French and Francophone Language and Literature Commons^™

Derrida In Mesopotamia: On The Import Of The Cuneiform Inscriptions In Of Grammatology, Will Greenshields

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Cuneiform writing has a small but privileged position in Derrida’s Of Grammatology – providing the text with its first two epigraphs. By elucidating the source and import of these inscriptions and evaluating Derrida’s understanding of the cuneiform writing system in reference to more recent grammatological studies, this paper explains the significance of these references to the ancient Near East for Derrida’s arguments regarding the origins of Western metaphysics and logocentrism. In the first part, I analyze Derrida’s brief paragraph on cuneiform writing in Of Grammatology as evincing a “fundamental synaesthesia” of phonetic and non-phonetic elements that problematizes the phonocentric definition …

Inverting "Doux Commerce": The Paradox Of Rhetoric Surrounding European Jewish Commerce, Isabelle C. Sampere

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

This paper investigates the inherent contradictions in the "Doux Commerce" thesis as articulated by Montesquieu, which argues that commerce civilizes and morally enriches its participants, using the historical experiences of the French Jewish community as a case study. Despite the Enlightenment’s promotion of commerce as a path to societal gentility and tolerance, French Jews remained targets of economic and social marginalization, which persisted into the 19th century. The analysis centers on the rhetorical dissonance exhibited by philosophers such as Voltaire, who extolled the virtues of commerce for its ability to unify diverse religious and cultural groups, yet simultaneously endorsed and …

Nature Et Relations Dans La Littérature Caribéenne Francophone De Fin Du Xxe Siècle Et Contemporaine, Louise Bonastre-Fajardo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My research project argues that literature novels from the french-speaking Caribbeans contribute to testifying to relationships with the environment, with others, and with oneself. By recognizing nature as a subject of rights under Latin America's new constitutionalism to prevent environmental harm caused by humans, politics can acknowledge that nature is actually a part of a domination system. This study addresses a range of issues within existing power structures, by articulating the notion of "nature" with the notions of "natural" and "supernatural" in a selection of francophone late XX’s century and contemporary Caribbean novels.

An important literature on Latin American and …

Embodied Archives, Emerging Futures, Xuân-Lam Nguyen

Masters Theses

Fifty years after the end of the U.S.–Vietnam War, this thesis reflects on the entangled relationship between the two nations, inspiring hope while challenging dominant representations of trauma and tragedy. Drawing from autobiography, family history, folk art traditions, colonial photographs, hierarchies within art history, archives of student activism, and key geopolitical events, the work explores the complex intersections of queer identity and glitchy historical narratives. Combining research-based inquiry with time- and labor-intensive processes, it reimagines historical materials to construct alternate possibilities for the future.

Les Blattes Orgueilleuses, Siham Amraoui

Journal of Amazigh Studies

N/A

The Life Of Marie Curie And Her Impact On Feminism In The Sciences, Jamie Chin

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Chemist Marie Curie had an incredible impact on the field of chemistry by discovering radium and polonium and being the first person to win two Nobel Prizes - one in physics and one in chemistry. Despite the extreme sexism that she faced as a female scientist, she still made a lasting impact in the chemistry and feminism through her accomplishments. Today, women make about half of the United States’ workforce and 57 percent of college graduates, yet they remain underrepresented in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields. For this project, we investigated the influence of Marie Curie’s life on feminism …

Fan Art, Jacob Lay

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the work of artists like Vincent van Gogh, Donald Baechelor, and Cezanne in their relationship to my work and contemporary painting. Drawing from personal letters, interviews, and essays on these artists, the paper places painting and drawing from the thesis exhibition in a history as well as relates them to current pop culture relics. The paper also includes a process-based analyses of how each painting is made and with what materials.

Toujours Beaucoup: Representations Of Childhood And Education In 20th Century French Literature And Cinema, Delaney Drury

Poster Presentations

This project explores French literature and cinema with significant representations of education for the purpose of examining to what extent educational ideals are upheld or undermined.

Shoule Québec Rename Its Language? A Diachronic Analysis Of Québécois French, Tessa C. Fackrell

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Canadian French has evolved away from metropolitan French in vocabulary, accent, slang, and even grammar structures since it was colonized in the 16th century. In analyzing the development of the Québécois language, this thesis aims to provide insights as to whether renaming Canadian French that is spoken in the province of Québec to Québécois would better represent the culture and people who use the language. This thesis includes an analysis of the history of Québec from its colonization by France, the legislation in place to protect the languages of French and Québécois, and an analysis of some of the linguistic …

Chrysanthèmes Et Camélias: Le Japonisme Littéraire Au Xixᵉ Siècle Et Aujourd’Hui, Emiko Iguchi

Honors Theses

Ce travail explorera le dialogue entre Madame Chrysanthème et Le Cahier rose de Madame Chrysanthème, une réponse directe de Félix Régamey à l’oeuvre de Loti. J’analyserai également un exemple plus moderne, L’Élégance du hérisson de Muriel Barbery. Bien que ces trois oeuvres traitent de l’interaction entre les mêmes deux pays, les intentions des auteurs se révèlent à travers leur manière de représenter les personnages et les échanges culturels. Malgré le manque général de compréhension de la culture japonaise qui transparaît dans le récit de Loti, Madame Chrysanthème a eu une influence durable sur la manière dont le Japon a …

Toujours Beaucoup: Representations Of Childhood And Education In 20th Century French Literature And Cinema, Delaney Drury

Honors Theses

The Third Republic’s reforms established France’s public education system on several foundational ideals: upholding republican values, resisting autocratic authorities, promoting critical thinking, and promoting personal liberty and freedom of thought. This project explores French literature and cinema with significant representations of education for the purpose of examining to what extent such ideals are upheld or undermined in their portrayals of education. Such an examination of French education and its underlying values is significant in such a time in history when France is experiencing a “contemporary crisis of republican schooling” (Sachs 179). Alongside the historical significance of such studies, the more …

