers, la strophe a son unité rythmique accordée avec le sens, et se contente en général de
deux ou trois mètres différents.
Une strophe est isométrique quand elle ne comporte que des vers d’un même nombre de syllabes,
anisométrique quand elle contient des vers de longueurs différentes.
L’ENJAMBEMENT ET LE REJET
L’enjambement se dit d’une phrase ou d’un segment de phrase qui continue au vers suivant sans que l’on
puisse marquer un temps d’arrêt.
Lorsque cette phrase (ou ce segment de phrase) s’achève juste au début du vers suivant, on parle
de rejet et quand elle débute à la fin du vers, on parle de contre-rejet. (www.etudes-litteraires.com/
etudier-un-poeme.php).
• Enjambement simple:
Sire, répond l’Agneau, que votre Majesté
Ne se mette pas en colère (La Fontaine, Le loup et l’agneau)
OU
Et que par conséquent, en aucune façon,
Je ne puis troubler sa boisson. (La Fontaine, Le loup et l’agneau)
Le rejet se produit lorsqu’une partie de phrase, de faible étendue (trois mots environ), est placée au
début d’un vers mais se rattache à la phrase dont l’essentiel est contenu dans le vers précédent. Voici, en
guise d’exemple les célèbres rejets de “L’aveugle” d’André Chénier:
• Exemple:
Même il m’est arrivé quelquefois de manger
Le Berger (La Fontaine, Les animaux malades de la peste)
LE SONNET
Le sonnet est d’origine italienne, et Pétrarque le mit en honneur en son pays. C’est un poème de 14 vers,
formé de deux quatrains et de deux tercets. Les huit vers des quatrains sont construits sur deux rimes, et les
deux quatrains doivent être semblables de disposition, et présenter chacun à l’intérieur deux rimes plates.
Les deux premiers vers du premier tercet riment ensemble. Le troisième vers du premier tercet rime avec le
second vers du deuxième tercet, et le premier vers du deuxième tercet rime avec le vers final.
On ne trouve pas de sonnet en France avant le seizième siècle, durant lequel Ronsard, Du Bellay, et tous
les poètes le cultivèrent avec ardeur. Le dix-septième siècle s’engoua du sonnet, mais le dix-huitième siècle
l’abandonna presque complètement. Le romantisme le remit en honneur au dix-neuvième siècle.
34
About AP
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Organization
Literature
AUTRES TERMES IMPORTANTS
• Allégorie f.—Elle consiste à représenter de façon imagée, en la matérialisant, une idée abstraite. Le
plus souvent, il y a personnification. L’emploi de la majuscule permet, en général, de l’identifier.
L’allégorie est aussi un symbole.
Ex: “Le Temps mange la vie” (Baudelaire).
Ici le temps est matérialisé par l’image d’un monstre qui dévore la vie de l’homme.
• Allitération f.—L’allitération est une répétition d’un même son consonne. L’allitération est souvent
utilisée pour produire une harmonie imitative.
• Allusion f.—Manière de s’exprimer sur une idée, une personne ou une chose, etc., sans la nommer
explicitement mais par simple évocation; suppose, de la part du lecteur, la connaissance de la
situation ou de la référence culturelle évoquée par l’écrivain.
• Analogie f.—Mise en relation de deux objets, deux phénomènes, deux situations qui appartiennent
à des domaines différents mais font penser l’un à l’autre parce que leur déroulement, leur aspect,
présentent des similitudes. Le raisonnement par analogie est la recherche d’une conclusion à partir
de cette mise en relation. La métaphore et la comparaison sont des figures de l’analogie.
• Anaphore f.—Figure de style caractérisée par la répétition d’un terme en tête d’un groupe de mots ou
d’une phrase.
Ex: Marcher à jeun, marcher vaincu, marcher malade (Hugo).
• Antithèse f.—Figure de style qui met en parallèle des mots qui désignent des réalités opposées. Elle
est souvent renforcée par un parallélisme de construction.
Ex: Certains aiment la nuit comme d’autres vénèrent le jour.
• Apostrophe f.—Figure de style qui consiste à interpeller une personne vivante ou morte, présente ou
absente, ou encore une notion abstraite. Dans l’apostrophe, on s’adresse directement à quelqu’un ou à
quelque chose. Elle peut être associée à la personnification si l’apostrophe s’adresse à une chose.
• Assonance f.—Ce mot désigne la répétition d’un même son voyelle dans un énoncé. L’assonance peut
être utilisée pour produire une harmonie imitative.
• Cacophonie f.—Association peu agréable de sons. Rencontre ou répétition de sons désagréables ou
ridicules. Assemblage confus ou discordant de voix, de sons; dissonance. Opposé à euphonie.
• Comparaison f.—Figure de style qui consiste à rapprocher un comparé et un comparant, par
l’intermédiaire d’un comparatif. Ce procédé établit un parallèle entre deux réalités.
• Euphémisme m.—Figure de style qui consiste à remplacer une expression qui risquerait de choquer,
par une expression atténuée.
Ex:“Demandeur d’emploi” est un euphémisme pour désigner un chômeur.
Le procédé inverse est l’hyperbole.
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• Euphonie f.—Harmonie sonore. Succession agréable à l’oreille des sons de la langue. La recherche de
l’euphonie est à l’origine de nombreux changements phonétiques. À opposer à cacophonie.
• Hyperbole f.—Cette figure de style consiste à amplifier une idée pour la mettre en relief. Il s’agit
d’une exagération. C’est souvent le contexte qui permet de dire s’il y a hyperbole ou non.
• Litote f.—Elle consiste à dire peu pour suggérer beaucoup. Le verbe est en général à la forme négative.
Fausse atténuation.
Ex: On fait une litote si on dit: “Ce joueur de tennis n’est pas très doué” (pour “il est
franchement nul!”).
Comme l’euphémisme, la litote peut servir l’ironie.
• Métaphore f.—Figure de style qui rapproche un comparé et un comparant, sans comparatif
(contrairement à une comparaison). Parfois, le comparé est lui aussi absent. Il ne reste plus que le
comparant. La métaphore peut dans ce cas se transformer en devinette.
• Métonymie f.—Elle remplace un terme par un autre qui est lié au premier par un rapport logique.
Exs: Le contenant pour le contenu (boire un verre).
Le symbole pour la chose (les lauriers, pour la gloire).
L’écrivain pour son œuvre (lire un Zola).
• Oxymore m.—Figure de style qui consiste à placer l’un à côté de l’autre deux mots opposés. On
trouve des cas célèbres d’emploi de ce procédé.
Ex: “Cette obscure clarté” (Corneille, Le Cid), un silence éloquent, un mort-vivant.
Ce procédé permet de créer un paradoxe, une image surprenante. Il s’agit d’ailleurs le plus
souvent d’une métaphore. On l’appelle aussi parfois “alliance de mots” ou oxymoron.
• Paronomase f.—Il s’agit d’une figure de style qui consiste à rapprocher, dans un énoncé, des
paronymes.
Ex: qui vole un œuf vole un bœuf. Œuf et bœuf sont des paronymes.
• Paronymes m.—Des paronymes sont des mots qui se ressemblent sur le plan des sonorités, mais qui
n’ont pas le même sens. Si la prononciation est exactement la même, alors on parle d’homonymes. Il
faut donc éviter de les confondre, car les paronymes ne sont pas des synonymes!
Ex: C
onjoncture (situation) et conjecture (hypothèse) sont des paronymes. De même pour boire
et voir.
• Personnification f.—Cette figure de style consiste à évoquer un objet, une idée, ou une abstraction
sous les traits d’un être humain.
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Literature
• Polyptote m.—Répétition de plusieurs termes qui ont la même racine. On utilise pour cela
la dérivation.
Ex:“Oui, je la haïssais . . . je l’ai haï . . . Roi des rois, la seule excuse de ce surnom est qu’il
justifie la haine de la haine.”
• Synecdoque f.—C’est un cas particulier de métonymie: On prend le tout pour la partie ou la partie
pour le tout.
Exs: Le tout pour la partie:
Metz a gagné la finale (pour “les joueurs de l’équipe de foot de Metz”).
La partie pour le tout:
Les voiles prennent le départ (pour “les bateaux à voiles”).
• Vers libre m.—Vers d’un poème moderne qui n’obéit plus à un mètre établi, régulier, et dont la rime
a disparu.
Activity 2: Student AP Exam Review Sheets
During the two or three weeks preceding the AP Exam, after we have completed reading all of the required
works, each student selects a different author and prepares a one-page review sheet on that writer. Each
review sheet must include the following:
• Three to five major or relevant quotes from the author’s work
• A list of major characters (for the novels and plays)
• Three to five major themes
• Three to five key vocabulary terms
I then collect each of the review sheets, check them for spelling and content (a grade can be given, if desired),
and distribute copies to all of the students. This has proven to be an effective way of reviewing all of the
works and authors before the AP Exam (especially for those works studied primarily in the first semester)
and providing the students a quick guide to crucial information. In addition, each of the students becomes
a kind of “resident expert” on one of the authors and serves as a resource to other students as they review
for the AP Exam.
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Sample Syllabus 2
Jacqueline Vest
St. John’s School
Houston, Texas
School Profile
School Location and Environment: St. John’s School is an independent, coeducational day school with
slightly more boys than girls, providing talented students with a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum
and enrichment opportunities carefully designed to prepare them for lives of leadership, service, and
personal fulfillment. It is located in the River Oaks neighborhood in Houston. St. John’s is committed to
maintaining academic excellence.
Grades: K–12
Type: Private day school
Total Enrollment: 1,200 (544 in the upper school)
Ethnic Diversity: The student body is 8.6 percent Asian American; 4.7 percent, Hispanic/Latino; 4 percent,
African American; and 3.3 percent, East Indian.
College Record: Ninety-nine percent of graduates go on to college. A significant number attend Ivy League
schools, such as Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, as well as the University of Texas at Austin.
Personal Philosophy
When students evaluate the AP French Literature course, they always mention that they found the texts
remarkably interesting. French literature is indeed very rich and beautiful, and while it is certainly helpful
to resort to creative activities to keep the interest of the students, the real excitement comes from reading
an exquisite text. Our students have become very dependent on visual images, but they must be reminded
that the text can yield pleasure, especially if we know how to “open it” with a good explication. Moreover,
although literature is an image of life, life is also an image of literature. Literature affects us so profoundly
that it transforms our lives. It is for this reason that I find teaching to be such a rewarding enterprise.
Class Profile
Students are required to take three or more years of one language (Spanish, French, Latin, or Chinese) and
can enroll in five subsequent levels for each language, usually beginning with level 2 in high school. Since
2005-06, we have been teaching AP French Literature in one year instead of two; the one section offered
meets every day for 45 minutes, and the average class size is 16 juniors and seniors. Students take French 3
or AP French Language before taking AP French Literature.
Course Overview
In addition to covering all the works on the required reading list for AP French Literature, I also make
sure that the class spends some time on grammar, for two reasons: First, it helps all students to improve
their French writing skills. Second, a significant number of gifted students take AP French Literature
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About AP
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French
Organization
Literature
immediately following French 3, and they want to take both the AP French Language and French Literature
Exams in the same year, although they are not enrolled in the AP French Language course as well.
Grammar (first semester): Students are asked to review irregular verbs in all tenses and usage of tenses
with the six major points of difference between French and English: (1) imparfait/passé composé; (2)
tenses used with prepositions of time such as depuis, pendant, and so forth; (3) usage of the future tense
after certain conjunctions; (4) tenses in si clauses; (5) infinitive after prepositions, except en and après;
(6) subjunctive. They do exercises on usage of tenses from the corresponding section in the AP French
Language Exam. I stress the ability to use tenses correctly orally and in writing.
Grammar (second semester): We review adjectives, adverbs, pronouns (personal, interrogative, possessive,
demonstrative, and relative), and constructions with prepositions. Students do exercises on grammar from
the corresponding sections in the AP French Language Exam.
Texts
Carlut, Charles, and Walter Meiden. French for Oral and Written Review. Fort Worth, Tex.: Holt, Rinehart
and Winston/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1993.
Giraudoux, Jean. La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu. Paris: Petits Classiques Larousse, 1998.
Hurtgen, André O., ed. Tous les poèmes pour le cours avancé. 4th ed. Glenview, Ill.: Scott Foresman/Addison
Wesley, 1998. Currently available from Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Laye, Camara. L’enfant noir. Paris: Presse Pocket, 2001.
Maupassant, Guy de. Pierre et Jean. Paris: Petits Classiques Larousse, 2000.
Molière. L’école des femmes. Paris: Petits Classiques Larousse, 1998.
Voltaire. Candide. Paris: Petits Classiques Larousse, 1998.
Course Planner
First Semester
First Quarter
L’enfant noir, Camara Laye (summer reading)
Pierre et Jean, Guy de Maupassant
Week 1: Introduction to the course: oral discussion to define literature and determine how to best analyze a
text and not paraphrase it
Week 2: Camara Laye: L’enfant noir, chapters 1–5—discussion of the summer reading
Week 3: Camara Laye: L’enfant noir, chapter 6—oral presentations: chapters 7–9
Week 4: Camara Laye: L’enfant noir, oral presentations: chapters 10–12 and conclusion
Week 5: Maupassant: Pierre et Jean, chapters 1–2
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Chapter 3
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Week 6: Maupassant: Pierre et Jean, chapters 3–4
Week 7: Maupassant: Pierre et Jean, chapters 5–6
Week 8: Maupassant: Pierre et Jean, chapters 7–8
Week 9: Maupassant: Pierre et Jean, chapter 9—the novel in the nineteenth century
Second Quarter
Selections from Fables, Jean de La Fontaine
L’école des femmes, Molière
Week 10: The seventeenth century—Jean de La Fontaine and the fable: “Les animaux malades de la peste,”
“Le chêne et le roseau,” “La mort et le bûcheron,” “Le loup et l’agneau”
Week 11: Molière: L’école des femmes, act 1
Week 12: Molière: L’école des femmes, act 2, l’education des femmes, le mariage, et l’amour au XVII siècle
Week 13: Molière: L’école des femmes, act 3
Week 14: Molière: L’école des femmes, act 4
Week 15: Molière: L’école des femmes, act 5
Midterm Exam
Second Semester
Third Quarter
Candide, Voltaire
Poetry of Joachim Du Bellay and Louise Labé in the context of the sixteenth century
La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu, Jean Giraudoux (first act)
Week 16: The Renaissance and the poets of the pléiade—French versification—Joachim Du Bellay: “France,
mère des arts, des armes, et des lois,” “Heureux qui comme Ulysse a fait un beau voyage,” “Si notre vie est
moins qu’une journée,” “Ces cheveux d’or sont les liens, Madame”
Week 17: Louise Labé: “On voit mourir toute chose animée,” “Je vis, je meurs; je me brûle et me noye,” “Oh
si j’étais en ce beau sein ravie,” “Las! que me sert, que si parfaitement”
Week 18: Candide, chapters 1–6—Voltaire et “ Le siècle des lumières”
Week 19: Candide, chapters 7–12
Week 20: Candide, chapters 13–18
Week 21: Candide, chapters 19–24
40
About AP
Course
French
Organization
Literature
Week 22: Candide, chapters 25–30
Week 23: Charles Baudelaire: “Correspondances,” “Hymne à la beauté,” “L’invitation au voyage” (from Les
fleurs du mal)—le symbolisme
Week 24: Baudelaire: “Chant d’automne,” “Spleen” (“Quand le ciel . . .”), “Recueillement” (from Les fleurs
du mal)
Week 25: Jean Giraudoux: La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu, act 1, scenes 1–8
Week 26: Jean Giraudoux : La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu, act 1, scenes 9–10; act 2, scenes 1–6.
Fourth Quarter
La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu, Jean Giraudoux (to the end)
Selected poems, Les fleurs du mal, Charles Baudelaire
Selected poems of Guillaume Apollinaire and Anne Hébert
Week 27: Jean Giraudoux: La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu, act 2, scenes 7–14
Week 28: Guillaume Apollinaire: “Le Pont Mirabeau,” “Les Colchiques,” “Mai,” “Automne”
Week 29: Anne Hébert: “Baigneuse,” “Une fois seulement,” “Nos mains au jardin”
Week 30: Hébert: “Les grandes fontaines,” “Le piano,” and review
Teaching Strategies
Textual analysis begins with a good reading of the passage aloud, then working with questions in class and
later at home. Occasionally students work in groups and report their findings to the class. Graded writing
assignments range from paragraphs to more structured explications de texte with a few guiding questions.
Sometimes after analysis and class discussion, to recapitulate in a very few minutes, we go around the room,
and each student states what he or she has found most remarkable in the poem or the prose passage that
we discussed that day. It does put the students on the spot but builds their confidence; it is remarkable that
they are able to come up with good comments in an instant. And usually, each one has something different
to say.
Oral Explication de Texte
After the class has studied together two or three chapters of Candide, for example, each student gives an
oral analysis of a chapter. First they must write on the board three characteristics that they have chosen to
develop in order to present the chapter. To help students organize their analysis, they can look at a list that
I have prepared of such characteristics (see the Student Activities section on page 46 for a copy of this
material). This prevents relying on paraphrasing. Other such lists can be generated with different scoring
guidelines best related to the particular literary work being analyzed.
Of course, the presentation must be convincing in drawing examples from the text and have a very
short introduction and conclusion, which are often used to replace the chapter in the conte philosophique;
it is followed by clarification of any points that were unclear, questions, and discussion. It is a good idea to
ask the presenters, before they conclude, if there is anything else that has caught their attention and then
help to fit it into the analysis.
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Chapter 3
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Learning to Read and Enriching Students’ Vocabulary
Summer Reading
One summer, students were asked to read L’enfant noir, using the invaluable resources of the Web site
prepared by Christine Renaudin and Suzanne Toczyski at Sonoma State University (see Teacher Resources
on page 45). Upon their return to school, we engaged first in interactive discussions about francophone
literature and then moved on to plot, themes, characters, and some passages of the novel.
I invited an African graduate student to class, and students had the opportunity to ask prepared
questions before they wrote on the following topic:
La mémoire est une reconstruction. Dans L’enfant noir, Camara Laye présente ses souvenirs comme un
témoignage de ce qu’il a vu par ses yeux d’enfant mais où se surimpose son raisonnement d’adulte. Il
s’agit aussi d’un adulte qui a pris du recul par rapport à sa culture puisqu’il a quitté son pays.
Dans un devoir bien organisé, montrez, d’abord, comment les trois épisodes du génie de la race,
de l’or, et du totem de la mère sont présentés en ce qui concerne le surnaturel. Ensuite, indiquez ce
que cette présentation nous amène à en déduire nous-mêmes, après avoir considéré les croyances de
l’enfant et de l’adulte à ce sujet.
Reading Pierre et Jean
As the students are reluctant to use a French-French dictionary, because the definitions often contain words
they do not understand, I prepare for each assignment a list of words (about 15 to 20) that could present
problems when reading. I e-mail it to a student who has volunteered to give simple definitions of the words
in French after consulting the Petit Robert. The completed assignment is then sent back to me for review
and correction. I make copies to distribute to the class, so that everyone can refer to it while reading the
chapter assigned. Each student takes turns writing the definitions once and thus begins to use a FrenchFrench dictionary. Occasionally a vocabulary quiz requires a review of the definitions. Ten words are then
quoted in the context of the novel, and students are asked to substitute a synonym in the sentence, making
all necessary changes in the syntax.
Reading Poetry
When reading poetry, students must understand all the words in their context, and they are urged to ask
questions about meanings if some are unclear. They come to see that the placement of words in the verse is
crucial. The emphasis is given usually to a word at the beginning or the end of a verse. But in Louise Labé’s
Sonnet 8, “Je vis, je meurs; je me brûle et me noye,” the key word—inconstamment—is at the very center of
the poem. Once the students have agreed that this is indeed the key word, the poem is easily explained. The
lover is “inconstant,” unfaithful; he often leaves but only to return, and this provokes the intense sufferings
and great joys of the poet. And it is only after a rigorous reading and a thorough understanding of the
vocabulary that the tone can be ascertained in Sonnet 23, “Las! que me sert que si parfaitement.” It is one of
disappointment, dismay, resentment, and revenge mixed with passion.
When reading Apollinaire, students will find it helpful to remember that when the poet can no longer
sustain the resurrected intensity of his emotions, he looks elsewhere. This explains the “ruptures,” the
breaks—from the eyes of his beloved to the children coming out of school in “Les colchiques,” or again,
from the fallen petals of fruit trees resembling the eyelids or the nails of “[celle] qu’il a tant aimée” to the
caravan of the gypsies in “Mai.”
42
About AP
Course
French
Organization
Literature
Reading Plays
L’école des femmes is sometimes difficult for my students to read, but they are sure to enjoy it anyway. The
meaning is revealed in the explications of the scenes. As for the monologues, there is everything to gain by
looking at their structure and by requiring a bit of paraphrasing, if necessary.
La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu can present another form of difficulty. The vocabulary is not
particularly complex, but the students cannot always see clearly the four arguments Priam advances in
favor of the war and the refutations of those arguments by Andromaque (act 1, scene 6). As for the discours
aux morts, delivered by Hector, it impresses them, especially when they see a recording of a televised
performance, but correctly understanding it is another matter. The misinterpretations I have found in
students’ written analyses prompted me to prepare the following handout to help them comprehend the
traditional rhetorical expectations for such a speech and how Hector’s address departs from this standard.
Le discours aux morts prononcé par Hector
1. Hector refuse de faire un discours aux morts disant que c’est “un plaidoyer hypocrite pour les vivants,
une demande d’acquittement.” Les vivants veulent entendre dire qu’ils ont bien fait de faire la guerre,
qu’ils ne sont pas coupables de l’avoir faite (acquitter quelqu’un: le déclarer innocent).
a.Les paroles d’Hector aux mourants montraient de la générosité de sa part. Il voulait les soutenir et
leur permettre de se sentir encore en vie. Il ne voulait pas les plaindre ni leur montrer sa douleur en
les voyant blessés.
b.Démokos pense qu’Hector insulte les morts, mais il comprend vite que c’est aux vivants qu’il
s’adresse en leur montrant la perte terrible que représente la perte de la vie. En parlant de ce que
les morts ne peuvent plus faire (voir le soleil, manger, boire, faire l’amour), il dit les faits tels qu’ils
sont: “Nous couchons avec nos femmes . . . Avec les vôtres aussi . . .” Dans le discours traditionnel
on s’adresserait aux morts pour dire qu’ils vivraient toujours dans le souvenir des vivants.
2. Hector n’insulte pas les morts, mais son discours ne sera pas un réquisitoire pour la guerre. Le discours
a des périodes oratoires (“Vous qui . . . qui . . . , écoutez . . . , voyez . . .”) comme dans les discours
traditionnels, mais les paradoxes sont là pour choquer les vivants et leur montrer que ce genre de
discours est toujours pour les vivants uniquement. Il se moque donc des discours aux morts. Ensuite il
emploie aussi un style très familier: “ça vous est égal, n’est-ce pas?” pour s’écarter du style oratoire.
Réquisitoire contre la guerre et hymne à la vie
Il montre aussi combien il a pitié de ceux qui sont morts à la guerre; le grand avantage des survivants, leur
privilège, c’est la vie. Lorsqu’il dit qu’il considère la vie, la chaleur, le soleil comme un vol de la part des
survivants, il pense sans doute à la guerre. C’est la guerre qui a pris ce bien ultime: la vie.
On dit que ceux qui sont morts à la guerre sont tous des héros. Hector réfute cet argument. Mourir à la
guerre, c’est mourir, qu’on ait été brave ou lâche.
Il souhaite la paix aux morts, en disant qu’il espère qu’ils ne souffrent plus, là où ils sont. La souffrance
pour eux serait de désirer vivre, de languir pour la chaleur et le soleil.
En mettant l’emphase sur les mots chaleur et ciel (grâce à l’inversion), Giraudoux renforce encore son
hymne à la vie.
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Chapter 3
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Creative Work in French
In French schools, students write reconstitution de textes for many years. I have used this method to
encourage creativity with American students. Even in French 2, for example, students have managed to
write coherent stories in poems titled “Le départ” and modeled in form on Jacques Prévert’s “Déjeuner du
matin.” They were to use as many intransitive verbs of motion as possible. It is noteworthy that the best
poems did not usually come from the most outstanding students. When I made transparencies of some of
the best efforts and projected them on an overhead, the student authors were quite pleased. It is not a small
feat to be a recognized author in another language!
You could also have them write on this pattern:
Heureux qui, comme (nom) (verbe) (complément)
Ou comme celui-là qui (verbe) (complément)
Et puis (verbe) (adj.) de (nom) et de (nom)
(Infinitif) (prép.) (nom) (complément circonstanciel de temps)
Parts of Baudelaire’s poems lend themselves quite well to this kind of exercise. And of course, the
calligrammes of Apollinaire can be a source for creativity.
Student Evaluation
The grading scale is based on 100 (no letter grades), with 60 as a passing grade. Students are largely assessed
on formal written essays and explications de texte on selected passages (175–200 words). I mark these with
coded abbreviations. Before returning written work, I present a brief summary of mistakes most often
found and to be avoided next time. Because they have skipped lines, students can write their corrections in
class just above the underlined errors that have been identified. Thus they can become aware of recurring
mistakes in agreement, endings of verbs, tenses, or particular grammatical structures. For content, they
rewrite paragraphs at home, if necessary, once they have taken note of helpful vocabulary expressions.
Occasional quizzes are also given, with two-thirds of the questions devoted to the texts studied and
one-third to grammar exercises. Oral presentations assess the students’ ability to speak for 5 to 10 minutes
on a particular subject. Occasional lab sessions for listening comprehension and speaking, memorization of
poems, and oral participation are graded also. The breakdown for each quarter’s grade is as follows:
Written work (essays and explications):40 percent
Oral work: 40 percent
Quizzes: 20 percent
The midterm exam is a three-hour test consisting of questions similar to those found on the AP French
Literature Exam, as well as short grammatical exercises on the usage of tenses similar to those found on the
AP French Language Exam. The midterm exam is then averaged with the first two quarters’ grades, each
counting one-third, to compute the first-semester grade. There is no final exam; third- and fourth-quarter
grades are averaged together to produce the second-semester grade.
44
About AP
Course
French
Organization
Literature
Teacher Resources
Books
Benamou, Michel. Pour une nouvelle pédagogie du texte littéraire. Paris: Hachette-Larousse, 1971.
Carlier, Christophe. “Pierre et Jean”: Guy de Maupassant. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 1999.
Curial, Hubert. “Fables,” livres VII à XII: La Fontaine. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 1993.
Dubosclard, Joel, and Marie Carlier. “Les fleurs du mal”; “Le spleen de Paris”: 20 poèmes expliqués. Profil
d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 2002.
Dumeste, Marie-Hélène. “Candide”: Voltaire. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 2003.
Frois, Étienne, and Adeline Lesot. “La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu” de Jean Giraudoux. Profil d’une Œuvre.
Paris: Hatier, 1998.
Goldenstein, Jean-Pierre. Pour lire le roman. 6th ed. Brussels: De Boeck, 2002.
Harmon, Philippe, and Denis Roger-Vasselim, eds. Le Robert des grands écrivains de langue française. Paris:
Dictionnaire le Robert, 2000.
Hurtgen, André O. Tous les poèmes pour le course avancé, 4th ed. Glenview, Ill.: Scott Foresman/Addison
Wesley, 1998. Available from Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Jaffré, Jean. Le vers et le poème, du vers au poème: Évolution des formes et du langage. Paris: Nathan, 1984.
Lagarde, André, and Laurent Michard. Les grands auteurs français du programme. 6 vols. Paris: Bordas, 1985.
