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ARCHIVED NEWS

May 21, 2008
Congratulations Prof. Michael Lucey!

The French Department congratulates Professor Michael Lucey, who has been awarded this year's Divisional Distinguished Teaching Award for Senate Faculty Members.

There will be a celebration in the fall, 2008 semester

May 9, 2008
Congratulations David Divita!

The Department of French congratulates David Divita, Ph.D. candidate in Romance Languages and Literatures-French emphasis, who has been awarded the 2008 Teaching Effectiveness Award sponsored by the Graduate Divisions's GSI Teaching and Resource Center and the Graduate Council's Advisory Committee for GSI Affairs.

The Teaching Effectiveness Award, now in its 14th year, recognizes a small number of Outstanding Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs) who have identified a specific problem in teaching and have designed, implemented, and assessed a project that addresses this particular teaching problem. Outstanding GSI Award recipients from the current and previous year are invited to submit essays for this competition. This year sixteen GSIs from across the campus will receive the award.

Essays written by the Teaching Effectiveness Award recipients will be posted soon on the GSI Teaching and Resource Center's Web site at http://gsi.berkeley.edu (click on "Awards").

May 8, 2008
Congratulations David Divita, Jennifer Gipson, and Christine Quinan!

The Department of French congratulates David Divita, Ph.D. candidate in Romance Languages and Literatures-French emphasis, Jennifer Gipson, Ph.D. candidate in French, and Christine Quinan, Ph.D. candidate in French with a designated emphasis in Women, Gender and Sexuality, for receiving the 2008 Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, sponsored by the GSI Teaching and Resource Center. David and Jennifer were recognized for their excellent teaching in French and Christine was recognized for her excellent teaching in Women's Studies.

April 4, 2008
Congratulations Seda Chavdarian!

Seda Chavdarian, Senior Lecturer in French and First-Year Coordinator of the Lower Division Program, is the recipient of the 2008 Faculty Award for Outstanding Mentorship of GSIs. This award is sponsored by the Graduate Council's Advisory Committee for GSI Affairs, the GSI Teaching and Resource Center, and the California Alumni Association.

Seda was nominated for this award by GSIs from the French Department and will be honored at the Outstanding GSI Award ceremony which will be held on Wednesday, May 7, from 4:00-5:30 p.m. in the Alumni House.

March 14, 2008
Congratulations to Prof. Karl Britto!

The French Department would like to congratulate Professor Karl Britto, who has been recognized with a Distinguished Teaching Award for 2008.

Prof. Britto and other honorees will be recognized at the Distinguished Teaching Award ceremony on April 23 at 5pm in the Zellerbach Playhouse. A reception will follow in the Toll Room of Alumni House.

For information, read the article in the Berkeleyan.

Everyone is welcome to attend the ceremony. Pleae join us in congratulating Prof. Britto.

July 17, 2007
Congratulations Nelly Timmons!

The French Department is pleased to announce that Nelly Timmons has been awarded an Arts & Humanities Divisional Distinguished Teaching and Service Award. This award is given in recognition of the innovative teaching and dedicated leadership of the arts and humanities faculty. For more information, read the Daily Cal article.

July 3, 2007
Congratulations Joe Duggan!

He has been named the first holder of the Edward A. Dickson Emeriti Professorship (2007-2008). The Edward A. Dickson Emeriti Professorship is supported by an endowment from Edward A. Dickson, a former Regent of the University. The Professorship is awarded annually to an emeritus faculty member who has an outstanding record of post-retirement contributions in any of the following areas: teaching, research and public or
University service.

May 25, 2007
Summer Courses Open for Enrollment

French courses are now open for enrollment!

April 13, 2007
Concours de Français 2007

Congratulations to Hilary Briscoe, a senior major in French and ISF, on winning top prize in her category of the Alliance Française Concours National de Français 2007. The prize includes round trip airfare and one week's lodging in Paris, and one week of free courses at the Paris chapter of the Alliance Française.

March 14, 2007
Spotlight on French Majors

Third-year French major Melissa Fall won this year's Eisner Prize for Prose for her second full-length play, "The Irreparables." The play was partially inspired by a line from Charles Baudelaire's poem, "L'Irréparable." Her third full-length play, "Vicious Virtue," is opening on March 15 of 2007.

French and Pre-Med Alumna Jennifer Aloo (2004) receives Fulbright Grant to study African medicine in a historical and cultural context in the Republic of Benin, West Africa from October 17, 2005-August 17, 2006.

August 15, 2006
Visiting Faculty in French

Michael Sheringham to teach French 275A: "The Everyday and the Archive"

Mathilde Bombart to teach French 117B: Seventeenth-Century French Literature -- Femmes et société dans la France Moderne and French 180B:French Civilization, Ancien Régime -- Ordres et désordres dans la France du XVIIe siècle

July 15, 2005
New Course: Fall 2005

French 145: History of the French Language. Instructor: Anna-Livia Brawn, Ph.D. Course will meet MWF 10-11, 205 Dwinelle

January 31, 2005
Revisions to French Undergraduate Major Program Approved

The College of Letters and Science has approved revisions to the Major in French, effective Fall 2005. Under the revised major program, students will pursue a single option comprised of 8 upper division courses. Please note: the revised major requirements apply to students declaring the major as of Fall 2005, or to those already declared students who choose to fulfill requirements under the revised major program.

October 18, 2004
Spring 2005 Courses Open for Enrollment

Please visit our web site for detailed descriptions of courses offered this term.

March 19, 2004
French Club at Cal

FRENCH CLUB AT CAL
(FCC)

Meetings will be conducted in English so that everyone can participate.

November 18, 2003
Visiting Associate Professor Spring 2004

Associate Professor Lydie Moudileno of the University of Pennsylvania joins the department this Spring as Visiting Associate Professor of French. Professor Moudileno, a former Ph.D. student from our department, specializes in Francophone literatures, with a primary focus on contemporary Caribbean and African novels. She is the author of L'écrivain antillais au miroir de sa littérature : mises en scène et mise en abyme du roman antillais (Editions Kathala, 1997). She has published several articles exploring issues of creolization and postcolonial identity in the works of Maryse Condé, Henri Lopes, and Sony Labou Tansi. She is currently working on figures of foreign black characters in literature and film from Africa and the diaspora.

She is teaching two undergraduate courses, French 103A,"Femmes étranges and étrangères" and French 151A, "African Fiction and the Call of the City".

August 1, 2003
Faculty Mentor Award

At the Outstanding GSI Ceremony held in Spring 2003, Dean Duggan was surprised to find out that he had been named outstanding Faculty mentor for GSI's for his longtime mentoring and support of Graduate Student Instructors.

July 11, 2003
Outstanding GSI Award

Congratulations to David Pettersen for receiving the 2003 Oustanding Graduate Student Instructor Award.

July 11, 2003
New Web Site Debuts!

After much work, the French Department website was finally ready to be unveiled. The department hopes that it will greatly facilitate your ability to get information about our many great programs and course offerings. Enjoy and don't hesitate to send us feedback!

June 4, 2003
Didier Eribon in residence in September and October 2004

Didier Eribon, a French cultural critic/philosopher, is in residence in the French Department for 6 weeks this Fall 2004, from the week beginning September 6, through the week beginning October 11, 2004.

He will be giving a series of seminars on each Wednesday of those six weeks, from 2 to 4 pm in 105 Dwinelle. The seminars will be conducted in French and are open to the general campus community.

Eribon's landmark 1999 book on gay subjectivity, Réflexions sur la question gay, has recently been translated into English by Professor Michael Lucey under the title Insult and the Making of the Gay Self, Duke University Press, 2004.

