French and Francophone Language and Literature Commons^™

Declining Democracy Amid Historical Legacies: Democratization Across The Maghreb, Jacob Sagers

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Institutions and security forces are vital in determining democratization’s success or failure, but how do they interact with civilians to counteract, or support, existing regimes? Hopes for a fourth wave of democratization were dismantled over the past decade as the Arab uprisings have had inconclusive results, posing a threat to the ideological basis for U.S. foreign policy and Western states' legitimacy. Broad economic and Western foreign policies applied worldwide over the past few decades have also been ineffective at supporting this process and producing sustainable democratic transitions. But what specifically about these factors in the Maghreb gave way to Tunisia’s …

A Lesson Featuring The French Pronoun On That Teaches Us About Imperceptibility, Ngọc Hải Nguyễn '26

Previously Language Studies Research Symposium

The French pronoun « on » presents a unique political case study. According to the French Academy, the pronoun, though limited to the subject position of a sentence, has potential usage to refer to any person or group of people. In everyday usage, the pronoun simply replace the French 'we' equivalent (nous). However, on does not limit itself to just the aforementioned use—instead, it can (and has been) used to replace any personal pronouns (I-je, you-tu, you-vous, il-he/it, elle-she/it, ils/elles–they [gendered accordingly]), and even certain undefined/indefinite ones (like someone, anyone, one, etc.). On is a good discussion point about the …

Le Kabary Et Le Fokonolona Au Grand Écran, Josh E. Coster

French Honors Papers

The cultural elements of kabary and fokonolona have played varying roles in Malagasy society and history. Once appropriated by the forces of colonization, these elements today occupy a liminal space in Malagasy culture but undoubtedly represent parts of the island’s heritage. In this project I argue that film can be seen as a new kind of kabary wherein Malagasy films become the cultural expressions themselves not only through their representations of the essential elements of the kabary, but by their inherent tendencies towards social, political, and environmental activism. The community that these filmmakers create represents a modernization of the traditional …

Le Corps : Prise De La Parole Du Corps Qui Devient Sujet Dans L’Écriture Sidéenne De À L’Ami Qui Ne M’A Pas Sauvé La Vie D’Hervé Guibert Et De Dans Ma Chambre De Guillaume Dustan., Sasha Aisha Craig

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

C’est à travers les ouvrages À l’ami qui ne m’a pas sauvé (1990) d’Hervé Guibert et Dans ma chambre de Guillaume Dustan que nous essayons de comprendre le monde de ceux qui ont été stigmatisé comme des fléaux de la société. Dans les années quatre-vingt-dix, les recherches avancent pour aider ceux qui sont atteints du SIDA mais seulement quelques-uns réussissent à se faire soigner. Guibert et Dustan nous font revivre leurs moments de désuétude où la société les rejettent. Cette recherche met en avant l’écriture sidéenne qui se veut souvent « crue » et parle par l’intermédiaire du corps qui …

Bleu Pour Toujours (Blue Forever), Macha Petre

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

Since this short story is written in French, the abstract below is available in both English and French.

Bleu pour toujours (« Blue Forever ») is a short story blending poetry and science fiction. In the near future, war, pollution, and human activity have devastated our world. The blue sky exists only in history books or old photographs. Amid this gray, monotonous despair, an unnamed, ageless, and genderless character escapes one evening and makes unsettling discoveries. Something is stirring. Upon waking, they find everyone has vanished, and the laws of the universe have been upended. In place of the sky …

Le Bénin Francophone: Une Étude Sur L’Angle Sociolinguistique, David Achodo

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

Cette communication porte sur le paysage sociolinguistique d’un pays d’Afrique occidental–la République du Bénin (l’ancien Dahomey)–mettant en évidence l’interface complexe entre le français et les langues béninoises. Le prestige du français, en tant que langue privilégiée employée pour la communication interethnique dans de divers domaines du pays, rend son acquisition essentielle. Mais, en dehors des autres langues étrangères présentes parmi les membres éduqués de la population béninoise, les langues locales entrent en jeu avec le français, produisant ainsi trois variétés distinctes du français : le français standard, le français d’Afrique et le français snobé. Chacune de ces variétés possède des …

Le Silence, Le Prédéterminisme Et La Sexualité : Le Cas De Thérèse Desqueyroux, Daniel E. Folger

