SFPS Monthly Mailing: November 2012

CFP
1.1 War, Memory and Amnesia: Francophone perspectives on Lebanon. University of Leeds.
1.2 Le mythe de Soundiata dans les pays francophones.
1.3 Spaces of the book : materials and agents of the text/image creation (XXth and XXIst Centuries). Cambridge University.
1.4 Theatre at the Crossroads of Language and Genre. Warwick.
1.5 Ahmadou Kourouma & Cie. Retour sur les discours postcoloniaux fondateurs : relectures, ressourcements et palabres. Porto.

Calls for contribution:
2.1 French Cultural Studies Twenty-fifth anniversary conference
2.2 Expressions maghrébines : New Diasporas Hospitality and Belonging
2.3 Special Issue: ‘Film, Labor and Migration’ Working USA: The Journal of Labor and Society

New titles:
3.1 MCF: ‘France and Algeria: fifty years after independence’
3.2. Des littératures-mondes en français. Écritures singulières, poétiques transfrontalières dans la prose contemporaine
3.3 The Fiction of J. M. G. Le Clézio. A Postcolonial Reading
3.4 Polygraphies: Francophone Women Writing Algeria

Other news/announcements:
4.1 Winthrop-King events, 2012-2013. Florida.
4.2 Les réalisatrices africaines francophones: 40 ans de cinéma (1972-2012). Paris.
4.3 ‘African Popular Culture in the 21st Century’ Africa In Motion 2012 International Symposium. Edinburgh.
4.4 Resources in Anti-Colonial Thought (Part 1). (David Murphy, Martin Evans, Pierre-Philippe Fraiture). London.

Calls for papers

1.1 War, Memory and Amnesia: Francophone perspectives on Lebanon. University of Leeds.

Centre for French and Francophone Cultural Studies
University of Leeds
Hinsley Hall, Leeds (6-7 June 2013)

Seeking to bring together academics across the disciplines and practitioners active in literature, film, photography and the plastic arts this conference will explore the emerging field of francophone discourses that work to commemorate, fictionalise or document the Lebanese civil war (1975–c.1991). The long years of war saw invasion, massacres, hostage taking and the unresolved disappearance of citizens as power was brokered according to perpetually shifting loyalties. An amnesty legislated in 1991 pardoned almost all activity undertaken in the name of this war but, instead of freeing up discourses of remembering, it seems that memories of the war were effectively silenced, forming a collective amnesia that was both politically and commercially expedient. In response, a number of aesthetic projects, frequently undertaken in partnership with civil-led community organisations, have challenged this amnesia and created new processes of remembering. We invite papers on francophone literature, theatre, film, music and the visual arts from or about Lebanon informed by thinking about trauma, memory, violence, performance, migration, transitional justice and identity.

Proposals of 250 words accompanied by a short biography to be sent to C.L.Launchbury@leeds.ac.uk<mailto:C.L.Launchbury@leeds.ac.uk> by 11 January 2013.

Keynote sessions and speakers:
Genet à Chatila
Mme Leila Chahid (General Delegate of Palestine to the European Union)
Clare Finburgh (Essex)
Albert Dichy (IMEC, Caën)
Evelyne Accad, writer and activist

Performance events:
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige (filmmakers)
Cynthia Zaven (artist and musician)

1.2 Le mythe de Soundiata dans les pays francophones.

28-29 janvier 2013

L’Université Soundiata de Kankan USK organise en partenariat avec l’Université Julius Nyerere, un colloque sur Le mythe de Soundiata dans les pays francophones.

Le destin de  Soundiata Keïta né en 1190 est encore le nôtre. Le lieu de mémoire avant d’être une métaphore d’historien est une réalité sociale concrète. C’est un élément essentiel qui lie l’individu à un espace politique et physique et lui permet d’exprimer un sentiment d’appartenance. La ville de Niani nous interpelle aujourd’hui encore. Le Royaume du Mali établit par Soundiata Keïta interroge plus que jamais les démocraties africaines du 21^e siècle.