ARCHIVED EVENTS

Commencement 2008

May 19, 2008

Commencement Exercises for French and other Dwinelle Language Departments

Monday, MAY 19, 2008

Ceremony: 1-3PM, ZELLERBACH HALL (no tickets required)
Reception: 3PM, ISHI COURT (in Dwinelle Hall) (no tickets required)

Undergraduate and Graduate Students completing their degree between Fall 2007 and Summer 2008 are invited to participate in the annual joint commencement ceremony for French and other Dwinelle Language Departments.

FACULTY
12:15pm
Assemble in 106 Dwinelle Hall

B.A. RECIPIENTS
12:15pm
Assemble at Dwinelle Plaza (in front of Dwinelle)
Look for the "French" banner

M.A. and Ph.D. RECIPIENTS
12:15pm
Assemble at Zellerbach Hall for a dress rehearsal

12:45pm
Assemble at Dwinelle Plaza (in front of Dwinelle)
Look for the "French" banner

If you intend to participate in Commencement for French, please contact Carol Dolcini, Undergraduate Office, before Friday March 14, so that correct information can be included in the Commencement program.

Parking Information: http://pt.berkeley.edu/parking/special_events/commencement.html

Commencement Photography:
We are pleased to announce that Bob Knight Photo is the official photographer for this ceremony. Students participating in commencement are asked to pre-register with Bob Knight Photo at www.bobknightphoto.com/register so that they can be contacted after the ceremony. All students who have pre-registered with Bob Knight will receive their picture proofs via email within 24 hours. This email will contain the student's pin number that can be used to access that student's pictures on Bob Knight Photo's website, www.bobknightphoto.com. Students will also receive a picture proof in the mail 3-5 business days after the commencement ceremony. Students who would like their proof sent to any family members or friends, are welcome to visit www.bobknightphoto.com/register to register them.

There are three ways to order: online at www.bobknightphoto.com, by phone 1-800-261-2576, or by mail at Bob Knight Photo, PO Box 182829, Tallahassee, FL 32303.

Click here for more information

Larry Norman Seminar
“The Paradox of the Classical Sublime”
May 2, 2008

Larry Norman is an Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago. His interests include the literature of the French and European seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, theater history, book history, intellectual and cultural history, literary criticism and theory, and the relation between the visual arts and literature. He is the author of The Public Mirror: Molière and the Social Commerce of Depiction (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999).

Larry Norman Talk
“Antiquity against Classicism: Historical sensibility, literature and the Querelle”
May 1, 2008

“Antiquity against Classicism: Historical sensibility, literature and the Querelle”

Larry Norman is an Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago. His interests include the literature of the French and European seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, theater history, book history, intellectual and cultural history, literary criticism and theory, and the relation between the visual arts and literature. He is the author of The Public Mirror: Molière and the Social Commerce of Depiction (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999).

Prof. Norman will also lead a seminar titled “The Paradox of the Classical Sublime” on Friday, May 2 from noon to 2pm in the French Conference Room (4226 Dwinelle).

Art of Translation Symposium

April 25, 2008

Sponsored in part by the French Department
The Symposium on the Art of Translation is a one-day event organized by the Literary Translation Working Group at Berkeley and featuring language and literature specialists from various UC Berkeley departments and beyond academia in conversation on the art of translation.

PARTICIPANTS:
Robert Alter (Hebrew), keynote speaker and roundtable moderator
Paula Varsano and Jeffrey Yang (classical Chinese)
Andrew Jones and Karen Kingsbury (modern Chinese)
Nicholas Paige and Donald Nicholson-Smith (French)
Jeroen Dewulf and Rudolf Mrazek (Indonesian, Dutch)
Alan Tansman and Dennis Washburn (Japanese)
Nguyen Nguyet Cam and Linh Dinh (Vietnamese)

Sponsors: Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Center for Southeast Asia Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies, Jewish Studies Program, Dutch Studies Program, Department of Comparative Literature, Department of French, Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies.

This event is free and open to the public.

Mireille Huchon Seminar
“Narration fabuleuse et satirique moquerie chez Rabelais”
April 16, 2008

Mireille Huchon is a Professor at the Université de Paris IV, Sorbonne. Prof. Huchon edited the 1994 edition of Rabelais for Gallimard's Bibliothèque de la Pléiade and is the author of Louise Labé. Une Créature de papier (Librarie Droz, 2006). She is also currently the director of the UFR de Langue française at Paris IV.

Mireille Huchon Lecture
“Louise Labé lyonnaise, un collectif de poètes”
April 15, 2008

Mireille Huchon is a Professor at the Univeristé de Paris IV, Sorbonne. Prof. Huchon edited the 1994 edition of Rabelais for Gallimard's Bibliothèque de la Pléiade and is the author of Louise Labé. Une Créature de papier (Librarie Droz, 2006). She is also currently the director of the UFR de Langue française at Paris IV.

Lecture by Jacques Rancière, Pajus Distinguished Visiting Professor
“The Misadventures of Critical Thinking”
March 11, 2008

This lecture will be in English and open to the campus community.

Jacques Rancière is Professor Emeritus of Esthetics at the University of Paris, VIII.
His work focuses on the relation between politics and esthetics in modernity.
He is the author of numerous books, including The Nights of Labor, a study of workers who labored in factories by day and wrote poetry at night; The Ignorant Schoolmaster (1986), which tells the story of a radically egalitarian 19th-century teacher named Joseph Jacotot; On the Shores of Politics (1992); Disagreement (1995), Mallarmé (1996); and The Flesh of the Words (1998), which examines the ways in which modern writers from Wordsworth to Deleuze have linked writing to revolutionary projects.

A reception will follow the lecture.

Poetry Talks by Julien Weber and Vesna Rodic

March 3, 2008

This event is a collaboration between UC Berkeley and UC Irvine.

Julien Weber, UC Irvine
“Poétique du type dans 'Spectacle interrompu' de Mallarmé: la griffe de l'ours”

Copies of the poem 'Spectacle interrompu' are available in the French Dept. main office (4125 Dwinelle).

Prof. Ann Smock, UC Berkeley
Response to Weber

Vesna Rodic, UC Berkeley
“Between the Contralto and the Alexandrine: Paul Valéry’s La Jeune Parque at the Threshold of Lyric Traditions.”

Copies of La Jeune Parque are available in the French Dept. main office (4125 Dwinelle)

Prof. Ellen Burt, UC Irvine
Response to Rodic

Jacques Rancière to Offer 6 Wednesday Seminars in Spring 2008
"Les métamorphoses de la fiction"
February 6, 2008 - March 12, 2008

Jacques Rancière will visit UC Berkeley's French Department as Pajus Distinguished Visitor in French Studies. He will visit for six weeks during the spring semester of 2008, and will offer a weekly Wednesday seminar beginning Wednesday, February 6 and ending Wednesday, March 12. The Wednesday seminars will be conducted in French and are open to everyone. He will also give one public lecture on March 11, 2008 at 4pm in 370 Dwinelle Hall (Level G).


Click here for more information

Pascale Casanova Lecture
"The Literary Greenwich Meridian: Some Thoughts on World-Literary Time.”
January 29, 2008

Pascale Casanova (Paris) is the author of the remarkable book The World Republic of Letters, and also of Samuel Beckett: Anatomy of a Literary Revolution. The points of departure for her lecture will be chapters 3 and 11 of The World Republic of Letters.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the departments of Comparative Literature, English, and French.