Morhange-Bégué, Claude, and Pierre Lartigue. “Alcools”: Guillaume Apollinaire. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris:
Hatier, 2000.
Mougenot, Michel. “Pierre et Jean”: Maupassant. Parcours de Lecture. Paris: Bertrand-Lacoste, 1992.
Peyre, Henri. Connaissance de Baudelaire. Paris: Corti, 1951.
Tichit, Michel. Apollinaire, “Alcools”: 40 questions, 40 réponses, 4 études. Paris: Ellipses, 2000.
Film
Jean Giraudoux: “La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu.” 1981. Directed by Raymond Rouleau. Distributed by
Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1991. 110 minutes. Order from Films Media Group, PO Box 2053
Princeton, NJ 08540; 800 257-5126; www.films.com.
Web Sites
Fnac. French Web site for books and videos.
www.fnac.com.
Renaudin, Christine, and Suzanne Toczyski. En Préparation à l’Examen AP:
L’enfant noir de Camara Laye. Sonoma State University.
www.sonoma.edu/users/t/toczyski/camaralaye/clayeresume.html.
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Chapter 3
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Student Activities
Handout: Preparation for Oral Presentations of Chapters from Candide
Caractéristiques à considerer pour l’analyse de Candide
Le récit: Rapidité, alternance de rythmes, parallélismes, contrastes, retour en arrière
Le point de vue: Omniscient, focalisation externe (témoin extérieur, pas un héros), focalisation interne
(un héros)
La composition: Structure du chapitre
Le comique: De mots, de situation, de caractère (Pangloss), de répétition, et aussi:
• La distanciation par rapport au réel: Naïveté de Candide qui juge Pangloss “le plus grand philosophe
de la province, et par conséquent de toute la terre”
• L’humour noir: On décrit des atrocités comme si elles étaient banales
• Le procédé de “l’étranger”
• L’ironie
• L’auteur dit le contraire de ce qu’il pense: “un bel autodafé”
• L’antithèse ou l’antiphrase comme: “Les Padres y ont tout, et les peuples rien; c’est le chef d’œuvre
de la raison et de la justice”
• L’hyperbole qui augmente ou diminue excessivement la vérité pour produire plus d’impression
(voir ci-dessus “le chef d’œuvre”)
• Le jeu sur les causalités: Si Colomb n’avait pas attrapé la vérole on n’aurait ni le chocolat ni la
cochenille
• L’effet obtenu n’est pas celui qu’on espérait: Autodafé puis tremblement de terre
• La parodie: Des romans d’amour (scènes de retrouvailles), des romans d’aventures, des romans
picaresques
• Le contraste ou la surprise (une liste où le dernier mot ne va pas avec les autres)
• Le burlesque: La fesse coupée de la vieille
La critique: Des fanatismes, de l’intolérance, des inégalités sociales, de la justice, etc.
Les thèmes du roman philosophique: Le voyage, l’interrogation sur le monde (l’optimisme ou le
pessimisme), la quête de l’amour et du bonheur
Le roman d’apprentissage: Évolution du héros
Les personnages: Stylisés, êtres de chair ou marionnettes
L’exotisme: La couleur locale
46
About AP
Course
French
Organization
Literature
Sample Syllabus 3
Gloria Van Dam
Chapel Hill High School
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
School Profile
School Location and Environment: Chapel Hill High School is situated in a highly educated community,
with the University of North Carolina, Duke University, Research Triangle Park, and several major
hospitals a part of its environment. The school is noted for excellence in the performing arts and for the
high academic achievement of its students. Chapel Hill High is part of the top-performing school district
in the southeastern United States, based on SAT® scores, student participation in AP courses, and similar
measurements.
Grades: 9–12
Type: Public high school
Total Enrollment: Approximately 1,600
Ethnic Diversity: African American, 13 percent; Hispanic/Latino, 7 percent; and Asian American,
6 percent.
College Record: Each year, approximately 85 percent of graduates go on to either four-year universities or
community colleges.
Personal Philosophy
I have a deep love of French literature, and my passion for these works is the reason that I became an
educator. I manage to incorporate some literary pieces in all of my courses, including French 1. Teaching
the AP French Literature course enables me to share my enthusiasm with students by giving them an
in-depth understanding and appreciation for the subject. Devoting an entire year of study to a group of
evocative French masterpieces is sufficient to have a lasting effect on students. At least this has been the
case for a number of my former pupils, who have told me that even after graduation from college in fields
as far removed from French literature as medicine, they continue to enjoy reading French novels, plays,
and poetry.
Class Profile
Only one section of AP French Literature is offered each year. The number of students in the class has been
as high as 23 or as low as 3, but the typical enrollment is about 10 to 12. We meet for about 55 minutes
each day. In nearly all cases students have completed French 4 before taking AP French Literature. In rare
instances they have done so through independent study. Others have already successfully completed AP
French Language. Some students may have lived for a time in a francophone country. There has never been
any difficulty in accommodating students of varying backgrounds and levels of preparation.
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Chapter 3
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Course Overview
The course objectives are identical to those published in the AP French Literature Course Description: “To
gain proficiency in the fundamental language skills that enable [students] to read and understand prose and
verse of moderate difficulty and mature content; [to] formulate and express critical opinions and judgments
in correct oral and written French; [and] to develop the ability to read and analyze critically and to discuss
perceptively representative works of French literature” [see page 25 in the 2008, 2009 Course Description].
Although each student has a textbook (for some of the poetry and plays), for many of the works we
almost always use an edition with critical notes, such as Hachette or Larousse. The course is conducted
entirely in French, and all student writing is in French as well. The focus is always on the text. Nearly every
class consists of discussion, questions, and analysis of the work currently being studied. Sometimes students
give oral presentations on characters or themes, but by far the most significant portion of their evaluation
is based on their writing of essays and textual analyses. In other words, from the very beginning of the
course, they are required to write exactly as they will be required to write on the AP Exam in May. Some
essays and analyses are done at home; others are completed in class within the time constraints of the 55minute period and always without the use of dictionaries. Students are encouraged and sometimes required
to revise their work, correcting grammatical and lexical errors. The vocabulary of literary analysis, figures
of style, and vocabulary in general are consistently emphasized, and students are quizzed and reminded
frequently of the importance of fine-tuning the tools of expression.
Texts
Balzac, Honoré de. Le Père Goriot. Paris: Livre de Poche, 1972.
Camus, Albert. La peste. Paris: Gallimard, 1972.
Giraudoux, Jean. La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu. Paris: Petits Classiques Larousse, 1998.
Greuel, David, ed. Anthology of Advanced Placement French Literature for the 2004 Exam. Sandwich, Mass.:
Wayside Publishing, 2004. (I use this for L’école des femmes.)
Hurtgen, André O., ed. Tous les poèmes pour le cours avancé. 4th ed. Glenview, Ill.: Scott Foresman/Addison
Wesley, 1998. Currently available from Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Labé, Louise. Louise Labé: Œuvres complètes. Edited by François Rigolot. Paris: Garnier-Flammarion, 1986.
Laye, Camara. L’enfant noir. Paris: Plon, 2006.
Maupassant, Guy de. Pierre et Jean. Paris: Livre de Poche, 1984.
Voltaire. Candide. Paris: Classiques Hachette, 1991.
Course Planner
Our academic year begins in late August and runs through early June. We have four nine-week quarters
divided into two semesters.
48
About AP
Course
French
Organization
Literature
Unit 1. Introduction to Poetry and Textual Analysis: Poetry of the Renaissance
(4 weeks)
Topics: Identification of rhetorical figures and how they are used in poetry; rules of French versification
and the basic vocabulary of literary analysis; historical context in which the poems were written, including
themes and ideas of the Renaissance such as humanism, Platonism, and epicureanism.
Reading: All the poems of Joachim Du Bellay and Louise Labé on the AP French Literature
required reading list, plus some by Pierre de Ronsard.
Classroom activities: Class discussion of the poems, based on textual evidence; oral explications de texte;
recitation of a poem by Ronsard, Du Bellay, or Labé, with appropriate expression and pronunciation.
Assignments: Partnership preparation for poetry discussion; write questions on individual poems as
homework or in-class assignment; write an out-of-class (with dictionary) and an in-class (without
dictionary) textual analysis; keep a journal of all assignments, including at least three new vocabulary
words with definitions, a quotation from the text, a passage (for plays and novels only), and comment(s) on
the reading.
Unit 2. Seventeenth-Century Theater: Molière (3 weeks)
Topics: Historical context, including the précieuses, arranged marriages, and the position of women in the
seventeenth century; rules and vocabulary of French classical theater.
Reading: Molière, L’école des femmes.
Classroom Activities: Class and partner discussions of relevant details, plot, characters, and themes of the
play; enactment of selected scenes from the play; watch video or selected scenes from the play.
Assignments: Textual analyses of selected passages from the play; essays based on themes, character
evolution, and so forth; journal as explained in unit 1 (including passages chosen for each reading).
Unit 3. Jean de La Fontaine (2 weeks)
Topics: Appreciation of La Fontaine’s unique style.
Reading: A number of poems by Jean de la Fontaine, including all those on the required list.
Classroom Activities: Class discussion and partner activities; oral explications de texte of individual
poems; puppet show, presentation with costumes and props, or artistic illustration of a fable; audiotapes of
selected fables.
Assignments: Textual analyses of selected poems, written at home and in class; memorize a poem to present
to the class, either individually or with a partner, or present a dramatic reading of a poem; journal entries
(see unit 1).
[END OF FIRST QUARTER]
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Chapter 3
1
Unit 4. Candide (4 weeks)
Topics: Historical context of eighteenth-century France, the Enlightenment, and philosophical notions
such as optimism; basic understanding of the life of Voltaire; understanding and appreciation of Voltaire’s
critique of numerous social institutions. Through the vehicle of the roman d’apprentissage, students will
deal with the question of human happiness and if/how it can be achieved.
Reading: Voltaire, Candide.
Classroom Activities: Class and partner discussions on Voltaire’s ideas and style; student presentations
of chapters, which include reading and commentary on important passages, creative ways to get the class
involved in chapter discussion, analysis of important chapter themes, and questions pertinent to the
chapter for the entire class to contemplate and discuss; game modeled on the Jeopardy! TV show, based on
information in the reading assignment (categories such as vocabulary, quotations, themes, literary devices,
and characters). (Students may prepare this game as part of their presentation.)
Assignments: Textual analyses of important passages from the work; essays on important themes and ideas;
vocabulary quizzes and test; journal entries (see unit 1). Students may also write an original chapter (two
pages, double-spaced) to add to Candide (“Candide moderne”) and then give a summary of their chapter
orally in class.
Unit 5. Baudelaire (3 weeks)
Topics: Appreciation for nineteenth-century poetry and poets who preceded Baudelaire, such as Hugo and
Lamartine; essential elements of Baudelaire’s life that influenced his poetry; review of poetic devices and
French versification within the context of the poems.
Reading: A number of poems by Charles Baudelaire, including all those on the reading list.
Classroom Activities: Class and partner discussions of poems; audiotapes of the poems studied;
student recitations of individual poems; artistic illustrations (painting, poster, etc.) of poem(s) from Les
fleurs du mal.
Assignments: Textual analyses of individual poems; essay based on a theme found in Baudelaire’s poetry;
short-answer homework questions; journal entries (see unit 1).
[MIDTERM EXAMS (1 week)]
[WINTER BREAK (1 week)]
[END OF SECOND QUARTER/FIRST SEMESTER]
Unit 6. Pierre et Jean (4 weeks)
Topics: Complexities and subtleties of Maupassant’s prose; identification and discussion of various narrative
styles and techniques, such as style indirect libre, the monologue intérieur, point of view, and focalisation;
Maupassant’s unique brand of naturalism, parallel to impressionism (the significant detail), as reflected in
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About AP
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Organization
Literature
this work; evolution of character and themes and use of setting and symbolism; the internal debate of Pierre
and the deeper levels of psychological meaning; implicit critique of nineteenth-century bourgeois society.
Reading: Guy de Maupassant, Pierre et Jean.
Classroom Activities: Class and small-group discussion of text; optional reading of a short story by
Maupassant; optional reading of the preface to Pierre et Jean.
Assignments: Textual analyses, in and out of class; essay on character analysis or important theme from the
novel; journal entries (see unit 1).
Unit 7. La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu (3 weeks)
Topics: Greek mythology relevant to the play and the modern use of myth; historical background on World
War I and the period leading up to World War II; Giraudoux’s life and career as a diplomat; elements of
comedy and tragedy and the use of satire.
Reading: Jean Giraudoux, La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu.
Classroom Activities: Find pertinent, meaningful quotations to share with the class by means of a picture,
poster, or song; play a game such as Jeopardy! (see unit 4); present a condensed dramatization of key scenes
from the play with props and costumes (if time allows): divide the class in half, and one group presents act 1
and the other group, act 2. Videotape the actual presentation.
Assignments: Textual analysis of important passage(s); essay on important theme, idea, or character; journal
entries (see unit 1).
Unit 8. Guillaume Apollinaire and Anne Hérbert (2 weeks)
Topics: Biographical information on these two poets and their milieus.
Reading: All of the required poems and perhaps a few additional works by these poets.
Classroom Activities: After looking at examples by Apollinaire, students make calligrammes (poems in
which the placement of the words forms a design directly related to the content of the poem), either as
original verses or based on a poem they have selected; “brainstorming” activity on poems by Hébert:
students generate several different impressions of a poem with a partner and then share ideas with the class.
I make a list of all ideas.
Assignments: In-class textual analyses of individual poems; journal entries (see unit 1).
[END OF THIRD QUARTER]
[SPRING BREAK: 1 WEEK]
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Unit 9. L’enfant noir (3 weeks)
Topics: Background and context for the transition between the colonial period and modern Africa, as well
as various elements of African culture, religion, and way of life.
Reading: Camara Laye, L’enfant noir. Students may also read other examples of francophone authors
such as Aimé Césaire, Léon-Gontran Damas, and Léopold Senghor (poems and short texts).
Classroom Activities: Student presentations of chapters (see unit 4 for guidelines); students create class
discussion questions drawn from the novel that relate to their own lives.
Assignments: Textual analysis and/or essay on important theme(s), written in class or at home; journal
entries (see unit 1).
Unit 10. Review and Final Project (4 weeks)
Topics: Final review before the AP Exam.
Classroom Activities: Students complete a final project to be presented the last few days of class (see Student
Activities on page 56). They may also recite a final poem of their choice, approved by me.
[FINAL EXAMS: 1 week (most seniors are exempt)]
[END OF FOURTH QUARTER]
Teaching Strategies
We read the works in historical sequence. I find that this strategy works well even though Du Bellay
and Labé can be somewhat difficult. Students at least begin to think in terms of a historical and cultural
context, which is useful, especially when dealing with themes such as love. We always read several poems by
Ronsard along with Du Bellay and Labé.
My primary strategy is to develop critical thinking among students by careful questioning and by
always insisting that they justify their opinions by citing specific references to the text. I model this attitude
in class. I try to be accepting of any student opinion, however far-fetched it may initially appear to be,
provided that it has some basis in the text. I find that students need some training in order to form the
habit of consistently explaining points of view with precise examples and in-depth analysis, but once they
understand the expectation, they will automatically provide substantive argumentation. So my role as a
teacher is often to “play dumb” or to insist that I do not understand and that the student must explain to
me more fully or provide “proof.”
My class is never in lecture format, but this is not because I disdain lectures. It is simply because I
prefer to present historical background or biographical data in 10-minute segments and to incorporate such
references as needed to aid in comprehension of the text. For example, I tell students that Jean Giraudoux
had a lifelong career as a diplomat, but I only emphasize this when we analyze the key conversation between
Ulysse and Hector in act 2 of La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu. It is during this scene that there are clear
references to the futile attempts to avert war that occurred during the 1930s, negotiations of which the
author had exclusive and intimate knowledge. Despite my own fascination with history and biography,
I see no need to present the students with a lot of these facts. Moreover, placing too much emphasis
on biographical or historical data can result in students’ needlessly wasting time during the AP Exam
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Literature
displaying their command of such information. Although La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu is not very long,
it demands a great deal of close reading. In addition to the usual essay questions and textual analysis, a
useful tool not only for teaching but also for evaluating is to use student presentations for this play. Because
the characters are divided into two camps, the bellicistes and the pacifistes, and because they all have some
relationship to the main themes of war and fate, students enjoy following one of the characters or imagining
that they are that character.
For the sake of variety and because students enjoy working together, I provide some opportunities for
group or pair presentations. In addition to the benefits of variation and collaboration, students develop their
oral skills and gain poise and confidence in speaking French before a group.
After the AP Exam is over, the whole class participates in the “century project,” described below in
the Student Activities section. There are many other options for constructively using the time between the
AP Exam and the end of the school year. In the past we have read works that were too long to be included
during the time allotted for finishing the required reading list. Balzac’s Le Père Goriot is a good example
of a novel that is not only of intrinsic literary merit but also interesting from a historical perspective. I
have also sometimes taught Camus’s La peste during this time slot. We often watch a few movies that are
representative of the greatness of French cinema, such as films by François Truffaut, Alain Resnais, or
Claude Chabrol. The AP French Literature class occasionally makes a dramatic presentation at the annual
initiation ceremony for the Société Honoraire de Français. For example, in 2005, students performed scenes
from Molière’s L’école de femmes. If you have a class of uninhibited students, as mine usually are, a dramatic
monologue can be used as a year-end activity. Students select a character from one of the works studied.
Each dresses as his or her chosen personage and delivers a monologue that reveals the character’s deepest
thoughts and may include an imaginary sequel—for example, Agnès and her life after marrying Horace.
Student Evaluation
In our school, students receive letter grades (A, B, C, D, F) four times a year after each nine-week quarter,
but only the semester grade is recorded on the transcript, and a student receives credit for the course based
on success in each semester (each being worth half a credit). I calculate the students’ quarterly grades for
AP French Literature using the following percentages:
• Quizzes: 10 percent
• Class participation, homework, journal entries: 15 percent
• Major written assignments, tests, essays, and textual analyses: 75 percent
Semester exams are a minimum of three hours in length. The first-semester exam is of a high level of
difficulty, including at least one long essay, one textual analysis, and a number of excerpts for sight reading
followed by multiple-choice questions. In other words, it is very similar to an actual AP Exam. Before
taking the midterm, students have had experience answering multiple-choice questions from AP French
Literature Released Exams.
The semester grade for world languages is figured as follows: 20 percent for the midterm or final exam
and 80 percent for the two quarterly averages. Although final exams are mandatory in all courses, seniors
with a C average are exempt from taking them (except for state-mandated end-of-course exams). The
practical result is that I have not been giving a final exam, not only because all AP students are required by
school board policy to take the AP Exam, but because both my juniors and seniors have always maintained
a C or better average. The second-semester grade is therefore based 100 percent on the third- and fourthquarter grades.
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The following are the numerical equivalents for our grades:
A= 93–100
B = 85–92
C = 78–84
D= 70–77
F = 69 and below
Teacher Resources
Books
Amon, Évelyne, and Yves Bomati. Vocabulaire du commentaire de texte: 400 mots-clés pour l’étude du style.
Les Petits Pratiques du Français. Paris: Larousse, 2006.
Appelbaum, Stanley, ed. Invitation to French Poetry. New York: Dover, 1991. (Recording of poems included.)
Astre, Marie-Louise, and Françoise Colmez, eds. Poésie française: Anthologie critique; Formes poétiques du
Moyen Âge et de la Renaissance, du romantisme à la poésie contemporaine. Paris: Bordas, 1982.
Blume, Eli. Le cours supérieur de français. New York: Amsco School Publications, 1970. (Grammar and
vocabulary review.)
Dufau, Micheline, and Ellen D’Alelio. Découverte du poème: Introduction à l’explication de textes. New York:
Harcourt, Brace and World, 1967.
Harris, Rodney E., Norman R. Shapiro, and Micheline Fort Harris, eds. Palabres: Contes et poèmes de
l’Afrique noire et des Antilles. Glenview, Ill.: Scott Foresman, 1973.
Lagarde, André, and Laurent Michard. Les grands auteurs français du programme. 6 vols. Paris: Bordas, 1985.
Mermier, Guy, and Yvette Boilly-Widmer. Explication de texte: Théorie et pratique. Lewiston, N.Y.:
E. Mellen Press, 1993.
White, Renée. En d’autres termes: Le français tel qu’on le parle. Concord, Mass.: Wayside Publishing, 1995.
(Vocabulary guide.)
Study Guides
Profil d’une Œuvre
Bonneville, Georges. “Les fleurs du mal”: Baudelaire. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 1972.
Bornecque, Pierre. “Fables”: La Fontaine. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 2000.
Butin, Jean. “L’école des femmes”: Molière. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 1984.
Carlier, Christophe. “Pierre et Jean”: Guy de Maupassant. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 2003.
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Carlier, Marie-Caroline. Parnasse et symbolisme: 10 poèmes expliqués. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier,
1986.
Couprie, Alain. Du symbolisme au surréalisme: 10 poèmes expliqués. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 1985.
Couprie, Alain. “Le Cid”: Pierre Corneille. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 2006.
Dumeste, Marie-Hélène. “Candide”: Voltaire. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 2003.
Echelard, Michel. Le romantisme: 10 poèmes expliqués. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 1985.
Frois, Étienne, and Adeline Lesot. “La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu” de Jean Giraudoux. Profil d’une
Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 1998.
Montesinos, Katia. “La peste”: Albert Camus; 10 textes expliqués. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 2003.
Wayside Publishing
I issue these guides to the students. I usually have enough (or nearly enough) copies so that each student
can have his or her own.
Augustave, Elsie, and Irène Assiba d’Almeida. Guide de lecture: “L’enfant noir” de Camara Laye. Sandwich,
Mass.: Wayside Publishing, 2004. Order from Wayside Publishing, 11 Jan Sebastian Way, Suite 5,
Sandwich, MA 02563; toll-free phone: 888 302-2519; www.waysidepublishing.com.
Baselis-Bitoun, Lison. Guide de lecture pour la préparation de l’examen de littérature: “La guerre de Troie
n’aura pas lieu” de Jean Giraudoux. Sandwich, Mass.: Wayside Publishing, 2004.
Baselis-Bitoun, Lison. Guide de lecture pour la préparation de l’examen de littérature: La poésie de Joachim
Du Bellay, Louise Labé, Jean de La Fontaine, Charles Baudelaire, Guillaume Apollinaire et Anne Hébert.
Sandwich, Mass.: Wayside Publishing, 2004.
Clem, Stephen C. Study Guide: Advanced Placement French Literature, Maupassant’s “Pierre et Jean.”
Concord, Mass.: Wayside Publishing, 1995.
Clem, Stephen C. Study Guide: Advanced Placement French Literature, Molière’s “L’école des femmes.”
Concord, Mass.: Wayside Publishing, 1996.
Clem, Stephen C. Study Guide: Advanced Placement French Literature, Voltaire’s “Candide.” Concord, Mass.:
Wayside Publishing, 1997.
Films
Civilization. 1969. Written and narrated by Kenneth Clark. Distributed by BBC Productions, 2000. Episode
10, “The Smile of Reason,” is good for putting Candide in context. 13 episodes, each 50 minutes.
L’enfant sauvage. 1970. Directed by François Truffaut. Distributed by MGM, 1993. 86 minutes.
Hiroshima mon amour. 1959. Directed by Alain Resnais. Distributed by Criterion, 2003. 91 minutes.
Jean Giraudoux: “La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu.” 1981. Directed by Raymond Rouleau. Distributed by
Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1991. 110 minutes. Order from Films Media Group, PO Box 2053,
Princeton, NJ 08540; 800 257-5126; www.films.com.
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Jules et Jim. 1962. Directed by François Truffaut. Distributed by Criterion, 2005. 105 minutes.
Madame Bovary. 1991. Directed by Claude Chabrol. Distributed by Republic Pictures, 1996. 140 minutes.
Molière: “L’école des femmes.” 1999. Directed by Éric Vigner. Distributed by Films for the Humanities and
Sciences, 2002. 141 minutes.
Rue cases nègres [Sugar Cane Alley]. 1983. Directed by Euzhan Palcy. Distributed by New Yorker Video,
1998. 107 minutes.
Web Site
Renaudin, Christine, and Suzanne Toczyski. En Préparation à l’Examen AP: L’enfant noir de Camara Laye.
Sonoma State University.
www.sonoma.edu/users/t/toczyski/camaralaye/clayeresume.html.
Student Activities
Although the class takes part in a variety of different activities throughout the year (puppet shows, student
presentations of chapters from Candide, enactment of scenes from the plays, games modeled on Jeopardy!),
the students have more time at the end of the fourth quarter, after the AP Exam, to put their sustained
energy into a more ambitious project, described below.
Final Project
Students are divided into groups of two or three, and each group is assigned a century or time period
(Middle Ages, Renaissance, seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, or twentieth century). Each group “presents”
its century during one class period at the end of the term. The following elements are required: (1) Each
student does a “mini” presentation (approximately 10 minutes) of an important aspect of that century, such
as art, dance, music, science, or history. This may be in the form of a PowerPoint production. (2) Students
conduct an interview of an important person of that century (dressed appropriately). (3) Students create the
front page of a “newspaper” from that century (named creatively and dated appropriately), containing at
least three articles on significant events of that time period. Pictures are encouraged. Students are graded
on their mini-presentations, the interview, the newspaper, the overall quality of their presentation, their
ability to make their century come alive to the other students, and their ability to work together and share
the load.
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Sample Syllabus 4
Verna Lofaro
Cherry Creek High School
Greenwood Village, Colorado
School Profile
School Location and Environment: Cherry Creek High School is located in Greenwood Village, Colorado,
just outside of Denver, and is the largest high school in the state. There are eight universities in close
proximity. For the most part, students come from parents who work in white-collar professions and who
have chosen to live within the school’s enrollment boundaries. The school is noted for its preeminence in
academics, sports, and extracurricular activities; each year it receives a rating of “excellent” in the Colorado
Student Assessment Program. Cherry Creek has a strong AP program; a significant number of Cherry
Creek students are recognized annually by the College Board as AP Scholars.
Grades: 9–12
Type: Public high school
Total Enrollment: 3,695
Ethnic Diversity: Asian Americans, 6.2 percent; Hispanics/Latinos, 4.9 percent; African Americans,
2.8 percent; and Native Americans, less than 1 percent.
College Record: Of graduating seniors, 90 percent go on to colleges or universities.
Personal Philosophy
Teaching AP French Literature is a daily rewarding experience because it gives me the opportunity to
open students’ eyes to some remarkable literary works in a variety of genres through an atmosphere of
cooperative discussion and appreciation of writing. This course either changes or enhances the thought
processes and higher conceptual skills of the students. It becomes a permanent part of their learning style,
as many of them attest after they enter college. Each one becomes a better thinker, a better writer, more
conversant with literature and analysis, and better able to recognize literary themes. I find that I become
first a student, then a leader, then a facilitator. The need to continually research the authors and their
selected works and to revise or tailor the teaching and approach to different groups improves my own
knowledge and expertise, and the regular rotation of new works into the required reading list stimulates my
intellectual and academic growth.
Class Profile
Our students have four years of French or its equivalent before they enter the AP French Literature course,
and they often begin their study of the language in middle school. They may enter this course from French 4,
French 3/4 Honors (which covers the level 3 and level 4 curricula in one year), or AP French Language.
Cherry Creek High usually offers two sections of AP French Language and one of AP French Literature
each year. The enrollment in the language classes is about 25 students in each section; in literature, it
is usually 20 students. The school is on a traditional schedule, and classes meet five times a week for 51
minutes a day. A student who has a schedule conflict may take this course as independent study with the
approval of a teacher and the school registrar.