Les traditions ne sont pas seulement un dépôt des expériences du passé, ni une sorte de souvenir concret des générations antérieures, elles sont encore un langage, c’est-à-dire le moyen de faire expérimenter par d’autres ce qu’on a vécu soi-même et de communiquer aux jeunes générations ce qui est apparu essentiel à leurs aînés. Ce colloque est l’occasion de questionner  ce langage historique fictionnel, mise en scène d’une résistance légendaire. Car résister, c’est d’abord un état d’esprit, une certaine manière de ne pas entrer dans le jeu de l’ennemi. Savoir préserver vivaces, intactes au fond de soi l’étendue de ses convictions.

Invité d’honneur M. Alhassane CONDE, Ministre de l’Administration du Territoire et de la Décentralisation

Axes de recherche

1). Au-delà des frontières culturelles

• Migration d’un mythe
• Soundiata : appartenance, identité et altérité
• Transferts culturels

2). Soundiata Keïta : La résistance exemplaire

• Un Roi universel
• L’idéologie d’un vainqueur
• La frontière comme lieu d’échange

3). Soundiata Keïta et son héritage

• Les éléments d’une œuvre littéraire
• Les hauts faits d’un héros
• Un patrimoine historique exceptionnel

Les résumés doivent parvenir au Recteur de l’Université Soundiata, Elvire Maurouard avant

le 10 décembre 2012.

Email :elvirejj@gmail.com.

1.3 Spaces of the book : materials and agents of the text/image creation (XXth and XXIst Centuries). Cambridge University.

Trinity College, Cambridge, 6 and 7 September 2013

The conference will consider the book as a space of creation in which text and image stand in dialogue (illustrated books, livres d’artistes, artists’ books), from the point of view of its medium (materials, format, folding, etc.) and the various agents (writers, artists, as well as typographers, printers, graphic artists, publishers, gallery owners/directors, booksellers) who play an essential role in its conception and distribution.

The main issues will be:

— To what extent do the material specificities of the chosen medium influence literary and artistic innovation?

— To what extent do the various agents involved in the conception, composition, publication and distribution of the book play a role in the creative process, in contexts which also include digital media, installation and performance?

— Are there privileged sites for the distribution and reception of these works? Is the creative book an object to be called up from a rare books collection or a work to be exhibited (museums, galleries), or activated?

— How are the current transformations of both object and process modifying its social and political impact?

— Does the virtual book abolish the distinction that was traditional in the context of industrial reproduction between creative book and mass-market product?

— Does the multiplication of collective and even impersonal creations imply a new conception of creator or author?

During the conference, an exhibition on the avant-garde publisher, bookseller and gallery-owner Jean Petithory will take place in the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge.

The conference languages are English and French.

Please send your proposal (maximum 500 words) before 31 January 2013 to espacesdulivre@trin.cam.ac.uk

Organisers : Isabelle Chol (Université de Pau) and Jean Khalfa (Trinity College, Cambridge).

This conference is part of the ANR-LEC programme: http://lec.hypotheses.org/presentation

1.4 Theatre at the Crossroads of Language and Genre. Warwick.

Saturday 27^th April 2013, University of Warwick

Theatre at the Crossroads of Language and Genre has a two-fold ambition by addressing the processes of translation and adaptation of and within theatre. It seeks to bring together for a one-day interdisciplinary conference the theoretical issues surrounding theatre translation between languages and cultures, and the practical aspects of adaptation between genres and media.

Keynote speaker: Professor Susan Bassnett (University of Warwick).

20-minute papers are invited from any student or scholar with research interests in translation, adaptation, and the making of theatre and literature, across all periods. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• the process of translation within and/ or of theatre between languages and cultures;
• the mechanics and/ or aesthetics of theatre adaptation;
• theatre translation and/ or adaptation across periods;
• genre(s) and/ or media;
• the impact of translation and/ or adaptation for modern-day audiences;
• the notion of impact for academic disciplines.