Pascale Casanova Seminar
Seminar in French to discuss her work
January 28, 2008

Pascale Casanova (Paris) is the author of the remarkable book The World Republic of Letters, and also of Samuel Beckett: Anatomy of a Literary Revolution. She will also be giving a lecture on Tuesday, Jan. 29 at 5pm in 315 Wheeler Hall.

December Graduates Convocation
For undergraduate and graduate students
December 8, 2007

All undergraduate and graduate students of December 2007 as well as graduates of Spring and Summer of 2007 are welcome to participate.

Sign up online by November 16 to be listed in the program.

If the graduate misses the deadline, he or she is still welcome to walk, but the graduate\'s name will not be listed in the printed program. Note that each graduate will still need a ticket to participate in the procession.

Tickets are available starting November 1.



Click here for more information

Daniel Selcer Lecture
\"One or many images? Deleuze on thought and materiality in Descartes and Spinoza\" Partial support for this event is provided by the Townsend Center for the Humanities
November 28, 2007

Daniel Selcer, who will give a lecture titled \"One or many images? Deleuze on thought and materiality in Descartes and Spinoza\", is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Duquesne University. He works primarily in early modern philosophy (especially Leibniz and Spinoza), with an interest in its impact on German Idealism (especially Hegel), as well as late structuralism and poststructuralist thought (especially Althusser, Foucault, and Deleuze). He is writing two books: Deleuze and the Moderns, exploring Gilles Deleuze\'s texts and seminars on Spinoza, Leibniz, Hume, and Kant, and Philosophy and the Book, a project dealing with figures of inscription and technologies of textual organization in philosophical discourse of early modernity.

Partial support for this event is provided by the Townsend Center for the Humanities

A discussion on one of Daniel Selcer\'s recent articles (\"The uninterrupted ocean: Leibniz and the encyclopedic imagination\", Representations, 98, 2007) will be held within the Early Modern Studies Group on Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007 from 3:00 to 5:00 PM in the Performance Studies Conference Room, 211 Dwinelle Annex.

For more information, please contact Prof. Déborah Blocker, dblocker@berkeley.edu

Evelyne Bloch-Dano Talk
This lecture is organized with the support of la Délégation générale de l’Alliance Française de Paris aux Etats-Unis
October 23, 2007

Evelyne Block-Dano will give a talk on her book, Madame Proust, a biography of Marcel Proust\'s mother. Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Evelyne Bloch-Dano studied English and modern literature. With an advanced degree in modern literature, she has taught in schools in the Paris region since 2000. Recently, she has published a number of prize-winning biographies. Madame Zola, published in 1997, won Elle Magazine’s readers’ Grand Prize, Flora Tristan la Femme-Messie won the François Billetdoux Prize in 2001, and Madame Proust received the Renaudet Prize for an essay in 2004, as well as the literary prize from the Circle of the Union and the prize bestowed by the Proustian Literary Circle of Cabourg-Balbec. Her most recent book, The Biographer, which brings together, in an original work, her mother’s own biography and that of actress Romy Schneider, has been a hit in France since its publication in February, 2007.

This lecture is organized with the support of la Délégation générale de l’Alliance Française de Paris aux Etats-Unis.

“Public Islam in Contemporary Europe” Colloquium
Center for Middle East Studies
October 20, 2007

A colloquium on \"Public Islam in Contemporary Europe\" with Malika Zeghal (The Divinity School, University of Chicago), Jocelyne Dakhlia (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales), Soraya Tlatli (Department of French), Stefania Pandolfo (Department of Anthropology)

Arnaud Cathrine Reading (in French)
This event supported by the Cultural Services of the Consulat Général de France à San Francisco
October 11, 2007

Arnaud Cathrine is the author of 15 novels, half of them for children. He studied French and English Literature, and wrote his first novel, Les Yeux secs, in 1998. Arnaud Cathrine’s literary work explores many themes with a delicate pen: he mainly writes on the familial wounds (abandonment, loss, mourning and solitude) of young characters impatient to live and love. His latest novel, La Disparition de Richard Taylor, was released by Editions Verticales in January 2007. Among his other many activities, Arnaud Cathrine also works for the cinema. In 2002-2003, he adapted for the screen La Route de Midland, a novel he wrote in 2001—which takes place in the Texan desert—with Eric Caravaca. The movie, \"Le Passager\", was released in France in March 2006. He also worked on the cinema adaptation of Tutta Colpa di Fidel by Domitilla Calamai. The screenplay was written and the film directed by Julie Gavras (Les Films du Worso; released in November 2006). In 2005, Arnaud was awarded a writing grant from the CNC, the French National Center for Cinematography, for the cinema adaptation of Sweet Home (Editions Verticales, 2005). In 2005, he also collaborated on the writing of \"Une Femme Simple\", with screenplay and direction by Christophe Chiesa (TS Productions). In September 2006, Arnaud Cathrine became a literary advisor for the Correspondances de Manosque festival, at which he gave readings. In 2007, Arnaud Cathrine also participated in the writing of Florent Marchet\'s new album, titled Rio Baril (released on January 8, 2007).

For more information see www.arnaudcathrine.com

This event is made possible thanks to the support of the Cultural Services of the Consulat Général de France à San Francisco.

Anna Livia Brawn Memorial
Everyone is welcome to attend
October 6, 2007

Anna Livia Brawn, a lecturer in the French Department with a specialty in French Linguistics, died unexpectedly in her sleep on Monday night August 6. The exact cause of death won\'t be known for some time.

Dr. Brawn\'s undergraduate degree in French with a minor in Italian was from University College, London. She earned her PhD in French Linguistics at Berkeley in 1995. She taught as an Assistant Professor of French at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, from 1995 to 1998. She was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Berkeley from 1999-2002, and had been a lecturer in our department since 2002. She also served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Mills College in 2001-2002.

In the French Department at Berkeley she taught all levels of the French language, a number of courses in French Linguistics, courses on the History of the French Language, on the theory and practice of translation, and also on francophone film, and gender and sexuality in literature. She also regularly taught in the Summer Session here at Berkeley, and in the summer of 2001 she directed the Summer Session Program in Paris.

Dr. Brawn was not only an important linguist, scholar, and translator, she was also a dedicated feminist, and an award winning lesbian novelist. Much of her scholarly work dealt with the relationship between language, gender, and sexuality. She is the author of Pronoun Envy: Literary Uses of Linguistic Gender (2001) and one of the co-editors of Queerly Phrased: Language Gender and Sexuality (1997). Among her translations from the French are Lucie Delarue Mardrus, The Angel and the Perverts and an anthology of writings by Natalie Clifford Barney, A Perilous Advantage. Her novel, Bruised Fruit (1999) was short listed for a Lammy award from the Lambda Literary Foundation in the category of Lesbian Fiction. Two earlier books -- Minimax (1991) and Incidents Involving Mirth (1990) -- had been shortlisted for the same award.

A memorial will take place at the Rockridge Library on Saturday, October 6, 2007 from 1-5pm. The Rockridge Library is located at 5366 College Avenue.

A blog has been set up in Anna Livia\'s memory to give many of us a chance to share our collective memories of Anna, whether as friends, family, scholars, writers, or students. The hope is to make the site available to Anna\'s two children Asher and Emma, when they are ready, but for now it will of course be available to all of us who need to make sense of Anna\'s death.

For additional information, see the article in the Daily Cal.

Paths of Desire: Itineraries as Transgression
French Graduate Students Host a Conference
October 4, 2007 - October 5, 2007

Paths of desire: A term appearing in studies of landscape design as well as architecture, which refers to the paths we trace when our desires lead us off the beaten track and a trail forms behind us. This notion both encompasses the incidental and manifests longing, and brings to light the importance of both the traverser and the traversal. These figures are key to the shaping of physical and theoretical topographies. No itinerary is undertaken without motivation, or without leaving a mark.