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Course Overview
The course is taught in chronological order (with the exception of the summer reading assignment) to
correspond to the AP Art History and AP European History courses. It provides an interdisciplinary
approach and an opportunity for those students taking all three courses to integrate material and
contribute more fully to class discussions.
I strive to meet the following objectives:
• Students will learn to read the required works for comprehension and analysis.
• Students will learn to write analytically, incorporating commentary on tone, rhetorical devices,
special language, and vocabulary used by the author.
• Students will learn strategies for taking a multiple-choice exam.
• Students will learn how to write a free-response literary essay.
• Students will learn how to recognize common themes among works.
Texts
To successfully study the list of required works, I use the following student texts:
Bishop, Morris, ed. A Survey of French Literature. Rev. ed. 2 vols. New York: Harcourt, Brace and
World, 1965.
Giraudoux, Jean. La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu. Paris: Larousse-Bordas, 1998.
Hurtgen, André O., ed. Tous les poèmes pour le cours avancé. 4th ed. Glenview, Ill.: Scott Foresman/Addison
Wesley, 1998. Currently available from Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Laye, Camara. L’enfant noir. Paris: Plon, 1976.
Maupassant, Guy de. Pierre et Jean. Paris: Livre de Poche/Librairie Générale Française, 1984.
Molière. L’école des femmes. Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1970.
Course Planner
All secondary sources cited in this syllabus are referenced in full in the Teacher Resources section on
page 65.
Summer Reading
L’enfant noir with a glossary of African vocabulary. (School starts the fourth week of August.)
August
Discussion of Camara Laye’s novel drawn from the Wayside Publishing study guide by Elsie Augustave and
Irène Assiba d’Almeida, in addition to my own original questions.
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Week 1
Monday: Discussion of American versus African culture, especially the Malinké and Muslim traditions
described in L’enfant noir. Handout of questions for chapter 1 and in-class discussion of answers.
Homework: questions for chapter 2.
Tuesday: Discussion and in-class work in groups of three to four students on questions for chapter 3.
Homework: questions for chapter 4.
Wednesday: Discussion of chapter 4 questions. Work on questions for chapter 5 in pairs. Discussion follows.
Homework: questions relating to the first 10 pages of chapter 6.
Thursday: Students place their desks in a large circle. Discussion of the first 10 pages of chapter 6 followed
by discussion of the first several questions pertaining to the last 10 pages. Homework: finish the questions
for chapter 6. (This chapter is longer than the previous ones.)
Friday: Discussion of answers for the chapter 6 questions. Homework: respond to questions for chapter 7.
Week 2
Follows the same procedure as week 1, finishing all chapters and a discussion of themes by Friday. The
homework given over the long weekend (Labor Day) is to write a rough draft of an essay on L’enfant noir.
We therefore also discuss strategies for writing a good essay, and I provide examples of important
grammatical structures as well as rich vocabulary and expressions. This draft gives me an idea of how well
each individual student writes. When I return the essays, I make an appointment with each student during
time before school, after school, study periods, or lunchtime to discuss the essay. This is a big investment
of time, but it pays off because students become aware of their individual strengths and weaknesses and
how they can correct the latter. The final copy of the essay is due one week after the individual meeting,
which means that papers (both the rough draft and final) stagger in, and I have time to concentrate on the
corrections. This sets the tone for essay writing for the rest of the year if the students are serious enough.
September
Study of the Renaissance and the poetry of Joachim Du Bellay and Louise Labé. Analysis of a selected poem
and multiple-choice questions for each poet are given as assessments.
Week 3
Discussion—what is a poem? Different kinds, forms? What kind of language is used (figurative versus
literal)? We view excerpts of Cercle des poètes disparus (French version of Dead Poets Society), especially the
classroom scenes, which usually evoke an interest in poetry. Discussion of the Renaissance period and its
themes. Work on versification, especially the sonnet, with versification vocabulary (found in Lison BaselisBitoun’s Wayside Publishing study guide for the poetry on the AP required reading list). Reading of the
first of Du Bellay’s poems, “Heureux qui comme Ulysse . . .” for which I model an explication de texte.
Week 4
Reading and explications de texte of the rest of Du Bellay’s poems (“France, mère des arts . . . ,” “Ces
cheveux d’or . . . ,” and “Si notre vie est moins qu’une journée”). Review of all these poems is followed by
an example of an analyse (textual analysis) assessment—one of these poems followed by two questions that
require developed answers in the form of two mini-essays. I familiarize the students with the AP French
Literature Scoring Guidelines for content and language. We also spend some class time on sample multiplechoice questions on Du Bellay’s poems. Friday is devoted to an in-class analyse of a poem by Du Bellay
other than the one used as an example.
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Week 5
The first day is a short multiple-choice test on the poems of Du Bellay followed by an introduction to Labé.
The rest of the week is spent on reading “On voit mourir toute chose animée,” “Je vis, je meurs . . . ,” and
“Oh si j’estois en ce beau sein ravie.”
Week 6
Reading of the last Labé poem (“Las! que me sert . . .”); review of all the poems. Before the multiple-choice
and analyse assessments, I return to the multiple-choice test and analyse from Du Bellay so that students see
their errors and can make improvements on the Labé assessment.
October–November
Molière, L’école des femmes. Reading, analyzing passages, and testing (comprising multiple-choice
questions, analysis of a selected passage, and a free-response essay). This allows for a week at the end of
October for fall break and an introduction to Jean de La Fontaine and the fables over Thanksgiving break.
Week 7
L’école des femmes, act 1: reading, role-playing, video, and use of questions from the Wayside Publishing
study guide for this play by Stephen Clem.
Week 8
Act 2 (same strategies).
Week 9
Act 3.
Week 10
During this week of fall break, students, now used to the language and well into the plot of the play, read
act 4.
Week 11
During the last days of October and the first week of November, we discuss act 4 and finish the play with
act 5.
Week 12
During the second week of November, students work on an ungraded, practice analyse of a passage from
the play, take a multiple-choice test, and then write an in-class analyse for credit. Over the weekend, they
write an essay on one of the themes associated with the play.
Week 13
This week is devoted to returning the multiple-choice test and analyse from L’école des femmes and starting
the fables of La Fontaine. The first fables read are not on the required list—“La cigale et la fourmi” and “Le
corbeau et le renard”—but lend themselves to a type of puppet show or little drame with a narrator that the
students and I perform together.
Week 14
Because this is Thanksgiving week, the students have school only on Monday and Tuesday. They read “Le
loup et l’agneau” and “La mort et le bûcheron” and write explications de texte for each. Over Thanksgiving
vacation, they read “Le chêne et le roseau” and write an explication de texte.
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December
Completion of La Fontaine. Reading and introductory discussion of Voltaire’s Candide. Winter break.
Week 15
Last week of November and first week of December: finish “Les animaux malades de la peste.” Also, do an
in-class analyse and multiple-choice test on the poems of La Fontaine.
Week 16
Introductory discussion of Candide (in Bishop’s Survey) and viewing of Voltaire Presents “Candide.” Read
chapters 1 and 2.
Week 17
Candide, chapters 3–9.
Weeks 18 and 19
Winter break. Students should review for the semester exam.
January
Review of semester material. The semester exam takes place over three days and simulates the AP Exam,
with a textual analysis one day, an essay the second day, and multiple-choice questions given on the actual
exam day in a period lasting 80 minutes. Third and fourth weeks of January: completion and review of
Candide and assessment.
Week 20
The first three days are spent in review of semester materials, discussing poems and themes related to
L’école des femmes and the first chapters of Candide. On the fourth day, students write an in-class essay, and
on the fifth day, they write an in-class analyse.
Week 21
This is exam week, set up like college exams, so students do not have any classes. During the scheduled
exam time for the period that AP French Literature meets, students take a multiple-choice exam for 80
minutes. I use the AP Exam scoring worksheet to convert student scores to the AP grade.
Week 22
This is a four-day week owing to Martin Luther King Day. Resume Candide with chapters 10–16.
Week 23
Finish Candide (testing occurs at the beginning of week 24).
February
Guy de Maupassant, Pierre et Jean. Reading, discussion, and assessment.
Week 24
Chapters 1 and 2.
Week 25
Chapters 3–6.
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Week 26
Chapters 7–9 and review.
Week 27
Only a three-day week owing to Presidents’ Day and a “nonpupil contact” day. Testing on Pierre et Jean.
March
Charles Baudelaire and Guillaume Apollinaire. Begin Jean Giraudoux, La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu.
Spring break.
Week 28 (includes part of last week of February)
Read Baudelaire, “Correspondances,” “Hymne à la beauté,” “L’invitation au voyage,” and “Spleen.” Students
write explications de texte for each.
Week 29
Finish Baudelaire with “Chant d’automne” and “Recueillement” and testing.
Week 30
Apollinaire, “Le pont Mirabeau,” “Les colchiques,” “Mai,” and “Automne.”
Week 31
Review and test on the poems of Apollinaire. Begin Giraudoux, La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu, act 1.
Week 32
Spring break. Students read act 2, scenes 1–7.
April
Completion of La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu. Poems of Anne Hébert. On one Saturday, students take a
practice AP French Literature Exam. There are also three weeknight review sessions at the end of the month.
Week 33
Discussion of La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu, act 2, scenes 1–7, and completion of the rest of act 2.
Week 34
Testing on La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu and introduction to Hébert. Reading of first poem, “Les
grandes fontaines.”
Week 35
Completion of Hébert’s poems: “Le piano,” “Une fois seulement,” “Nos mains au jardin,” and “Baigneuse.”
Third or fourth Saturday of April
Three-hour practice AP Exam.
Week 36
In-class analyse of one of Hébert’s poems. Review of genres: poetry, plays, and novels. This week also has
three evening review sessions.
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French
Organization
Literature
May
First few days before the AP Exam: review of themes and multiple-choice sample questions.
Teaching Strategies
Novels
I begin by setting the stage for L’enfant noir, even though the students have already read it over the summer.
Having visited Senegal, which directly borders Guinea on the north and shares a number of similarities
with that country, I bring in music, musical instruments, and typical clothing. I talk about the Muslim
religion and how it is practiced there in combination with Wolof traditions. I show pictures of different
types of cases (huts), a mosque, animals, people, means of transportation, and so forth. The students are
then more familiar with the novel and its setting in Guinea. As with every work, I try to relate it to their
personal lives, that is, their own school experiences. I assign an essay about Laye and how he does not fit
into either the colonial world of the French or his traditional culture: “Montrez comment le personnage
principal, Camara Laye, se trouve devant un dilemme: le choix entre l’éducation à l’étranger et la vie
familiale traditionnelle qui le forcerait à rester dans son village. Montrez comment cet enfant est entre deux
mondes et n’appartient entièrement ni à l’un, ni à l’autre.” This essay is a rough draft; it gives me an idea of
the students’ writing abilities and their language skills. I make some corrections, ask them to make others,
and write comments and suggestions on their papers. It is a lot of work, but I am usually pleased with the
final results. Some of the students apply this method of correction to their other French writings for the
class throughout the year.
For Candide, as a prereading activity, I show a short film clip (no longer commercially available) that
I received from our film library, titled Voltaire Presents “Candide.” I also show parts of a production of
Leonard Bernstein’s opera, borrowed from our school’s media specialist.
Before reading Pierre et Jean, I show pictures of Normandy, paintings by Claude Monet and Eugène
Boudin, and images of different lighthouses. We also discuss the theme of jealousy and how it relates to the
students and their families personally.
Poetry
Before beginning with the first poet, Du Bellay, I show the movie Cercle des poètes disparus [Dead Poets
Society], dubbed in French. The students usually become “hooked” on poetry by this film. I also teach
a unit on versification and present them with a crossword puzzle for the vocabulary and stanzas from
various poems so that they can work on counting syllables and figuring out the patterns for different
rhymes and so on.
For every poem, we discuss the themes and emotions in personal terms. The students find it easier to
relate to the poems if they can connect them to their own lives. For each poem, students do an explication
de texte. I provide them with a form to complete that asks for the title of the poem, name of the poet,
collection it came from, and date of the collection or individual poem. The next section is titled Forme, and
students fill in the appropriate elements of versification here. Then comes Sujet, where the students detail
their conception of the poem’s theme. Under the heading Analyse, they must account for everything they
notice in each stanza and verse. This includes theme, rhetorical devices, tone, and special vocabulary. In
the last category, Conclusion, students summarize the poem and theme and add any other insightful ideas
that have occurred to them. At the end of the year, these explications are very helpful in studying for the
AP Exam.
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Drama
For both plays, students read the various parts in class and sometimes enact them (see page 67). Occasionally,
I give them 15 minutes at the beginning of class to read a scene silently, and then we discuss it.
I always act out “la vieille dame” who comes to the house and pleads with Agnès to let Horace in
to spend time with her (L’école des femmes). I also play Cassandre in La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu.
Students are less inhibited about performing in front of their peers when they see their teacher convincingly
playing a role or “hamming it up.”
I have videos of both plays and sometimes show a scene as a pre- or postreading activity in order to
check students’ reading comprehension.
Student Evaluation
Students are evaluated on oral participation, homework, creative writing, quizzes, textual analyses, and
essays. Our official grading is on a semester basis, but we have a new computer program called PowerGrade
that can be viewed by students and their parents, so the school requires us to input grades every three weeks.
Below is an approximate breakdown of points or percentages for a three-week informal grading period.
Depending on the work or works studied during a three-week period, the percentage weighting of the
various categories usually varies. For example, for the first three-week period, oral participation counts for
10 percent of the grade; homework, 45 percent; and the essay, 45 percent. The grading program accepts the
points and gives a percentage. I convert these percentages to a letter grade: 90–100 = A, 80–89 = B,
70–79 = C, 60–69 = D, and below 60 = F.
• Oral participation: Twenty points may be earned for each three-week grading period by students
whom I call on for answers to homework questions. Those who respond voluntarily or who tell an
anecdote receive extra-credit points. Poetry recitations are worth 50 points.
• Homework: Students receive 10 points for each set of chapter/scene questions that they answer for
novels or plays and for each complete explication de texte for poems.
• Creative writing: Original compositions are worth 50 points.
• Quizzes: These short assessments are worth 25–50 points.
• Written tests: In-class textual analyses and essays are each worth 100 points. Multiple-choice
tests are either 25 or 50 points. Analyses and essays are scored using the guidelines devised for the
AP Exam. I sometimes create my own questions, but I often use ones from AP French Literature
Released Exams. (All the free-response questions from the last several years are also available at
AP Central.)
Scores for textual analyses: Content counts for approximately two-thirds of the grade. Thus, scores for
analyses are a maximum of 6 points for the content of each answer (because there are two questions for
each analysis) and 5 points for language for both questions combined. (For each AP French Literature
Exam administered, the Development Committee determines the maximum content score; sometimes
the answers are awarded 5 points each, plus a total of 5 points for language, making the overall count 15.)
Generally, 15–17 points = A, 12–14 = B, 9–11 = C, 6–8 = D, and below 6 = F.
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Literature
Scores for essays: Maximums of 9 points for content and 5 for language. A = 7–9 for content/4–5
for language, B = 6 for content/3 for language, C = 5 for content/2 for language, D = 4 for content/2 for
language, and below these point totals = F.
For semester exams and practice AP Exams, I translate the numerical AP grades (1–5) into letter
grades: 5 = A, 4 = A-, 3 = B, 2 = D, and 1 = F.
Teacher Resources
Books
College Board. Advanced Placement Program: Professional Development for French Literature, Participant’s
Manual. New York: College Board, 2005.
Deshusses, Pierre, Léon Karlson, and Paulette Thornander. Dix siècles de littérature française. 2 vols. Paris:
Bordas, 1991.
Du Bellay, Joachim. Les regrets, Les antiquités de Rome, La défense et illustration de la langue française.
Edited by S. de Sacy. Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1967.
Dufau, Micheline, and Ellen D’Alelio. Découverte du poème: Introduction à l’explication de textes. New York:
Harcourt, Brace and World, 1967.
Hébert, Anne. Œuvre poétique, 1950–1990. Montreal: Éditions du Boréal, 1992.
Labé, Louise. Œuvres poétiques. Edited by Françoise Charpentier. Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1983.
Study Guides
Augustave, Elsie, and Irène Assiba d’Almeida. Guide de lecture: “L’enfant noir” de Camara Laye. Sandwich,
Mass.: Wayside Publishing, 2004. Order from Wayside Publishing, 11 Jan Sebastian Way, Suite 5,
Sandwich, MA 02563; toll-free phone: 888 302-2519; www.waysidepublishing.com.
Baselis-Bitoun, Lison. Guide de lecture pour la préparation de l’examen de littérature: “La guerre de Troie
n’aura pas lieu” de Jean Giraudoux. Sandwich, Mass.: Wayside Publishing, 2004.
Baselis-Bitoun, Lison. Guide de lecture pour la préparation de l’examen de littérature: La poésie de Joachim
Du Bellay, Louise Labé, Jean de La Fontaine, Charles Baudelaire, Guillaume Apollinaire et Anne Hébert.
Sandwich, Mass.: Wayside Publishing, 2004.
Bonneville, Georges. “Les fleurs du mal”: Baudelaire. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 1972.
Bornecque, Pierre. “Fables”: La Fontaine. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 2000.
Butin, Jean. “L’école des femmes”: Molière. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris: Hatier, 1984.
Clem, Stephen C. Study Guide: Advanced Placement French Literature, Maupassant’s “Pierre et Jean.”
Concord, Mass.: Wayside Publishing, 1995.
Clem, Stephen C. Study Guide: Advanced Placement French Literature, Molière’s “L’école des femmes.”
Concord, Mass.: Wayside Publishing, 1996.
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Clem, Stephen C. Study Guide: Advanced Placement French Literature, Voltaire’s “Candide.” Concord, Mass.:
Wayside Publishing, 1997.
Frautschi, R. L. Barron’s Simplified Approach to Voltaire: “Candide.” Woodbury, N.Y.: Barron’s Educational
Series, 1968.
Frois, Étienne, and Adeline Lesot. “La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu” de Jean Giraudoux. Profil d’une Œuvre.
Paris: Hatier, 1998.
Morhange-Bégué, Claude, and Pierre Lartigue. “Alcools”: Guillaume Apollinaire. Profil d’une Œuvre. Paris:
Hatier, 2000.
Mougenot, Michel. “Pierre et Jean”: Maupassant. Parcours de Lecture. Paris: Bertrand-Lacoste, 1992.
Films
Candide. The opera by Leonard Bernstein. VHS borrowed from our media specialist, whose daughter
attends Juilliard School of Music and was in the chorus of this live presentation at Carnegie Hall, New
York City, in 2004. DVD distributed by Image Entertainment. 120 minutes.
Cercle des poètes disparus [Dead Poets Society, dubbed in French; VHS Secam, converted to NTSC]. 1989.
Directed by Peter Weir. Distributed by Touchstone Home Video. 128 minutes.
Jean Giraudoux: “La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu.” 1981. Directed by Raymond Rouleau. Distributed by
Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1991. 110 minutes. Order from Films Media Group, PO Box 2053
Princeton, NJ 08540; 800 257-5126; www.films.com.
Molière: “L’école des femmes.” 1985. Directed by Bernard Sobel. A TF1 production. Distributor unknown.
131 minutes.
Voltaire Presents “Candide.” VHS. Consolidated Film Library, Cherry Creek School District.
Out of circulation.
Student Activities
“Webbing”
This is an activity in which the students review themes for plays and novels that might appear as possible
essay questions. They can even use this activity to outline/dissect stanzas of poems. It requires using a
computer software program called Inspiration and a class period spent in the computer lab. It can also be
an out-of-class assignment. Following is an example for Pierre et Jean.
To review themes at the end of Pierre et Jean (or other novels or plays), I divide students into pairs or
groups of three, and I give each group a theme that relates to the specific reading. For example, for Pierre
et Jean, I select jalousie, famille, mer, liberté, emprisonnement, infidélité, évasion, ironie, and quête de la
vérité. The Inspiration software creates a template for either an outline or a “web” for the theme. The
latter resembles a spider’s web; it places the theme in the center, and other subthemes or related elements
spread out from it. I prefer the “web” option for themes. Each group creates a web of ideas and prints it.
I then make overhead transparencies of all the webs, and the following day in the classroom each group
uses the corresponding transparency to orally present its theme to the rest of the class. The day after the
presentation, the students write an in-class essay on one of the themes. For example, I have used this topic,
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About AP
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Organization
Literature
taken from an AP French Literature Released Exam: “La jalousie est un thème important dans beaucoup
d’œuvres littéraires. Choisissez un personnage dans Pierre et Jean et analysez les effets de la jalousie sur ce
personnage et sur ceux qui l’entourent.”
I sometimes employ this review activity with poems, especially those of Baudelaire, but in this case I ask
the students to use the outline template. I choose three or four Baudelaire poems (depending on the size of
the class) and divide the students into pairs. Then, I assign each pair a stanza of a particular poem and ask
them to note the tone, subject, rhetorical devices, and particular vocabulary in the stanza. This is an activity
that does not take much time, perhaps less than half a period. We return to the classroom, and I project a
transparency of an entire poem. For example, “Correspondances” is a sonnet with four stanzas, so a total of
eight students would orally present their findings. Although the rest of the students do not have the outline
in front of them or on a transparency, they have their explication de texte and can add notes to it.
Poetry-Related Activities
After viewing Cercle des poètes disparus, I ask students to write an original poem. I correct it for grammar,
and on returning their original works, I take students to the computer lab and ask them to write their final
form on the word processor, choosing a font and some kind of image or art (from software) that displays or
symbolizes their poem. I give them the option of printing their poems in black and white or in color. I hang
these final copies on the classroom bulletin board for their parents to view at Back-to-School Night.
After the study of the Renaissance poets, each student has to select a poem by Du Bellay or Labé,
memorize it, and present it to the class. Some choose to present a poem not on the required list but written
by one of these poets.
For the fables, students divide into groups of three (usually there are two characters and a narrator)
to present one of La Fontaine’s fables (other than the poems on the required reading list). They choose
roles and memorize their parts. Using props (a requirement), they present their fable (with expression and
animation) to the rest of the students in the form of a petit drame or play.
Drama-Related Activities
Students enact various scenes of the required plays with simple costumes or props in front of their
classmates.
As an original piece of writing in connection with L’école des femmes, I have students create
contemporary maximes (rules)—the girls for husbands, and the boys for wives. Again, they write their
final copy on a word processor, choosing a decorative style of type and also a design or image. These are
displayed on the bulletin board in the classroom so that they all can read one another’s mottos.
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Sample Syllabus 5
Katherine H. Fair
Phillips Exeter Academy
Exeter, New Hampshire
School Profile
School Location and Environment: Phillips Exeter Academy, founded in 1781, is a private boarding school
located on the New Hampshire seacoast. Exeter has excellent facilities, including the largest secondary
school library in the world, state-of-the-art science and music buildings, and an extensive sports complex.
The school attracts students with demonstrated academic achievement, intellectual curiosity, and good
character. Students come from all over the world, including 46 states and 29 countries other than the
United States. Tuition assistance is available, and more than 33 percent of the student body receives some
form of aid.
Class size at Exeter is closely monitored, never exceeding 14 students. The curriculum, with its
extensive list of college-level courses in every subject area, is designed to stretch students’ academic and
creative capacities. As one of the secondary schools that helped found the Advanced Placement Program in
1955, Exeter has a long history of offering challenging classes to advanced learners.
Grades: 9–12
Type: Private high school
Total Enrollment: Approximately 1,000
Ethnic Diversity: Asian American, 22 percent; African American, 6 percent; Hispanic/Latino, 6 percent;
and Native American, less than 1 percent
College Record: More than 99 percent of our students go directly on to colleges and universities.
Personal Philosophy
Just after high school, I spent two consecutive years in France: the first at the American College in Paris
and the second at a French lycée in Normandy. In retrospect, I see that this time was decisive for me as
a literature teacher. The two-year immersion led me to fall in love with literature as an ideal medium for
language learning and for discovering other cultures. What I learned from this experience influences
me to this day. Although I deeply respected my lycée teachers, I realized that their teaching style (cours
magistraux) had serious drawbacks for me as a student. In classes, I learned plenty about the writers we
studied. But because we had no opportunity for in-class discussion of the texts we read, I never felt I
digested what these great authors had to say. Eventually, as I finished my bachelor’s degree and graduate
work in the United States, I grew to appreciate the magic of teaching literature in a seminar-style format.
Working at a school like Exeter has permitted me to explore the possibilities of roundtable teaching and
has been an inspiration to me as an instructor and student of literature. Over the years, I have attempted to
teach literature as a tool for language acquisition, as a window onto French and francophone culture, and as
inspiration for personal growth—all through the medium of discussion-based, nonlecture-style instruction.
Although I realize that “student-centered teaching” has become a commonplace in contemporary
pedagogical debates, my experience has taught me its essential value.
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About AP
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Organization
Literature
Class Profile
In a given year, approximately 230-40 students take French courses at Exeter. Our school year is divided
into trimesters. Enrollment in language classes tends to drop off in the spring, with the exception of the
popular AP French Literature course, where we usually enroll 24–26 students in two sections.
Lower-Level Courses
Exeter’s elementary and intermediate French classes would be considered intensive by many schools’
standards. Although we emphasize training in all skills and use an eclectic methodology, we believe that a
solid reading program is the best foundation for students expecting to take upper-level classes, particularly
advanced literature courses. Basic readings in our second-year French program include Simenon, Maigret
et le clochard (simplified version); Saint-Exupéry, Le petit prince; and Pennac, L’œil du loup. In third-year
required courses, students study Anouilh, Antigone; Camus, L’étranger; and some years they read Roblès,
Montserrat.
Upper-Level Courses
At the end of the third year and beyond, students choose from a number of options depending on their
interests and abilities. In the third trimester of our third-year sequence, French students may select from the
following advanced electives, offered during most terms: The French Short Story, Introduction to French
Literature, or AP French Language (a two-term sequence that prepares for the AP French Language Exam).
Students in the fourth year may select from the following: Contemporary France (fall term), French
Humanism (fall term), French Theater (winter term), French Novel (winter term), French Film (spring
term), French Voices from Outside of France (spring term), AP French Language (winter and spring terms),
or AP French Literature (fall, winter, and spring terms).
Officially, students must have completed at least the third year in order to take AP French Literature,
though we usually recommend at least one other fourth-year elective before that course. In the fall, one
section is taught overseas, in our term-abroad program in Grenoble, France. We cover the reading list in
one year, usually in chronological order for simplicity’s sake. Advanced language classes meet four times
per week for 50 minutes. In our current daily schedule, one meeting per week, called a “fat block,” has an
extra 25 minutes built in for testing or extended discussions.
Course Overview
At Exeter, as a rule two or three teachers share the AP French Literature classes, in part because we believe
that students benefit from different teaching styles. We generally stick closely to the course reading list,
dividing it more or less as follows:
Fall Term: Sixteenth-Century and French Renaissance Poetry (Labé and Du Bellay), SeventeenthCentury French Drama (Molière), Seventeenth-Century French Poetry (La Fontaine), Eighteenth-Century
French Prose—le Conte (Voltaire)
Winter Term: Nineteenth-Century French Prose (Maupassant), Nineteenth-Century French Poetry
(Baudelaire), Twentieth-Century French Drama (Giraudoux)
Spring Term: Twentieth-Century French Poetry (Apollinaire), Twentieth-Century Francophone Novel
(Laye), Twentieth-Century Francophone Poetry (Hébert)
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Our course objectives are similar to those described in the AP French Course Description. Through a
close reading of selected poetry, drama, and prose narratives, students learn to decipher, discuss, and write
intelligently about a variety of literary works from the French and francophone worlds.
Texts
Giraudoux, Jean. La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu. Paris: Larousse, 1998.