Please send abstracts of 200-300 words and a 50-word biography to Jonathan Durham at J.Durham@warwick.ac.uk by Monday 10^th December 2012.

1.6 Ahmadou Kourouma & Cie. Retour sur les discours postcoloniaux fondateurs :

relectures, ressourcements et palabres. Porto.

Journée d’étude

Porto – ILC-Margarida Losa – FLUP

11 décembre 2013

Prenant prétexte du dixième anniversaire de la disparition de l’écrivain ivoirien et auteur de Les soleils des indépendances (1968 et 1970), Ahmadou Kourouma, et encouragé par les stimulants apports critiques et échanges suscités par le colloque de Porto Nos & leurs Afriques (décembre 2011), le Centre de Recherche Instituto de Literatura Comparada Margarida Losa, hébergé à la Faculté des Lettres de l’Université de Porto – Portugal, se propose de poursuivre et d’approfondir une approche plurielle du fait (post)colonial.

Il s’agira, cette fois, de revenir sur les textes fondateurs du discours postcolonial, au sens critique du terme ; un discours ultérieur à celui des tenants de la négritude, issu des vicissitudes en cours avant, pendant et dans la foulée immédiate des décolonisations, – des soleils des indépendances, eût dit A. Kourouma -, et qui sont loin de pouvoir être considérés « datés », d’autant plus que leur relecture et interprétation s’avèrent un incontournable éclairage et un précieux apport critique à la compréhension actuelle des thématiques et problématiques (post)coloniales.

Outre Ahmadou Kourouma, – qui fera l’objet d’une attention commémorative -, cette Journée d’étude entend donc se pencher sur des écrivains et des textes fondateurs du discours (post)colonial, et dont les études postcoloniales se sentent, à ce stade critique, profondément redevables ; francophones d’une part, mais aussi, bien évidemment, issus des autres grandes aires coloniales (anglaise et portugaise) ; ce qui ouvrira la voie à des (re)lectures comparatistes et à d’éventuelles perspectives transversales.

Songeons au Martiniquais Franz Fanon, aux Camerounais Ferdinand Oyono et Mongo Beti, aux Sénégalais Ousmane Sembène et Cheikh Hamidou Kane, les Maliens Amadou Ampathé Bâ et Yambo Ouologuem, les Guinéens Tierno Monenembo et Williams Sassine, voire encore le Congolais Sony Labou Tansi.

Chez les anglophones et lusophones, entre autres, les noms d’Amos Tutuola, de Chinua Achebe, de Wole Soyinka ainsi qu’Amilcar Cabral ou Eduardo Mondlane s’imposent comme balises et inspirateurs.

Ainsi, l’Instituto de Literatura Comparada – Margarida Losa a le plaisir d’annoncer la Journée d’étude qu’il organise le 11 décembre 2013 à Porto, et en vue de laquelle il lance cet appel à communication aux chercheurs que ce stimulant domaine de recherche ne manquera pas d’intéresser.

Langues :

Français, portugais et anglais.

Calendrier :

16 juin 2013 : date limite pour présenter des propositions de communication (+/- 250 mots) accompagnées d’un bref cv – notice (15 lignes max.).

02 septembre 2013 : date limite pour la réponse de l’Organisation aux propositions de communication.

21 octobre 2013 : diffusion du programme prévisionnel.

04 novembre 2013 : diffusion du programme définitif.

Inscription :

Enseignants-chercheurs de la FLUP : 30,00€

Autres : 50,00€

Membres-chercheurs de l’ILC : gratuite

Les textes feront l’objet d’une publication sur avis favorable préalable du comité de lecture.

Modalités de Paiement :

Sur place et en espèces.