To accentuate the role of transgression in the itinerary is to throw into relief the neutral plane of cartography. In the field of French studies, this notion has long been familiar to scholarly investigation of the urban plan and the routes which span out from the metropole. The transgressive path is inherent to conceptions of 19th century Paris, notably in the context of the bildungsroman, but also to theories of Orientalism. This figure is evocative of both the violence inflicted on a terrain and on the community to which it is tied by the aggressive trailblazer, and the symmetrical violence which responds to these border crossings. It acknowledges the importance of both the initial transgressive act and its manifold consequences.

We are proud to welcome two keynote speakers, Michael Sheringham of Oxford University, who will be speaking on the poetry of Jacques Réda, and Elliot Colla of Brown University, whose paper discusses travel writing in the context of 18th and 19th-century Egypt. Samera Esmeir of the Rhetoric department at Berkeley will be responding to Prof. Colla\'s discussion of these themes. Beyond our two keynote speakers, there are numerous graduate student speakers whose engagements with a wide variety of topics speak to the success of the conference in encouraging an interdisciplinary discussion of the \"Itineraries as Transgression\" theme.

You are welcome to view the full conference program, including a list of panelists. Just click on the link below. You can also send an email to the conference organizers: Maria Vendetti at mvendetti@berkeley.edu, Livi Yoshioka at liviyoshioka@gmail.com, or at pathsofdesire@gmail.com

Click here for more information

Arno Bertina
Will give a talk on Devenirs du roman
September 18, 2007

Arno Bertina, born in 1975, is the prolific and critically acclaimed author of several novels, including Anima motrix (2006), Appoggio (2003) and Le Dehors ou la migration des truites (2001), as well as many essays and collective publications. He is one of the founders and editors of the highly regarded literary and philosophy review Inculte, as well as one of the many contributors to a collective work on the contemporary French novel, Devenirs du roman, which was published earlier this year. He is one of a trio of authors (along with François Bégaudeau and Olivier Rohe) responsible for Une Année en France. référendum, banlieues, CPE, an experimental, mixed-genre work also published earlier this year.

In his appearance here at Berkeley, Bertina will discuss the project of the volume Devenirs du roman (which covers such topics as the state and nature of the contemporary novel in France: the trends, the history, the major figures, the future, the comparisons with American fiction) and will also discuss his own work, celebrated for its powerful treatment of political and social themes mixed with dazzling linguistics and innovative narrative technique.

The French Department Library (4229 Dwinelle) has the following books available for a 2-day loan period: Devenirs du Roman, Appoggio, Animax Motrix, J\'ai Appris à ne pas Rire du Demon.

For more information on some of these publications, click here or here.

Racing the Republic: Ethnicity and Inequality in France in American and World Perspective
French Dept. to co-sponsor an international and interdisciplinary conference
September 7, 2007 - September 8, 2007

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of French.

Questions of ethnoracial division (linked to slavery, colonial rule, and/or immigration), citizenship, and politics loom large today not only in the United States but also in many other advanced nations. None is perhaps more urgently concerned with these issues today than France. And none provides a more fruitful comparative case with the United States, since the two republics share a germane commitment to the democratic ideal and a common claim to embody civic universality.

The conference brings together leading and rising scholars from the gamut of the social sciences and humanities who are engaged in the resurgent debates on colonialism and postcolonialism, immigration and racialization, urban issues, public policy and citizenship in France, to compare and contrast those with parallel debates in the United States.

Organized by:
Loïc Wacquant (Sociology, UC-Berkeley), Tyler Stovall (History, UC-Berkeley), and
Heddy Riss (Center on Institutions and Governance, Institute of Governmental Studies, UC-Berkeley)

For a detailed program schedule, biographical presentations of the speakers, and available papers, click here.

This event is free and open to the public

Yasmina Khadra
Algerian author on tour in the US makes a stop on campus.
May 9, 2007

Yasmina Khadra is the nom de plume of Mohammed Moulesselhoul, who was born in Algeria in 1955. He is one of the most powerful voices of contemporary Francophone literature and has written several books, including: Cousine K (ROMAN), Les hirondelles de Kaboul , La part du mort: Une enquête du commissaire Llob, and, most recently, Les Sirènes de Bagdad. These and other works by Khadra are available in the French Department Library (4229 Dwinelle). Khadra will give a talk on his latest work. Click here to read more about Yasmina Khadra.

Mathilde Bombart Lecture
Ecriture, lecture et polémique dans la France des années 1620
May 1, 2007

Mathilde Bombart, a Visiting Assistant Professor in the French Department at UC Berkeley for 2006-2007, will present a lecture entitled \"Ecriture, lecture et polémique dans la France des années 1620.\"

Poet Nicolas Pesquès
Will read from his work
April 23, 2007

The French Department is pleased to present the poet Nicolas Pesquès, who will read from his work on Monday, April 23, at 5:00pm in the Department Library (4229 Dwinelle).


Nicolas Pesquès is a major figure in the world of experimental poetry in France. He was born in 1946; his work began appearing in the early 1970’s. He is best known for the series of five book-length poems he has devoted to Mount Juliau—the mountain whose north face he sees from the window of his home in the Ardèche. These books are called La Face nord de Juliau un, deux, trois, quatre, and Physis. Cole Swensen, the well-known poet and translator, who translated the most recent in the Juliau series, describes Pesquès’ writing like this: “Fusing philosophy into his spare lyricism, he focuses on nature in a way that foregrounds the mind and examines its role in constituting the world that we see and that we love.” Nicolas Pesquès also writes on contemporary art and literature; for example he is the author of a book on Jacques Dupin. Two volumes of the Juliau series are displayed in the French Department library (4229 Dwinelle).

Panel on UG Research
Students Speak about their Research
April 18, 2007

Come and hear about fascinating research undertaken by undergraduates in the humanities (In Dwinelle) and learn how you can take advantage of undergraduate research opportunities.

Undergraduate Research in Dwinelle
Wednesday, April 18
3-4:30
4337 Dwinelle
(Comparative Literature Library -- D-Level of Dwinelle)

Students Featured:
Sarah Fuchs, French & Mathematics
Michael Arnon, French & Political Science
Ariana Cho, Comparative Literature
Tinley Ireland, Comparative Literature, Religious Studies Minor
Pam Yee, Comparative Literature, Linguistic Minor

There will be a moderated panel, presenting students at various stages in the honors research process (research phase and writing phase)students involved in URAP (Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program), and students involved in independent research with faculty.
Refreshments to follow

Contacts:
Kathy Barrett, Undergraduate Major Adviser, Comparative Literature: 642-1202
Carol Dolcini, Undergraduate Major Adviser, French: 642-2713

Erik Bullot Lecture
Three short films - \"Glossolalie,\" \"Cryptogramme,\" and \"Visible Speech\" - to be shown and discussed
April 10, 2007

The French Department is happy to present a talk by Erik Bullot, filmmaker, teacher and critic. He will show and comment upon three of his short films: \"Glossolalie\" (26 minutes), and two other, shorter films: \"Cryptogramme\" (4 minutes), and \"Visible Speech\" (9 minutes). His talk will be in French.

