Collection Development Policy: French Studies
  • Subject Librarian(s):
    Dominique Coulombe

  • Departmental Library Representative (DLR):
    Sanda Golopentia

  • Description of the Academic Program | Home Page
    The Department of French Studies offers instruction in basic, intermediate and advanced written and oral French, in French and francophone literature, culture, and semiotics. The many facets of teaching and research represented among faculty and graduate students reflect interdisciplinary and cross-cultural interests and span from the eleventh through the twenty-first century. The prime objective of the Department of French Studies at Brown is that every student, concentrator or not, become skilled in using the French language in all types of communication, and that he or she understands as fully and as deeply as possible French and Francophone literature and civilization and the enormous contributions they have made and continue to make to human culture.

    The Department offers three standard concentration programs in French literature, civilization and language, a Master of Arts and Ph.D. program. Graduate students organize an international annual colloquium around French and francophone themes. Research interests of faculty members include Medieval French and Provençal literature, French renaissance, 17th to 20th century literature, European, African and American francophonie, French theater and cinema, the history of French language, teaching methodologies of the French language, literary criticism and theories, and gender studies.



  • Overview of the Collection
    The library collections for French Studies include an estimated 30,000 titles of which some 90 are currently-received serials, all housed in the Rockefeller Library. This includes resources which directly support the study of French language and literature, classed in the Library of Congress classifications of PC, PM and PQ for French language and literature. In addition, materials in the fields of language studies and linguistics, comparative literature, medieval and renaissance studies, modern culture and media, literature theory, philosophy, history, art history, gender studies and other fields support the wide-ranging study and research interests of faculty and students.



  • General Collecting Guidelines
    The desired coverage is at the research or study level. A research level collection includes major source materials required for dissertation and independent research, including primary sources, specialized journals, important reference works, major indexing/abstracts services and a wide selection of specialized monographs. A study level collection supports undergraduate and graduate course work, but may not hold the specialized primary sources and journals necessary for graduate and faculty research.

  • Detailed Subject Breakdown

  • Specific Collecting Guidelines
    • Language: Primary sources in French with English translations of some major and contemporary authors. Works of literary theory and criticism are acquired primarily in French and English.
    • Chronological Span: Medieval period to present.
    • Imprint Date: Current imprints. Occasional purchase of retrospective materials in support of research needs.
    • Geographical Range: Emphasis has been traditionally on the literature of France with some acquisitions of French-Canadian works. In recent years, we have been expanding the scope of the collections to include works from francophone countries in North Africa, West Africa, Belgium, Switzerland, and the Caribbean.
    • Types of Material Included: Books and periodicals. Selective acquisition of electronic formats. Occasional purchase of out of print materials, reprints, dissertations and microforms in support of research needs. Excluded: For audio-visual and networked resources used for teaching and learning the French language, consult the Center for Language Studies collections (CLS).


  • Areas of Distinction
    The French library collections have a long tradition at Brown University. According to the archives, there is evidence that the French language was taught as early as 1769 and the first volumes of French literature were acquired through a donation in 1838. The collections are strong in most areas, but particularly in philology and language; literature theory and analysis including semiotics; medieval literature; history and criticism of the novel and the drama; and individual authors from the 16th through the 21st century. Reference works comprise dictionaries, encyclopedias, concordances, indexes and bibliographies. In 1997 the Library acquired access to ARTFL (American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language), a database of nearly 2,000 French literary texts. Databases which index works by and about French authors include the MLA Bibliography, FRANCIS, which provides citations and abstracts to interdisciplinary materials for the humanities and social sciences, Dissertation Abstracts, the Arts and Humanities Citation Index, and WorldCat.

    In 2001, the bilingual database Literature and culture of Francophone Africa and the Diaspora was launched. A collaborative endeavor of the Department of French Studies, the Department of African-American Studies and the Library, it "features selected Internet resources on primarily Francophone African & Diasporic cultural expression."

  • Special Collections
    The Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays, the largest collection of Canadian poetry and plays outside of Canada includes extensive collections of major French-Canadian writers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Anthologies, literary periodicals, vocal music and hymnals add to the richness and uniqueness of the collection. For additional information, consult the guide to the Harris Collection- of French-Canadian Literature

    The Manuscript Collection houses the Hoffman Napoleon Collection, which contains manuscripts pertaining to the First French Republic and the Napoleonic era, including some written or signed by Napoleon I. A collection of letters between Emile Zola and contemporaries form a primary resource for the study of French history and literature of the 19th century. The Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection contains works on the Napoleonic Wars, the War of 1870, World War I and World War II. It includes personal accounts, illustrated books, and many original prints and drawings.

  • Related Collections
    The Language Resource Center (LRC) houses a variety of materials such as audio, video, laserdiscs, DVDs, computer software and television news broadcasts and develops electronic resources in support of the learning and teaching of languages. LRC is affiliated with the Center for Language Studies which "aims to promote the teaching and learning of languages at Brown University."

    The John Carter Brown Library houses extensive holdings in the literature of European exploration and travel in the Western HemisphereŠ including rare contemporary narratives of French discovery and exploration of the New World.

    Brown University is a member of the Center for Research Libraries, which ‹operates a global cooperative collection development program that assists academic and research libraries in making otherwise inaccessible and important research materials permanently available to scholars and researchers. CRL holds collections of French books before 1601 and for 1601-1700, French historical and archival materials, newspapers from France and French-speaking countries including Caribbean and African countries, and international dissertations. For further information, check with the Interlibrary Loan Office (Phone: (401) 863-2750; Email: Interlibrary_Loan@brown.edu.)

    The Virginia Baldwin Orwig Music Library located at in the eastern part of the Brown University campus supports a Ph.D. program in ethnomusicology and includes recordings of music from various French regions and francophone countries.

    The city of Woonsocket, located in the northeastern corner of the State of Rhode Island, has a rich French heritage which goes back to the 17th century. The Woonsocket Harris Public Library houses “a large collection of genealogy and other reference materials in French, focusing on the French Canadian influence in town. Nearby the American-French Genealogical Society is dedicated to the study and preservation of the French-Canadian culture”. Its library specializes in genealogical, biographical and historical resources.

    Illustration: Theatre des boulevards, ou recueil de parades. A Mahon (i.e. Paris): De l'imprimerie de Gilles Langlois, 1756. Starred Books Collection, John Hay Library.

Illustration: Rochegrosse, Georges "Tableaux parisiens" In : Les fleurs du mal / Charles Baudelaire ; nombreuses illustrations de Georges Rochegrosse gravées à l’eau-forte et sur bois. Paris : Librairie des amateurs, A. Ferroud, F. Ferroud, successeur, 1917.