Ni Soumises, Ni Sauvées : La Quête De L’Identité Féminine Dans La Nouvelle Vague Du Film De Banlieue, Rachael Ruth

Honors Theses

Les banlieues françaises, situées à la périphérie des grandes villes, sont souvent perçues comme des espaces de marginalisation sociale et économique. Dès les années 1980 et 1990, les banlieues deviennent un sujet central du discours médiatique et politique, notamment en raison des tensions liées à l’immigration, aux inégalités socio-économiques et aux violences urbaines. Pendant cette période, la représentation des banlieues dans le cinéma français reflète ces tensions en les caractérisant comme des lieux de violence, d’exclusion, et d'hypermasculinité. Le film de banlieue en tant que genre émerge avec popularité dans les années 1990 avec La Haine (1995) de Mathieu Kassovitz. …

Les Femmes Dans Le Monde Médical, Emma Kane

Honors Theses

Cet essai est une investigation du rôle de femmes dans le monde médical avec les anecdotes de femmes des années 1800 a aujourd'hui. On affirme que les femmes avaient été traitées comme des objets de recherche et formation au lieu de patientes et égales. En outre, malgré le progrès de femmes dans le monde médical, elles ne reçoivent toujours pas la même estime que leur homologues homme.

This thesis explores the role of women in the world of medicine through female narratives from the 1800s to present. The essay argues that women have been objectified for research and education purposes …

Declining Democracy Amid Historical Legacies: Democratization Across The Maghreb, Jacob Sagers

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Institutions and security forces are vital in determining democratization’s success or failure, but how do they interact with civilians to counteract, or support, existing regimes? Hopes for a fourth wave of democratization were dismantled over the past decade as the Arab uprisings have had inconclusive results, posing a threat to the ideological basis for U.S. foreign policy and Western states' legitimacy. Broad economic and Western foreign policies applied worldwide over the past few decades have also been ineffective at supporting this process and producing sustainable democratic transitions. But what specifically about these factors in the Maghreb gave way to Tunisia’s …

A Lesson Featuring The French Pronoun On That Teaches Us About Imperceptibility, Ngọc Hải Nguyễn '26

Previously Language Studies Research Symposium

The French pronoun « on » presents a unique political case study. According to the French Academy, the pronoun, though limited to the subject position of a sentence, has potential usage to refer to any person or group of people. In everyday usage, the pronoun simply replace the French 'we' equivalent (nous). However, on does not limit itself to just the aforementioned use—instead, it can (and has been) used to replace any personal pronouns (I-je, you-tu, you-vous, il-he/it, elle-she/it, ils/elles–they [gendered accordingly]), and even certain undefined/indefinite ones (like someone, anyone, one, etc.). On is a good discussion point about the …

Le Kabary Et Le Fokonolona Au Grand Écran, Josh E. Coster

French Honors Papers

The cultural elements of kabary and fokonolona have played varying roles in Malagasy society and history. Once appropriated by the forces of colonization, these elements today occupy a liminal space in Malagasy culture but undoubtedly represent parts of the island’s heritage. In this project I argue that film can be seen as a new kind of kabary wherein Malagasy films become the cultural expressions themselves not only through their representations of the essential elements of the kabary, but by their inherent tendencies towards social, political, and environmental activism. The community that these filmmakers create represents a modernization of the traditional …

Le Corps : Prise De La Parole Du Corps Qui Devient Sujet Dans L’Écriture Sidéenne De À L’Ami Qui Ne M’A Pas Sauvé La Vie D’Hervé Guibert Et De Dans Ma Chambre De Guillaume Dustan., Sasha Aisha Craig

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

C’est à travers les ouvrages À l’ami qui ne m’a pas sauvé (1990) d’Hervé Guibert et Dans ma chambre de Guillaume Dustan que nous essayons de comprendre le monde de ceux qui ont été stigmatisé comme des fléaux de la société. Dans les années quatre-vingt-dix, les recherches avancent pour aider ceux qui sont atteints du SIDA mais seulement quelques-uns réussissent à se faire soigner. Guibert et Dustan nous font revivre leurs moments de désuétude où la société les rejettent. Cette recherche met en avant l’écriture sidéenne qui se veut souvent « crue » et parle par l’intermédiaire du corps qui …

Bleu Pour Toujours (Blue Forever), Macha Petre

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

Since this short story is written in French, the abstract below is available in both English and French.

Bleu pour toujours (« Blue Forever ») is a short story blending poetry and science fiction. In the near future, war, pollution, and human activity have devastated our world. The blue sky exists only in history books or old photographs. Amid this gray, monotonous despair, an unnamed, ageless, and genderless character escapes one evening and makes unsettling discoveries. Something is stirring. Upon waking, they find everyone has vanished, and the laws of the universe have been upended. In place of the sky …

Le Bénin Francophone: Une Étude Sur L’Angle Sociolinguistique, David Achodo

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

Cette communication porte sur le paysage sociolinguistique d’un pays d’Afrique occidental–la République du Bénin (l’ancien Dahomey)–mettant en évidence l’interface complexe entre le français et les langues béninoises. Le prestige du français, en tant que langue privilégiée employée pour la communication interethnique dans de divers domaines du pays, rend son acquisition essentielle. Mais, en dehors des autres langues étrangères présentes parmi les membres éduqués de la population béninoise, les langues locales entrent en jeu avec le français, produisant ainsi trois variétés distinctes du français : le français standard, le français d’Afrique et le français snobé. Chacune de ces variétés possède des …