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Guillaume Peureux Lecture
Une première \'crise de vers\' au début du 18e siècle?
March 20, 2007

Guillaume Peureux, of the Université de Rennes, is a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley and will give a lecture entitled \"Une première \'crise de vers\' au début du 18e siècle?\"

Philippe Met Seminar
Semiotics of Gender: Singing Moments in French Film Noir
Friday, February 23 from 12:30-2pm in the French Department Conference Room (4226 Dwinelle)
February 23, 2007

Philippe Met, from the University of Pennsylvania, will lead a seminar entitled \"Semiotics of Gender: Singing Moments in French Film Noir\" The seminar will take place in the French Department Conference Room (4226 Dwinelle) from 12:30-2pm.

Philippe Met Lecture
Toward a Portable Poetics of the Notebook
Thursday, February 22 at 5pm in the French Department Library (4229 Dwinelle)
February 22, 2007

Philippe Met, from the University of Pennsylvania, will give a lecture entitled \"Toward a Portable Poetics of the Notebook.\" He will also lead a follow-up seminar on Friday, February 23 from 12:30-2pm in the French Department Conference Room (4226 Dwinelle).

Dinah Ribard Lecture
Un ouvrier poète au XVIIe siècle? Vers une histoire du travail intellectuel (XVIIe-XXe s.)
February 20, 2007

Dinah Ribard will give a lecture entitled: Un ouvrier poète au XVIIe siècle? Vers une histoire du travail intellectuel (XVIIe-XXe s.) She is maître de conférence at l\'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sociales in Paris and is participating in the Contextualizing \'Literary\' Practices in Early Modern France workshop organized by Déborah Blocker, Assistant Professor in French. Dinah Ribard is also the author of Raconter, vivre, penser : histoires de philosophes (1650-1766) (Paris: Vrin/EHESS, 2003) and is currently working on a history of intellectual work in France (1600-1900). A reception will follow the lecture.

Contextualizing ‘Literary’ Practices in Early Modern France
Co-sponsored by the Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities
February 16, 2007

This workshop is an exchange between Berkeley early modernists and members of a French research group, the Groupe de Recherches Interdisciplinaires sur l\'Histoire du
Littéraire . The topic is practices of contextualization, i. e. the ways in which we historicize our understanding(s) of texts – “literary” and non-literary. One of the main questions of this methodologically centered discussion will be how various types of historical approaches could help reshape our understanding of what “literature” was in the early modern period. Discussion is also likely to center on the problem of how “literature” interacted, as a set of practices, with other scriptural and non-scriptural activities. Four papers will be presented by members of the GRIHL, followed by responses from Berkeley colleagues and a general discussion. Each paper will last 35 minutes. Responses will be about 10-15 minutes long.

This workshop is sponsored by the Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities and the Department of French.

For a list of panel participants, click here.

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Judith Lyon-Caen Seminar
Ecrire le social: littérature et enquêtes dans la France des années 1840
This event is made possible thanks to the support of the Cultural Services of the Consulat Général de France à San Francisco.
December 6, 2006

This event is made possible thanks to the support of the Cultural Services of the Consulat Général de France à San Francisco.

Judith Lyon-Caen Lecture
Les usages du roman au temps de Balzac
This event is made possible thanks to the support of the Cultural Services of the Consulat Général de France à San Francisco.
December 5, 2006

This event is made possible thanks to the support of the Cultural Services of the Consulat Général de France à San Francisco.

Lyon-Caen's book La lecture et la vie. Les usages du roman au temps de Balzac is rapidly being recognized as one of the most significant contributions to French literary studies in recent years. She will give a lecture on December 5 and lead a seminar on December 6. Her lecture and seminar will focus on her new work on literature and the social sciences in the 19th century.

Conference on Pierre Corneille and the Discourses of Empire
French Dept. to host one-day conference
November 10, 2006

Friday, November 10, 8 am to 5 pm in the Home Room at International House, (2299 Piedmont Avenue)

The conference, occassioned by the playwright\'s 400th birthday this year, will explore the intersection between Corneille\'s drama and the cultural politics of imperialism, from the classical Roman sources upon which he drew for much of his material, to the great \"imperial\" moment of 17th-century France, to contemporary theories of post-coloniality. Our aim will be to open new perspectives on a writer whose work is often circumscribed by the cliché label of \"classicism\" but who seems strikingly relevant to contemporary thinking about identity, community, and power.

Additional contact for information: Professor N. Paige: npaige@berkeley.edu

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UCB Deleuze Conference
On Media and Movement
November 3, 2006

This Conference is co-sponsored by the Townsend Center, Dean of Arts and Humanities, French Department, Department of Comparative Literature, Department of Anthropology, Rhetoric Department, English Department, Philosophy Department, and Graduate Theological Union. For a conference schedule and description, please click on the link below.

Click here for a full description and a conference schedule

First Works in Progress Talk of the Year
Gina Zupsich will present a talk entitled "From Dissection to Dream: Towards a Biopolitical Poetics in Emile Zola’s Fécondité"
November 2, 2006

The French Department is pleased to announce its first Works in Progress talk of the year:

“From Dissection to Dream: Towards a Biopolitical Poetics in Emile Zola’s Fécondité”
by Gina Zupsich

In 1899, roughly a year after “J’accuse,” Emile Zola published the first novel of his last cycle, Les Quatre Evangiles. Originally titled Le Déchet, the first gospel now retitled Fécondité, appeared in October of the year that Zola returned from exile. The change from the pessimistic “wastefulness” to the optimistic “fruitfulness” signals a turning point in Zola’s career as a socially critical novelist: the willful reinvention of himself as a poet of national regeneration, or in Zola’s words, his transformation from “dissector to dreamer.”

Lecture by Bruce Bégout
"Un bâtiment sans qualité. Le motel américain"
Supported by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in San Francisco and New York
October 23, 2006

Bruce Bégout is a philosopher who teaches at the Université de Picardie

Fall 2006 Conference on \"Poetry of the Everyday\"
French Dept. to host International Conference
October 13, 2006 - October 14, 2006

The conference will bear on French poetry you might encounter in the street, on the walls, in the subway, at work or in clubs as well as in bookstores and libraries. Some of the participants will speak about rap and graffiti artists; some will give papers on poetry and song--popular song settings of poems by Baudelaire or Aragon or Queneau, for example, or links between particular poets and specific musical forms, such as Jacques Réda and jazz. There will also be contributions on poets past and current whose writing sticks close to everyday experience: the sonnet-diary of William Cliff, for example, or travel sonnets of Roubaud\'s, or the portraits by Jacques Jouet of groups at work from Cantates de Proximité.


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Lecture by T.J. Clark
The Sabine Women and Lévi-Strauss
October 11, 2006

We are pleased to announce a lecture by T.J. Clark, George C. and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Art History, from the University of California, Berkeley. The lecture is entitled "The Sabine Women and Lévi-Strauss"

Seminar by Anne Freadman Following Up on Her Lecture
"Genre of? Genres in? - Several Afterthoughts"
September 29, 2006

Anne Freadman, A.R. Chisolm Professor of French, from the University of Melbourne will lead a seminar to follow up on her September 27 lecture "A Creature Has Passed This Way: Genres in La Maison de Claudine "

Lecture by Anne Freadman
A Creature Has Passed This Way: Genres in La Maison de Claudine
September 28, 2006

We are pleased to announce a lecture by Anne Freadman, A.R. Chisolm Professor of French, from the University of Melbourne. The lecture is entitled "A Creature Has Passed This Way: Genres in La Maison de Claudine "

BLC Talk / Works in Progress
David Divita, a French department grad student who has been working this past semester as a BLC fellow, will be presenting his research project -- \"Toward a Practice of Reflexivity: Accounting for the Self in Foreign Language Learning\" -- this Friday.
May 12, 2006

David Divita, who has been working this past semester as a BLC fellow, will be presenting his research project -- \"Toward a Practice of Reflexivity: Accounting for the Self in Foreign Language Learning\" -- this Friday, May 12. The event is taking place in 370 Dwinelle, and David is scheduled to speak at 3:45. Below are brief abstracts of the projects to be presented:


Spring 2006 BLC Fellows Present:
Instructional Development Research Projects

\"A Supplementary Reading Course in Japanese\"
Wakae Kambara, East Asian Languages and Cultures
When students read foreign texts, they frequently reconstruct the
meaning of sentences based solely on their lexical knowledge and tend
to fail to understand the text accurately. This project attempts to
develop methods for teaching grammar essential for reading texts.

