By Chloe Zhu
As its name entails, Madame Mofazali’s French Lit class is, well, lit.
From French poet Grand Corps Malade’s free-verse slams to Jean de la Fontaine’s renowned fables, this course is everything a literature aficionado and Francophone culture enthusiast could ever ask for. Composed of only eight students (including yours truly :D), every class is an opportunity to become engrossed in the meanings and patterns hidden under a veil of words, buried through means of various figures of speech.
Mme Mofazali has been teaching high-level French at Collingwood for around 20 years, and she inspires her students every day with her brilliance, passion, and dedication to the subject - a few splendidly crafted macarons here and there helps as well.
Beginning with fabled fabulist Jean de la Fontaine, the class delved straight into the four fundamental themes of literary phenomena: pure artistic expression, testimony, ideological struggle, and escape; all of which were discussed, dismantled, and reassembled to the very last syllable. Some topics studied included the implicit versus explicit moral, the various lengths of the verses, and the quality of the rhymes, as well as how these contribute to the overall message, meaning, and social commentary of the oeuvre. We considered the effects of the unstable circumstances within the French court, the framing of de la Fontaine’s mentor, and much more when deliberating the subtle influences in his writing, and questioned the true intent behind his work, very often concealed under the guise of friendly animal stories.
Following this enrapturing introduction to the course, the class changed its focus to another writer active during the same time period and in similar social circles as de la Fontaine: Jean-Baptise Poquelin, also more famously known as Molière. A playwright, this author rose to fame thanks to his comedic genius, making masterful use of quid pro quos, situational comedy, and much more; he was propelled right under the royal eye and French aristocracy, for which he performed many of his plays. We looked further than this, however, and examined the true purpose of the works, most of which related to different societal circumstances of the time. Some of these are still relevant today, such as the issue of arranged marriage and the repression of free thought. The class ended this unit with a mock bench trial, with each student taking on the role of a character from the play we read (l’École des Femmes), and presided over by the Honourable Ms Mulder.
Taking a step back from the Sun King era in French history, the class now took a temporal leap back a hundred years to meet poetess Louise Labé, one of the first feminist writers of France. Now known for her poems written in French sonnet structure, she was heavily persecuted for expressing her romantic sentiments towards a man (something the then social and amorous roles of men and women would not allow). We examined the Petrarchan style of her work and the heavy classical Greek and Roman influences. Below is the audio of Monique Kelly’s musical rendition of Labé’s poem “Tant que mes yeux pourront larmes épandre:
As its name entails, Madame Mofazali’s French Lit class is, well, lit.
From French poet Grand Corps Malade’s free-verse slams to Jean de la Fontaine’s renowned fables, this course is everything a literature aficionado and Francophone culture enthusiast could ever ask for. Composed of only eight students (including yours truly :D), every class is an opportunity to become engrossed in the meanings and patterns hidden under a veil of words, buried through means of various figures of speech.
Mme Mofazali has been teaching high-level French at Collingwood for around 20 years, and she inspires her students every day with her brilliance, passion, and dedication to the subject - a few splendidly crafted macarons here and there helps as well.
Beginning with fabled fabulist Jean de la Fontaine, the class delved straight into the four fundamental themes of literary phenomena: pure artistic expression, testimony, ideological struggle, and escape; all of which were discussed, dismantled, and reassembled to the very last syllable. Some topics studied included the implicit versus explicit moral, the various lengths of the verses, and the quality of the rhymes, as well as how these contribute to the overall message, meaning, and social commentary of the oeuvre. We considered the effects of the unstable circumstances within the French court, the framing of de la Fontaine’s mentor, and much more when deliberating the subtle influences in his writing, and questioned the true intent behind his work, very often concealed under the guise of friendly animal stories.
Following this enrapturing introduction to the course, the class changed its focus to another writer active during the same time period and in similar social circles as de la Fontaine: Jean-Baptise Poquelin, also more famously known as Molière. A playwright, this author rose to fame thanks to his comedic genius, making masterful use of quid pro quos, situational comedy, and much more; he was propelled right under the royal eye and French aristocracy, for which he performed many of his plays. We looked further than this, however, and examined the true purpose of the works, most of which related to different societal circumstances of the time. Some of these are still relevant today, such as the issue of arranged marriage and the repression of free thought. The class ended this unit with a mock bench trial, with each student taking on the role of a character from the play we read (l’École des Femmes), and presided over by the Honourable Ms Mulder.
Taking a step back from the Sun King era in French history, the class now took a temporal leap back a hundred years to meet poetess Louise Labé, one of the first feminist writers of France. Now known for her poems written in French sonnet structure, she was heavily persecuted for expressing her romantic sentiments towards a man (something the then social and amorous roles of men and women would not allow). We examined the Petrarchan style of her work and the heavy classical Greek and Roman influences. Below is the audio of Monique Kelly’s musical rendition of Labé’s poem “Tant que mes yeux pourront larmes épandre:
Finally, we arrive at our current unit, which, incidentally, also has a current writer as its focus. Fabien Marsaud (stage name Grand Corps Malade, or GCM) composes slam poetry with substantial social commentary on many different issues facing not only France as a country, but also the world in its entirety. This altogether dissimilar style of literature, separated by at least four centuries of time from any other author we’d studied so far, provided a reinvigorating few weeks before the start of spring break. As part of a project, the class wrote two slams of our own; one, an ode to Vancouver, the other, a tribute to Collingwood School.
In all, this class teaches the role of literature in human society, transporting through history as a way of examining the diverse ways in which literature impacts the lives of individuals and the fates of civilizations. It encourages deep thought on any work of art and promotes profound understanding.
In all, this class teaches the role of literature in human society, transporting through history as a way of examining the diverse ways in which literature impacts the lives of individuals and the fates of civilizations. It encourages deep thought on any work of art and promotes profound understanding.
You can read "Vancouver," a slam by Monique, Sebastian, and Chloe in honour of the city of Vancouver (as part of the Grand Corps Malade unit) below: