In Appreciation Of Birago I. Diop: A Subtle Advocate Of Négritude,
2012
University of Massachusetts Boston
In Appreciation Of Birago I. Diop: A Subtle Advocate Of Négritude, Winston E. Langley
Winston E. Langley
The closing weeks of the last decade brought with them the death of three distinguished world figures: Samuel Beckett, the Irish-French playwright, novelist, and poet; Andrei D. Sakharov, the Soviet nuclear physicist, human rights advocate, and leader in the international disarmament movement; and Birago I. Diop, the Senegalese poet, storyteller, and statesman. In the case of the former two, leading U.S. newspapers and other media paid merited tribute in the amplest of proportions; in case of the last, however, it was as if he had either never lived or had gained no standing of importance worthy of much attention. Diop …
Pas De Deux: Stepping Out Of The Mind-Body Prison,
2012
Bard College
Pas De Deux: Stepping Out Of The Mind-Body Prison, Alexa Palmer
Alexa Palmer
No abstract provided.
Virtual Representations Of The American Far West In 20th Century French Theater,
2012
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Virtual Representations Of The American Far West In 20th Century French Theater, Sarah Christine Lloyd
Doctoral Dissertations
The American Far West is, perhaps, one of the foremost images of the United States, one that has influenced many authors, especially during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It is a place of vast, empty spaces, of adventure and danger, of heroes and villains. It is a space that excites the imagination in its grandeur and possibility. Writers such as Jean Baudrillard and Umberto Eco have written of this grandeur, of the space of the American Dream. There they find the hyperreality of America, the constant drive to re-create aspects of European history and culture to fill the cultural void. …
Alterite, Performance, Hybridite: Une Esthetique De La Troisieme Vague Feministe,
2012
Iowa State University
Alterite, Performance, Hybridite: Une Esthetique De La Troisieme Vague Feministe, Michèle A. Schaal
Michèle A. Schaal
France has recently experienced a renewed interest in feminist and gender-related issues. Both in academia and society at large, a younger generation of theorists, authors and activists, influenced by American third-wave feminism and gender studies, has reasserted the necessity to fight for equal rights. My research reveals that as early as the mid-nineties, French writers Marie Darrieussecq, Virginie Despentes and Nina Bouraoui anticipated these feminist discourses in their early novels. In particular, they mirrored the concepts of alterity, gender performance, and hybridity currently at stake in this third wave of French feminism. My dissertation investigates the literary manifestations of these …
Reviving The Surrealist Revolt: A Retracing Of Surrealism’S History And A Reimagining Of Its Future In Translation,
2012
Western Kentucky University
Reviving The Surrealist Revolt: A Retracing Of Surrealism’S History And A Reimagining Of Its Future In Translation, Kyle Young
Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects
Although Surrealist writing has literary merit, Surrealist texts were written as revolutionary tracts meant to undermine the social order. Yet the politically radical aspects of the movement are no longer taken very seriously. At least one contributing factor to the current impotence of Surrealism is the approach taken in the translation of Surrealist texts. Many translators have presented Surrealist texts as they would traditionally present any literary document. However, Walter Benjamin’s writings on translation, in particular his essay “The Task of the Translator,” provide a novel conception of translation, one which can produce linguistically radical texts. I will argue that …
Giraudoux At The Gates,
2012
Stephen F Austin State University
Giraudoux At The Gates, Samantha Walker
Undergraduate Research Conference
An in-depth look at the original production of Jean Giraudoux's play Tiger at the Gates, how it had become such a famous performance, and how some of the intents of the playwright were not easily translated from French to English.
Is The Plague An Existential Novel?,
2012
Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Is The Plague An Existential Novel?, Ethan Jacobs '12
2012 Spring Semester
Existentialism refers to a broad range of philosophical beliefs and related cultural phenomena. While its origins can be traced to the latter half of the 19th century, existentialism as a unified movement only gained serious traction, especially among literary circles, by the close of World Wars I and II, as writers contemplated the sheer man-made destruction and loss of life of these two wars. Though often confused with nihilism and absurdism, existentialism is a distinct philosophical movement that presents man as fundamentally unknowable through science, logic, or morality. Albert Camus, a French Algerian “Pied-Noir” settler, epitomized the sudden turn toward …
The Spinning Plague,
2012
Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
The Spinning Plague, Sean Yamakawa '13
2012 Spring Semester
In her piece, “The Centripetal Structure of Camus’s La Peste,” Jennifer Waelti-Walters explains her idea that the narrative and plot of The Plague form a circular movement. There is a centripetal force that pulls all predominant characters and images to the center. Waelti-Walters determines that Rieux, the protagonist doctor, is this central figure. Though an apt analysis, her argument has a single flaw: her placement of Cottard within this circle does not accurately reflect his place in the novel. Though Waelti-Walters acknowledges Cottard as Rieux’s counterpart, she places Cottard next to other characters such as Tarrou, Rambert, and …
L’Écriture Migrante Comme Pratique Signifiante: L’Exemple De L’Hétérolinguisme Et De L’Écriture Fragmentaire Chez Abla Farhoud Et Ying Chen,
2012
Wilfrid Laurier University
L’Écriture Migrante Comme Pratique Signifiante: L’Exemple De L’Hétérolinguisme Et De L’Écriture Fragmentaire Chez Abla Farhoud Et Ying Chen, Simona Pruteanu
Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications
Cet article récupère le concept d’écriture en tant que pratique signifi ante (Kristeva) en parlant de deux romans migrants québécois, L’Ingratitude de Ying Chen et Le Bonheur a la queue glissante d’Abla Farhoud, afi n de montrer comment les indices d’hétérolinguisme dans ces deux textes, en conjonction avec une poétique du fragment, créent une esthétique propre à l’expression de l’identité migrante, ou ce que nous appelons une signifi ance migrante. Nous espérons confi rmer que refuser l’ancrage dans une appartenance culturelle ou langagière unique joue un rôle capital dans l’esthétique de l’écriture migrante, car la fragilité identitaire créée par la …
Les Curiosités : L'Analyse De La Fonction De L’Anomalie Dans Les Musées Français Du Dix-Neuvième Siècle,
2012
Trinity College
Les Curiosités : L'Analyse De La Fonction De L’Anomalie Dans Les Musées Français Du Dix-Neuvième Siècle, Alexandra A. Powell
Senior Theses and Projects
No abstract provided.
Review Of "La Blessure La Vraie" By F. Bégaudeau,
2012
Chapman University
Review Of "La Blessure La Vraie" By F. Bégaudeau, Véronique Olivier
World Languages and Cultures Faculty Articles and Research
A review of François Bégaudeau's La blessure la vraie, published by Verticales in 2011. In French.
"Madame Ma Chère Fille": The Performance Of Motherhood In The Correspondence Of Madame De Sévigné, Marie-Thérèse Of Austria, And Joséphine Bonaparte To Their Daughters,
2012
University of Massachusetts Amherst
"Madame Ma Chère Fille": The Performance Of Motherhood In The Correspondence Of Madame De Sévigné, Marie-Thérèse Of Austria, And Joséphine Bonaparte To Their Daughters, Meagen E. Moreland
Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014
This paper conducts a critical comparison of the correspondence of Madame de Sévigné, Empress Marie-Thérèse of Austria and Joséphine Bonaparte. These women instruct their daughters through a writerly exchange that implements a remarkably similar use of language that indicates a “performance” of her maternal role, meant to implement a personal or political agenda that requires the daughter’s acknowledgement and reciprocation. This project explores theories of speech acts and subjectivity to conduct a literary analysis of the construction of the maternal figure in a historical context, its representation in the letters of each woman with their daughters, the motivations for a …
Rachilde, Marguerite Eymery Vallette (1860-1953),
2012
CUNY Guttman Community College
Rachilde, Marguerite Eymery Vallette (1860-1953), Ria Banerjee
Publications and Research
This is a biographical overview of the life and principle works of the French author Rachilde, a.k.a. Marguerite Eymery Vallette (1860-1953), one of the few women writers working in the masculinist field of fin-de-siecle or decadent fiction.
New Visions And Re-Visions In 20th And 21st Century French Literature,
2012
Canisius College
New Visions And Re-Visions In 20th And 21st Century French Literature, Eileen Angelini
Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature
In the twentieth century, the “death of the author” was proclaimed by literary critics. Since then, there has been a shift in focus from text to reader. This reorientation called forth changing critical paradigms, taking us from modernism to postmodernism and beyond...