\"Unveiling the Magic of Fairy Tales\"
Eugenia Teytelman, Slavic
Why are fairy tales so important for learning and understanding
Russian culture? What sets them apart from and what unites them with
other literary genres? How does one write a fairy tale? In this
project, a syllabus was developed for a Reading and Composition
course to be taught in the Slavic Department.

\"Toward a Practice of Reflexivity: Accounting for the Self in Foreign
Language Learning\"
David Divita, French
The reflexivity that permeates foreign language learning generally
focuses on form and pragmatics. This project seeks to define another
kind of reflexivity that takes the self, constructed and performed in
the foreign language, as its object. Through a practice of
such reflexivity students engage with multiple and dynamic
constructions of self in the foreign language, thereby developing a personal means of
assessment and an awareness of the possibilities of self-invention.

\"History, Perspective, and Focus on Form: Strengthening Learner
Literacy in Berkeley\'s German 3 Program\"
Katra Anne Byram, German
Making the leap to a second-year content- and text-based language
course presents difficulties for students and instructors alike.
Lesson plans and activities that exploit and highlight the
connections between historical and linguistic perspective while
providing students with structured formal practice aim to ease this
transition and to support course objectives.

\"Un Dia en la Vida: A Documentary Production Activity as a Form of
Language and Culture Acquisition\"
Pablo Baler, Spanish and Portuguese
This activity, especially designed for \"heritage speakers\" of
Spanish, offered students the opportunity to be involved in all
stages of the production of a short documentary featuring a
Spanish-speaking professional. The rationale for this project was to
create a context in which students were forced to acquire and
practice a more public, mid-professional register of Spanish as
opposed to the private, colloquial Spanish to which they are
accustomed. And indeed, the process of writing, interviewing,
scripting, editing, and negotiating ideas to produce this film proved
challenging for both their written and verbal skills.

Friday, May 12, 2006
3-5pm, 370 Dwinelle Hall

Conversation with Writer Amélie Nothomb
May 8, 2006 at 5 p.m. in 370 Dwinelle (Level G)
May 8, 2006

The French Department is pleased to announce a conversation
with Belgian writer

Amélie Nothomb

author of Stupeur et tremblements, Le Sabotage amoureux,
Métaphysique des tubes, Hygiène de l’assassin

Monday May 8th at 5 p.m.
370 Dwinelle Hall (Level G)


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Works in Progress Talk
Comment réfléchir à l’actualité au sein de l’institution universitaire: exemple d’une expérience à Normale Sup. Hélène Harder
May 4, 2006

Comment réfléchir à l’actualité au sein de l’institution universitaire: exemple d’une expérience à Normale Sup.
Hélène Harder

Cette présentation a pour but de partager avec vous une expérience particulière de réflexion politique au sein d’une grande Ecole française, mise en place après les élections présidentielles du 21 avril 2001 : des discussions spontanées se sont organisées parmi les étudiants pour déboucher finalement sur une association devenue désormais le moteur de la discussion politique et de l’engagement intellectuel parmi les étudiants. Après vous avoir présenté plus précisément le fonctionnement de cette association et les sujets traités, j’aimerais réfléchir avec vous sur la différence de la place du politique dans l’institution française et américaine.

Etant donné la récente actualité française, nous terminerons cette présentation avec une discussion ouverte sur les enjeux du C.P.E.

This talk will be in French, but the discussion will be in English and French.

Lecture by Theorist Marcel Henaff
Rethinking Reciprocity and Recognition: M. Mauss' The Gift Revisited
May 2, 2006

We are pleased to announce a lecture by Professor Marcel Henaff from the University of San Diego. Rethinking Reciprocity and Recognition: M. Mauss' The Gift Revisited

Works in Progress Talk
Drieu La Rochelle: Heroism and the Leap From Irony David Pettersen
April 27, 2006

Drieu La Rochelle: Heroism and the Leap from Irony
David Pettersen

We normally limit the political effects of irony to mere critique, which is to say that irony discloses the artificial, socially constructed or purely rhetorical nature of values and ethical norms. Despite the insight irony as critique might provide, it's notoriously hard to get irony to do anything in the practical sphere. Irony seems only to leave us in the realm of paralysis and disillusionment. Drieu La Rochelle's scathingly ironic descriptions of French decadence during the Interwar period would seem to merely reproduce this impasse. In this talk, however, I want to consider the ways in which Drieu's writing tries to imagine a leap from irony, or to put it differently, a notion of heroism that would be capable of reinvesting the would-be activist with the conviction that value is possible in the tumultuous world of the 1930s.

Conference -- Writing the Algerian Wars
Writing the Algerian Wars: History, Religion, Culture
April 21, 2006

Friday, April 21, 2-5 p.m.

This international symposium will explore the major social and cultural mechanisms operative on the local and personal levels in Algeria today while also taking into account some of the larger national processes that have evolved since Algerian independence in 1962. Rather than relying on the traditional binary dualities of colonialism vs. post-colonialism and colonizer vs. colonized usually used to describe the Algerian historical experience and its contemporary reverberations, we instead seek to open new lines of inquiry from anthropological, historical, religious, and literary perspectives, and also to introduce voices not usually heard in the United States despite their wide popularity in North Africa and Europe. The ultimate goal will be to achieve an understanding of contemporary Algerian society "from within," with all its nuance and complexity.


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Marcela Iacub to visit Department
Two-Day Visit by Legal Scholar Marcela Iacub (CNRS, Paris)
April 17, 2006 - April 18, 2006

Lecture: "Les tribunaux des fictions"
Monday, April 17
5 p.m.
French Department Library, 4229 Dwinelle Hall

The lecture will address the fate of fictional works within the French legal system.

Seminar: "L'empire du ventre"
Tuesday, April 18
Noon-2 p.m.
French Department Seminar Room, 4226 Dwinelle Hall

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Two-day visit by Francophone Specialist Mireille Rosello
Tuesday lecture at 5:00PM in 4229 Dwinelle. Follow-up Seminar on Wednesday from 12:00-1:30PM in 4226 Dwinelle.
April 11, 2006 - April 12, 2006

Tuesday, April 11 at 5:00PM -- "L'imagination d'un corps en instance de rejet: le rein qui voit et la main qui lit dans L'interdite de Malika Mokeddem". This event is in the French Department Library, 4229 Dwinelle.

Wednesday, April 12 from 12-1:30PM -- Follow up seminar. Will include a discussion of Professor Rosello's new book, France and the Maghreb: Performative Encounters. This event is in the French Department Seminar Room, 4226 Dwinelle.

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Moroccan writer Rachid O. to visit
Moroccan writer Rachid O. will be visiting Department Thursday, April 6
April 6, 2006

(See http://www.bibliomonde.com/pages/fiche-auteur.php3?id_auteur=95 ).

Books are availablefor perusal in the French Library.