Participation confirmée :

Jean-Marc Moura (Paris 10)

Comité organisateur :

Ana Paula Coutinho Mendes (Un. Porto – ILC)

Maria de Fátima Outeirinho (Un. Porto – ILC)

José Domingues de Almeida (Un. Porto – ILC)

Comité Scientifique :

Jean-Marc Moura (Un. Paris 10)

David Murphy (Un. Stirling)

Paulo de Medeiros (Un. Utrecht)

Manuela Ribeiro Sanches (Un. Lisboa)

Adresse :

Les propositions de communication (résumé et brève notice cv, avec nom, institution et courriel) sont à envoyer à ilc@letras.up.pt

Renseignements :

Merci d’entrer sur les sites www.ilcml.com et / ou http://www.flup.up.pt

Calls for contributions

2.1 French Cultural Studies Twenty-fifth anniversary conference

May 2013

2013 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of French Cultural Studies and to celebrate this event an anniversary conference will be held on 29-31 May 2013 in Marseille, which will be the 2013 European Capital of Culture. The theme of the conference will be: Twenty-Five Years of French Cultural Studies, which will encompass:

·          developments in French and Francophone cultural activity and policy of all types in the last twenty-five year

·          changes within that period in the way in which French culture and French cultural history since the mid-Nineteenth Century have been perceived and explored.

Papers, which may be in either English or French, should last approximately 20 minutes, leaving an additional 10 minutes for comments and questions, although the final publishable version should be approximately 5000 words in length.

The proceedings will be published in a special double number of the journal which will appear in 2014.

Proposals for papers, accompanied by a brief outline, should be sent to:  nicholas.hewitt@nottingham.ac.uk, as soon as possible.

2.2 Expressions maghrébines : New Diasporas Hospitality and Belonging

Revue de la Coordination internationale des chercheurs sur les littératures du Maghreb

www.ub.edu/cdona/em

Vol. 13, no. 1, Summer 2014

Edited by Alfonso de Toro

Expressions of interest: 30 November 2012

Final Papers Submission Deadline: 30 June 2013

Publication: May 2014

The objectives of this issue are to contribute to current sociopolitical, cultural, and theoretical debates on matters such as ‘migration’, ‘nation’, ‘identity’, and ‘culture’ with regard to specific forms of social and cultural organization found in diasporas, and in this way to explore the ways in which, between the Maghreb and the countries in which populations of Maghrebi origin have settled, processes of thinking, feeling, and a conception of ‘belonging’ have developed in relations between ‘cultures of origin’ (or ‘originary cultures’) and cultures of ‘arrival’ or ‘reception’. Sociocultural and historical terms such as ‘identity’, ‘tradition’, ‘nation-state’, and ‘diaspora’, which are subject to continuous processes of hybridization, are thus to be approached in such a way as to relativize archaic and outmoded nationalistic concepts, especially those that render ethnic features in terms of absolutes and thereby impede an integrative dialogue.

The approach favored here seeks to open up a meta-level discussion, or, rather, a meta-theoretical discussion that will take into account conflicting cultures as well as methods and procedures that go beyond personal or discipline-specific measures, without discounting the contributions of established disciplinary fields. The goal is to build bridges between cultures and disciplines through well-conceived, emancipatory policies for peace, as a means of promoting transversal concepts and approaches as expressed in the concept of Trans-area Studies.

The ‘Maghrebi Diaspora’ is no longer historically confined to France and is widely spread across the globe. There are large Maghrebi diasporas in Spain, Germany and Canada (Quebec) that have given rise to very particular sociocultural and political representations, with similarities and differences, constructed by intellectuals, writers, workers and different migrant groups with very different reasons ‒economic, political, cultural, etc.‒ for migrating, voluntarily or involuntarily.

The term ‘diaspora’ was initially understood through its relationship to the Jewish people, whereby diaspora was linked to negative experiences such as ‘exile’, ‘displacement’, ‘oppression’, ‘subjugation’, ‘imprisonment’, and ‘slavery’ as well as a feeling of instability and of nostalgia for return. Understood thus, the diaspora was seen as a group characterized by closed rituals and norms, with highly codified mores serving to preserve ethnic and cultural memory and ensure group cohesion and identity.