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

Le silence fait partie intégrante de l’histoire de Thérèse Desqueyroux. A Argelouse, née d’une famille dont la tradition exige l’effacement de l’individualité, elle n’échappe pas à cette répression en se mariant avec Bernard, ni en se sauvant à Paris. La nature inéluctable de son destin fait qu’elle est parfois comparée aux héroïnes tragiques Andromaque et Phèdre. Néanmoins, la parole de cette dernière possède un pouvoir que celle de Thérèse ne détient pas. Malgré la nature étouffante du mutisme imposé sur elle, le silence prend quelquefois un côté positif, notamment lorsque Thérèse est auprès de son amie Anne de la Trave. …

Le Genre En Jeu : Le Corps Sexué Socialement Construit Dans La Dispute De Marivaux, Aubrey Lewis

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

La Dispute de Marivaux est avant tout une comédie en prose écrite pour explorer des thèmes tels que la vanité, la psyché humaine et l'amour-propre. Dans cet essai, j'explorerai un aspect souvent négligé de cette pièce—le genre et le sexe—en soutenant que le jeu délibéré de Marivaux avec le langage, l'intrigue et les enjeux de la pièce sont des interventions directes dans le discours sur le genre en tant que construction sociale. S'inspirant de l'ouvrage de Judith Butler "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution : An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory,” cet essai analyse La Dispute de Marivaux non seulement …

L’Intertextualité Ou Quand Les Imaginaires Culturels Se Rencontrent, Lamiae Khayi

Dirassat

The literary text, regardless of its authors, does not carry a single, unequivocal voice anchored in an experience identifiable in a space situated in a specific time. This statement may provoke astonishment. Yet, this text, a complex reality in itself, like the canvas, invites a new way of reading and interpreting. This would allow us to discover either the constructive dialogue of proximity; or the echo of inter-personal violence; both revealed through the intertext. This article will attempt to examine this dual dimension in the work of Mohamed Nedali, thanks to Jean De La Fontaine.

L’Isotopie Intertextuelle, Jawad Hazim

Dirassat

Textual cross-referencing is one of the major issues that characterize critical thinking. Between production and reception, the subject/reader is crossed by many forms of intertextual relations: rewriting, parody, prohibition, etc.; hence the reflection on intertextuality which has caused many inks to flow both in literary studies and in the sciences of language.

The present work begins a reflection on the relations between literary texts under the auspices of isotopic relations. It is therefore a question of establishing intertextual constructions on an isotopic basis between a mythological substrate, the Odyssey, and the work of Amélie Nothomb, La biographie de la Faim: …

Etude Sémantique Des Isotopies Dans Le Discours Des Femmes D’Aît Znassen En Chantant Eṣ-Ṣǝff, Naima Boujemaaoui, Mohammed Kembouche, Mohammed Elbouziki

Dirassat

This article takes stock of a reflection on the different isotopic relationships woven in the song of women eṣ-ṣeff by Aît Znassen. This reflection is essentially based on the analysis of five isotopies, namely generic, specific, mixed, inherent and afferent isotopies. The study of these isotopies has shown that, although they have points in common insofar as they are all based on the recurrence of one or more semes, they have, in exchange, points of divergence, due to the fact that each of them has a property that distinguishes it from other isotopies. This analysis also made it possible to …

Discours Romanesque, Médiation Et Vivre-Ensemble, Ahmed Bouftouh

Dirassat

This article is concerned with an intercultural mediation whose three poles are the novelistic discourse, the literary critic and the audience. In other words, by calling upon theoretical contributions from semiotics and ethical criticism, we intend to see what a literary criticism dedicated to living together would consist of. More precisely, we first highlight the focal points that the literary critic, being in a median position between a work of fiction and its potential receiver, would be expected to make explicit. In a second step, we show how a work on textual values would be necessary for a successful intercultural …

La Traduction Littéraire Entre Éthique Et Critique, Amal Arrame

Dirassat

The responsibility that derives from translating is not only a responsibility linked to the practice of translation as a profession, but a responsibility towards intercultural exchange. Recent translation studies, particularly in Europe and North America, have focused on the author of the source, the translator (whom we prefer to call the second author), the editor and finally the reader. Indeed, translation should be conceived as two connection situations: one is interlinguistic, the other is intercultural. The letter in a literary work is a web, delicately woven of several domains, knowledge and factors; translating this sublime production into another language supposes …