Hurtgen, André O., ed. Tous les poèmes pour le cours avancé. 4th ed. Glenview, Ill.: Scott Foresman/Addison
Wesley, 1998. Currently available from Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Laye, Camara. L’enfant noir. Paris: Presse Pocket, 2001.
Maupassant, Guy de. Pierre et Jean. Classiques Hachette. Paris: Hachette, 2005.
Molière, L’école des femmes. Classiques Bordas. Paris: Bordas, 2003.
Voltaire, Candide, ou l’optimisme. Paris: Gallimard, 2003.
Possible Supplementary Reading
Dai, Sijie. Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise. Paris: Gallimard, 2000.
Reza, Yasmina. Art. In Théâtre: “L’homme du hasard,” “Conversations après un enterrement,” “La traversée
du l’hiver,” “Art.” Paris: Livre de Poche, 1999.
Course Planner
Fall Term (Taught in Grenoble, France)
70
Semaine du
12–16 septembre
En classe
Petite introduction à la poésie de
la Renaissance et à la versification.
Joachim Du Bellay: “Heureux qui
comme Ulysse . . . ,”
“France, mère des arts . . . ,”
“Si notre vie . . . ,” “Ces cheveux
d’or . . .” ; Pierre de Ronsard:
“Ode à Cassandre,” “Quand vous
serez bien vieille . . .”
Devoirs
Lire soigneusement le polycopié
“Introduction to the Student” et
“Structure de l’explication et questions
générales.” Choisir un des quatre
poèmes de Du Bellay et écrire une
analyse d’une page et demie (à rendre
le mardi 20 septembre).
19–23 septembre
(excursion le 20–21 en
Provence)
Louise Labé: petite introduction.
“On voit mourir toute chose
animée,” “Je vis, je meurs . . . ,”
“Oh si j’estois . . . ,”
“Las! que me sert . . .”
Pour ceux qui comptent passer
l’Examen AP: choisir un poème de
Labé à expliquer (pour ceux qui ne
passeront pas l’examen: choisir soit
Ronsard, soit Labé). Devoir d’une
page et demie à rendre le vendredi
30 septembre.
About AP
Course
French
Organization
Literature
Fall Term (Taught in Grenoble, France)
(continued)
Semaine du
26–30 septembre
(le samedi 1 octobre: cours
de cuisine)
En classe
L’époque classique et Jean de La
Fontaine: lecture des fables.
“Le loup et l’agneau,”
“La mort et le bûcheron,”
“Le chêne et le roseau,”
“Les animaux malades de la peste”
Devoirs
Devoir à préparer pour le mardi
4 octobre: une analyse écrite d’une
page et demie d’un texte que vous
aurez aussi appris par cœur! En classe,
vous réciterez votre poème.
3–7 octobre
(excursion le 5 à la
Chartreuse; SATs à Lyon le
samedi 8)
L’époque classique: Molière et
la comédie classique. L’école des
femmes, acte 1
Devoir à préparer pour le mardi
11 octobre: analyse de l’acte 1, sc. 4.
10–14 octobre
(excursion le 12 à Vizille)
L’école des femmes (suite),
actes 2–3
Devoir à rendre le vendredi 21
octobre: Analyse de l’acte 2, sc. 5 ou
d’un des monologues d’Arnolphe
(acte 3, sc. 3 ou acte 3, sc. 5).
17–21 octobre
(excursion à Chambéry
le 19)
L’école des femmes (fin), actes 4–5
Préparatifs par groupe d’une
représentation d’une scène de
L’école des femmes (à présenter le
17 novembre).
24–28 octobre
Le siècle des lumières: Voltaire,
Candide (début), chs. 1–12
24 octobre–10 novembre: pas de
devoirs écrits sur Voltaire. Vous
travaillerez sur le spectacle final.
30 octobre–6 novembre
(excursion à Paris; SATs le
samedi 5)
Candide (suite de la lecture pendant 24 octobre–10 novembre: pas de
notre excursion à Paris), chs. 13–20 devoirs écrits sur Voltaire. Vous
travaillerez sur le spectacle final.
7–11 novembre
Candide (fin), chs. 21–30, et
répétitions pour le spectacle du
17 novembre
14–18 novembre
Travail en classe sur le spectacle
(petit spectacle le jeudi 17 à final
présenter aux responsables
de l’UIAD, aux professeurs,
et aux familles et soirée
d’adieu)
(Départ pour les États Unis
le vendredi 18!)
Devoir à rendre le vendredi
11 novembre au choix: (1) Quelle est
l’importance de l’aventure au pays
d’Eldorado? (2) Quel rôle Martin jouet-il dans le récit? (3) Que représente
Cunégonde dans le récit?
Répétitions pour le spectacle du jeudi
17 novembre.
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Winter Term
Semaine du
4–8 janvier
En classe
Guy de Maupassant, Pierre et Jean,
chs.1–3
Devoirs
Soyez prêts à résumer et à analyser des
passages choisis du premier chapitre
en classe, au tableau.
10–15 janvier
(Jour de Martin Luther
King le 14 janvier)
Pierre et Jean, chs. 4–6
Petit devoir écrit: votre analyse
psychologique de Pierre. Si vous étiez
son psychologue, quelles conclusions
tireriez-vous de son comportement et
de ses réflections?
17–21 janvier
Pierre et Jean, chs. 7–9
(pas de classes le 22 janvier)
72
Petit devoir écrit: réfléchissez sur
les “couples” de ce récit et leur
dynamique (e.g., Pierre et Jean,
M. et Mme. Roland, Jean et Mme.
Rosémilly). À apporter et à discuter
en classe.
24–28 janvier
Pierre et Jean, chs. 10–11
Composition sur Pierre et Jean à
rendre la semaine du 31 janvier.
31 janvier–4 février
(pas de classes le 5 février)
Charles Baudelaire,
“Correspondances,”
“Recueillement,”
“L’invitation au voyage”
Lire et étudier les poèmes. Lire
soigneusement l’explication de texte
de “Correspondances,” et les questions
sur “L’invitation au voyage” dans
Dufau et D’Alelio, Découverte du
poème (polycopiée).
8–12 février
(pas de classes le 7 février)
Charles Baudelaire, “Spleen,”
“Chant d’automne,”
“Hymne à la beauté”
Préparez des questions sur l’un des
trois poèmes de la semaine. À partir
de vos propres questions, préparez
une analyse de ce même texte. Devoir
à rendre la semaine du 14 février.
14–18 février
Jean Giraudoux, La guerre de Troie
(pas de classes le 19 février) n’aura pas lieu, acte 1
Préparez au fur et à mesure de votre
lecture des portraits des personnages
principaux: Hector, Andromaque,
Hélène.
La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu,
21–25 février
(pas de classes le 26 février) acte 1
Petite composition à rendre sur la fin
de l’acte 1—jeunesse et vieillesse dans
cette pièce.
28 février–5 mars
La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu,
acte 2
Discussion sur la notion du destin
chez Giraudoux. La guerre est-elle
véritablement inévitable—dans la
pièce de Giraudoux, et de façon
générale?
7–11 mars
(vacances à partir du
12 mars)
La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu,
acte 2
Devoir final sur Giraudoux (en classe)
[see Student Activities section on
page 76 for a full description].
About AP
Course
French
Organization
Literature
Spring Term
Semaine du
29 mars–2 avril
En classe
Guillaume Apollinaire,
“Mai,” “Automne,”
“Le pont Mirabeau,”
“Les colchiques”
Devoirs
Analyse d’un texte d’Apollinaire, de
préférence “Mai” ou “Automne.”
4–9 avril
Anne Hébert, “Une fois seulement,”
“Le piano,”
“Nos mains au jardin,”
“Les grandes fontaines,”
“Baigneuse”
Préparez des questions pour une
analyse de texte: choisir un poème
d’Anne Hébert à analyser. Devoir à
remettre la semaine du 11 avril.
11–16 avril
Camara Laye, L’enfant noir, chs. 1–4 Préparez-vous à une discussion sur
la force des traditions, et l’attitude du
narrateur vis-à-vis de son passé.
18–23 avril
L’enfant noir, chs. 5–8
L’expérience de la circoncision—sa
valeur dans l’évolution du narrateur.
Petit devoir écrit: L’expérience du
narrateur à l’école, et comparaisons
de l’éducation qu’il a reçue au sein de
son village et de sa famille.
25–30 avril
L’enfant noir, chs. 9–12
Devoir écrit à remettre la semaine du
7 mai sur L’enfant noir.
2–7 mai
Révision générale pour l’Examen
AP. (Séances supplémentaires
chez Mme. Fair pour ceux qui s’y
intéressent.)
Présentations: deux sujets d’essai et
un texte à analyser avec des questions.
Jeu de révision avec des citations.
9–14 mai
Dai Sijie, Balzac et la petite tailleuse Résumés et commentaires de texte à
chinoise
préparer chaque jour.
16–21 mai
Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise, Résumés et commentaires, suite.
suite
23–28 mai
Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise, Résumés et commentaires, suite.
suite
30 mai–3 juin
(pas de classes le 4 juin)
Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise, Comparaison détaillée, à remettre
DVD (à visionner en chinois, mais la semaine du 30 mai, du roman et
avec des soutitres en français)
du film de Dai Sijie. Pourquoi la fin
du film est-elle différente de celle
du roman?
6–8 juin
(jours de examens)
Exposés oraux finals sur un auteur
au programme
Teaching Strategies
The so-called Harkness method of roundtable, seminar-style teaching is at the heart of instruction at
Phillips Exeter. This approach is based on evidence that students learn best in a nondidactic, collaborative
environment in which the teacher is defined as a mentor or coach but never as a lecturer. We do our best
to follow one golden rule: “Never do for students what they can do for themselves!” In practice, students do
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not do all the work. Rather, teachers and students alike bear the responsibility of preparing for discussions
and other learning activities. Once class begins, everyone becomes an instructor. Students at Exeter accept
this responsibility eagerly, and the rewards are substantial. Although it is true that we have the advantage
of teaching uniquely talented students, I am convinced that you can achieve similar results using the same
approach with most youngsters.
Here are some concrete strategies for making students into teachers:
• Ask students to prepare for every class as if they were planning to teach it. Ask them to select specific
passages for discussion, formulate questions about the reading, or identify essential themes to
explore. At least once a week, delegate the responsibility of leading off the discussion to one or two
specific students.
• Make writing a daily activity. From the lower levels onward, students at Exeter write extensively and
often, starting with plot summaries in the second year and progressing to textual analysis by the
third. Have students write something prior to every class. This could be a plot summary of a chapter
in Pierre et Jean, a reflection on one or two images in a Baudelaire poem, or a short commentary on
the moral of “Le loup et l’agneau.” I often collect and read these assignments, but I rarely grade them
as I would a formal essay or analyse de texte. Rather, they form part of the students’ daily preparation
and serve as the foundation for the exchange of ideas around the table.
• Have students write collaboratively during classes, preferably in small groups at the blackboard.
Frequently, even in advanced classes, I ask students to spend 10 to 15 minutes at the beginning of
a class writing in groups of two or three at the board. This practice permits them to try out their
thoughts from the previous evening in a small group before discussion begins with the entire class.
• Incorporate student self-correction into the writing process. Years ago, my mentor at the University
of Michigan, Sylvie Carduner, taught me and the other graduate assistants a shorthand method
for indicating types of student errors in the margins of their work—prép for “préposition,” subj for
“subjonctif,” and so on. We used these abbreviations to show students how to correct their own
compositions but without making the changes for them. I continue to use this approach today in
the AP course. I underline errors, note the type of error in the margin, and have students figure out
what is wrong. For literary essays and analysis, I also make brief suggestions for editing and content
revision. Students receive a grade once a paper has been completely reworked. They seem to enjoy
and profit from this exercise, because they pay less attention to the grade and more to polishing their
French and their ideas.
Preparing for the AP Exam
Ever since the AP French Literature Exam was moved to the first week of the testing period, we have
accelerated our spring-term program, allowing only an abbreviated review period of two or three days prior
to the exam. Here are some exercises I would recommend using during this final leg of the course:
• Set aside one class period to go through a set of multiple-choice questions from an AP French
Literature released exam as a group. (These are available for purchase at the College Board Store
on AP Central.) Give the questions as a homework assignment, then in class have students compare
their answers in small groups of two or three. Finally, read items together and discuss the answers.
This provides opportunities to review some major themes in material they may not have seen for
some time.
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French
Organization
Literature
• Select from previous AP Exam free-response questions, and assign one analyse de texte and/or
one essay to be written outside of class. You may then use one anonymous sample of each of these
assignments as the basis for discussion (that is, if students agree).
• Try a quotation game (see page 77).
• Ask students to become AP Exam question creators. At home, they should each come up with at
least one essay topic, as well as a selected passage with questions for an analyse de texte. In class,
have students write their sample questions on the board. Choose three or four topics to refine as a
group, and then attempt to put together a collective “plan” for an essay or textual analysis. This is an
effective, fun way to provide an overview of the material.
After the Exam
Once the AP French Literature Exam is over, we generally have time to study at least one work that is not on
the required reading list. In recent years, my colleague Joseph Reiter and I have had good success with both
of the following:
Dai Sijie, Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise
This best-selling book, translated into several languages and now taught in French high schools, is a
semiautobiographical novel about three young people coming of age during China’s Cultural Revolution.
Dai is a remarkable writer, born in China and educated in France. He wrote and produced a movie based on
his novel (the book is in French, but the movie is in Chinese). In class we study the film and novel together.
In combination, they make for lively, interesting comparisons. Students find many themes in common with
the required works—love and its complications, tolerance and intolerance, freedom of expression, and the
value of literature. Although the film is in Chinese, you can easily dub it in French on the DVD and include
French subtitles as well, making it a useful linguistic experience.
Yasmina Reza, Art
This humorous, provocative play begins after Serge, an art enthusiast, has spent a great deal of money
buying a large, entirely white canvas painted by a modern artist. His best friends Marc and Ivan discover
the purchase, and their reactions to Serge’s artistic judgment lead to an emotional, often comical,
exploration of friendship, as well as the question: “What is art?” This work has been a big success with the
students. Having encountered so many “masterpieces of French literature,” these seniors have much to say
about what constitutes great art. One year they performed a couple of the scenes as a final presentation. I
highly recommend this play as a post–AP Exam reading. It is short, engaging, and leads to productive wrapup discussions at the end of the term.
Student Evaluation
At the AP level, most French teachers at Exeter base final grades on the following components:
• Class participation
• Five or six formal written assignments, either essays or analyses de textes
• One or two oral presentations
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It is the ongoing job of each student to enhance the knowledge and understanding of the entire group. Thus,
in my classes participation counts for at least 40 percent of the student’s final grade. The remaining portion
is based on written assignments and formal, oral presentations, with the writing worth approximately
40 percent and the presentations, 20 percent.
A note about multiple-choice testing: except for review, I virtually never give multiple-choice tests in
my own classes. Although an efficient evaluative tool, multiple-choice items do not seem helpful in training
students of literature. Like most of my colleagues, I prefer carefully written, directed or open-ended
questions rather than a multiple-choice format.
Grading: Exeter uses an 11 point scale: 0 = F, 1 = D-, 2 = D, 3 = D+, 4 = C-, 5 = C, 6 = C+, 7 = B-, 8 = B,
9 = B+, 10 = A-, and 11 = A. We have no A+. When I grade student work, I usually use the Exeter scale. We
occasionally do an exercise in class in which students read and give a score to sample essays and textual
analyses from previous AP Exams. In that kind of an exercise, we employ the AP Scoring Guidelines used
at the official Reading.
Teacher Resources
The AP Central Web site has excellent reference materials, including those cited in the AP French Course
Description. Over the years, I have used the following two indispensable books for teaching textual analysis.
Books
Dufau, Micheline, and Ellen D’Alelio. Découverte du poème: Introduction à l’explication de textes. New York:
Harcourt, Brace and World, 1967. The authors do a superb job of demonstrating how to make sense of a
poetic text. They include useful, extensive sets of questions and sample explications, along with a helpful
list of vocabulary for literary analysis.
Schofer, Peter et al. Poèmes, pièces, prose: Introduction à l’analyse de textes littéraires français. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1973. This is an excellent guide to reading and designing good questions for
literary analysis.
Film
Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise. 2002. Directed by Dai Sijie. Distributed by TF1 Vidéo, 2003.
116 minutes.
Student Activities
Handout for Final Classroom Discussion of La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu
Commentez le passage suivant en répondant aux questions qui le suivent.
Hector: Eh bien, le sort en est jeté, Ulysse! Va pour la guerre! À mesure que j’ai plus de haine pour elle,
il me vient d’ailleurs un désir plus incoercible de tuer. . . . Parlez, puisque vous me refusez votre aide. . . .
Ulysse: Comprenez-moi, Hector! . . . Mon aide vous est acquise. Ne m’en veuillez pas d’interpréter le
sort. J’ai voulu seulement lire dans les grandes lignes que sont, sur l’univers, les voies des caravanes, les
chemins des navires, le tracé des grues volantes et des races. Donnez-moi votre main. Elle aussi a ses lignes.
Mais ne cherchons pas si leur leçon est la même. Admettons que les trois petites rides au fond de la main
d’Hector disent le contraire de ce qu’assurent les fleuves, les vols et les sillages. Je suis curieux de nature,
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French
Organization
Literature
et je n’ai pas peur. Je veux bien aller contre le sort. J’accepte Hélène. Je la rendrai à Ménélas. Je possède
beaucoup plus d’éloquence qu’il n’en faut pour faire croire un mari à la vertu de sa femme. J’amènerai même
Hélène à y croire elle-même. Et je pars à l’instant, pour éviter toute surprise. Une fois au navire, peut-être
risquons-nous de déjouer la guerre.
1. Quelle est la valeur des images que l’on voit dans ce passage?
2. Comment expliquez-vous le fait qu’Hector éprouve “un désir . . . de tuer” même étant pacifiste?
3. Quel est l’intêret de ce passage dans le contexte des deux dernières scènes de la pièce (13–14)?
Quotation Game for AP Exam Review
On small, individual slips of paper, type quotes of three to five lines—ones the students should remember
because the passages contain important themes or images, or represent turning points in a narrative—from
every work on the required reading list. In class, divide the group into small teams (two to four, depending
on the enrollment). In each round of the game, teams select different quotes, then simultaneously, in a
limited amount of time (five to eight minutes maximum), they prepare miniature explications identifying
the following: (1) the work from which the quote was taken; (2) the speaker or speakers, if applicable;
(3) the salient features of the quote, or why it could be called a key passage. Usually, it is possible to play
four or more rounds of this game in a class period, with individual students taking turns presenting the
explications. Teams earn a maximum of three points for content and up to three points for grammatical
accuracy and fluency. At the end, rather than rewarding just the winners, I bring homemade brownies for
the whole class and give first pick to the top team.
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Sample Syllabus 6
Elsie Augustave
Stuyvesant High School
New York City, New York
School Profile
School Location and Environment: Founded in 1904, Stuyvesant High School is located in the Battery
Park neighborhood of lower Manhattan, bordering Tribeca and within walking distance of the site of
the World Trade Center and Wall Street. This urban high school specializes in mathematics, science,
and technology. It offers a large variety of optional courses and promotes a tradition of excellence in all
subjects. Students come from all five boroughs of New York City. Most enter in the ninth grade and a few
in the tenth, but all must successfully pass a special entrance examination in mathematics and language
arts. Many of our students come from homes where English is a second language, and they are the first
generation in their family to attend college. However, they represent varied socioeconomic backgrounds,
with parents who may work in blue-collar or white-collar professions, or even in academia.
Stuyvesant offers courses in nine different languages. Students can choose to study more than one
language, and they have the opportunity to participate in programs abroad in order to increase their
knowledge of the target language and its culture.
Grades: 9–12
Type: Public high school
Total Enrollment: 3,000
Ethnic Diversity: Asian American, 58.2 percent; Hispanic/Latino, 3.3 percent; African American,
2.2 percent
College Record: Of graduating seniors, 99 percent attend four-year colleges.
Personal Philosophy
I was a new teacher with only limited experience when, some 20 years ago, the head of my department
asked me to take over the school’s AP French Literature program. I agreed without hesitation, because I saw
it as an opportunity to explore further my love for literature. To wit: “With literature, there is some special
incentive involved: enjoyment; suspense; a fresh insight into issues which are felt to be close to the heart of
people’s concerns; the delight of encountering one’s own thoughts or situations illuminated by a totally new,
unexpected light or perspective: all these are incentives which can lead learners to overcome enthusiastically
the linguistic obstacles that might be considered too great in less involving material.”7
Moreover, the most gratifying experience in teaching the course is that every time I read a book, I
discover a new perspective—one that may sometimes be generated by a student’s insightful interpretation.
I encourage my students to become independent and original thinkers. They bring to the art of literary
analysis their own knowledge and experiences. But they must illustrate their interpretations with passages
from the text, which is the only way to validate an explication. I believe that intensive instruction and their
own hard work can inculcate those skills in any students.
7. Joanne Collie and Stephen Slater, Literature in the Language Classroom: A Resource Book of Ideas and Activities (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1987): 5–6.
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French
Organization
Literature
Class Profile
The AP French Literature class at Stuyvesant High usually has one section. We meet five days a week for 40
minutes a day. All students have previously taken the fourth-year class that is geared toward providing the
linguistic and analytical skills necessary for literary criticism. The average class size is 20 to 30 students.
Course Overview
The two semesters of the course are devoted to covering the works from the required reading list. All
activities are intended to sharpen and deepen the students’ ability to adequately read and interpret
literature. I strongly recommend cooperative learning in this class but not before the second term. The first
term is taught mostly in a traditional setting where students learn to master techniques of literary analysis.
However, during the second term, I often have them work in groups of two or three to discuss a poem or a
passage that they are later asked to present to the rest of the class.
Texts
Augustave, Elsie, and Irène Assiba d’Almeida. Guide de lecture: “L’enfant noir” de Camara Laye. Sandwich,
Mass.: Wayside Publishing, 2004.
Giraudoux, Jean. La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu. Paris: Larousse-Bordas, 1998.
Hurtgen, André O., ed. Tous les poèmes pour le cours avancé. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 1992.
Laye, Camara. L’enfant noir. Paris: Presses Pocket, 1976.
Maupassant, Guy de. Pierre et Jean. Paris: Livre de Poche, 1984.
Molière. L’école des femmes. Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1970.
Voltaire. Candide. Paris: Petits Classiques Larousse, 1998.
Course Planner
First Semester (September–January)
Week 1: The first day of class is spent discussing the course objectives and providing a brief overview of the
AP Exam. On the second day, I give a short lecture on seventeenth-century France and classicism. We then
begin reading L’école des femmes (act 1).
Week 2: L’école des femmes (act 2)
Week 3: L’école des femmes (acts 3 and 4)
Week 4: L’école des femmes (act 4)
Week 5: L’école des femmes (act 5)
Exam
Textual analysis
Composition
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Week 6: The eighteenth century: Discussions of the Enlightenment and philosophers and moralists. Begin
Candide (chapters 1–4).
Week 7: Candide (chapters 5–10)
Week 8: Candide (chapters 11–16)
Week 9: Candide (chapters 17–20)
Exam on chapters 1–20
Week 10: Candide (chapters 21–30)
Week 11: Candide
Exam on chapters 21–30
Textual analysis
Composition
Week 12: Techniques for analyzing poetry. Begin Baudelaire, “Correspondances,” “Hymne à la beauté,”
“L’invitation au voyage.”
Week 13: Baudelaire, “Chant d’automne,” “Spleen,” “Recueillement”
Textual analysis
Second Semester (February–May)
Week 14: Lecture and discussion on how major historical and intellectual movements have influenced
nineteenth-century literature. Begin Pierre et Jean (chapters 1–4).
Week 15: Pierre et Jean (chapters 5–8)
Week 16: Pierre et Jean—thematic study and presentations by students
Week 17: Poems by Du Bellay
Textual analysis
Week 18: Poems by Labé
Textual analysis
Week 19: Students research the legend of Troy on the Internet for homework. Discussion of the legend and
Giraudoux’s artistic vision. Begin La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu (act 1, scenes 1–6).
Week 20: La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu (finish act 1 and begin act 2)
Week 21: La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu (finish act 2)
Week 22: Thematic presentations on La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu
Textual analysis
Week 23: Poems by La Fontaine
Textual analysis
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French
Organization
Literature
Week 24: Poems by Apollinaire
Textual analysis
Week 25: Poems by Hébert
Textual analysis
Week 26: Begin L’enfant noir (chapters 1–6). Students also read the first two chapters of the Wayside
Publishing study guide on this novel.
Week 27: L’enfant noir (chapters 7–12)
Week 28: Thematic presentations by students
Essay
The rest of the time is devoted to reviewing previous AP French Literature Exams and discussing testtaking skills.
Teaching Strategies
The objective of the course is to teach students to competently analyze literary works and to formulate and
develop a thesis. I teach the entire class in French. We usually discuss the reading assigned for homework
the night before, and we closely examine the related questions that the students have answered. This activity
stimulates ideas and makes it possible for students to evaluate their level of comprehension. It is also an
opportunity for me to explain cultural and historical elements pertinent to the text and how they affect
the plot. Although a historical presentation is not essential to the comprehension and accurate analysis of a
text, it helps with understanding the characters’ milieu as well as their motives. This is especially true for a
text like L’enfant noir. The AP French Literature course is an enriching experience that helps both teacher
and students to better understand the values of French civilization, and literary works from francophone
cultures enable the teacher to broaden and expand that view. I assure you that your enthusiasm for the
course will communicate itself to your students.
It is expected that students will have enough prior training to successfully write a literary analysis.
Thus, it is desirable to make the standards clear. Essays must be well structured and employ correct syntax,
as well as apt vocabulary. Students with poor linguistic resources have a serious handicap when it comes
to organizing and analyzing their thoughts. For this reason, I always involve students in written activities
based on themes as soon as they finish reading and discussing a text. They must be able to present and
defend their point of view, to produce examples, and to make effective transitions from one sentence to the
next and from one paragraph to the next. They should also be able to draw intelligent conclusions. Students
should remember that their readers are already familiar with the book, and a literary analysis elucidates a
text rather than summarizes it. Although there are obviously many different and valid ways to interpret a
literary work, students must always be able to support their views with relevant passages from the text.
In order to provide my students with an effective method of reading that will equip them with the
necessary skills to do well on all parts of the AP French Literature Exam (multiple-choice, textual analysis,
and essay), I spend a lot of time studying L’école des femmes, the first text that we read. It is clear that one
major challenge is understanding the essential points of a passage, especially if it is long. Take, for example,
Arnolphe’s monologue (lines 675–746). I ask the students to divide it into sections, and they have to
extract the main idea from each one. I stress that they should focus on both what is said and how it is said.
The “what,” which is the content, leads to a basic comprehension of the work, and the “how” encourages
students to consider stylistic devices such as antithesis, imagery, comparison, metaphor, sarcasm, irony, and
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so on. They then write a thesis sentence that summarizes the main idea of the passage. If a passage contains
only one main idea, as in lines 894–926 of L’école des femmes, I ask students to give it a title after having
read it and, once again, they have to write a thesis sentence.
We analyze poetry stanza by stanza, underlining stylistic devices. The thesis sentence that follows is a
synthesis of ideas, and consideration is given to the poet’s choice of vocabulary, structure, images, rhythm,
and rhymes. Students are also urged to establish a link between content and form.