In contrast with this traditional concept of diaspora, a wide-ranging ‘intentional’ and ‘extensional’ logico-semantic field began to develop in the 1980s, characterized by positive significations relating to hybrid forms of communities. In line with this primarily Anglophone field of research following Hall (1990, 1994, 1996), Safran (1991), Tölölyan (1991, 1996), Chow (1993), Gilroy (1993), Warren (1993), Lipsitz (1994), Mishra (1996), Clifford (1997), R. Cohen (1997), Chivallon (1997, 2002), Ph. Cohen (1998), Anthias (1998) and Dirlik (2004), in a context developing new understandings of the ‘Jewish diaspora’, of the diaspora of the ‘Black Atlantic’, the ‘Asian or Chinese diaspora’ and the ‘Pacific Rim’, we see new diasporic formations such as the ‘Hispanic/Latino diaspora’ in the United States, the ‘Franco-Maghrebi diaspora’, the ‘Hispano-Maghrebi diaspora’, the ‘Moroccan-Jewish diaspora’ in Israel, and the ‘Maghrebi diaspora in Canada’. These diasporas reflect the current existential situation of migrants or ethnic groups that are no longer exclusively encompassed by their origin, by the history of colonialism, by decolonization, nor primarily by the postcolony, but that are shaped rather by the specifics of their present location and circumstances.

The approach proposed for this issue is based on historical and current realities informing a new global vision of new social forms spanning all types of hybrid formations and representations and the performance of life as differance (Derrida) and diversity (Deleuze); a category of ‘theoretico-cultural hybriditity’ thus needs to be made the basis for exploring the potential of differance in situations marked by the simultaneous recognition of different actors within a shared territory that must be continuously re-inhabited. This lends to the term diaspora, both as idea and as practice, not the sense of ‘dispersal’, but instead the sense of ‘dissemination’ or of the ‘rhizome’, implying a multitude of experiences, of cultural codes and identities that are not prefigured, nor are they reduced to one fundamental model of culture, religion or ethnicity. Performative and hybrid diasporas represent an ongoing process of translatio, of deterritorialization and reterritorialization, of recodification and reinvention.

These performative hybrid diasporas emerge from ‘situational processes of adaptation’, from ‘situational imperatives’, from ‘emotion’, from the ‘body’, or from ‘desire’, from elements emerging from common origins, common destinies, common living situations, and the knowledge of the impossibility of return or, in the case of deportation, of forced return, and the need to reinvent the self.

Prospective contributors are invited to submit articles which engage with one or more of the following lines of analysis as they concern Maghrebi diasporas:

1.    Hospitality

2.    Belonging

3.    Movement; deterritorialization and reterritorialization

4.    Spatio-temporal anchors

5.    Structures of identification

6.    Awareness of being part of a diaspora, strong collective interests

7.    Similar experiences of destiny

8.    Similar experiential and affective situations (unfulfilled yearning for home vs. long-term settlement plans)

9.    Common forms of representation

10.      Deep-rooted sense of loyalty and solidarity within the group/external hybrid loyalties and solidarities

11.      Trans-ethnicity, trans-culturalism, trans-identity

12.      Reinvention of the self and invention of the homeland

Articles should not exceed 40,000 characters, spaces included (approximately 6,000 words). Punctuation, footnotes, and references must conform with the journal’s norms:

http://www.ub.edu/cdona/em#guide.

Expressions of interest, articles or requests for further information should be sent to the Chair of the Editorial Board at: expressions.maghrebines@ub.edu, and to the editor of this themed issue, Alfonso de Toro, at: ffsl@rz.uni-leipzig.de.

