Major Literary Works to 1800 · French
There's a ten-minute oral presentation, two 4-5 page papers, a midterm, and a final. The reading comes out to about 100 to 150 pages a week if I had to guess; overall, the workload is pretty light.
Three 4-5 page papers (fairly graded), midterm and final (which you can do very well on provided you've been taking good notes all semester)
Heavy. There is a lot of reading: this class is like the lit hum of French. 1 page reactions on readings due every week. 2 papers (5-6 pages). Midterm and final were fair.
about 200 pages of reading a week (some of the readings are in middle french- for these, get an english or modern french translation), hard midterm, hard final, one 5-7 pg paper, one 10-15 pg paper. A lot.
a few papers, midterm and final, normal reading. comparable to lit hum or cc.
As a person who did all the assignments, I can tell you that you don't need much to get by in this class. All you need is good french bull-shitting skills and you'll get yourself the easiest A of your life. 2 papers (3-4 pages and 4-5), exceptionally retarded midterm and final. Easy grader, but that doesn't begin to compensate for his flaws.
I thought Prof. Mesch was pretty good; I've had better, but I've certainly also had worse. She's friendly and well-organized, and she conveys her points clearly, but I also have to agree with another review, at times it can stray into boring. If you're looking to take a class, and she's teaching a section of it, you could do a lot worse. You'll come out of it with a good understanding of the works you read and the course material, but you may not come out with a love for it.
I really feel the need to disagree with the previous review. Eric Leveau was an extremely knowledgeable, wonderful professor. His in-depth knowledge of the literary and political history surrounding each book or play was very helpful in understanding each work. He also made himself very available to students. I would frequently email him late at night with a question on a paper topic or simply a vocabulary word I wasn't able to find in the dictionary; a few hours later, I would find an email from him giving me not only the definition, but also a page-long story on the history of that particular word. Leveau does his best to keep classes interesting. He has a great sense of humor and actually cares about his students as human beings, often taking 5 minutes at the beginning of class to tout the study-abroad program, the French major, or the Columbia blood drive. He pushes his students to participate and be enthusiastic about the course, but understands when the hefty workload keeps a student from finishing every page of the week's reading. Leveau really brings life to the course.
Professor Martin likes to use a lot of slides in class to educate us about the history at the time the texts were written. While these slides are interesting, we spend so much time learning the names and events of history that we hardly have any time to look at the texts we read! No wonder we are so behind in the syllabus. She seems like a genuinely nice and caring professor and she wants to constantly engage us but she does have her own strong opinions and preferences. It is also clear that she has favorites in the class... The papers are open-ended so it makes it harder since you have to pick a topic (but a topic that she is interested in). She is definetely a hard grader but tends to ease up towards the end of the semester. She is a nice professor and the subject matter is definetely interesting but if you take this class, be prepared for a lot of reading and hardwork.
As the above reviews say, Prof. Wood is extremely passionate about french and french literature and he knows a TON about every author and their time period and the cultural/political movements that were happening. He's pretty much read all of lit hum and cc and a lot more. The class is, as expected, a lot of reading, and you have to do at least most of it - there are pop quizzes. He also sends out about 10 wikipedia or other article links via email that give more background information about things we talk about in class, which he also sort of expects you to read. Oh, and then the last two weeks of the semester, he'll tell you that you also have to write a 10-15 page analytical/research paper - that at least last semester, he made due the day after the final. The paper is a complex and difficult assignment to begin with, and writing it in a foreign language is just an added bonus. He has high expectations and is not an easy grader. I recommend trying to meet with him before papers are due to figure out what he wants from it- because he has very specific expectations that he did not tell us about until after the first paper. Essentially, he puts a lot into the class and expects that you put in even more. I would not recommend taking this class if you are already taking a heavy course load and want to have a life. It is a great class, and Prof. Wood knows a lot and is generally…