FREN 186 - Meeting Places: Bars, Streets, Cafés

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

(Same as WMST 186) “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.” This bitter observation, made by the owner of “Rick’s Café” in the 1942 American-made film Casablanca, is often misquoted as, “she had to walk into mine.” Indeed, the unexpected encounter with a past acquaintance or stranger is a necessary catalyst that sets in motion the plot of many a novel or film. This freshman writing seminar looks at literary or cinematic chance meetings that occur in three kinds of locales: the bar, the street, and the café. With each story or film we examine, we’ll learn something about about France and its relation to certain regions, while considering “place” itself as a critical concept. After viewing Michael Curtiz’s film Casablanca, set in French-occupied Morocco, our explorations take us to nineteenth-century Paris in works by George Sand and Guy de Maupassant, to French Indochina in Marguerite Duras’ The Lover, to twentieth-century Montreal in works by Liliane Dévieux and Dany Laferrière, to Tahar Ben Jelloun’s present-day Tunisia, then back to Paris with Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain. Finally, we return to the film Casablanca, better equipped to understand why, if all roads lead to Casablanca, then all roads in Casablanca “must” lead to Rick’s Café. The course is taught in English. All works are read in translation. Kathleen Hart.

Open only to Freshmen; satisfies the college requirement for a Freshman Writing Seminar.

Two 75-minute periods.