This event is made possible thanks to the support of the Cultural Services of the Consulat Général de France à San Francisco.

Upcoming Lecture by Jacques Rancière
Why Emma Bovary had to be killed
March 2, 2006

Round Table Discussion
A celebration of the first publication of the complete French corpus of the Chanson de Roland
February 24, 2006

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Works in Progress
Grad Student Shane Lillis presents "L.-F. Céline: Between Medical Historiography and Literary Writing"
February 16, 2006

Two Day Derrida Conference in February
\"Derrida and the Time of the Political\" (An Interdisciplinary Conference)
February 10, 2006 - February 11, 2006

Two Day Interdisciplinary Conference on \"Derrida and the Time of the Political\"

Conference Poster

Presented by the Departments of Rhetoric and French

Friday, February 10 - Saturday, February 11

Friday morning and Saturday sessions will be held in the Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall. Friday afternoon sessions and reception will be held in the Geballe Room at the Townsend Center for the Humanities

Participants to include:
Hélène Cixous: Université de Paris VIII
Etienne Balibar: UC Irvine
Rodolphe Gasché: SUNY-Buffalo
Anne Norton: University of Pennsylvania
Suzanne Guerlac: UC Berkeley
Hédi Abdel-Jaouad : Skidmore College
Soraya Tlatli: UC Berkeley
Wendy Brown: UC Berkeley
Geoffrey Bennington: Emory University
Pheng Cheah: UC Berkeley
Jacques Rancière: Université Paris VIII
Judith Butler: UC Berkeley

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Townsend Center Francophone Studies Working Group
Professor Hédi Abdel-Jaouad will talk in English on Beur Hybrid Humor
February 8, 2006

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Françoise Gaspard to visit in early December
"Universalism and and Diversity: The French Debate on the Veil"
December 6, 2005 - December 7, 2005

The French Department is pleased to announce a two-day visit by the sociologist Françoise Gaspard, of the Ecole des hautes
études en sciences sociales in Paris.

Tuesday, December 6, 5 p.m. in 370 Dwinelle:
Lecture: "Universalism and Diversity : The French Debate on the Veil."

Wednesday, December 7, 5 p.m. in the French Department Library, 4229 Dwinelle:
Discussion (in French): On the current unrest in Paris and on ways of thinking about links between that unrest and the question of the veil.





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Lecture by Ullrich Langer, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
Literature and Concepts of Pleasure in the Renaissance
November 15, 2005

Lecture by Richard Watts, Tulane University
Authority in Question: The Post/colonial Paratext and the Problem of Interpretive Influence
November 1, 2005

Discussion with author Mathieu Lindon
On the controversy surrounding the novel Le procès de Jean-Marie Le Pen
October 26, 2005

Discussion will be in French.


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Lecture by Mathieu Lindon
Dans les sables mouvants
October 25, 2005

Dans les sables mouvants

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Lecture by Maurice Samuels
Modernity\'s Dirty Secrets: Balzac\'s Splendeurs et miseres des courtisanes and the Jewish Prostitute
October 17, 2005

Modernity\'s Dirty Secrets: Balzac\'s Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes and the Jewish Prostitute

First Works in Progress Talk of the year!
“From Louisiana Creole Fakelore to a ‘French’ Tar-baby: Reconsidering the Meschacébé Tales of 1876 and 1878.” by Jennifer Gipson
October 13, 2005

“From Louisiana Creole Fakelore to a ‘French’ Tar-baby: Reconsidering the Meschacébé Tales of 1876 and 1878.”
by Jennifer Gipson

Upon careful analysis, the 1870s Creole tales from Le Meschacébé, a Louisiana newspaper prove not to be genuine folklore as previously thought but instead to be early examples of American fakelore. These tales, however, fit neither the usual model of original fiction nor the usual model of fakelore created and claimed by the same folk group. Using two of the Meschacébé tales as examples, this paper examines the consequences of their long-standing misidentification and begins to interrogate questions of racial and linguistic identity that come to the forefront once these tales are properly identified as writings by white Creoles falsely attributed to the oral tradition of Creoles of color.

Two day visit in April by Ross Chambers
Lecture on Memory, Genre, Truth and follow up seminar and reading.
April 25, 2005 - April 26, 2005

Lecture: Memory, Genre, Truth: Monday, April 25 at 5 p.m. in the Geballe Room, Townsend Center, 220 Stephens Hall, Reception to follow

Follow-up seminar, with readings from Untimely Interventions: AIDS Writing, Testimonial, and the Rhetoric of Haunting, Tuesday, April 26, 1-3 p.m. in the French Department Library, 4229 Dwinelle. Reception to follow.

Readings for the Tuesday, April 26 seminar are available at the French and Comparative Literature Department main office, 4125 Dwinelle.

They are also available as PDF files on-line at http://eres.berkeley.edu.
Directions:
Click on -- STUDENTS: Find course materials. Select -- French under Department.
Select -- French 299: Ross Chambers Seminar.



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Bergson Conference in April
\"Thinking in Time: Henri Bergson\" (An Interdisciplinary Conference)
April 7, 2005 - April 8, 2005

Two Day Interdisciplinary Conference on \"Thinking in Time: Henri Bergson\"

Thursday, April 7 - Friday, April 8 in Maud Fife Room (315 Wheeler Hall) and in 3335 Dwinelle Hall (Level \"C\")

Participants to include:

Suzanne Guerlac, UC Berkeley
Keith Ansell Pearson, University of Warwick
Frédéric Worms, Université de Lille III
Frédéric Keck, Université de Lille, Ecole Normale Supérieure
David Lapoujade, Paris-1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Alia Al Saji, McGill University
Darlene Pursley, UC Berkeley
Deborah Hauptmann, Technical University, Delft
Mark B. N. Hansen, Princeton University
Paul Antoine Miquel, Université de Nice
Paola Marrati, Johns Hopkins University
Jimena Canales, Harvard University
Stephen Robbins, Metavante Corp.
Petr Horava, UC Berkeley
Ori Ganor, UC Berkeley
Stan Rosenschein, Quindi

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Beyond The B.A. -- Career Options for Foreign Language Majors
Panel Discussion -- Wednesday
March 9, 2005

Hear from Cal alumni how they use their foreign language degree in their career. The owner of a translation company will give you tips on breaking into the translation/interpretation business.

Bring your questions!



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Catherine Malabou Lecture
"On Plasticity"
March 2, 2005

Catherine Malabou is Professor of Philosophy at the Université de Paris X -- Nanterre, and the author of Counterpath: Travelling with Jacques Derrida, and of The Future of Hegel: Plasticity, Temporality and Dialectic. The title of her lecture is "On Plasticity".

Pierre Pachet Lecture
"Baudelaire et les complots"
February 23, 2005

Pierre Pachet is a writer and professor (emeritus, Université de Paris VII). He will give a lecture entitled "Baudelaire et les complots".

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Mireille Rosello lecture
“Dear Departed: Talking and Listening to the Dead in Recent Algerian Fiction”
February 14, 2005

MIREILLE ROSELLO is Professor of French and Comparative Literary Studies at Northwestern University.
Research and Teaching Interests:

French and Francophone literatures, films and theory (especially France, Maghreb, Caribbean);

Cultural studies, including gender constructions (AIDS writings, Francophone women writers, queer studies), and visual narratives (films and hypertexts);

Postcolonial discourses (including Caribbean, African, "Beur" and immigrant cultures). "Postcolonial and Diasporic Studies"

Margaret Cohen Lecture Wed. 12/1
The Craft of the Sea
December 1, 2004

How did the history and representation of open ocean travel inform the development of the modern novel?