Les Particules Élémentaires: Self–Portrait,
2012
University of Pennsylvania
Les Particules Élémentaires: Self–Portrait, Gerald Prince
Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature
Perhaps no French novel in the past fifteen years has received more critical attention than Michel Houellebecq’s Les Particules élémentaires and perhaps none has evoked stronger reactions with regard to the (literary) values it espouses and represents. This (self-)portrait, like any portrait, accents certain features more than others. It concentrates on refuting charges of nihilism, reactionaryism, sexism, and racism; it stresses Houellebecq’s novel’s attention to form and its thematic clarity as well as its determination to say something rather than nothing; and, through a consideration of its references to various media, arts, and texts, of its pet peeves and true …
Moving Forward With The Past: History And Identity In Marie-Célie Agnant’S La Dot De Sara,
2012
SUNY-College at Brockport, Canisius College
Moving Forward With The Past: History And Identity In Marie-Célie Agnant’S La Dot De Sara, Kennedy M. Schultz
Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature
Francophone writers and theorists have long worked to establish a cultural identity true to their collective past and free of Western authority and influence. They reflect in their works the need to find their own voice and validate their own perspective in the face of a history fraught with colonial influence and domination. Marie-Célie Agnant, a Francophone writer of Haitian descent living in Montreal, addresses this search for history and identity through the lens of Haitian immigrant characters in her works, namely La Dot de Sara (1995), Le Livre d’Emma (2001), and Un alligator nommé Rosa (2007). Agnant’s works treat …
The Mother Figure In Contemporary Women’S Theater,
2012
Brown University
The Mother Figure In Contemporary Women’S Theater, Sanda Golopentia
Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature
Five French plays written by women playwrights between the years 1976–88 attest to significant changes in the dramatic presentation of the mother figure. The innovations occur at the general thematic level (with plays centered on the mother–daughter initiating encounter at the moment of giving birth/being born, the reversal of the mother–daughter roles later on in life, trial maternity, willful maternal eclipse, etc.) as well as at the level of the characters’ speech, the setting, and so on. While some of the plays (such as Chantal Chawaf’s Chair chaude, Denise Chalem’s A cinquante ans elle découvrait la mer and Loleh …
French As A Foreign Language: The Literary Enterprise Of Antoine Volodine,
2012
Princeton University
French As A Foreign Language: The Literary Enterprise Of Antoine Volodine, David Bellos
Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature
Volodine’s fictions all resemble each other save for names and settings. They expose a world where the Revolution has failed and its protagonists are either dead, incarcerated, or holed up in the putrefying carcass of an abandoned building. Protagonists keep the memory of their political dreams alive by telling the stories of lost comrades, in works tapped out in code on the drainage pipes of a high-security prison or the asylum where they are held without charge, or else circulated, samizdat-style, among sympathizers. The authors of these narratives are themselves the subjects of others. So the characters created by Volodine …
Tristan Tzara’S Poetical Visions: Ironic, Oneiric, Heroic,
2012
Luther College
Tristan Tzara’S Poetical Visions: Ironic, Oneiric, Heroic, Ruth Caldwell
Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature
Tristan Tzara is most often associated with Dada, a movement whose influence has often been overlooked. However, Tzara stands out among his peers because of his extensive production of poetical works associated not only with Dada but surrealism and beyond. In all of these texts we see a constant refusal to be complacent about artistic endeavor or the world around us. His Dada texts launch an attack on language by the use of irony and a tension of the text against itself. This internal tension becomes the struggle depicted in his surrealistic epic, L’Homme approximatif, an unfulfilled search for …
Béatrix Beck: The “Barny Cycle”: Writing To Inform And Heal The Self,
2012
Palo Alto, California
Béatrix Beck: The “Barny Cycle”: Writing To Inform And Heal The Self, Myrna Bell Rochester, Mary Lawrence Test
Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature
To cope with the traumatic reality of World War II, French society repressed its memories, resulting in a false collective memory. Today, a more truthful history can be restored with the study of wartime and post-war texts. We examine the first six books (1948-67) of Belgian-French writer Béatrix Beck (1914-2008), alongside the theories of psychiatrist Judith Lewis Herman, who wrote that “traumatic reactions occur when action is of no avail.” Beck’s semi-autobiographical protagonist, Barny, goes through Herman’s stages of forgetting and remembering, healing and recovery. Her emergence as a writer also follows that trajectory: Barny, like Occupied France, was isolated. …