Le Discours Sur La Modernité Dans L’Œuvre D’Abdelwahab Meddeb, Azzelarab Touda

Dirassat

Any discourse on modernity involves the way of being, thinking and creating and remains strongly linked to the political, ideological and cultural climates that saw it born and evolve, hence thoughts and expressions managed, ipso facto, either in the relationship of fidelity to genealogical belonging, or in that of hospitable overcoming with regard to the other. However, strangely, the discourse on modernity of the writer-poet and essayist Abdelwahab Meddeb is driven by a faithful infidelity with regard to his auroral scene. This duality permeates the Meddebian work of dyonysism and apollinism under the aegis of modernity which frames, at …

Discours Institutionnel Dans L’Espace Universitaire Marocain : De La Réforme À La Transformation, Mohammed Essbai, Mohammed Atmani

Dirassat

The Moroccan university has undergone successive reforms targeting the architecture of training, curricula and teaching practices. Each time, a different discourse is used to give a new breath to the desired change. In 2021, the university space is hosting a program to accelerate the transformation of the ecosystem, known as the ESRI 2030 Pact. Discursively, each departmental initiative is presided over by new concepts that reflect the directions advocated by decision makers in the sector.

Le Recours Aux Procédés De Reformulation Dans Les Articles Scientifiques De Vulgarisation, Ilham Elarrachi

Dirassat

Reformulation as a (metadiscursive) linguistic device is often used by science journalists to convey specific scientific knowledge to often uninitiated readers. It generally consists of repeating the same words, the same discourse in another way. It manifests itself particularly in scientific, media etc. This communication aims to show the importance of reformulation in the transmission of scientific knowledge related to the field of health. Our objective is to see in what circumstances the scientific journalist uses the processes of reformulation. The data analyzed come from a corpus composed of a set of journalistic articles dealing with subjects related to the …

La Puissance Douce Française Manifestée Par Les Politiques Linguistiques En Afrique, Barbara O. Olewska

Global Tides

Du premier étape des colonisateurs français sur la terre africaine jusqu’à le français étant l’une des langues primaires en Afrique, les français avait eu une influence en Afrique. Pour comprendre comment les politiques linguistiques agissent comme une passerelle de l'implémentation de la puissance douce française en Afrique, nous explorons les politiques linguistiques et systèmes d’éducation en Côte d’Ivoire, au Sénégal, et au Burkina Faso. La littérature décrit comment le français est la langue d'administration dans ces trois pays, donc il est valorisé sur les langues locales. La présence intense du français permet à la France d’employer la puissance douce en …

Mille-Feuille Magazine Littéraire, Printemps 2025

Mille-Feuille Magazine Littéraire

No abstract provided.

Casar Student Discussion Series #7: Censored Classrooms - Should Parents And Community Members Have A Say In Restricting Certain Books In Schools, Based On Factors Such As Religion, Age Appropriateness, And More?, The Prince Alwaleed Center For American Studies And Research Casar

Performances, Events, and Presentations

Every semester, CASAR AUC holds miscellaneous student debates discussing the hot controversial topics in the US, Egypt and from around the world in hopes of raising awareness about these topics & broadening the perspectives of our students as they learn to engage in fruitful discussions as they share different opinion on the topic being deliberated.

On April 10th 2025, at this CASAR Student Discussion event #7 in light of the current book bans in the US happening from Trump's administration, we debated this question: 'Censored classrooms: Should parents and community members have a say in restricting certain books in schools …

What Is A Nation? Colonial Legacies, Identity, And Reclaiming In Métisse Autobiographical Narratives – A Case Study Of Sugar And Slate And Garçon Manqué, Thaïs Maëlle Autin

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This thesis examines the question of national belonging in autobiographical narratives of second-generation immigrant métisse women. I study the similar aesthetic manner in which individuals with different regional and cultural influences grapple with concepts of identity, gender, racism, exile, and negotiation, and the way in which the authors anchor themselves in a broader familial and national heritage. I argue that such an enterprise can be understood as part of the alternative heritage wave, based on Andrew Higson’s theory. The texts put in question traditional understandings of nation. Doing so opens the possibility of engaging in a dialogue that expands the …