CURRENT NEWS

November 23, 2009
TIMOTHY HAMPTON: “Comment-a-nom: Knowledge of Body, Knowledge of Form in Rabelais”

“Comment-a-nom:  Knowledge of Body, Knowledge of Form in Rabelais”

November 23rd at 5:00pm

Timothy Hampton is a Professor of French and Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley. To learn more about his research interests and recent publications, view his profile. 

This talk is part of the French Department Colloquium Series.

All are welcome to attend.

November 2, 2009
ABDELLAH TAÏA: Author of L'armée du salut

5pm

4229 Dwinelle (French Library)

Abdellah Taïa is the first openly gay Moroccan novelist.  He will read from his novel and talk (in English) on the invention of the Moroccan "I" and gay writing.  

 For more information on Taïa, see this interview about his book L'Armée du salut, this essay commissioned by Tel Quel about "what it means to use the first person in Arabic culture", a video interview, Taïa's website listing his novels.

This event is cosponsored by the Departments of Rhetoric and Gender & Women's Studies.  Made possible thanks to the assistance of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.

 All are welcome to attend.

October 5, 2009
Mairi McLaughlin Lecture: “'Virtual’ Contact and Syntactic Borrowing: The Effect of News Translation on the Syntax of French”

4pm

182 Dwinelle Hall 

Since the late nineteenth century, commentators have predicted that the syntax of metropolitan French will change under influence from English. It is assumed that structures such as the position of the adjective and the passive will be affected by this contact. Such claims are frequently made and are very well known: they are used by purists to rally support for the defence of the language, and can be found cited in contemporary grammars of French. However, an empirical scholarly investigation of syntactic borrowing from English into metropolitan French has long been lacking. I therefore test the validity of these claims through an analysis of the process of translation in the press because this is the most frequently cited channel by which innovative syntax could enter the language (Ayres-Bennett 1996). Using a combination of fieldwork and the analysis of a corpus of news agency dispatches, I investigate the potential effect of contact on a. the position of the adjective, b. the passive, and c. verbal –ant forms (the gérondif and the present participle). This presentation first describes the results of the investigation, showing which constructions are affected by contact and how they are affected. The theoretical implications of these findings are then considered: what does this tell us about the nature of syntactic borrowing? What do we learn about its causes, constraints and outcomes? And finally, what effect might syntactic borrowing have on the future of French?

This lecture is part of the Department of Linguistics Colloquium. 

Upcoming colloquia and events:

Monday 11/2: QP Fest (1-6pm, 370 Dwinelle Hall)

Monday 11/16: Lev Michael (4pm, 182 Dwinelle Hall)

Monday 11/30: Seth Yalcin (4pm, 182 Dwinelle Hall)

Monday 12/7:  Undergraduate Honors Presentations (4pm, 182 Dwinelle Hall)
 

April 28, 2009
Congratulations Timothy Hampton!

The French Department is pleased to announce that Timothy Hampton, Professor of French and Comparative Literature, is the 2008-2009 recipient of the Divisional Distinguished Teaching Award for Senate Faculty Members in the Arts and Humanities.

This award is intended to encourage and reward Senate faculty members who have been exceptionally generous and effective in both undergraduate and graduate teaching and in graduate mentoring. Only one award is made to an Arts and Humanities senate faculty member each year.

There will be a celebratory event in fall, 2009. Please check back for more details.

December 15, 2008
Congratulations to Matt Smith!

The French Department is proud to announce that Matt Smith, a second-year student in the French Ph.D. program, has had his translation of Jean-Philippe Toussaint's Camera published by Dalkey Archive Press.

The New York Times, in its review, noted that Matt Smith's “version admirably renders the frankness that makes Toussaint so alluring.”

Matt will also be translating Toussaint's FUIR for Dalkey Archive Press.

October 20, 2008
Congratulations to Lowry Martin!

The Department of French congratulates Lowry Martin, PhD Candidate in French, for winning the Naomi Schor Memorial Award!

The Naomi Schor Memorial award recognizes the best essay by a graduate student making a presentation at the annual meeting of the Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium. Lowry's award-winning paper is titled “Extra-territorial Threats and Colonial Fantasy: The Black Lesbian in Argis's Gomorrhe.”

Lowry's research interests include 19th and 20th Century literature; Gender, Sexuality, Feminist Theory; Legal Studies. He is particularly interested in Zola, Colette, Proust and the discursive production of gender, sexuality and race in the late 19th and early 20th Century novel. Of special interest to him is the influence of law, race, and space in the emergence of sexual ontologies as imagined and represented in literary works.

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