Multiple-choice questions will ensure that students are reading carefully. The possible answers, in
addition to the correct one, should include choices that are plausible if the student has not read the work
attentively. Here is an example:
Pour éviter qu’Agnès soit corrompue, Arnolphe fait tout SAUF
(A) contrôler ses influences
(B) manipuler ses domestiques
(C) la faire vivre comme une paysanne
(D) lui donner une éducation adéquate
During the first half of the year (September to January), we read L’école des femmes, Candide, and
Baudelaire’s poems. After each work has been completed, students write a textual analysis and an essay
on the work at home, and they finally take a test composed of multiple-choice questions, fill-in-the-blank
questions, and questions that they answer in complete sentences. For the analysis and the essay, students are
given time in class to read, correct, and edit each other’s work.
We cover the rest of the required reading for the course during the second half of the year. At that
time the students no longer take in-class examinations, but they have a 40-minute class period to write a
composition or a textual analysis on a topic they have not seen before. They also make oral presentations
in class on a given theme in Pierre et Jean, La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu, and L’enfant noir, when we are
done reading each of those texts.
Thus, a close reading of L’école des femmes and Candide makes it possible for students to master the art
of literary analysis, and you can go through the other works rather quickly without sacrificing quality.
Student Evaluation
A student’s grade reflects both oral and written work. The final grade breaks down this way:
• Written work (tests, textual analyses, and essays): 55 percent
• Oral work (class participation and presentations): 35 percent
• Homework: 10 percent
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Literature
Teacher Resources
Books
The following books are helpful for teaching students how to write good essays.
Cockelreas, Joanne, and Dorothy Logan. Writing Essays About Literature: A Literary Rhetoric. New York:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970.
Roberts, Edgar V., Writing About Literature. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2006.
To learn about the different literary periods and their influences on the works from the reading list, I
also recommend:
Berg, Robert J., ed. Littérature française: Textes et contextes. 2 vols. Fort Worth, Tex.: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, 1994-97.
Film
Hiroshima mon amour. 1959. Directed by Alain Resnais. Distributed by Criterion, 2003. 91 minutes.
Student Activities
Once the AP Exam is over, I take the opportunity to bring other aspects of French and francophone life
and culture into the classroom. Students must prepare a 5- to 10-minute presentation on a nonliterary
topic (politics, religion, art, or economics, to name a few) in France or in a French-speaking country. We
then read Marguerite Duras’s Hiroshima mon amour and subsequently watch the movie. A favorite topic of
discussion is whether Alain Resnais has succeeded or failed in conveying Duras’s vision.
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Sample Syllabus 7
Margaret E. Gray
Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana
University Profile
Location and Environment: Indiana University, founded in 1820 as a land-grant institution, is set in
south-central Indiana in the small town of Bloomington, among gently rolling wooded hills. As the public
university of the state of Indiana, IU is a member of the Big Ten consortium of midwestern universities.
Bloomington is home to the main campus; an additional seven branch campuses are sprinkled around the
state. The curriculum covers a wide spectrum of fields: the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as Schools
of Medicine (in Indianapolis), Law, Business, Music, Journalism, Public and Environmental Affairs, Library
Science, and others.
Type: Public, coeducational, land-grant college
Total Enrollment: Approximately 38,000
Ethnic Diversity: As of spring 2006, among U.S. students, 7.0 percent were African American; 2.7 percent,
Asian American; 2.7 percent, Hispanic/Latino; and 0.3 percent, Native American. International students
from 130 different countries constituted 9 percent of the student body.
Personal Philosophy
One of the great rewards of teaching this course is watching the students react to the change from languagedriven to literature-focused study, as this is the first such course for many of them. But their discovery of
literature is often accompanied by doubt and uncertainty, for they frequently feel unsure of themselves and
intimidated by their new responsibilities; many tell me, for instance, that they have never before written
a seven-page paper in French and cannot imagine doing so. Participating in my students’ development of
new skills and new levels of achievement, as well as admiring the increased self-confidence they acquire in
meeting these new challenges, is a constant pleasure.
My own challenge is to strive to motivate them to reach and maintain a personal best effort as each
negotiates the demands of the course. For these reasons, I emphasize individual autonomy and responsibility,
both in class and beyond. For example, students are expected to take charge of their own class preparation
in anticipation of frequent small-group exercises in class, in which I call on a member of each group—
without indicating ahead of time which student this will be—to report the group’s collective findings. The
chance to test ideas and expression at first within small groups helps develop self-confidence in conveying
these ideas to the entire class; yet any student who attempts to do so without having prepared the reading
conscientiously cannot help but reveal such inadequate preparation.
Class Profile
The student population in this introductory French literature class (Reading and Expression in French)
tends to be quite hybrid. It is composed largely of first-year students who have had very good preparation
in high school; they have often taken the AP French Exams, particularly French Language. (If they enter
Indiana University with a score of 4 or 5 on the AP French Literature Exam, they are allowed to skip the
introductory literature class and enroll either in Roman et Poésie or Théâtre et Essai. If they enter with high
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scores on the AP French Language Exam, they are given credit for two years of college-level French but
must demonstrate their proficiency by taking this introductory literature course.) There is also a group of
older students who began their study of French at the college level and who reach the introductory literature
course as juniors or seniors. Then there is usually a sprinkling of students from outside the College of Arts
and Sciences, often business or music students, who are invariably extremely motivated. One fortunate
consequence here in the College of Arts and Sciences, where a two-year language requirement must be
fulfilled for graduation, is that students take this course not because they still need to satisfy this obligation
but because they want to continue with French. In the fall semester, five sections of the class are normally
offered, with enrollment limited to 20 students each; there are usually three sections of the course during
the spring semester. Classes meet on Tuesday and Thursday for 75 minutes per session or Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday for 50 minutes each.
Course Overview
This one-semester course is governed by three objectives. The first—concerning the subject matter—is to
build on the students’ knowledge of the four basic literary genres: poetry, drama, novel, and short story.
In the case of the shorter genres studied (poetry and short story) contrasting texts from different literary
eras provide additional context. Readings are therefore organized with attention to chronological order,
so as to emphasize historical perspective and the evolution of literary form. Beginning with Renaissance
love lyrics, for example, allows students to appreciate the difference in both form and substance when we
come to Baudelaire’s tormented manipulation of the love lyric in the nineteenth century. Similarly, the
irony of a Maupassant short story prepares students for further ironies involving point of view and moral
responsibility in twentieth-century short stories by Curtis, Camus, and Thomas. The study of these four
genres brings us to the second course objective, which concerns methods of literary interpretation and
explication; students rehearse and develop techniques of close reading and literary analysis through class
discussion and all written assignments. Throughout the course and its various exercises, the importance
of insightful ideas, supported and justified by precise examples from the text, is emphasized. All activities
for the class—discussion, reading, and writing—contribute to the pursuit of the final course objective, a
practical one: improvement of each student’s speaking, reading, listening, and writing skills in French.
Texts
Anouilh, Jean. “Le voyageur sans bagage,” suivi de “Le bal des voleurs.” Paris: Éditions de la Table Ronde, 1958.
Brée, Germaine, and Georges Markow-Totevy, eds. Contes et nouvelles, 1950–1970. Rev. ed. New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston, 1970.
Laye, Camara. L’enfant noir. Edited by Myrna Bell Rochester and Natalie Schorr. Newburyport, Mass.:
Focus Publishing/R. Pullins, 2005.
Poems and Maupassant’s story “La parure” are provided as photocopies or are available online from
Web sites such as Toute la Poésie (see the Teacher Resources section on page 90 for a comprehensive listing
of Web sites for each author we study).
Course Planner
Week 1
Introduction to the class. Objectives: introductory exploration of French literary history, development
of techniques of literary analysis and expository writing skills, as well as oral discussion of literature.
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Introduction of principles of French versification: the French poetic line (alexandrin, décasyllabe,
octosyllabe, etc.); rhyme schemes; poetic form: the ode, the sonnet, the fable, and so forth.
The Sixteenth Century: The Renaissance. Its origins in Florence, Italy; the role of François I in bringing
the Renaissance to France; the legacy of Petrarch. Pierre de Ronsard, “À sa maîtresse,” and Louise Labé,
“Tant que mes yeux. . . .” Comparison of masculine and feminine manipulations of le pétrarquisme.
Week 2
The Seventeenth Century: La Fontaine and the Fable. “Le loup et l’agneau.”
The Nineteenth Century: Romanticism. Alphonse de Lamartine, “Le lac,” Les contemplations.
Comparison of masculine and feminine perspectives (position of the poet versus that of “la voix qui m’est
chère”) in “Le lac.”
Week 3
Romanticism, continued. Victor Hugo, “Demain, dès l’aube.” Symbolism and the demise of Romanticism:
the transformation of the love lyric in Baudelaire’s “À celle qui est trop gaie.”
The Twentieth Century: Québécoise poet Anne Hébert, “Une fois seulement.”
Week 4
Review of poetry and in-class essay analysis of one poem from the reading list (precise poem is not
specified in advance).
Drama: Jean Anouilh, Le bal des voleurs. Theater as social critique; the dramatization of role-playing
(beginning with the “baiser très cinéma” in the opening scene) and theater about theater. Tableau 1: a
crusty dowager, her two nieces, her cowed but faithful old friend, and an inept band of thieves—including
the youngest member with his own code of honor.
Week 5
Le bal des voleurs, tableaux 2 and 3.
Week 6
Le bal des voleurs, tableau 3, continued, and tableau 4. Conclusion.
Week 7
Midterm exam on poetry and drama.
Film: Glimpses of West Africa (in French). Camara Laye, L’enfant noir, and the universality of comingof-age experiences: childhood, school days, friendships, departure from home, first love, death of a friend.
Ch. 1: the little black snake, “génie” of the father.
Week 8
L’enfant noir, ch. 1, conclusion; ch. 2: creating gold jewelry in the father’s workshop, construction of the
father’s glory; ch. 3: visit to the village of Tindican, parody of the father’s glory in the child’s heroic
reception by the villagers.
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Week 9
L’enfant noir, ch. 3, conclusion; ch. 4: the rice harvest and the child’s difference (“ma vie n’était pas ici …
Mais ou était ma vie?”); ch. 5: construction of the “glory” of the mother—her totem, her special powers.
Week 10
L’enfant noir, ch. 6: trials and tribulations of school days; ch. 7: first ritual of initiation to manhood—the rite
of the lions, or “Kondén Diara.”
Week 11
L’enfant noir, ch. 8: ritual of manhood (“nous étions enfin des hommes, mais que le prix en était élévé!”);
ch. 9: departure from home—Conakry, Uncle Mamadou’s household, technical school.
Week 12
L’enfant noir, ch. 10: first love and its elusive definition (“un bonheur et une chaleur! Mais peut être est ce
cela justement l’amour”); ch. 11: friendship—the death of Check; ch. 12: departure for France.
Week 13
L’enfant noir, conclusion and closing ritual. Each student presents the thesis of his/her seven-page paper
orally before the class and then submits the hard copy to me. (Students choose their own paper topics,
pending my approval. I may, however, provide a suggested list, including, for example: le sentiment de la
différence, le rôle des rites, le rapport père/fils, le rapport mère/fils, mystère et magie, le rôle de l’école, le
rôle de la danse, aliénation et exil, nostalgie et rapport au passé, le rôle de la nourriture).
The Novella: A “Nervous” Form and Its Ironies. Guy de Maupassant, “La parure.”
Week 14
Point of View and Dramatic Contrast: Jean-Louis Curtis, “Le coffret,” and Henri Thomas, “La barque.”
Week 15
Moral Choice and Responsibility: Albert Camus, “L’hôte.” In-class debate in teams: Was Daru right or
wrong in his choice?
General comprehensive review in preparation for final exam.
Week 16
Final two-hour exam in four parts:
1. Identification of poetic form, line, and rhyme scheme; one-paragraph discussion of the central idea
of one poem on the reading list (poem provided but not specified in advance).
2. Ten quotations from Anouilh, Le bal des voleurs: identify the character speaking and discuss the
importance/significance in a short paragraph for each.
3. Ten quotations from Camara Laye, L’enfant noir: identify the character speaking and discuss the
importance/significance in a short paragraph for each.
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4. Essay on the short stories: students choose one of three essay questions, each of which treats two
short stories. Recent students were asked, for example, to analyze the importance of the surprises
that close Camus’s “L’hôte” and Thomas’s “La barque,” or to discuss the function and importance of
certain images in each of two stories—the image of swimming in “La barque” and the image of the
jewel box in Curtis’s “Le coffret.”
Teaching Strategies
A common complaint in literature courses is that every class is the same—that is, literary discussion and
more literary discussion. One of the major challenges to the teacher of literature is thus to build variety
into the daily structure. I accomplish this by introducing a number of interactive “games” and competitions
into the classroom (see Student Activities on page 91). One approach that I have used successfully is to
assign each student a class date; each is then responsible for sending the entire class (by e-mail), a couple of
days prior to that time, a study question based on the reading for that date. Students often come up with not
just one but several very meaningful questions on the poem or passages they have been assigned, and their
classmates are able to use these as a point of departure for their own reading.
Drama
In teaching plays, I have found that a successful strategy has been to call on students to stand and come
forward for brief dramatic readings of the passages assigned for discussion. Following the reading of a
scene, or exchange, these students remain standing while the class is invited to interview the characters
they represent. If the class initially seems shy about asking questions, I do so first to get things started. This
works as a good warm-up exercise to launch class discussion.
Novel
When students are discussing a work that occupies several weeks of the syllabus, the need to add variety
to each class becomes particularly pressing. In the case of L’enfant noir, for example, I have found that
the following small-group exercises successfully serve that purpose and bring enjoyment to the study of
the novel.
Chapter 9 recounts the narrator’s departure from home to study in Conakry, the capital. He describes
his train journey from the plains of Kouroussa, his birthplace, up a plateau and down again to the coast.
Small groups can each be given a photocopied map of Guinea and asked to retrace the narrator’s itinerary
(his references to city names make this quite easy), discussing the evolution of the narrator’s feelings as
they do so. Initially, for example, the narrator’s tears of farewell cloud his view, and he resists the changing
landscape outside the train window. When his journey continues the next morning, however, his attitude is
entirely different; eagerly glued to the train window in excitement over seeing an unfamiliar landscape, he
indicates his readiness for the new life that lies ahead of him.
Chapter 10 details the innocent and charming experience of first love, in all its shyness, its inexplicable
feelings of warmth and happiness. Students greatly enjoy dramatizing the narrator’s experience by dividing
into small groups and writing, in class, a microscenario in response to the different prompts that I give
to each group. Each group then performs its tiny scene, which usually consists of a few simple exchanges,
in front of the class; the creation and performance of all scenarios can easily be accomplished within the
duration of one class period. Prompts that students have responded to particularly well include “Laye
invites Marie to the movies,” “Laye’s jealous friends watch him ride by with Marie on his bike,” “Marie
talks to her girlfriends about her feelings for Laye,” “Laye talks to his buddies about his feelings for Marie,”
“Laye’s parents wonder about their son’s dreaminess, without understanding its cause,” “Laye’s aunts
(who do understand) make playful fun of Laye and Marie’s innocence,” and “Laye helps Marie with her
math homework.”
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Chapter 11 is devoted to friendship and can be studied in two parts, the first quite comic—involving
Laye’s mother’s interference in his efforts at establishing independent friendships, particularly with
girls—the second quite sad, involving the death of a good friend. Small groups can be assigned to locate
and prepare to discuss briefly—in front of the class—one comic detail in the first part of the chapter; then,
changing partners, groups can be asked to do the same for a sad detail of their choice in the second half of
the chapter.
Chapter 12 concludes the novel with Laye’s departure for France. In the final image, the narrator is
on the plane to Paris, arms crossed over his chest in emotion over leaving his family and homeland; bit
by bit, he becomes aware of a map of the Paris subway system in his breast pocket, given to him by the
director of his school. Photocopies of the Paris Métro map can be distributed to small groups for analysis
of its symbolism. The groups usually come up with ideas suggesting a labyrinth and the map as a guiding
thread allowing Laye to navigate successfully. Yet the implicit circularity of the Paris Métro also suggests
the danger for Laye—will he become so at home in his new life that he will never find his way back to his
homeland, as his father fears?
Poetry
A useful exercise for many poems is to assign a particular stanza to each small group of students, giving
the groups a few minutes to discuss what their stanza adds to the poem and how it furthers the poem’s
purposes. Each group then reports its findings to the class. This may be varied by an assignment to convert
the gist of each stanza into ordinary, colloquial French; each group greatly enjoys putting its “translation”
on the blackboard (this also offers an opportunity for some fairly painless, brief, remedial grammar review
as the group can be invited to correct mistakes). Small groups can also be given assignments specific to each
poem. Similarly, groups can be asked to analyze the evolution of the poet’s position in the poem.
Student Evaluation
The final grade is calculated as follows:
Class participation (10 percent). I exhort the students regularly to do themselves several favors and
participate actively in class (a) to improve their practical skills (good oral skills also help promote good
writing skills); (b) to try out their own ideas prior to formal testing sessions; and (c) to sharpen their
listening skills, for active participation is a direct result of active listening.
A full-period, in-class literary analysis following the explication de texte format (15 percent) in
response to a poem studied in class but not announced in advance. For such an exercise, I circle, but do not
include in the grade, mistakes in French grammar and syntax; students may then correct their mistakes in
order to earn a grade one-third higher (moving, for instance, from B to B+).
Midterm exam (15 percent) on French versification as well as drama, with quotations to identify and
discuss from plays. Far more important than correct identification of the character speaking is a brief
analysis of the importance or interest of the remark, what it tells us about the character, and so forth. Again,
grammatical mistakes do not count in the grade, but students may correct them.
Reading journal on a novel or play (15 percent). Students react and respond to their reading by keeping
a journal, which they submit at the end of every week. To encourage creativity and responsiveness, I grade
this purely on grammar, not on ideas. This is a good informal way of having students react and respond to
the reading while working on their French skills.
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One seven-page paper (double-spaced) on a novel, dealing with a topic of the student’s choice,
requiring my approval (20 percent). I provide a list of possibilities, though students are encouraged to define
a subject of their own. Dates are established for the submission of a paragraph on the student’s chosen
theme, for the submission of an outline, and for the submission of the final draft. Given that students have
far greater control over expression under such circumstances (access to dictionaries, grammar books, etc.),
grammatical mistakes have an impact on the grade.
Final exam (25 percent): This consists of recognition of aspects of French versification, identification
and discussion of quotations from plays and novels, a one-paragraph summation of the central idea of a
poem or excerpt (text provided), and one long essay question.
Every individual assignment receives a letter grade, which is then converted numerically, using the
highest equivalent for each grade (A becomes 95, A- becomes 92, B+ becomes 89, and so on). Each value is
then integrated with the others, according to the percentage weights listed above, to calculate the student’s
final grade.
Teacher Resources
Video
Glimpses of West Africa. 1990. Filmed and edited by David W. Flaccus. Roanoke, Va.: Gessler Publishing.
32 minutes.
Web Sites
General
@ la Lettre. A helpful site for biographical information on writers throughout French literary history.
www.alalettre.com/HFcenter18.htm.
American Association of Teachers of French/Connecticut Chapter. This page is organized by authors on
the required reading list for AP French Literature courses and contains links to online texts, audio files,
and recommended Web sites.
www.yale.edu/aatfct/ap.html.
Toute la Poésie. An outstanding general resource.
www.toutelapoesie.com.
Novelists
Albert Camus: Sisyphe.
http://users.skynet.be/sisyphe/exilroyaume.asp.
Camara Laye: Books and Writers.
www.kirjasto.sci.fi/laye.htm.
Playwright
Jean Anouilh: @ la Lettre.com.
www.alalettre.com/anouilh-intro.htm.
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Poets
Anne Hébert: Anne Hérbert (biography). Robert Harvey, Université de Montréal.
www.anne-hebert.com. Selected poems. Boston Latin School.
http://bls.org/languages/ap_languages/french_ap/hebert.htm.
Louise Labé: Je l’imagine . . .
www.franceweb.fr/poesie/labe2.htm.
Jean de La Fontaine: À la Découverte de Jean de La Fontaine.
www.lafontaine.net/nouveau-site/index.php.
Pierre de Ronsard: Pierre de Ronsard.
www.renaissance-amboise.com/dossier_renaissance/ses_personnages/les_ecrivains/ronsard.htm.
Short Story Writers
Jean-Louis Curtis: Académie Française.
www.academie-francaise.fr/immortels/base/academiciens/fiche.asp?param=673.
Guy de Maupassant: Maupassant par les textes.
http://maupassant.free.fr.
Henri Thomas: Le Temps Qu’il Fait.
www.letempsquilfait.com/Pages/Auteurs/Thomas/thomas.html.
Student Activities
A literary game applicable to any text is one I call “Russian Roulette” (la roulette russe) in which I distribute
an index card to each student. Ripping the card in two, the student writes his/her name on one half and a
question about the assigned reading on the other. Names and questions are then gathered into two separate
piles, shuffled, and redistributed; each student thus ends up with a name and a question. In turn, students
address the question they have been given to the name they have been given. The advantage of such a game
is the equality it imposes on the group, with everyone, the loquacious and the reticent, strong students and
weaker students, given precisely one random question to answer.
Another exercise useful for imposing equality among students of diverse levels, as well as providing
each with a built-in opportunity to speak, is to have every student come to class prepared to discuss
the importance of one detail from the reading. Everyone enjoys the rapid-fire variety this brings to the
discussion, as the class moves from one detail to another.
For any general review, students welcome a team competition. I hand out a list of short-answer questions
for them to prepare ahead of time (give three adjectives that describe Laye and Marie’s relationship in
L’enfant noir, for example, or summarize the poet’s solution to “la fuite du temps” in Lamartine’s “Le lac”).
In class, students divide into, say, three teams and line up in front of me. (The teams often like to choose
names for themselves.) In turn, the first student in line on each team is given an opportunity to answer
a question that I select at random from the list. If the question is missed, it goes to the next team for an
opportunity to earn the point. A running tally for each team is kept on the board. Such an exercise is
particularly useful for refreshing students’ memories of material covered some time ago. Since the objective
is breadth, not depth, of coverage—a sort of “greatest hits” of each text—this exercise is a good point of
departure for the students’ own individual study and review. Touching briefly and collectively on a wide
variety of characters and themes from the reading makes the subsequent task of individual review seem
less daunting.
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Sample Syllabus 8
Virginia Krause
Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island
University Profile
Location and Environment: Brown University is located in an urban setting in an old part of Providence,
Rhode Island. The college has a traditional New England feel, but it also has a reputation for being
progressive. For example, about 30 years ago, Brown implemented the “new curriculum”—an absence of
any general education requirements. Thus, the only required courses for students are those in their major.
Although it is a university with strong graduate programs, Brown also has much in common with a liberal
arts college, with a student-faculty ratio of 9 to 1. Most students who come here have received very good
high school preparation. Many study abroad—and most students in French take part in our Brown-inFrance program. It is not uncommon for them to have already traveled or studied in a francophone country
or to have learned some French through family environments.
Type: Private university with both graduate and undergraduate schools
Total Enrollment: Approximately 6,000 undergraduates
Ethnic Diversity: The student body tends to be nationally and ethnically diverse. Enrollment figures show
that 14 percent of undergraduates are Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders; 7 percent are African Americans;
7 percent are of Hispanic/Latino background; and 0.6 percent are Native Americans. International students
account for 6 percent of the population, representing 72 countries.
Personal Philosophy
I want students in my course to develop their skills as close readers, to master key concepts in literary study,
to develop their written and oral French, and to learn about some of the social, aesthetic, and intellectual
ideals from earlier periods. In other words, this is a literature course with a strong “civilization” component
that also seeks to develop written and oral expression.
The literary texts studied are from cultures radically different from our own, with assumptions
and standards that many students have never contemplated. I want them to engage literary texts on an
intellectual level—to grapple with them, to ask questions, to uncover hesitations, and to become sensitive
to what is never explicitly stated but still shapes the production of meaning (what Pierre Bourdieu terms
“l’implicite idéologique”). Yet I do not want this intellectual engagement to take the form of a now/then
(us/them) dialectic with two extreme scenarios, each leading to an impasse: either the texts are shown to
be unsatisfactory when held up against our own ideals regarding gender, narrative interest, or character
psychology, or they are shut off in a “museum of the past” with which the present can have no connection.
In trying to avoid both of these extremes, I encourage students to examine literary texts from the earliest
centuries in French literature as an ethnographer examines an artifact from a lost civilization. At the same
time, I want them to understand the literary text to be similar to a musical score: it is only actualized when
it is read by a reader-interpreter.
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Class Profile
French 100 generally has a strong component of first-year students, perhaps half the class. Of these, the vast
majority are AP students who have received a grade of 5 on the AP French Literature or French Language
Exam (or occasionally a 4, but with a very good level of reading comprehension) and who go straight into
our upper-division literature and civilization courses. I would say that about the same number (half) are
comparative literature majors. Class size is small (from 9 to 14 students). Almost all of the students in this
class will major in French or comparative literature or both.
This class is one of the few requirements for a literature major in French Studies. (Most of our students
choose the “civilization” major rather than the “literature” major, although, to be sure, there is considerable
overlap.) French 100 is offered every other year in the fall semester only, and it has only one section. It
meets for 50 minutes, three times a week.
Course Overview
French 100 is a survey of French literature from the medieval period through the neoclassical age. Its
cultural perspective is deliberately broad in order to elucidate connections between literature and knowledge,
power, and other artistic forms (architecture and painting). Our analyses bring to the fore the materiality
of texts through the lens of the history of the book. We also explore the ideological functions of literature,
which was put to the service of a conquering Christianity (the Crusades), for instance, or charged with
promoting the new ethics of the courtly elite (la fin’ amor). Finally, medieval and early modern literature is
not reduced to a reservoir of obsolete certainties in relation to our own modernity. Instead, it is to outline
their questions, uncertainties, and deceptions that we examine medieval and early modern texts.
There are three primary class goals: to experience a broad view of texts representative of French
literature from the eleventh through the seventeenth centuries; to acquire historical and critical concepts
such as intertext, epic, parody, humanism, translatio, courtly love, and passion; and to develop techniques
of written and oral expression.
Texts
No textbook is used in the course; instead, students purchase the following books from the university
bookstore:
La chanson de Roland. Edited by Ian Short. 2nd ed. Paris: Livre de Poche/Librairie Générale Française,
1990.
La Châtelaine de Vergy. Edited by Jean Dufournet and Liliane Dulac. Paris: Gallimard, 1994.
Chrétien de Troyes. Cligès. Paris: Librairie Générale Française, 1994.
Du Bellay, Joachim. Les antiquités de Rome, Les regrets. Paris: Flammarion, 1994.
La Fayette, Madame de. La Princesse de Montpensier. Paris: Librairie Générale Française, 2003.
Molière. Dom Juan. Paris: Larousse, 1998.
Montaigne, Michel de. Essais. Vols. 1 and 3. Paris: Gallimard, 1965.
Rabelais, François. Pantagruel. Paris: Presses Pocket, 1997.
