Digital Tasks for Advanced Learners: The Case of La Princesse de Clèves

Abstract

Literature remains central in courses for upper-level students in many undergraduate French programs in the United States. However, traditional approaches to teaching literature may not engage students in ways that are relevant to their twenty-first-century realities. In this article we describe an approach to teaching La Princesse de Clèves that incorporates a real-life research task, using a digital platform to give students a sense of the adventure of literary analysis. Ultimately, we propose that this approach represents the kind of rethinking necessary for literary study to maintain its place in the collegiate foreign language curriculum.