2.3 Special Issue: ‘Film, Labor and Migration’ Working USA: The Journal of Labor and Society

http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-WUSA.html

Special Issue: ‘Film, Labor and Migration’. Publishing: December 2013

Guest editor: Dr Saër Maty Bâ, WorkingUSA Editorial Board

WorkingUSA: The Journal of Labor and Society is a peer-review cross-disciplinary social science quarterly journal intended for a broad exploration of the economic, political, and social dimensions of work and labor throughout the world. The journal publishes articles directed to an open and critical analysis of the global and U.S. labor movements, organizations, and the working class. The journal editors see a strong and robust labor movement as a force that is central to the immediate and long term social, economic, and political interests of the working class. The journal endeavors to promote thoughtful and penetrating analysis of the historical, contemporary, and future prospects of workers that advanced beyond the narrow goals of individuals. We see workers as a force that labor movements across the world must embrace to advance the struggle for social and economic justice. WorkingUSA, an independent academic journal, exclusively accepts for review original submissions, and does not consider essays previously evaluated or currently under review by other publications.

The global histories of ‘film studies’ – understood here as comprising screen studies – but also of ‘film’ – which includes new/digital media – as a medium display constant engagement with issues of labor, work, labor movements, class, as well as with matters of justice (social, racial, ethnic, gender, sexuality, political and economic). Additionally, ‘film’ embodies the unending processes of adjustment at play in labor, class and migration matters, in a world of globalized capital and culture where, as Hamid Naficy puts it, ‘the integrity, security, sovereignty and protection of physical borders have assumed heightened attention, budgets and resources [while] border crossings have become cathected places of fear and terror’ (Naficy 2007: xv). Last but not least, today images cross borders and boundaries (international, national, regional) easily and, in the same process, call for a continued critical look at how the medium of ‘film’ represents – indeed, re-presents – class, labor and migration.

In line with WorkingUSA’s global objectives, seen through the lens/prism of the multiple histories, theories, practices of film studies and/or film as a medium, this special issue seeks original essays ranging from 4,000 to 7,000 words (including notes) on any of the following themes or topics:

• Labor/class, migration, and film genre (especially, ‘War Film’, Science-Fiction, Documentary, Western, Gangster)

• Labor/class, migration, and film movements (especially, Hispanic cinemas, the African diaspora, European ‘New Waves’, Third Cinema)

• Labor/class and migration in/and the ‘postcommunist’ film

• Labor/class and migration in film industries (for example, unions and other organizations; the British film industry in the 1930s)

• Labor/class and migration in Africa and/or its diasporas: filmmakers and their work

• Labor/class and migration in Africa and/or its diasporas: case study of African and/or African diasporic cinema

• Labor/class and migration in film festivals (laboring for film festivals/laboring at film festivals)

• Labor/class, enmity, and the figure of the migrant on screen

• Labor movements/labor organizations/the working class on screen

• Gender, labor, class and migration on screen

• Race/ethnicity, labor, class and migration on screen

• Socialist/communist iconographies of the migrant/worker/migrant worker on screen

• Trade unionism (left-wing/right-wing) on screen

• Re-thinking film (e.g., studies/histories/theories/practices) through labor/class and migration

• Philosophers, work/labor, class, and film theories (especially, Jacques Rancière, Alain Badiou, and/or Slavoj Žižek)

• National cinema/international cinema, labor and migration

• Radical/Marxist/Marxian readings of labor, class and migration and/in film histories

• Reading 21^st Century labor, class and migration issues through ‘film’

• Internet/digital labor, the moving image, class and migration

In the first instance, we would welcome an abstract of 200 words in length – clearly stating the goals, objectives, methods, and arguments of the author – and a two-sentence biography indicating name, affiliation, and research interests to both the guest editor, Saër Maty Bâ (drsaerba1@gmail.com), and the resident editor of WorkingUSA, Prof. Immanuel Ness (iness@brooklyn.cuny.edu).

It is strongly recommended that submissions are free of jargon or abstract and oblique methodological formulations and are accessible to sub-disciplinary fields but directed to a broader academic and labor readership.

Abstracts and full essays (of accepted abstracts) will be subject to a triple-blind review process.

