Graduate
Examinations for the PhD Degree in French Language and Literature
Candidates must take written comprehensive examinations. These examinations normally should be passed at least eight months (two terms) before the degree is to be awarded. Students may present themselves for the examinations only after passing all preliminary examinations and language and other requirements, except for courses that are currently being taken.
The University has established a statute of limitations of ten years from the student’s initial registration for graduate study or eight years from the initial registration for students holding an M.A. degree.
Preliminary Examination/Evaluation
In accordance with Graduate School policy, students in the PhD program will undergo a preliminary evaluation by the end of the first year of full residence. The purpose of this evaluation is to identify those students who may be expected to complete a doctoral program successfully, and also to identify deficiencies in the students' preparation. To satisfy this requirement, graduate students in French will meet with their adviser early in the second term of residence for an evaluation of the record of performance in their first term on the basis of grades and reports from the students' instructors.
Explication De Texte
Before taking their comprehensive examinations, PhD students must present an oral explication de texte in French before a jury comprised of members of the faculty. The student and the chair of the comprehensive examination committee (see “c” below) will agree on a work, or on a series of works, from which the texte will be taken. The student will receive the text 48 hours before the presentation is to take place. The student will be allowed to bring to the presentation the book from which the passage is excerpted as well as his/her notes, but will not be allowed to read his/her presentation. This presentation should be done in French and should last about 30 minutes after which questions will be asked. If the explication is not satisfactory, the student may repeat the exercise once.
Please consult the edited volume Explication de texte (ed. Jean Sareil) while preparing for this exam. The text is available in the department.
Comprehensive Examinations for the PhD in French Language and Literature.
Students will ask a faculty member in their intended field of specialization to chair their Comprehensive Examination Committee and to serve as the dissertation director. This request must be made no later than March 1 of the academic year preceding the one in which they will take the examination. If the faculty member accepts, s/he will ask at least two other members of the faculty, chosen in agreement with the student, to serve on an ad hoc committee. This committee, composed of at least three members, will guide the candidate in the preparation of reading lists in the areas chosen (see below) and will also supervise the administration of the written and oral examinations. This committee will evaluate the examinations along with other specialists who will be called upon as deemed appropriate by the faculty member chairing the committee.
The exams ensure that the candidate is able to develop a scholarly and original approach to the study of French or Francophone literature and culture in a given period. The exams are also designed to help students acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for teaching in a college or university environment by addressing periods outside the area of specialization and by creating a balance between general and specialized topics. They are meant to serve as a bridge between the more general M.A. examination and the research project which will result in the dissertation. The exams are composed of three written parts :
1. A genre or a problem studied across the centuries
2. A broad problem in a particular period outside the student’s period of specialization, with the period not necessarily determined by century (e.g., the Reformation, the Romantic period, Vichy France)
3. An open-topic exam, to be decided by the advisor and the student, related to the student’s area of specialization. This might include: a general exam on the period of specialty or on another period (with period defined as in (2) above); an author or theorist from the period of specialty or from another period (e.g., Montaigne, Flaubert, Derrida); theoretical approaches to a given topic (e.g., post-colonial theory, theories of aesthetics, gender theory)
For each part, the student will submit a reading list for approval by a faculty member specializing in the period or area in question. For (1), (2), and (3), the student will articulate, in a page or two, a problem, in relation to which the faculty member will then prepare questions for the exam. At least one exam should be taken in French, and at least one in English. Each of the three exams will take up to five hours. After completing these exams, students write a prospectus.