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Course Planner
Français 100: Automne 2004
I. La chanson de Roland et la chrétienté conquérante
Semaine 1 (du 6 septembre)
mercredi: Introduction
vendredi: La chanson de Roland, 53–107 (pages impaires seulement)
Semaine 2 (du 13 septembre)
lundi: La chanson de Roland, 107-51
mercredi: La chanson de Roland, 151–221
vendredi: La chanson de Roland, 221-95
Semaine 3 (du 20 septembre)
lundi: La chanson de Roland, 295–351
mercredi: La chanson de Roland, 351-81
vendredi: Chrétien de Troyes, Cligès, 45–59, 107-75
II. Chrétien de Troyes et la naissance du roman médiéval
Semaine 4 (du 27 septembre)
lundi: Cligès, 185–297
mercredi: Cligès, 297–407
vendredi: Cligès, 407-51
Semaine 5 (du 4 octobre)
lundi: L’architecture gothique et la pensée scolastique
mercredi: La Châtelaine de Vergy, 33–61
vendredi: La Châtelaine de Vergy, 61–107
III. L’Humanisme et la Renaissance
Semaine 6 (du 11 octobre)
lundi: Jour de Christophe Columb
mercredi: Rablais, Pantagruel, prologue
vendredi: Pantagruel (sélections), chs. 1–5 [Travail écrit no. 1]
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Semaine 7 (du 18 octobre)
lundi: Pantagruel, chs. 8–12
mercredi: Pantagruel, chs. 16–20
vendredi: Le cours se réunit à la bibliothèque John Hay
IV. Lyrisme: Désir et regrets
Semaine 8 (du 25 octobre)
lundi: Ronsard (poèmes polycopiés)
mercredi: Ronsard (suite)
vendredi: Du Bellay, Les regrets, nos. 1, 2, 4
Semaine 9 (du 1er novembre)
lundi: Du Bellay, Les regrets, nos. 7, 9, 19
mercredi: Du Bellay, Les regrets, nos. 31, 32, 130
vendredi: Du Bellay, Les antiquités, nos. 1, 3
Semaine 10 (du 8 novembre)
lundi: Du Bellay, Les antiquités, no. 30
mercredi: Montaigne, Essais, “Par divers moyens” (vol. 1, ch. 1), “De démocrite et Héraclite” (vol. 1, ch. 50)
[Travail écrit no. 2]
vendredi: Montaigne, “Des cannibales” (vol. 1, ch. 31)
V. Le cannibale, la sorcière, et l’essayiste
Semaine 11 (du 15 novembre)
lundi: Montaigne, “Du repentir” (vol. 3, ch. 4)
mercredi: Montaigne, “Des boiteux” (vol. 3, ch. 11)
vendredi: Madame de La Fayette, La Princesse de Montpensier, 35–49
Semaine 12 (du 22 novembre)
lundi: La Princesse de Montpensier, 50–70
mercredi: Vacances d’action de grâces
vendredi: Vacances d’action de grâces
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VI. Dom Juan et l’ivresse de la séduction
Semaine 13 (du 29 novembre)
lundi: Molière, Dom Juan, actes 1–3
mercredi: Dom Juan, actes 4–5
vendredi: Conclusion
Semaine 14 (du 6 décembre)
lundi: Examen
Semaine 15 (du 13 décembre)
lundi: [Travail écrit no. 3]
Teaching Strategies
I usually begin each class with a structured summary of the previous discussion, using it as an occasion to
present a synthesis (5 minutes). Then I give a 5- to 10-minute talk on some aspect of the assigned reading.
This brief lecture may focus on literary history or historical information, or it may define in some detail
a specific concept such as courtly love, classicism, or humanism. The majority of the class (generally
about 40 minutes) is devoted to discussion generated by several questions (announced at the end of the
preceding class). At times, I ask students to do some group work—for instance, they might work in pairs
and then make a presentation to the rest of the class. Other times, there will be a short student presentation
on a specific topic (see Student Activities on page 102). All written and oral work is in French, as are all of
the readings. The following are examples of classroom strategies that I have employed to good effect:
• One class is held at the Rare Book Room on campus (John Hay Library). This meeting is devoted
to the “history of the book.” We first discuss how books and manuscripts were made, and then
we examine a few samples. (I always ask the librarian to make available at least two or three early
modern editions of works we have already studied.) Students examine the books as objects—or
rather as artifacts that can shed light on the production and consumption of literature at the time.
(See handout at the end of this section.)
• I juxtapose a scene from a modern film with a passage in a text we are studying. For instance, when
we read La chanson de Roland, I contrast a scene from this medieval epic poem with Ridley Scott’s
Kingdom of Heaven. The scene chosen may lend itself to one of the following questions: How is the
pagan character represented? What are the defining traits of heroism? How is violence related to
religion?
• Another subject—very topical—that we discuss regarding La chanson de Roland is to what extent one
can compare Roland’s actions to those of a suicide bomber or terrorist. For instance, in both cases,
sacrifice of self (and others—Roland’s entire army is destroyed because of his actions) is made in the
name of a sacred truth. In both cases, this sacred truth also has a political thrust (freeing the holy
land from “infidels”).
• I have found that students generally have no sympathy for the hero of Molière’s Dom Juan. As
an exercise in intellectual perspective, I ask one or several students to defend the point of view of
Dom Juan against accusations made by other students. For instance, could one see him as a rebel—
someone who revolts against all forms of order in his world: religion, monogamy, class boundaries,
and the authority of the father.
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Handout for “History of the Book” Class
L’imprimerie (en Occident): Gutenberg dans les années 1451-52
• Les caractères mobiles et rigoureusement identiques (ce qui permet la production dite “de masse”)
• L’encre grasse, qui permet une meilleure impression
• Le papier disponible en grande quantité
Quelques éléments du livre matériel
• Les caractères (gothiques, romains, etc.)
• La reliure (= binding)
• Les gravures (= woodcuts)
Le paratexte ou le “seuil” du livre: format, couverture, page de titre, nom de l’auteur, annexes, et dédicaces:
1. “Le texte se présente rarement à l’état nu, sans le renfort et l’accompagnement d’un certain nombre
de productions, elles-mêmes verbales ou non, comme un nom d’auteur, un titre, une préface, des
illustrations, dont on ne sait pas toujours si l’on doit ou non considérer qu’elles lui appartiennent,
mais qui en tout cas l’entourent et le prolongent, précisément pour le présenter, au sens habituel de
ce verbe, mais en son sens plus fort: pour le rendre présent, pour assurer sa présence au monde, sa
‘réception’ et sa consommation, sous la forme aujourd’hui du moins, d’un livre” (Gérard Genette,
Seuils [Paris: Seuil, 1987], 7).
2. “Les impressions tant élégantes et correctes en usance, qui ont esté inventées de mon âge par
inspiration divine . . .” (Rabelais, Pantagruel, ch. 8).
3. “Les auteurs n’écrivent pas de livres: non, ils écrivent des textes qui deviennent des objets écrits,
manuscrits, gravés, imprimés (et aujourd’hui informatisés). Cet écart, qui est justement l’espace
dans lequel se construit le sens, a été trop souvent oublié” (Roger Chartier, citant Donald F.
McKenzie, L’ordre des livres: Lecteurs, auteurs, bibliothèques en Europe entre XIVe et XVIIIe siècle
[Aix-en-Provence: Alinea, 1992], 21).
4. “À l’époque du manuscrit, entouré de sa glose (marginale ou interlinéaire) qui assurait le rôle
éminent de cadre, le texte se trouvait présenté, exposé, en même temps que protégé (par la présence
massive de la tradition) de toute lecture qui se serait voulue directe” (François Roudaut, Le livre au
XVIe siècle: Eléments de bibliologie matérielle et d’histoire [Paris: Champion, 2003], 19).
Le pourcentage de livres qui sont en latin:
En 1501: 80 pourcent
En 1535: 70 pourcent
En 1565: 50 pourcent
En 1595: 60 pourcent
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Le livre religieux:
En 1550: 20 pourcent
En 1650: 40 pourcent
Student Evaluation
• Essays (60 percent): I assign three essays in French, four to six pages each. I give students a choice of
topics about three weeks before each essay is due (see handouts below). These essays are not usually
research papers but rather analysis of a specific work.
• Oral work (25 percent): This consists of one class presentation (exposé) plus participation in
discussions. At the beginning of the semester, I have students choose one of the topics from a
prepared list (see Student Activities on page 102). Each presentation should be concise (no more
than 10 minutes), well structured, and illustrated by specific examples.
• Final exam (15 percent): For this one-hour test, students are given eight quotes from literary texts
we have studied and asked to choose five for identification and short analysis. They first identify
the work and its author and then perform a close reading of the passage. I ask them to gloss specific
words (for instance, le trouble—an important term in Madame de La Fayette’s literary lexicon), to
examine rhetorical figures, and to explore themes explicitly or implicitly at stake.
Handouts for Essay Topics
Essai 1
À rendre: le 15 octobre (4–6 pages)
Choix de sujets
1. La chanson de Roland dans le contexte des Croisades. Dans quelle mesure le projet de la chrétienté
conquérante informe-t-il cette épopée? Interprétez les éléments implicites ainsi que le discours
ouvertement idéologique qui est parfois employé.
2. Saint Bernard et la justification de la “guerre juste.” Étudiez le texte de S. Bernard sur le site Webct
du cours (course menu, croisades [liens]). Dans quelle mesure cette justification semble-t-elle
informer La chanson de Roland?
3. La chanson de Roland et Gargantua. En 1534, François Rabelais publie son deuxième roman,
Gargantua, dont le chapitre 25 est une parodie de l’épopée médiévale. En prenant La chanson de
Roland comme modèle, montrez comment l’humaniste reprend les traits formels de la chanson
de geste. Étudiez le jeu intertextuel dans ce chapitre où Rabelais imite les procédés épiques à des
fins ludiques.
4. L’héroïsme dans La chanson de Roland et dans Cligès. Dans quelle mesure l’idéal de l’héroïsme
change-t-il lorsque l’on passe de la chanson de geste au roman?
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5. L’amour en Occident est né au douzième siècle par l’invention de la fin’ amor (ce que l’on nomme
aujourd’hui l’amour courtois), chez les troubadours. Henri Rey-Flaud caractérise cette invention
littéraire ainsi:
Le troubadour trouve, lui, sa jouissance dans . . . un désir impossible, maintenu dans une
rétention délicieuse et douloureuse au seuil de la transgression. Mais ce serait singulière illusion
que de parler ici de “maîtrise du désir.” Car de cette rétention du désir nul n’a la maîtrise, sinon la
mort, toujours présente comme seul tiers dans la relation courtoise. C’est bien au pied de la lettre
qu’il faut prendre les troubadours qui ne cessent d’affirmer qu’ils “meurent d’amour” (La névrose
courtoise [Paris: Navarin, 1983], 24).
Après avoir commenté la citation de Rey-Flaud, montrez dans quelle mesure cette vision de “la
névrose courtoise” s’applique à La Châtelaine de Vergy.
Conseils pratiques
• Développez une thèse claire mais nuancée en suivant une structure rigoureuse.
• Travaillez sur le style, surtout dans l’introduction et la conclusion.
• Relisez attentivement votre essai en vérifiant l’accord des adjectifs et des verbes.
• Passez par Antidote (CIT) ou bien par Word-French pour vérifier l’orthographe et la grammaire.
Essai 2
À rendre: le 10 novembre (4–6 pages)
Choix de sujets
1. Le personnage de Panurge dans Pantagruel. Basé en partie sur le personnage folklorique du filou
(du trickster), Panurge, toujours provocateur, devient l’agent principal de la parodie dans Pantagruel.
Étudiez ce personnage en tenant compte de la définition suivante de la parodie: “imitation consciente
et volontaire, soit du fond, soit de la forme, dans une intention moqueuse ou simplement comique”
(Bernard Dupriez, Gradus: Les procédés littéraires [Paris: Union Générale d’Editions, 1984]).
2. La liste est l’un des procédés qui caractérisent le plus le style rabelaisien. Étudiez de près ce procédé
en vous basant sur l’analyse nuancée d’au moins trois passages de Pantagruel. Comment les listes
rabelaisiennes fonctionnent-elles? Dans quelle mesure est-ce qu’elles obéissent à une logique
(phonétique, rationnelle, graphique)?
3. Analyse rhétorique d’un sonnet de Du Bellay. Choisissez un sonnet des Regrets ou des Antiquités
que nous n’avons pas étudié en cours et faites une analyse rhétorique de ce sonnet. Voici quelques
questions à considérer:
• Quelles sont les figures de rhétorique?
• Quels sont les éléments narratifs, descriptifs, ou argumentatifs dans ce sonnet?
• Est-ce que le sonnet a une dimension illocutoire (est-ce une requête d’amour ou une plainte,
par exemple)?
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Prêtez également attention aux éléments suivants:
• Les rimes (embrassées ou plates?)
• La structure des deux quatrains et des deux tercets (comment la structure de chacune de ces
unités peut-elle être mise en jeu?)
• Les allusions mythologiques
• Les répétitions dans le sonnet
• L’autoréférentialité (est-ce qu’il y a un commentaire sur la poésie elle-même?)
4. Comparez le sonnet de Du Bellay “Je ne souhaitte point me pouvoir transformer” avec celui de
Ronsard “Je voudrais bien richement jaunissant.” Étudiez le jeu intertextuel (Du Bellay qui parodie
son rival, Ronsard). Comment Du Bellay reprend-il certains éléments du sonnet de Ronsard?
(Pensez aux éléments phonétiques et syntaxiques, aux allusions mythologiques, au vocabulaire
précis.) Montrez en quoi l’intertextualité du sonnet de Du Bellay est à la foi une absorption et une
transformation du texte de Ronsard.
5. Selon Michel Deguy, la modernité de Du Bellay relève en partie de l’attention accordée aux riens:
futilités, humilités, petites choses sans importance manifeste (Michel Deguy, Tombeau de Du Bellay
(Paris: Gallimard, 1973): 50). En étudiant Les regrets, montrez en quoi ces petits “riens” sont changés
en “microcosmes flamboyants” dans et par le poème.
6. Projet à la John Hay: venez me parler si vous souhaitez travailler sur un livre de la collection.
Conseils pratiques
• Développez une thèse claire mais nuancée en suivant une structure rigoureuse.
• Illustrez vos idées par des références précises au texte et par des analyses nuancées (close reading) de
trois passages au minimum.
• Travaillez sur le style, surtout dans l’introduction et la conclusion.
• Relisez attentivement votre essai en vérifiant l’accord des adjectifs et des verbes.
• Passez par Antidote (CIT) ou bien par Word-French pour vérifier l’orthographe et la grammaire.
Essai 3
À rendre: le 13 décembre (4–6 pages)
Choix de sujets
1. “Par divers moyens on arrive à pareille fin” (Montaigne, Essais, vol. 1, ch. 1). Étudiez le plan de
l’essai (la structure) en observant la démarche de l’essayiste: quel usage fait-il du général (vérités
universelles) et du particulier (exemples tirés de l’histoire, de son expérience personnelle)? Comment
son raisonnement avance-t-il? L’essai aboutit-il à une synthèse des deux positions examinées par
Montaigne? Comment commentez-vous les dernières images de l’essai?
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2. Madame de La Fayette, La Princesse de Montpensier. Étudiez cette nouvelle comme tragédie. D’où
vient le tragique? Quelle est la vision de la condition humaine qui semble sous-tendre le tragique
dans cette nouvelle?
3. Molière, Dom Juan. Dans quelle mesure Dom Juan met-il en question la moralité sexuelle
dominante (la monogamie, le mariage, l’amour conjugal)? La pièce est-elle réellement subversive?
Finit-elle plutôt par renforcer l’ordre social, comme c’est la règle dans la comédie? Ou bien est-elle
foncièrement ambiguë?
4. Ou, sujet à définir en consultation avec le professeur.
Conseils pratiques
• Développez une thèse claire mais nuancée en suivant une structure rigoureuse.
• Travaillez le style, surtout dans l’introduction et la conclusion.
• Relisez attentivement votre essai en vérifiant l’accord des adjectifs et des verbes.
• Passez par Antidote (CIT) ou bien par Word-French pour vérifier l’orthographe et la grammaire.
Teacher Resources
Books
Berthelot, Anne, and François Cornilliat. Littérature: Moyen-Âge–XVIe siècle; Textes et documents. Paris:
Nathan, 1988. A general work of literary history that is useful in preparing for some classes.
Charles-Daubert, Françoise. Les libertins érudits en France au XVIIe siècle. Paris: Presses Universitaires de
France, 1998.
Encyclopædia universalis. New ed. Paris: Encyclopædia Universalis, 1990. This is an excellent source written
by top French intellectuals and academics. I recommend it for topics such as humanism or courtly love.
Lazard, Madeleine. Michel de Montaigne. Paris: Fayard, 2002.
Modern Language Association. Approaches to Teaching series. New York: Modern Language Association,
various years.
Film
Kingdom of Heaven. 2005. Directed by Ridley Scott. Distributed by Twentieth Century Fox, 2005.
144 minutes.
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Student Activities
Oral Reports
This assignment allows students to explore a topic in depth and also contributes some variety to the class
format. Sometimes I recommend a secondary work to accompany a given topic.
Exposés: 10 minutes
le lundi 20 septembre:
La littérature mise au service de l’idéologie des Croisades. La chanson de Roland dans le contexte de la
chrétienté conquérante.
le mercredi 22 septembre:
Persistance de l’épopée au vingtième siècle. (Parallèle entre la chanson de geste médiévale et le western ou
Le seigneur des anneaux, par exemple.)
le vendredi 24 septembre:
Le château fort médiéval: caractéristiques et fonctions.
le mercredi 29 septembre:
Fénice, une anti-Yseut? Cligès et le mythe de Tristan et Yseut.
le mercredi 27 octobre:
Ronsard (“je voudrais bien richement jaunissant . . .”) et le Titien (Danaé, 1552-54): Variations sur le thème
mythique du ravissement de Danaé. Comparez le tableau du Titien au sonnet Ronsardien.
le vendredi 5 novembre:
Analyse d’un sonnet de Du Bellay.
le lundi 8 novembre:
Michel de Montaigne: homme privé ou homme public? La biographie de Michel de Montaigne (lire Michel
de Montaigne de Madeleine Lazard).
le mercredi 10 novembre:
La découverte du Nouveau Monde: Villegagnon au Brésil (projet de recherche).
le vendredi 12 novembre:
“Des cannibales” de Michel de Montaigne: le cannibale représente-t-il un idéal (social, philosophique, ou
esthétique) pour Montaigne?
le mercredi 17 novembre:
“Des boiteux”: Montaigne croit-il à la sorcellerie?
le lundi 22 novembre:
Persistance du rêve de l’amour courtois dans La Princesse de Montpensier. La nouvelle classique
(La Princesse de Montpensier) étudiée à la lumière de la nouvelle courtoise (La Châtelaine de Vergy).
le mercredi 1er décembre:
Dom Juan et le libertinage (liberté des mœurs, liberté de pensée). Consulter Françoise Charles-Daubert,
Les libertins érudits au XVIIe siècle.
le vendredi 3 décembre:
Mise en scène d’une scène de Dom Juan—projet d’un ou de plusieurs étudiants.
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The AP Exam in
French Literature
The Course and the Exam: Basic Skills
In my opinion, the overarching goal of the AP French Literature course is to impart to every student in the
class a lifelong love of French and francophone literature. When my students are studying Baudelaire, one
of the current authors on the AP French Literature reading list, I am as impressed by a soulful recitation
of a poem as by a well-written textual analysis. Most likely, the student who presents “Spleen” to the class
in such a manner will also write a perceptive essay on this poem. However, in order to fully appreciate
these great writers, students need to improve their analytical reading skills as well as their writing ability.
Therefore, preparation for the AP French Literature Exam is defined by constant performance of those two
vital skills as a means to gaining a mature understanding of the authors and works on the reading list.
It is likely that students have read and analyzed some literature before entering the class. They might
have studied Le petit prince at the second- or third-year levels, and although most of the discussions in
lower-level language classes are based on understanding of facts and vocabulary, some analysis always takes
place. Students often memorize poems during their French studies, and even without using the technical
literary vocabulary required in the AP French Literature course, they can sense the emotions and intentions
of the poet. Teachers thus have already reflected on the best practices to improve reading comprehension
and effective writing skills in the preparatory French levels. The same strategies apply in the AP course.
But before moving on to discuss the most effective ways to prepare students for the exam, it is important to
have a clear understanding of what it consists of and how it is scored.
Structure of the Exam
The AP French Literature Exam lasts for approximately three hours and comprises two sections. Except for
the instructions, the entire exam is in French. No dictionaries or other books may be used.
Section I is the multiple-choice portion of the exam. The format is very straightforward. Students are
presented with brief passages from literary works (or perhaps a short poem in its entirety), each of which is
followed by a series of multiple-choice questions that are designed to assess not only reading comprehension
but also the students’ ability to analyze the excerpt; place it in context; or identify its tone, characterization,
style, and the like. Some of the selections will be taken from titles on the required reading list, but others
will not. The purpose is not to test factual knowledge about plots or biographical information about
the authors; rather, these questions are intended to determine the students’ capacity to read literature
critically—which is why some of the passages are drawn from works that they are unlikely to have seen
before. Definitions of unusual vocabulary are provided where necessary. The students have 70–90 minutes
to complete this section.
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Section II consists of two separate free-response questions. Students are given 90–100 minutes for this
section—about 45–50 minutes for each question.
The first free-response question is a textual analysis. This is a modernized version of the traditional
French explication de texte. Many years ago, students had to write such an analysis without the help of
guiding questions. Nowadays, they answer two subquestions bearing on a work that comes from the reading
list. The text can be a poem or an excerpt from a play or a novel. Students will already have read, and
possibly even discussed, the chosen selection in their AP French Literature course. The questions assess the
students’ ability to analyze and interpret the selected text. The first subquestion about a poem, for instance,
might ask students to choose three images and explain their symbolic value. Then the second subquestion
might ask them to discern a pattern or structural element in the poem and to express what meaning this
scheme conveys. Often, the second subquestion will ask students to analyze the use of literary devices in the
excerpt and to come to a conclusion about their impact.
The other question in Section II requires students to write one clearly structured essay on a designated
topic. They are usually given a choice about which work(s) from the reading list they may use to explore this
subject. Their responses are expected to answer the question posed by drawing perceptive and convincing
examples from the text in support of a credible thesis. Plot summary plays no part in this process. The essay
should display the students’ larger understanding of the literary work and their skill at interpreting it by
focusing their answers on those of its features that specifically apply to the question at hand.
Administration
Your school’s AP Coordinator will handle all the logistics connected with giving the AP Exam: ordering
the materials, collecting the fees, and returning the completed exams for scoring. It is a good idea to get to
know this person and learn what you can do to help make the process run efficiently and to lower stress
levels on exam day. All questions about fees, dates, scheduling problems, and exam-specific policies should
be directed to the AP Coordinator. This exam has no listening comprehension or speaking component such
as the one found in the AP French Language Exam. The administration is therefore easier, but a quiet and
comfortable room should be secured; it should be spacious enough to leave adequate room between testtakers when a sizable number of students take the exam. To avoid any conflict of interest, you will not be
allowed to proctor your own students’ exam, but the Coordinator may ask you to do so for one of the AP
Exams in another subject.
Exam Scoring
A student’s grade on the AP French Literature Exam, ranging from 1 to 5 (with 5 meaning “extremely well
qualified”), is determined by the scores received on the two sections of the exam. Section I, the multiplechoice section, is electronically scanned and then scored by computer. As a correction for guessing, onethird of a point is subtracted for each wrong answer from the total number of correct answers; items left
unanswered do not incur any loss of points. The result is rounded to the nearest whole number to produce
the final score, which counts for 40 percent of the composite exam score.
Section II includes the free-response questions (textual analysis and essay). These are scored by
carefully trained college and high school teachers at the annual AP Reading in June. The Exam Readers go
through an intensive preparation period to ensure that they are all using the same standards for assigning
scores to the questions they read, and that these ratings are in accord with the detailed scoring guidelines
that have been created for each question on the exam by the Chief Reader and other scoring leaders. The
Section II score is worth 60 percent of the total exam score. Each question counts for 30 percent and is
weighted so that the content of the answer is valued at 20 percent and the language skills at 10 percent.
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You can find copies of the scoring guidelines for Section II on the Exam Page for AP French Literature
on AP Central. For example, in 2007 the two textual analysis subquestions could earn up to 5 points each
for content, and the scoring guidelines explain the precise differences in the quality of answers that earned
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, or 0 points. The same range of points, also defined by specific characteristics of the students’
writing, was assigned for language. The essay question had a 0–5 range for language ability but a maximum
possible 9 points for content.
The scores for the two sections are combined and weighted as described above. This calculation is done
by computer and results in what is known as the “composite score.” The composite score is then converted
to an AP grade. The numerical cutoff points in the composite scores between each of the grades varies from
year to year for each AP Exam, so as to take into account differing levels of exam difficulty and student
performance. The final decision about each year’s cutoff scores and AP grades is made by the Chief Reader,
in consultation with AP Program statisticians, College Board staff, and ETS content specialists.
AP Grade Reports
AP grades are reported to students, their schools, and their designated colleges in July. Each school
automatically receives an AP Grade Report for each student, a cumulative roster of all students, rosters of
all students by exam, an AP Scholar roster for any qualifying students, and the AP Instructional Planning
Report. (Note: Data for students testing late with an alternate form of the exam are not included in this
report.) For a fee, schools may also request their students’ free-response booklets.
Using the AP Instructional Planning Report
Schools receive the AP Instructional Planning Report for each of their AP classes in September. The report
compares your students’ performance on specific topics in the AP Exam to the performance of students
worldwide on those same topics, helping you target areas for increased attention and focus in the curriculum.
To get the most out of the report, please read the interpretive information on the document. It explains how
the data, when used correctly, can provide valuable information for instructional and curricular assessment
as well as for planning and development. Contact your school’s AP Coordinator for this report.
Preparing Your Students
The Multiple-Choice Questions
For each author on the reading list, teachers will need to ascertain their students’ comprehension of the text
by asking questions similar in nature to the multiple-choice questions that make up the first part of the AP
French Literature Exam. Those questions are never factual, though some attention is paid to vocabulary
when the word concerned is vital to the passage. Creating the 65 to 70 questions in this section of the
AP Exam requires intense effort and scrutiny from all members of the French Development Committee.
During the three meetings that take place each year, questions carefully prepared by committee members
are discussed and often discarded. There has to be unanimity among all the members about the one
correct answer for each question. Novice teachers should not attempt to create their own multiple-choice
comprehension questions. This would be an impossibly time-consuming task that would result in great
frustration for both teacher and students.
In the classroom, take the simpler route of using the sample questions available in the AP French Course
Description or the AP French Literature Released Exams. The number of questions that apply to the current
reading list may be limited, as the multiple-choice sections of the AP Exams are published only about
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every five years, and the reading list also changes over that period. Nevertheless, students will benefit from
practicing on questions pertaining to titles no longer on the list, because in this part of the actual exam they
will have to analyze and interpret texts that they have never seen before. I have noticed, however, that the
questions bearing on the reading-list authors tend to assume good knowledge of the selection’s vocabulary.
When working with Released Exams that contain passages that are no longer required reading, students
may need some help with the vocabulary. Students may become very discouraged because they make more
errors than they expected. One way to encourage them would be to point out that for the 2002 exam, for
instance, the cutoff point for a grade of 5 was set at just 104 points out of a possible 150.
Instead of creating original multiple-choice questions, the novice teacher should prepare “guided
questions” for each selection. These types of questions require a short narrative answer and assess the very
same elements that the multiple-choice questions generally address. Can the students discern the tone
of a passage, for instance? Can they put into specific words the impact of a certain literary device, such as
an anaphore?
For instance, in the 2002 AP French Literature Released Exam, for Ronsard’s sonnet “Comme on voit
sur la branche . . . ,” question 18 asks:
Qu’est-ce qui contribue à attirer l’attention du lecteur sur la rose dans le premier quatrain?
(A) Le mot “Comme” placé au début du poème
(B) L’ordre inhabituel des mots au vers 1
(C) Le parallélisme des hémistiches du vers 2
(D) La syntaxe du vers 3
Students could be led to arrive at the correct answer, (B), via a similarly focused guided question
prepared by the teacher:
Quel est l’effet créé par l’inversion du premier vers?
They will figure out the meaning of the term inversion and then discuss the impact of such a literary
device, coming to the conclusion that this unusual order creates an expectation and thus captures the
reader’s attention better than the normal order: “Comme on voit la rose sur la branche. . . .”
