Spring 2025

French 3305 – Acting French   
Professor: Dr. Jennifer Forrest, jf05@txstate.edu

Description: In this course students will read, abridge, rewrite, stage, and perform Alfred Jarry's farce Ubu roi (1896) with the objective that they . . . 
•    overcome inhibitions and find fluidity and joy in the oral use of French; 
•    improve pronunciation, intonation, comprehension, and oral expression; 
•    add extensively to their vocabulary and repertoire of idiomatic expressions. 
Students will produce the play, working on set design, costume design, props, lighting, sound, acting, and directing. 
 

French 4308 – French Translation II   
Professor: Dr. Gyongyi Pisak, g_p55@txstate.edu

Description: This course provides a theoretical framework for the study of translation by explaining basic concepts, techniques and processes, and provides ample translation practice from French to English. You will acquire the tools to solve translation problems such as delineating translation units, identifying and translating into the proper language register, translating literal and figurative language, fixed expressions and prepositions, finding the correct equivalent of verb tenses, and so on. Once equipped with the basic tools, we will tackle the translation of longer texts, including literature, journal articles and specialized texts from the field of law, science, business or anthropology, depending on your specialization and interests. Translation is a fun challenge, and I invite you to participate in it. Having taken Translation I is NOT a prerequisite for this course. 
 

French 4350A – French Poetic Realism 
Professor: Dr. Jennifer Forrest, jf05@txstate.edu

Description: In this course, we will study Poetic Realist films from French cinemas finest era, the 1930s, watching movies by great directors like Jean Renoir, Julien Duvivier, Marcel Carné, Jean Grémillon, Jean Vigo, and Jacques Feyder. These directors, screenwriters like the poet Jacques Prévert and Charles Spaak, composers like Maurice Jaubert and Georges Auric, and set designers like Alexandre Trauner and Lazare Meerson, all contributed to creating the unique mood and look of truly groundbreaking movies. Poetic Realism had considerable influence on its contemporaries and on later styles (Italian Neorealism, American film noir, and the French New Wave). Taught in English.