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Sarah Kay Lecture TODAY
The Place of Thought in Medieval French Didactic Literature, Tuesday
November 9, 2004

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Didier Eribon Lecture
Anti Oedipus: Untimely Meditations on Same-Sex Marriage & Other Related Issues
October 6, 2004

Didier Eribon, a French cultural critic/philosopher, is in residence in the French Department for 6 weeks this Fall 2004, from the week beginning September 6, through the week beginning October 11, 2004.

He is giving a series of seminars on each Wednesday of those six weeks, from 2 to 4 pm in 105 Dwinelle. The seminars will be conducted in French and are open to the general campus community.

Eribon's landmark 1999 book on gay subjectivity, Réflexions sur la question gay, has recently been translated into English by Professor Michael Lucey under the title Insult and the Making of the Gay Self, Duke University Press, 2004.

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick lecture
"The Weather in Proust"
September 30, 2004

Leo Bersani lecture
"Psychoanalysis and the Aesthetic Subject" Thursday,
September 16, 2004

Conversation TODAY with Leo Bersani and Didier Eribon
"Psychoanalysis, Sexuality, The Couple and Same-Sex Marriage" on Thursday,
September 16, 2004

YOU ARE INVITED TO A LUNCHTIME CONVERSATION
BETWEEN LEO BERSANI AND DIDIER ERIBON ON
"PSYCHOLANALYSIS, SEXUALITY, THE COUPLE AND SAME-SEX MARRIAGE" Thursday, September 16 Noon to 1 p.m. in the French Department Library, 4229 Dwinelle









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French Department Colloquim Series
Talk by Professor David Carroll from UC Irvine entitled "Camus's Last Words: On Terrorism and Justice."
April 22, 2004

David Carroll, professor and chair of the French Department at UC Irvine will give a talk this Thursday entitled "Camus's Last Words: On Terrorism and Justice."

Beyond the B.A.: Career Options for French Majors
Please join us for a moderated panel discussion with alumni and employers.
March 10, 2004

Hear from Cal alumni and employers who are utilizing their foreign language education in their current careers. Bring your questions!

Panel Moderator: Carol Dolcini, MA. French, 1986



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Francophone Studies Working Group
Representations and Voices of the (African) Sans Papiers by Lydie Moudileno
March 3, 2004

Impromptu Theatre
Robert Zucco, by Bernard-Marie Koltes, directed by French department graduate student, Kristenn Templeman.
February 13, 2004 - February 14, 2004

Robert Zucco will be performed in French. Ticket price: $15 or $8 for students. Available at the door, one hour prior to the show, or by contacting ktemple@uclink.berkeley.edu

Works-In-Progress
Simo Maatta and Christophe Wall-Romana
December 10, 2003

Come to the French Library on Wednesday, December 10, 2003 to hear two French Department graduate students read their works-in-progress. Refreshments will be served.

Simo Maatta presents “Untranslatable Polyphony? Eye Dialect in Tea in the Harem and Le Bruit et la Fureur.”

Christophe Wall-Romana presents “Visual Poetry and Filmic Culture.”

French Department Colloquia Series
George Hoffman will deliver a talk entitled: "The Budding Actor: Montaigne and the Paradoxes of Sincerity"
October 17, 2003

George Hoffman will deliver a talk entitled: "The Budding Actor: Montaigne and the Paradoxes of Sincerity"

George Hoffman is Associate Professor of French at the University of Michigan. What follows is a bio blurb from his homepage at Michigan:

My research into how Renaissance authors financed the printing of their books, published in Montaigne's Career (Oxford, 1998), has led to a more general interest in how historical contexts shape the forms of literary experience. This has given rise to two current projects. The first examines how personal struggles with doubt in the Renaissance formed one's personal religious culture. In particular, I am interested in how the 'suspension of disbelief' inherent in individuals' practice of faith contributed to the ways in which they read and wrote literature, and to developing the peculiarly hypothetical frame of mind that literature requires. The second project concerns the late Renaissance fascination with 'special effects' as a means by which to control one's audience. Extensively explored in court spectacles and theorized by the Academies that oversaw their production, the development of 'extreme' artistic techniques that appealed to irrational impulses rather than calm reason constituted the poetic, musical, and artistic avant-garde from 1570 to 1610.

Understanding the Americans and Understanding the French
A Talk by Pascal Baudry
October 9, 2003

Pascal Baudry, Ph.D., M.B.A. will deliver a talk discussing:

--What are the typical difficulties experienced by Americans with the French and vice versa?
--Why are Americans more centered on the task and the French more focused on relationships?
--How do family dynamics differ drastically in the two cultures?
--Are there cultural fundamentals at play behind the recent French-American rift?

Admission is free, no reservations necessary.

French Department Lecture
Laure Murat will be delivering a talk entitled: "Folie et rhétorique de l'aveu: le docteur Blanche et le traitement des aliénés au XIXe siècle"
September 3, 2003

The French Department is pleased to annonce a lecture by Laure Murat entitled "Folie et rhétorique de l'aveu: le docteur Blanche et le traitement des aliénés au XIXe siècle."

Laure Murat is the author of a number of important books, including La Maison du docteur Blanche: Histoire d'un asile et de ses pensionnaire, de Nerval à Maupassant (2001) and, forthcoming in a few weeks, Passage de l'Odéon, a study of Sylvia Beach and Adrienne Monnier.  Her talk (in French) will focus on the Blanche family, one of the most important families in French medical and artistic circles in the nineteenth- and early-twentieth centuries.  Esprit Blanche treated Nerval.  He founded one of the most well-known mental clinics in nineteenth-century France. His son, Emile, continued his work, treating Maupassant, among others.  Emile's son, Jacques-Emile, became an artist, and painted well-known portraits of figures such as Gide, Proust, Joyce, Cocteau.

2003 Play Audition Information
Auditions for Robert Zucco to be held next week.
August 28, 2003 - August 29, 2003

The Department of French is happy to announce that auditions will be held next week for Roberto Zucco, a play by Bernard Marie Koltès to be performed in French and directed by Kristenn Templeman.

Roberto Zucco, is the allegory of a young man who becomes a killer because his perception of the Others terrorizes him. Zucco‚s fear is transformed into crimes: it is the animal renunciation of a man who is scared by the Other's criminal fear. This play is not articulated around a realistic representation but around a question: how can one live the violence when it is inscribed within ourselves and when one is both object and subject of the violence.

Works in Progress Series - Professor Randall
Visiting Professor Michael Randall Works in Progress Talk
May 6, 2003

Visiting Professor Michael Randall, from Brandeis University will discourse on toads and popes in Renaissance Literature.

French Department Colloquia

May 2, 2003

Ellen Burt will deliver a talk entitled "Allegory in Baudelaire and De Quincey, or What is Eating the Opium-Eater?"

Works in Progress Series - Graduate Student Vesna Rodic
Vesna Rodic
April 22, 2003

Vesna Rodic -- "Une figure de la pensée: Paul Valéry et l'esprit symbolique de Léonard de Vinci"

French Department Colloquia
Serje Bourjea
April 22, 2003

Serge Bourjea, Directeur du Centre d'étude du XXème siècle, Université de Montpellier, will give a talk entitled "Polyptyques -- La Représentation (du) multiple à la fin du XIXème siècle"

Race Across Time in France: Genealogy of a Concept
Race Across Time in France: Genealogy of a Concept
March 6, 2003 - March 7, 2003

An interdisciplinary conference organized to think critically about the concept of race in France. Click the link below to view the conference schedule.

Click here for more information