The Free-Response Questions
The novice teacher should first and foremost become familiar with the recent free-response questions that
have appeared on the AP French Literature Exam. Questions from the last several exams are available on
the AP French Literature Exam Page on AP Central. This is a valuable resource that can be used to inform
the new teacher and, later, to review with students. You will find not only the topics of the questions for the
textual analysis and the essay but actual student answers, along with the scores received and an explanation
of why each score was given. Occasionally, I ask my students to work with their groups to read and rate two
or three essays according to the AP Scoring Guidelines for each question. Later I share the official scores
with the students and read them the justification for those scores. My students are often harsher scorers
than the official Readers were.
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Make sure that you and your students clearly understand how these AP Scoring Guidelines are applied
to both the textual analysis and the essay. The language guidelines are consistent, or modified very slightly,
from year to year. However, the content guidelines must be updated annually in order to reflect the given
topics. Some constants remain: the answers to the questions must be “complete” and “insightful” to receive
the highest rating of 5 for each subquestion of the textual analysis and 9 for the essay. Though French
should be spoken exclusively in the literature class, it is advisable to spend some time, once or twice during
the year, on these scoring standards. Ask the students if they understand what “insightful” means. Ask
them for examples based on their most recent writings. This is probably the most fruitful exercise. For
instance, in a recent writing assignment on Apollinaire’s “Les colchiques,” some of my students did not
“insightfully” answer the question: “Quel genre de rapports existent entre le poète et cette femme?” They
just said that the love was unhappy and the woman venomous, mean, and treacherous, which is totally
accurate but not insightful enough. Other students seized on the specific vocabulary of the poem—“les
cernes, les ongles, les paupières qui battent,” for instance—and really got into literary analysis rather
than lengthy periphrasis. Modeling for the class the two approaches to that specific question helped them
understand what is really expected from them on the day of the AP Exam.
Another good classroom activity is for the students to create, in groups, an “inventory” of responses to
previous AP Exam questions. Each group gets a big sheet of newsprint and a marker. The members then
work together to make an outline and list everything that could be said for the given topic. This activity
can, now and then, take the place of timed writings done in class to mimic the conditions of the upcoming
exam. Any teacher with a fairly large class knows that it is impossible to correct a timed essay for 25 students
every single week. The group activity allows students to interact in French with their classmates and reflect
on a topic that, for lack of time, will not actually be assigned to them. The same activity can take place
after the students have written on a topic and the essays have been returned, to share all the good ideas
and help those students who are still meandering aimlessly instead of formulating precise answers to the
question posed.
Who Said That?
It is important during the AP Exam that students be able to identify and employ significant quotations from the
texts. So I ask them to build a dictionary of quotes for each novel and play on the reading list. Students identify
main ideas, pivotal moments, development of intrigues, and insight into characters through quotes. They explain
them to the class, thus creating a discussion. For example, in the course of reading L’école des femmes, a
student might offer the following quote as subject for discussion: “Sans cesse nuit et jour je te caresserai, je
te bouchonnerai, baiserai, mangerai.” Usually the “finder” of the quote will ask classmates a few questions
such as: “Qui a dit cela, et à qui parlait-il?” (Arnolphe à Agnès) and “Que ressent-il? Que promet-il?” I will often
put some of the quotes that have been discussed on a quiz with the following instructions: “Rendez la parole
au personnage, résumez son contexte, et expliquez-en l’importance pour la compréhension du roman ou de la
pièce.” In addition, this dictionary of quotes provides a good review tool just before the AP Exam.
—Eliane Kurbegov, Dr. Michael M. Krop High School,
Miami, Florida
Teachers also need to show students how to read the exam questions and stay on topic. The most
common student mistake is simply not answering the question that was asked rather than answering the
question incorrectly. Students often start out on the right track and then go off on a tangent and run out
of time before they can return to the topic. When reading the question, students should highlight the
important words and spend at least five minutes reflecting on what they want to say and making a short
outline. Bypassing this important step often leads to confusion and repetition. You should also impress
on students how important it is to save five minutes at the end of each essay period to correct careless
grammatical mistakes. The language score is not as important as the content score in the free-response
questions, but it still counts for one-third of the points. Furthermore, poorly expressed ideas are not easily
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understood by the Readers and may reduce the content score. Introductions and conclusions are especially
vital parts of the essays that students often neglect because they think that the more observations they
make, the better. Readers are aware of the time limitation put on the students and expect no more than
two or three paragraphs for each subquestion of the textual analysis and two good pages of writing for the
essay. Responses that take the time to anchor these observations to a thesis sentence and clearly sum up
the discussion will be rated more highly than those that cram as many ideas as possible into a haphazard
collection of remarks.
The frequency of teacher-corrected work may fluctuate, but for each author on the reading list, students
should write twice—once a textual analysis, another time an essay—preferably as timed writing done in
class. Additionally, they should write journal entries on other related topics and answers to their “guided
questions” (see section on preparing for the multiple-choice questions, above). The latter activity should
generally be graded only for completion and content rather than for grammar. In order to encourage
students to reflect on their language errors, however, you must establish editorial procedures. Personally,
I use a dual system: for all work written at home I highlight the language mistakes but give no grade for
the initial draft. Students correct their errors to the best of their ability and resubmit the piece (without
attaching the first draft). At that time, I correct the most salient remaining errors and assign a grade. The
knowledge that whatever students first wrote will not affect their grade encourages them to take risks with
the language and to rise above the comfortable plateau where they often get stuck during the fifth year of
language study. On the other hand, timed essays written in class in 50 minutes are scored using the AP
Scoring Guidelines. Students get an “AP score” and an equivalent “class grade.” They must give me a second
clean copy of their essay with all their language errors analyzed. (English is allowed for this activity.)
Review Activities
It is advisable to do a short review of each author before the AP Exam in early May. I generally put students
in charge of devising a review game. We have a large class that provides eight groups, and each one creates
a brief summary of what its members think is essential about a specific author. I intervene when errors are
made or the presentation is incomplete. Below are a few review activities; be sure to check the syllabi in
chapter 3 for additional ideas on reviewing for the exam.
• I use a visual organizer to quickly go over all pertinent information for each author. For instance,
when we review Pierre et Jean, this worksheet, which is in French, requires the students to list the
names of the personnages principaux. It asks them to summarize the intrigue. They have to list the
main thèmes, and so forth. Because the AP French Literature course is so demanding, I find there is
rarely much time left for review just before the AP Exam. I assign an author to the three or four
students in each group, and they work cooperatively to fill out the worksheet. All groups then share
their summaries with the class.
• Another activity, which reactivates appropriate vocabulary to discuss each author, is to create a
little competition between teams. A few categories are written on cards—themes, verbs, nouns,
adjectives—and each team gets one point for an appropriate answer. For instance, if Baudelaire is the
topic, and the card drawn names the category “substantifs,” students might possibly answer: le spleen,
l’azur, le gouffre, l’abîme, la quête, l’infini. If there is more time to play the review game, students
can be asked to give a definition in French, put the word in a context, and even explain why it is an
important term for the given author.
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• Another group game requires all students to come to class with a quote from a character in one of
the novels or plays on the reading list: a student from one team reads the quote, and the other team
has to identify which character is speaking and, if there is enough time for development, explain why
the words are meaningful.
Oprah or Dr. Phil Goes to French Literature Class
A fun review activity before the AP Exam is having students do an interview show with a theme from AP French
Literature (dysfunctional families, love, etc.). “Guests” on the show are characters from works on the reading
list. Student actors must show their knowledge and understanding of the different characters through their
conversation and actions on the show. Grading is based on how well students demonstrate understanding of
the characters and the overall quality of the show.
—Jacki Williams-Jones, Flintridge Preparatory School,
La Cañada, California
Exam Eve
Reviewing for the AP French Literature Exam is not an easy task. Because of the large number of works on
the required reading list (three full-length novels among them), I find that I have very little time left—about one
week if I am lucky—for summary and recapitulation. So, for each of the novels and plays, I prepare a review
sheet that includes a list of characters and their relationships, quotes of importance, and an overview of the
work’s major themes. I also select several of the poems and give the students a couple of questions to answer
in the same manner as those on the AP Exam. On the evening before the exam, I invite students to come to my
house for a French dinner, and after the meal we go over the material from the study sheets. That last-minute
review in a different environment sticks with them, and I believe that they go home feeling knowledgeable,
prepared, and more relaxed.
—Bénédicte Retrou-Weissman, The Montgomery Academy,
Montgomery, Alabama
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Resources for Teachers
Useful Information Sources
AP Central: Teachers’ Resources Section
One of the best places to begin your exploration of the wide variety of materials that are available to AP
French Literature teachers is the AP Central Web site (apcentral.collegeboard.com). There you will have
access to not only the official Course Description and all the free-response questions from recent AP
Exams but also the invaluable Teachers’ Resources section, which provides in-depth reviews of all the items
surveyed. When you click on this link on the French Literature Home Page, three sets of check-boxes will
appear, from the first of which you will be able to select this course. (You might want to click on and browse
the French Language category as well.) You can choose to browse all the resources, or you might have a
more precise category in mind, such as movies, or Web sites. You can narrow your selections by type of
resource in the second set of check-boxes.
Let’s say you pick “Video Tape/DVD,” for instance. On that list, you can find movies that complement
the AP French Literature reading list and are reviewed by experienced teachers who use them regularly
in their AP courses. All the reviews in the Teachers’ Resources section give a brief synopsis of the item,
highlighting the good points of the book, movie, or Web site, and if applicable, its limitations. The reviews
also give precise information on how to use a particular resource in the classroom. Most important, there
is a direct link at the bottom of the review that takes you directly to the publisher of a specific book or the
best-priced source for music, video, newspapers, and all the listed items. This is an immense advantage for
the high school teacher with a limited amount of time to search for resources applicable to AP courses. The
listings are periodically updated and enriched with reviews of new material and new articles.
Book Reviews
Because there are no “textbooks” per se for this class, this category lists and reviews the books that might
help a new teacher starting an AP French Literature course. Browsing through the list of books devoted
to literature, the novice teacher can read reviews and make an educated choice of books that can help in
the study of a specific author. For instance, because most authors on the reading list are also “classics” in
the French baccalauréat program, a new teacher may make use of the specialized publications in the “Profil
d’une Œuvre” series, published by Hatier. Each of these small books is devoted to a single well-known work,
and each has the advantage of being very concise and inexpensive.
All the traditional anthologies are also listed in the Teachers’ Resources database, from the venerable
Lagarde and Michard to the more modern Français—Littérature et Méthodes. For instructors who are going
to teach the AP French Literature course over two years, there are several readers that nicely complement
the official reading list. (Those limited to one year for the course are often pressed for time and have limited
opportunities for exploration outside the reading list.) Some of these anthologies, such as Panaché littéraire,
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have been around for some time; others are less well known, such as Trésors littéraires or Vagabondages
littéraires (both listed under the “French Language” category). All these titles are reviewed in detail, and
such reviews are also helpful when selecting a reader for French 4, or even French 3.
Video/DVD Reviews
This is a category that is continuously updated, with additional reviews dedicated to the new authors on the
AP French Literature reading list. There is, for instance, an old movie of Moderato cantabile with Jean-Paul
Belmondo and Jeanne Moreau that could nicely complement the reading of the novel.
Web Site Reviews
This is one of the most useful categories, not only for the AP French Literature course but for all French
courses. The following is an excerpt of a review of Espace Francophone, a wonderful Web site provided by
the Cultural Service of the Consulate General of France in New Orleans, on the possible use of the site to
introduce Maupassant’s Pierre et Jean:
An AP Literature teacher interested in studying the imagery of the sea in Maupassant’s Pierre et Jean
could choose Histoire de France par l’image: Recherche thématique. Knowing that Maupassant lived in
the second part of the nineteenth century, click on the period of time that encompasses the author’s
life span, then choose a topic related to your proposed study, e.g., choose Les plaisirs de la plage au
XIXe siècle to find a good number of paintings from that era. You might then focus on a painting by
Eugène Boudin: Baigneurs sur la plage de Trouville. In-depth explanations of the historical context
along with an analysis of the painting will bring to life the type of bourgeois society vacationing in
Normandy resorts described in Pierre et Jean. (Eliane Kurbegov, Dr. Michael M. Krop High School,
Miami, Florida)
Another example of a very useful site for AP French literature students is Poetes.com (www.poetes
.com). Here is an excerpt of the review of the Charles Baudelaire section of that specialized site:
There are self-correcting quizzes in the section titled “Jeu,” which is accessible from the “Index des
thèmes et titres” page. There are multiple-choice quizzes with feedback on Les fleurs du mal, on
versification and poetics, on Baudelaire’s life and times, and on Romanticism. Students who do a
thorough study of the Baudelaire site before attempting the quizzes should find the answers to all
of the questions on the site itself. The quizzes make excellent pre- and post-testing material. On the
same page, quizzes on Symbolism and on the works of Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, with links
to sites on all of these subjects, can also be found. (Laura Franklin, Northern Virginia Community
College, Alexandria)
The Web sites are very useful for engaging students’ interest before starting a unit on a specific author.
The activities can be done in school, using a computer lab, or assigned as homework. They provide a
welcome change from the group discussions and essay writing that form the core of the course.
Print Media
The works listed below are meant to be used as resources for the teacher and are not required reading before
teaching the AP French Literature course. Novice teachers might want to consult some of these critical
studies to gain a better perspective on the historical, political, and intellectual contexts in which the works
on the reading list were written. I recommend university libraries for consultation and Internet search for
purchasing the books. Canadian online bookstores such as Librairie Renaud-Bray (www.renaud-bray.com)
or Archambault (www.archambault.ca) can also be good sources of hard-to-find titles.
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Basic Reference Books
Amon, Évelyne, and Yves Bomati. Vocabulaire du commentaire de texte: 400 mots-clés pour l’étude du style.
Petits Pratiques du Français. Paris: Larousse, 2006.
Beaumarchais, Jean-Pierre de et al. Dictionnaire des littératures de langue française. 4 vols. Paris:
Bordas, 1998.
Benamou, Michel. Pour une nouvelle pédagogie du texte littéraire. Paris: Hachette Larousse, 1971.
Briolet, Daniel. Lire la poésie française du XXe siècle. Paris: Dunod, 1995.
Gallix, François. Dictionnaire raisonné bilingue de l’analyse littéraire, français–anglais. Paris: Éditions du
Temps, 2000.
Harmon, Philippe, and Denis Roger-Vasselim, eds. Le Robert des grands écrivains de langue français. Paris:
Dictionnaires Le Robert, 2000.
Hollier, Denis et al., eds. A New History of French Literature. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1994.
Jaffré, Jean. Le vers et le poème, du vers au poème: Évolution des formes et du langage. Paris: Nathan, 1984.
Katz, Eve, and Donald R. Hall. Explicating French Texts: Poetry, Prose, Drama. New York: Harper and
Row, 1970.
Lagarde, André, and Laurent Michard. Les grands auteurs français du programme. 6 vols. Paris: Bordas, 1985.
Lewis, Roy. On Reading French Verse: A Study of Poetic Form. Oxford: Clarendon, 1982.
Ryngaert, Jean-Pierre. Introduction à l’analyse du théâtre. Paris: Armand Colin, 2004.
Viala, Alain et al., eds. Le théâtre en France des origines à nos jours. Paris: Presses Universitaires de
France, 1997.
Pedagogical Series
These publications are generally very affordable and succinct. Each one contains a summary of the work,
biographical information, and detailed analysis of the text.
Profil d’une Œuvre (Paris: Hatier)
In this series, the following reading-list authors are available:
Apollinaire, Alcools, no. 25
Baudelaire, Les fleurs du mal, no. 21
Corneille, Le Cid, no. 133
Duras, Moderato cantabile, no. 121
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La Fontaine, Fables, no. 67
Maupassant, Pierre et Jean, no. 207
Molière, L’école des femmes, no. 87
Voltaire, Candide, no. 34
Study Guides for AP French Literature (Sandwich, Mass.: Wayside Publishing)
The series includes the following:
Candide (by Stephen Clem)
L’école des femmes (by Stephen Clem)
Le Cid (by Stephen Clem)
Moderato cantabile (by Stephen Clem)
Pierre et Jean (by Stephen Clem)
La poésie (by Lison Baselis-Bitoun)
Une tempête (by Lison Baselis-Bitoun)
Resources for Works on the Reading List
Apollinaire, Guillaume: Selected Poems
Editions
Apollinaire, Guillaume. Alcools. Paris: Gallimard/Collection Poésie, no. 10, 1966.
Apollinaire, Guillaume. Œuvres poétiques Paris: Gallimard, 1956.
Morhange-Bégué, Claude, and Pierre Lartigue. Profil d’une œuvre: “Alcools” de Guillaume Apollinaire. Paris:
Hatier, 2004.
Critical Studies
Apollinaire, Guillaume. The Cubist Painters. Translated, with commentary, by Peter Read. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2004.
Bates, Scott. Guillaume Apollinaire. Rev. ed. Boston: Twayne, 1989.
Décaudin, Michel. “Alcools” de Guillaume Apollinaire. Paris: Gallimard/Collection Foliothèque, no. 23, 1993.
Lecherbonnier, Bernard. Apollinaire, “Alcools”: Textes, commentaires et guides d’analyse. Paris: Nathan, 1983.
Parinaud, André. Apollinaire, 1880–1918: Biographie et relecture. Paris: Lattès, 1994.
Shattuck, Roger. The Banquet Years: The Arts in France, 1885–1918; Alfred Jarry, Henri Rousseau, Erik Satie,
Guillaume Apollinaire. New York: Harcourt, 1958.
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Srabian de Fabry, Anne, and Marie-France Hilgar, eds. Études autour d’ “Alcools.” Birmingham, Ala.:
Summa, 1985.
Web Sites
Guillaume Apollinaire (official site).
www.wiu.edu/Apollinaire. Contains links to the interesting pages below.
Portraits du poète.
www.wiu.edu/Apollinaire/Biographie.htm#Portraits_du_poete.
Promenade dans le Paris d’Apollinaire.
www.wiu.edu/Apollinaire/Promenade_interactive.htm.
Son et lumière (audio recordings and film of the poet).
www.wiu.edu/Apollinaire/Apollinaire_dit.htm.
Toute la Poésie. Guillaume Apollinaire.
www.toutelapoesie.com/poetes/guillaume_apollinaire.htm.
Baudelaire, Charles: Les fleurs du mal
Editions: Classiques Bordas; Classiques Garnier; Didier, Classiques de la Civilisation Française; Gallimard,
Poésie series; Garnier-Flammarion; Hatier; J’ai lu; Petits Classiques Larousse; Livre de Poche.
Critical Studies
Baronian, Jean-Baptiste. Baudelaire. Paris: Gallimard, 2006.
Blin, Georges. Baudelaire. Paris: Gallimard, 1939.
Brombert, Victor H. The Hidden Reader: Stendhal, Balzac, Hugo, Baudelaire, Flaubert. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1988.
Chesters, Graham. Baudelaire and the Poetics of Craft. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Fairlie, Alison. Baudelaire’s “Fleurs du mal.” London: Edward Arnold, 1960.
Launay, Claude. “Les fleurs du mal” de Charles Baudelaire. Paris: Gallimard, 1995.
Lloyd, Rosemary, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Baudelaire. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2005.
Martinez, Michel. “Les fleurs du mal,” Charles Baudelaire. Paris: Bertrand-Lacoste, 1991.
Peyre, Henri. Connaissance de Baudelaire. Paris: Corti, 1951.
Prévost, Jean. Baudelaire: Essai sur l’inspiration et la création poétique. Paris: Mercure de France, 1953.
Pichois, Claude. Baudelaire devant ses contemporains. Paris: Klincksieck, 1995.
Pichois, Claude, and Ziegler, Jean. Baudelaire. Paris: Fayard, 2005. (Previous editions published in 1987 and
1996.) English translation by Graham Robb. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1989.
Rincé, Dominique. “Les fleurs du mal”: Charles Baudelaire. Paris: Nathan, 1994.
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Ruff, Marcel. L’Esprit du mal et l’esthétique baudelairienne. Paris: Armand Colin, 1955.
Starkie, Enid. Baudelaire. Norfolk, Conn.: New Directions, 1958.
Web Sites
Auteurs e-Fr@nçais.
www.restode.cfwb.be/francais/_auteurs/AUTEURS.htm.
Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine. You can listen to readings of some of Baudelaire’s
poems here.
www.wellesley.edu/French/Homepage215/contents.html.
Poésie Française. Baudelaire. Contains a great number of Baudelaire’s poems, some of which are on
the reading list.
http://poesie.webnet.fr/auteurs/baudelai.html.
Recueillement. This page supplies the text of “Recueillement,” along with vocabulary terms and a
detailed analysis of the poem.
www.cafe.umontreal.ca/genres/e-recuei.html.
Toute La Poésie. Charles Baudelaire.
http://toutelapoesie.com/poetes/charles_baudelaire.
Césaire, Aimé: Une tempête
Edition
Césaire, Aimé. Une tempête. Paris: Éditions du Seuil/Collection Points, 344, 1997.
Critical Studies
Confiant, Raphaël. Aimé Césaire: Une traversée paradoxale du siècle. Paris: Ecriture, 2006.
Delas, Daniel. Aimé Césaire. Paris: Hachette, 1991.
Hénane, René. Glossaire des termes rares dans l’oeuvre d’Aimé Césaire. Paris: Jean Michel Place, 2004.
Hulme, Peter, and William H. Sherman, eds. “The Tempest” and Its Travels. London: Reaktion Books/
Critical Views Series, 2002.
Mbom, Clément. Le théâtre d’Aimé Césaire; ou, La primauté de l’universalité humaine. Paris: Nathan, 1979.
Pallister, Janis L. Aimé Césaire. New York: Twayne, 1991.
Sarnecki, Judith Holland. “Mastering the Masters: Aimé Césaire’s Creolization of Shakespeare’s
The Tempest.” French Review 74, no. 2 (December 2000): 276-86.
Suk, Jeannie. Postcolonial Paradoxes in French Caribbean Writing: Césaire, Glissant, Condé. New York:
Oxford University Press (Clarendon), 2001.
Toumson, Roger, and Simonne Henry-Valmore. Aimé Césaire: Le nègre inconsolé. La Roque d’Anthéron,
France: Vents d’Ailleurs, 2002.
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forLiterature
Teachers
Web Sites
Action Media Caraïbes. Aimé Césaire: Poète de Universelle Fraternité. This rich site documents the
different facets of Cesaire’s life. It links to a number of other sites.
www.cesaire.org/.
Adrianna Paliyenko, Colby College. Aimé Césaire—Une tempête: Lexique. Partial lexical review.
www.colby.edu/personal/a/ampaliye/FR252/tempete_lexique.pdf.
Banque de Données d’Histoire Littéraire. Une tempête. Themes in the work.
http://phalese.univ-paris3.fr/bdhl/oeuvrecomplet.php?recherche=1384.
Biographies that reveal different aspects of Cesaire’s life with links to other sites.
Togoforum (Agora Press). Il y 90 ans Cesaire.
www.togoforum.com/Culture/NV/Cesaire070303.htm.
Grioo. Aimé Césaire.
www.grioo.com/info6340.html.
Réseau France outre-mer. Martinique: Portraits: Aimé Césaire.
http://martinique.rfo.fr/article10.html.
Lehman College, CUNY. Aimé Césaire.
www.lehman.cuny.edu/ile.en.ile/paroles/cesaire.html.
Wikipedia. Aimé Césaire.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aim%C3%A9_C%C3%A9saire.
Cliotexte. Texte anticolonial d’Aimé Césaire.
http://hypo.ge-dip.etat-ge.ch/www/cliotexte/html/esclavage.cesaire.html.
Le magazine littéraire. Un poète politique: Aimé Césaire. A consideration of Césaire by François Beloux.
www.magazine-litteraire.com/archives/ar_cesai.htm.
Une tempête. Overview of the themes of the play with links to other helpful sites.
www.ac-creteil.fr/lettreshg-lp/Fiches/Fiche-lecture-5.doc.
Web Lettres. Analysis of act 2, scene 1, of Une tempête.
www.weblettres.net/pedagogie/cont ributions/lecture_analytique_aime_cesaire.doc.
Film
Aimé Césaire—une voix pour l’histoire (1994). French with English subtitles. Written and directed by
Euzhan Palcy. VHS, 160 minutes.
Corneille, Pierre: Le Cid
Editions: Bordas; Gallimard; Garnier-Flammarion; Hatier; Hachette; J’ai lu; Nathan; Livre de Poche; Petits
Classiques Larousse.
Critical Studies
Carrier, Hubert. “Le Cid”: Corneille: Dossier du professeur. Paris: Hachette, 1992.
Catteau, Aude, and Sainfel, Marie-Christine. Étude sur “Le Cid” de Corneille. Paris: Ellipses, 2000.
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Couton, Georges. Corneille. New ed. Paris: Hatier, 1969.
Curial, Hubert. Profil d’une œuvre: “Le Cid”: Pierre Corneille. Paris: Hatier, 2003.
Doubrovsky, Serge. Corneille et la dialectique du héros. Paris: Gallimard, 1982.
Prigent, Michel. Le héros et l’état dans la tragédie de Pierre Corneille. Paris: Presses Universitaires de
France, 1986.
Ronzeaud, Pierre. Pierre Corneille: “Le Cid.” Paris: Klincksieck, 2001.
Sadighi, Niloufar. “Le Cid” de Corneille: livret pédagogique. Paris: Hachette, 1999.
Web Sites
À la decouverte de Jean de La Fontaine. Pierre Corneille. This text on contemporaries of La Fontaine
discusses Corneille and his work.
www.lafontaine.net/lafontaine/lafontaine.php?id=65.
Athena–Pierre Perroud. Examen du Cid. Includes the text, followed by analysis.
http://hypo.ge.ch/athena/corneille/corn_cid.html#Examen.
Éducation France 5. Suggestions on how to teach the theatrical works of Corneille.
http://education.france5.fr/corneille/profs/enseigner/page_1.html.
Les Étains du Graal. Le Cid.
http://pages.infinit.net/pascars/graal/Le_Cid.htm.
Magister. Le monologue délibératif. Discussion of act 1, scene 4, of Le Cid.
www.site-magister.com/txtarg4.htm.
Mémo–Voyagez à travers l’histoire. Corneille, Pierre.
www.memo.fr/article.asp?ID=PER_MOD_078.
Mouvement Corneille–Centre International Pierre Corneille.
www.corneille.org/news.php?lng=fr&id=5.
Philagora. Pierre Corneille. Le Cid analyzed by Jacqueline Masson.
www.philagora.net/auteurs/corneille.htm.
17eme siecle. A review of the seventeenth century: authors, events, places, chronology, literature.
http://17emesiecle.free.fr/Auteurs.php.
Sharon Diane Nell, Associate Professor of French, Texas Tech University. Caractéristiques du théâtre de
Corneille. Includes a study of act 3 of Le Cid.
www3.tltc.ttu.edu/Nell/17th%20century%20materials.htm.
Univers des lettres (Bordas). Includes a pedagogical sequence for the study of Le Cid.
www.universdeslettres.com/ens_seq.php?seqid=06.
Wikipedia. Le Cid (Corneille). People, places, and themes in the work.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Cid_(Corneille).
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Teachers
Du Bellay, Joachim: Selected Poems
Editions
Céard, Jean, and Louis-Georges Tin. Anthologie de la poésie française du XVIe siècle. Paris: Gallimard/
Collection Poesie, 2005.
Du Bellay, Joachim. Oeuvres poétiques. Paris: Bordas, n.d.
Critical Studies
Boyer, Frédéric. Joachim Du Bellay. Paris: Seghers, 1973.
Chavanne, Judith. “Les regrets,” Du Bellay. Paris: Nathan, 1999.
Cooper, Richard. “Poetry in Ruins: The Literary Context of du Bellay’s Cycles on Rome.” Renaissance
Studies 3, no. 2 (June 1989): 156-66.
Dickinson, Gladys. Du Bellay in Rome. Leiden: Brill, 1960.
Gadoffre, Gilbert. Du Bellay et le sacré. Paris: Gallimard, 1995.
Gray, Floyd. La poétique de Du Bellay. Paris: Nizet, 1978.
Rieu, Josiane. L’esthétique de Du Bellay. Paris: SEDES, 1995.
Roudaut, François. Joachim Du Bellay. Paris: University Presses of France, 1995.
Tucker, George-Hugo. “Les regrets” et autres œuvres poétiques de Joachim Du Bellay. Paris: Gallimard, 2000.
Tucker, George-Hugo. The Poet’s Odyssey: Joachim Du Bellay and the “Antiquitez de Rome.” Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1990.
Web Sites
@ la Lettre.com. Joachim du Bellay.
www.alalettre.com/dubellay-intro.htm.
Joachim Du Bellay (1522–1560).
http://membres.lycos.fr/messiaen/bio_dubellay.html.
Musée Joachim du Bellay.
www.museedubellay.com/site/index.html.
Poésie sur la Toile. Joachim Du Bellay.
www.anthologie.free.fr/anthologie/bellay/bellay.htm.
Toute la Poésie. Joachim Du Bellay.
http://toutelapoesie.com/poetes/joachim_du_bellay.htm.
Wikipedia. Joachim du Bellay.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_du_Bellay.
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Duras, Marguerite: Moderato cantabile
Editions
Duras, Marguerite. Moderato cantabile. Paris: Minuit, 1958.
Micciollo, Henri. “Moderato cantabile” de Marguerite Duras. Paris: Hachette/Collection Lire aujourd’hui, n.d.
Critical Studies
Adler, Laure. Marguerite Duras. Paris: Gallimard, 2000.
Barbéris, Dominique. “Moderato cantabile,” “L’amant”: Marguerite Duras: Résumé analytique, commentaire
critique, documents complémentaires. Paris: Nathan, 1993.
Bishop, Lloyd. “The Banquet Scene in Moderato cantabile.” Romanic Review 69, no. 3 (May 1978): 222-35.
Bishop, Lloyd. “Classical Structure and Style in Moderato cantabile.” The French Review, XLVII, special
issue no. 6 (spring 1974): 219-34.
Champagne, Roland A. “An Incantation of the Sirens: The Structure of Moderato cantabile.” French
Review 48, no. 6 (May 1975): 981-89.
Cohen, Susan D. Women and Discourse in the Fiction of Marguerite Duras: Love, Legends, Language.
Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993.
Coward, David. Marguerite Duras, “Moderato cantabile.” London: Grant & Cutler, 1981.
Günther, Renate. “Alcoholism, Melancholia and Transgression: Marguerite Duras’ Moderato cantabile.”
Modern and Contemporary France 4, no. 2 (1996): 171-81.
Hirsch, Marianne. “Gender, Reading, and Desire in Moderato cantabile.” Twentieth Century Literature 28,
no. 1 (Spring 1982): 69–85.
Kashuba, Sister Mary Helen. “Moderato cantabile: Characters.” Beacham’s Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction,
Kirk H. Beetz, ed., vol. 5. Osprey, Fla.: Beacham, 1996. Also available at www. eNotes.com.
Lebelley, Frédéric. Duras ou le poids d’une plume. Paris: Grasset and Fasquelle, 1994.
Makward, Christiane. “Structures du silence du délire.” Poétique 35 (September 1978): 314-24.
Ogawa, Midori. La musique dans l’oeuvre littéraire de Marguerite Duras. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2002.
Pierrot, Jean. Marguerite Duras, 2nd ed. Paris: Corti, 1989.
Selous, Trista. The Other Woman: Feminism and Femininity in the Work of Marguerite Duras. New Haven,
Conn.: Yale University Press, 1988.
Willis, Sharon. Marguerite Duras: Writing on the Body. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987.
Web Sites
Association Marguerite Duras. The official site, where one can listen to an interview with Duras.
www.marguerite-duras.org/fr/presentation.htm.
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Teachers
Banque de Données d’Histoire Littéraire. Moderato cantabile. Themes in the work.
http://phalese.univ-paris3.fr/bdhl/oeuvrecomplet.php?recherche=1284.
Fiches de lecture. Marguerite Duras: Moderato cantabile. Biography of Duras and commentaries on
the novel.
www.fichesdelecture.com/fiche_livre_14.html.
L’Histoire du Roussillon. Marguerite Duras. Site contains a biography, list of Duras’s works, commentaries,
and extracts from some of her works, including Moderato cantabile.
http://histoireduroussillon.free.fr/Duras/Sommaire.php.
Sémiotique appliquée. “Moderato cantabile de Marguerite Duras: Étude des stratégies d’interaction et
des procédés d’argumentation utilisés par les interlocuteurs.” This article by Liliane Ayad appeared in
Applied Semiotics/Sémiotique appliquée, an international literary magazine available online.
www.chass.toronto.edu/french/as-sa/ASSA-11-12/article5fr.html.
Paris Cinéma. Moderato cantabile. Information on the 1960 film by Peter Brook.
www.pariscinema.org/fr/2005/film/fiche.html?film_id=575.
Travaux en cours. Moderato cantabile du Marguerite Duras. Overview of the work (people, themes, places,
symbols) and a brief biography of the author.
www.travauxencours.net/travaux_en_classe/hypertexte3LB_2003/amour_moderato_et_cantabile/
resumes2.htm.
Terra Nova. “Marguerite Duras ou le cri de l’écriture,” an article by Julie Beaulieu that appeared in
Terra Nova, a magazine on arts and culture.
www.terranovamagazine.ca/11/pages/essai/essai.html.
Film
Moderato cantabile. French, 1960. Directed by Peter Brook. VHS: Tapeworm, 1999. 91 minutes.
Labé, Louise: Selected Poems
Editions
Labé, Louise. Oeuvres complètes, rev. ed. Paris: Flammarion, 2004. (The least expensive, this edition also
has the advantage of being very complete, with a good introduction, bibliography, notes, and lexicon by
François Rigolot. It dates from 1986 and has been revised for the 2004 edition.)
Labé, Louise. Œuvres poétiques. Edited by Françoise Charpentier. Paris: Gallimard, 1983.
Louise Labé Complete Poetry & Prose: A Bilingual Edition. Edited, critical introductions, and prose
translations by Deborah Lesko Baker; poetry translations by Annie Finch. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2006.
Critical Studies
Baker, Deborah Lesko. The Subject of Desire: Petrarchan Poetics and the Female Voice in Louise Labé. West
Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 1996.
Baker, M.J. “The Sonnets of Louise Labé: A Reappraisal.” Neophilologus, LX, 1, (January 1976): 20–30.
Giudici, Enzo. Louise Labé: Essai. Rome: Ateneo/Paris: Nizet, 1981.
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Larnac, Jean. Louise Labé: La belle cordière de Lyon. Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1934.
O’Connor, Dorothy. Louise Labé: Sa vie et son œuvre. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1972.
Rigolot, François. Louise Labé Lyonnaise ou la renaissance au féminin. Paris: Champion, 1997.
Web Sites
Fabula. Laurent Angard’s review and analysis of Louise Labé, une creature de papier by Mireille Huchon
(Droz, 2006). The book claims that Labé was created by several male poets as a literary game.
www.fabula.org/revue/document1316.php.
Je l’Imagine . . . A page associated with the Club de Poètes. Contains biographical information on
Louise Labé.
www.franceweb.fr/poesie/labe2.htm.
Louise Labé par Kathryn L. Daniels.
www.users.drew.edu/~mpierett/Student/kdaniels.htm.
MP1000.com des Écrivains, des Musicienes, des Peintres.
www.ifrance.com/mp1000/Labe.htm.
Pearson/Prentice Hall. Supplement pages for Tous les poèmes par le cours avancé, edited by
André O. Hurtgen.
www.phschool.com/curriculum_support/louise_labe.
Les Sonnets de Louise Labé. Sponsored by the Académie de Lyon. Contains biographical information
as well.
www2.ac-lyon.fr/enseigne/lettres/louise/index2.html.
Also has a page of links to other useful sites.
(www2.ac-lyon.fr/enseigne/lettres/louise/lienslab.html).
La Fontaine, Jean de: Selected Fables
Editions
Fables: Classiques Garnier; Classiques Hachette; Classiques Larousse; Garnier-Flammarion; Livre de Poche.
Critical Studies
Brody, Jules. Lectures de La Fontaine. Early Modern France Critiques No. 1. Charlottesville, Va.: Rookwood
Press, 1994.
Biard, Jean-Dominique. Le style des fables de La Fontaine. Paris: Nizet, 2000.
Bury, Emmanuel. Esthétique de La Fontaine. Paris: SEDES, 1996.
Curial, Hubert. Profil d’une œuvre: “Fables” de Jean de La Fontaine. Paris: Hatier, 2001.
Gutwirth, Marcel. Un merveilleux sans éclat: La Fontaine, ou, La poésie exilée. Geneva: Droz, 1987.
Mourgues, Odette de. O muse, fuyante proie: Essai sur la poèsie de La Fontaine. 2nd ed. Paris: Corti, 1989.
Sweetser, Marie-Odile. La Fontaine. Boston: Twayne, 1987.
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Teachers
Web Sites
À la découverte de Jean de La Fontaine.
www.lafontaine.net.
Le Grand Siècle: La France des années 1600.
http://globegate.utm.edu/french/globegate_mirror/franxvii.html.
Musée Jean de La Fontaine.
www.la-fontaine-ch-thierry.net.
Film
Jean de la Fontaine. 1995. 15 minutes. The Works of la Fontaine. N.d. 26 minutes. Available from Films for
the Humanities and Sciences, P.O. Box 2053, Princeton, NJ 08543; 800 257-5126; www.films.com.
Maupassant, Guy de: Pierre et Jean
Editions: Gallimard, Folio series; Garnier-Flammarion; Hachette; Larousse; Livre de Poche; J’ai lu.
Critical Studies
Brighelli, Jean-Paul. Guy de Maupassant. Paris: Ellipses, 1999.
Carlier, Christophe. “Pierre et Jean,” Guy de Maupassant. Paris: Hatier, 2003.
Cléret, Anne-Marie, and Réaute, Brigitte. Maupassant, “Pierre et Jean”: Dossier du professeur. Paris:
Hachette, 1998.
Dumesnil, René. Guy de Maupassant. Paris: Armand Colin, 1933.
Grant, Elliott M. “On the Meaning of Maupassant’s Pierre et Jean.” French Review 36, no. 5
(April 1963): 469-73.
Jaunet, Claire-Neige. Maupassant, “Pierre et Jean.” Paris: Ellipses, 1999.
Lerner, Michael G. Maupassant. New York: Braziller, 1975.
Lethbridge, Robert. Maupassant: “Pierre et Jean.” Critical Guides to French Texts. London: Grant and
Cutler, 1984.
Sachs, Murray. “The Meaning of Maupassant’s Pierre et Jean.” French Review 34, no. 3
(January 1961): 244-50.
Salem, Jean. Philosophie de Maupassant. Paris: Ellipses, 2000.
Simon, Ernest. “Descriptive and Analytical Techniques in Maupassant’s Pierre et Jean.” Romanic Review 51
(1960): 45–52.
Sullivan, Edward D. Maupassant the Novelist. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1954.
Troyat, Henri. Maupassant. Paris: Flammarion, 1989.
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Viti, Robert M. “The Elemental Maupassant: The Universe of Pierre et Jean.” French Review 62, no. 3
(February 1989): 445-55.
Web Sites
Le Naturalisme.
http://yz2dkenn.club.fr/le_naturalisme.htm.
Pierre et Jean de Maupassant.
www.chez.com/bacfrancais/pierre-et-jean.html.
Pierre et Jean de Maupassant: Explications de Textes.
www.geocities.com/odautrey.
Film
Pierre et Jean. 2004. Directed by Daniel Janneau. TV5 (France). 105 minutes.
Molière: L’école des femmes
Editions: Classiques Bordas; EMP editions (two CDs); Gallimard; Hachette; Hatier; J’ai lu; Livre de Poche;
Petits Classiques Larousse; LDP.
Critical Studies
Debailly, Pascal. Profil d’une œuvre: “L’école des femmes” de Molière. Paris: Hatier, 2003.
Gignoux, H. L’ecole des femmes. Paris: Hachette, 1967.
Hubert, Judd David. Molière and the Comedy of Intellect. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962.
Jasinski, René. Molière. Paris: Hatier, 1969.
Johnson, Barbara. “Teaching Ignorance: L’école des femmes.” Yale French Studies 63 (1982): 165-82.
Laubreaux, Raymond. Molière: Écrits de Molière sur le théâtre, témoignages, textes critiques, chronologie,
répertoire. Paris: Seghers, 1973.
Magné, Bernard. “L’école des femmes, ou la conquête de la parole.” Revue des Sciences Humaines 145
(1972): 125-40.
Picard, Raymond. “Molière comique ou tragique? Le cas d’Arnolphe.” Revue d’Histoire Littéraire de la
France 72 (1972): 769-85.
Web Sites
@ la Lettre.com. Molière.
www.alalettre.com/moliere-intro.htm.
Le Grand Siècle.
http://perso.infonie.fr/francetimbres/CH04/CH04.html.
Le Grand Siècle: La France des années 1600.
http://globegate.utm.edu/french/globegate_mirror/franxvii.html.
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Teachers
iWeb. Documents concernant la préciosité.
http://grandmont.ifrance.com/preciosite/sev/docpreci.htm.
Molière: L’école des femmes. Complete text of the play.
www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/clicnet/litterature/classique/moliere/ef/ef.introduction.html.
www.Site-Molière.com.
www.site-moliere.com/bio/1658.htm.
Films
L’école des femmes. 1978. Directed by Ariane Mnouchkine. Part of a TV series on Molière. Two cassettes for
the whole series. 280 minutes.
L’école des femmes. 1999. Performed by the Comédie Française. Two parts, 67 and 72 minutes.
Available from Films for the Humanities and Sciences, P.O. Box 2053, Princeton, NJ 08543; 800 257-5126;
www.films.com.
Voltaire: Candide
Editions
Voltaire. Candide. Paris: Classiques Hachette, 1991. It has an excellent introduction, critical notes, and very
good questions following each chapter.
Also see editions by Classiques Bordas; Garnier-Flammarion; Hachette; and Petits Classiques Larousse.
Critical Studies
Barber, William H. Voltaire: “Candide.” London: Arnold, 1960.
Besterman, Theodore. Voltaire. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1969. This excellent book has a
complete biography, but it is long.
Bonneville, Douglas A. Voltaire and the Form of the Novel. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation at the Taylor
Institution, 1976.
Bottiglia, William F. Voltaire’s “Candide”: Analysis of a Classic. Geneva: Institut et Musée Voltaire, 1959.
Chartrier, Pierre. Pierre Chartrier commente “Candide” de Voltaire. Paris: Gallimard, 1994.
Debailly, Pascal. Dix textes expliqués: Voltaire: “Candide.” Paris: Hatier, 1986. Ten important passages are
included followed by a very good textual analysis of each. These deal very effectively with themes and
style, so they are excellent tools in preparing students to write textual analyses.
Gaillard, Pol. Profil d’une œuvre: “Candide.” Paris: Hatier, 1992. Analysis of themes, structure, style of
Voltaire, including important historical context and essential elements of Voltaire’s life as they relate
to Candide.
Messière, Philippe. L’oeuvre au clair: “Candide.” Paris: Bordas, 1990. This work is used to help prepare
students for the baccalauréat.
Sareil, Jean. Essai sur “Candide.” Geneva: Droz, 1967.
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Wade, Ira Owen. Voltaire and “Candide”: A Study in the Fusion of History, Art, and Philosophy. Princeton,
N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1959.
Waldinger, Renée, ed. Approaches to Teaching Voltaire’s “Candide.” New York: Modern Language
Association of America, 1987.
Web Sites
@ la Lettre.com. Voltaire (1694–1778). Biographical sketch, with links to the entire text of Candide and
analysis of the work.
www.alalettre.com/voltaire-intro.htm.
Candide, ou l’optimisme de Voltaire. Contains the complete text, analyses of crucial episodes, and
biographical information about Voltaire.
www.chez.com/bacfrancais/candide-voltaire.html.
Études Littéraires. Voltaire (1694–1778), Candide, 1759.
www.etudes-litteraires.com/voltaire-candide.php.
Voltaire. Short biographical sketch.
www.comedie-francaise.fr/biographies/voltaire.htm.
Other Interesting Web Sites
Espace Francophone.
This site, created by the Cultural Service of the Consulate General of France in New Orleans, covers
a wide variety of topics, including French history, culture, economics, and politics, with many
interesting audio-visual links.
www.espacefrancophone.org.
Poésie Française.
Contains more than 6,000 French poems, from the Middle Ages through the twentieth century.
http://poesie.webnet.fr.
Professional Associations
There are two professional groups that a novice French teacher should consider joining, besides the French
Literature EDG (see chapter 2) and your local school district’s group of French colleagues:
American Association of Teachers of French
AATF National Headquarters
Mailcode 4510
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL 62901-4510
618 453-5731; fax: 618 453-5733
www.frenchteachers.org
E-mail: abrate@siu.edu
The AATF offers excellent support to the new AP French teacher. Its Web site lists a great array of
resources not only for the AP French Literature course but also the other courses that all French teachers
will have to teach. The babillard, for instance, is a chat room where one can exchange suggestions for “best
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practices” and available resources. There are links to some of the same resources found on the AP Central
site, as well as important information on national events, such as La Semaine Nationale du Français. Novice
teachers will appreciate the scholarship offers and opportunities for travel that may not be advertised by
their local chapters. The membership fee includes a subscription to the French Review, one of the premier
scholarly journals in the field.
Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
The Northeast Conference at Dickinson College
P.O. Box 1773
Carlisle PA 17013-2896
717 245-1977; fax: 717 245-1976
http://alpha.dickinson.edu/prorg/nectfl/index.html
E-mail: nectfl@dickinson.edu
Technically this is a regional organization, but it draws attendees to its yearly national meeting from
throughout the country. It also publishes the semiannual NECTFL Review.
How to Address Limited Resources
The good news for teachers of AP French Literature courses at small or geographically isolated schools,
or those with tight budgets, is that the class can be run successfully without a lot of special effects. The
only essential requirements are a group of eager, motivated students and a dedicated teacher. As you have
undoubtedly gathered from the preceding information, the Internet is your best friend. The vast majority
of works on the reading list are in the public domain and can be downloaded legally at no cost. At Poésie
Française, for example, you can quickly locate and print thousands of different poems simply by typing in
the author’s name, the title, or the first line. The AATF site also has a current inventory of all the poems on
the reading list.
Regarding the novels and plays, such as Pierre et Jean or L’école des femmes, their cost is minimal,
about $10 to $15 per book. An advanced search of various American and/or French Web sites often leads
to the complete texts, legally downloadable. This electronic material is a possible resource when dealing
with a limited number of students. Teachers should also investigate eBay for secondhand books and French
movies. Great movie titles can sometimes be found for as little as $5!
Remember that the French Electronic Discussion Group at AP Central can be a vital link for the
teacher with few resources available for the AP French Literature course. The Professional Development
section of www.collegeboard.com includes a section on Online Events, which offer an opportunity to reap
the benefits of a face-to-face seminar and are an effective alternative for teachers whose districts may have
no funds for travel. Also see the information on AP Grants for beginning or expanding an AP program: go
to the Awards, Grants, and Financial Aid section of the K-12 Services section at www.collegeboard.com.
Professional Development
In the following section, the College Board outlines its professional development opportunities in support
of AP educators.
The teachers, administrators, and AP Coordinators involved in the AP and Pre-AP Programs compose
a dedicated, engaged, vibrant community of educational professionals. Welcome!
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We invite you to become an active participant in the community. The College Board offers a variety
of professional development opportunities designed to educate, support, and invigorate both new and
experienced AP teachers and educational professionals. These year-round offerings range from half-day
workshops to intensive weeklong summer institutes, from the AP Annual Conference to AP Central, and
from participation in an AP Reading to Development Committee membership.
Workshops and Summer Institutes
At the heart of the College Board’s professional development offerings are workshops and summer
institutes. Participating in an AP workshop is generally one of the first steps to becoming a successful AP
teacher. Workshops range in length from half-day to weeklong events and are focused on all 37 AP courses
and a range of supplemental topics. Workshop consultants are innovative, successful, and experienced
AP teachers, teachers trained in Pre-AP skills and strategies, college faculty members, and other qualified
educational professionals who have been trained and endorsed by the College Board. For new and
experienced teachers, these course-specific training opportunities encompass all aspects of AP course
content, organization, evaluation, and methodology. For administrators, counselors, and AP Coordinators,
workshops address critical issues faced in introducing, developing, supporting, and expanding Pre-AP and
AP programs in secondary schools. They also serve as a forum for exchanging ideas about AP.
While the AP Program does not have a set of formal requirements that teachers must satisfy prior
to teaching an AP course, the College Board suggests that AP teachers have considerable experience and
an advanced degree in the discipline before undertaking an AP course. These workshops offer intensive
subject-specific training on the content and methods of teaching AP courses, and they serve as a forum for
exchanging ideas about AP.
AP Summer Institutes provide teachers with in-depth training in AP courses and teaching strategies.
Participants engage in at least 30 hours of training led by College Board–endorsed consultants and receive
printed materials, including excerpts from AP Course Descriptions, AP Exam information, and other
course-specific teaching resources. Many locations offer guest speakers, field trips, and other hands-on
activities. Each institute is managed individually by staff at the sponsoring institution under the guidelines
provided by the College Board.
Participants in College Board professional development workshops and summer institutes are eligible
for continuing education units (CEUs). The College Board is authorized by the International Association
for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) to offer CEUs. IACET is an internationally recognized
organization that provides standards and authorization for continuing education and training.
Workshop and institute offerings for the AP French Literature teacher (or potential teacher) range from
introductory to topic-specific events and include offerings tailored to teachers in the pre-AP years. To learn
more about scheduled workshops and summer institutes near you, visit the Institutes & Workshops area on
AP Central: apcentral.collegeboard.com/events.
Online Events
The College Board offers a wide variety of online events, which are presented by College Board–endorsed
consultants and recognized subject-matter experts to participants via a Web-based, real-time interface.
Online events range from one hour to several days and are interactive, allowing for exchanges between the
presenter and participants and between participants. Like face-to-face workshops, online events vary in
focus from introductory themes to specific topics, and many offer CEUs for participants. For a complete list
of upcoming and archived online events, visit apcentral.collegeboard.com/onlineevents/schedule.
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About
Resources
AP French
forLiterature
Teachers
Archives of past online events are available for free. Archived events can be viewed on your computer at
your convenience.
AP Central
AP Central is the College Board’s online home for AP professionals and Pre-AP. The site offers a wealth
of resources, including Course Descriptions, sample syllabi, exam questions, a vast database of teaching
resource reviews, lesson plans, course-specific feature articles, and much more. Bookmark the AP French
Literature Course Home Page to gain quick access to the resources and information on AP Central about
AP French Literature: apcentral.collegeboard.com/frenchlit.
AP Program information is also available on the site, including exam calendars, fee and fee reduction
policies, student performance data, participation forms, research reports, college and university AP grade
acceptance policies, and more.
AP professionals are encouraged to contribute to the resources on AP Central by submitting articles,
adding comments to Teachers’ Resources reviews, and serving as an AP Central Content Advisor.
Electronic Discussion Groups
The AP electronic discussion groups (EDGs) were created to provide a moderated forum for the exchange
of ideas, insights, and practices among AP teachers, AP Coordinators, consultants, AP Exam Readers,
administrators, and college faculty. EDGs are Web-based threaded discussion groups focused on specific
AP courses or roles, giving participants the ability to post and respond to questions online to be viewed by
other members of the EDG. To join an EDG, visit apcentral.collegeboard.com/community/edg.
AP Annual Conference
The AP Annual Conference (APAC) is a gathering of the AP and Pre-AP communities, including teachers,
secondary school administrators, and college faculty. The APNC is the only national conference that
focuses on providing complete strategies for middle and high school teachers and administrators involved
in the AP Program. Conference events include presentations by each course’s Development Committee,
course- and topic-specific sessions, guest speakers, and pre- and postconference workshops for new and
experienced teachers. To learn more about this year’s event, please visit www.collegeboard.com/apac/.
AP professionals are encouraged to lead workshops and presentations at the conference. Proposals are
due in the fall of each year prior to the event (visit AP Central for specific deadlines and requirements).
Professional Opportunities
College Board Consultants and Contributors
Experienced AP teachers and educational professionals share their techniques, best practices, materials,
and expertise with other educators by serving as College Board consultants and contributors. They may
lead workshops and summer institutes, sharing their proven techniques and best practices with new and
experienced AP teachers, AP Coordinators, and administrators. They may also contribute to AP course
and exam development (writing exam questions or serving on a Development Committee) or evaluate AP
Exams at the annual AP Reading. Consultants and contributors may be teachers, postsecondary faculty,
counselors, administrators, and retired educators. They receive an honorarium for their work and are
reimbursed for expenses.
To learn more about becoming a workshop consultant, visit apcentral.collegeboard.com/consultant.
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Chapter 5
1
AP Exam Readers
High school and college faculty members from around the world gather in the United States each June to
evaluate and score the free-response sections of the AP Exams at the annual AP Reading. AP Exam Readers
are led by a Chief Reader, a college professor who has the responsibility of ensuring that students receive
grades that accurately reflect college-level achievement. Readers describe the experience as providing
unparalleled insight into the exam evaluation process and as an opportunity for intensive collegial exchange
between high school and college faculty. (More than 9,500 Readers participated in the 2007 Reading.)
High school Readers receive certificates awarding professional development hours and CEUs for their
participation in the AP Reading. To apply to become an AP Reader, go to apcentral.collegeboard.com/
readers.
Development Committee Members
The dedicated members of each course’s Development Committee play a critical role in the preparation
of the Course Description and exam. They represent a diverse spectrum of knowledge and points of view
in their fields and, as a group, are the authority when it comes to making subject-matter decisions in the
exam-construction process. The AP Development Committees represent a unique collaboration between
high school and college educators.
AP Grants
The College Board offers a suite of competitive grants that provide financial and technical assistance to
schools and teachers interested in expanding access to AP. The suite consists of three grant programs:
College Board AP Fellows, College Board Pre-AP Fellows, and the AP Start-Up Grant, totaling over $600,000
in aid annually for professional development and classroom resources. The programs provide stipends
for teachers and schools that want to start an AP program or expand their current program. Schools and
teachers that serve minority and/or low-income students who have been traditionally underrepresented in
AP courses are given preference. To learn more, visit apcentral.collegeboard.com/apgrants.
Our Commitment to Professional Development
The College Board is committed to supporting and educating AP teachers, AP Coordinators, and
administrators. We encourage you to attend professional development events and workshops to expand
your knowledge of and familiarity with the AP course(s) you teach or that your school offers, and then
to share that knowledge with other members of the AP community. In addition, we recommend that you
join professional associations, attend meetings, and read journals to help support your involvement in the
community of educational professionals in your discipline. By working with other educational professionals,
you will strengthen that community and increase the variety of teaching resources you use.
Your work in the classroom and your contributions to professional development help the AP Program
continue to grow, providing students worldwide with the opportunity to engage in college-level learning
while still in high school.
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