Please note the following relevant deadlines for submissions:

Abstracts: by November 10^th, 2012

(All notifications of acceptance emailed: by November 20^th, 2012)

Full essays: by June 30^th, 2013

Corrections that may be requested by reviewers/editors: by August 15^th, 2013

New titles

3.1 MCF: ‘France and Algeria: fifty years after independence’

Modern and Contemporary France is very happy to announce the availability of a virtual special issue ‘France and Algeria: fifty years after independence’ edited by Natalya Vince of Portsmouth University. The issue can be found here:
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/explore/cmcf-vsi-france-algeria.pdf

3.2. Des littératures-mondes en français. Écritures singulières, poétiques transfrontalières dans la prose contemporaine

Oana Panaïté

Rodopi, Amsterdam/New York, NY 2012. 311 pp. (Francopolyphonies 10)
ISBN: 978-90-420-3552-2                                 Paper
ISBN: 978-94-012-0826-0                                 E-Book

Online info: http://www.rodopi.nl/senj.asp?BookId=FPPH+10

Des littératures-mondes en français se propose de réfléchir à une série de questions consubstantielles à la littérature française contemporaine. On entend par là aussi bien des questions que les textes et les écrivains posent à leurs lecteurs que des interrogations auxquelles œuvres et auteurs sont appelés à répondre. De quelles manières ces textes et ceux qui les produisent conçoivent-ils leur place dans la communauté littéraire? Quels types de relations entretiennent-ils avec le passé, littéraire ou historique? Quelles catégories orientent leur horizon esthétique et quelles solutions individuelles chaque texte apporte-t-il à nos inquiétudes partagées?

Adoptant une perspective critique à l’égard de Pour une littérature-monde, cet essai montre, à partir d’un large corpus, que l’on ne saurait comprendre la valeur esthétique et les enjeux politiques de la littérature actuelle sans dépasser les frontières géographiques, politiques, culturelles et institution­nelles de ce que l’on appelle communément « la littérature française ».

Oana Panaïté est professeure associée à Indiana University-Bloomington (États-Unis). Ses recherches portent principalement sur l’histoire et l’esthétique des littératures en français d’Europe, d’Afrique et des Antilles.

3.3 The Fiction of J. M. G. Le Clézio. A Postcolonial Reading
Martin, Bronwen

Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Wien, 2012. 193 pp.
Modern French Identities. Vol. 103
Edited by Peter Collier
pb. ISBN 978-3-0343-0162-6
CHF 53.00 / €(D) 46.80 / €(A) 48.10 / € 43.75 / £ 35.00 / US-$ 56.95
€(D) includes VAT – only valid for Germany / €(A) includes VAT – only valid for Austria

Since the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to J. M. G. Le Clézio in 2008, there has been a wave of new interest in his œuvre. This book traces the evolution of the writer’s postcolonial thought from his early works to his groundbreaking autobiographical novel “Révolutions”, arguably his most subversive text to date. The author shows how Le Clézio’s critique of colonialism is rooted in an early denunciation of capitalism and philosophical dualism, and sheds new light on the crucial roles played by Jean-Paul Sartre, Aimé Césaire and Frantz Fanon in his development.

The author’s close reading of “Révolutions” reveals a complex system of interconnections between the colonial conflicts from the 1700s to the 1900s, with recurrent patterns of violence, cultural repression and racism. The issue of neocolonialism is addressed and the persistence of the colonial mindset in contemporary Europe and Westernized countries is shown to echo the findings of Paul Gilroy, Max Silverman and Étienne Balibar. The book concludes with an examination of the utopian elements underpinning “Révolutions”, establishing close affinities with the work of Édouard Glissant and developing the notion of permanent revolution. Themes explored include those of storytelling, cultural memory, cultural identity, language, intertextuality and interculturality.

Contents:

The philosophical and political roots of Le Clézio’s postcolonial thought in “Le Procès-verbal” – Committed literature and the relationship between language and historic reality in Le Procès-verbal: Le Clézio and Jean-Paul Sartre – The civilizing mission and the encounter with non-European cultures and philosophies in “Le Livre des fuites” and “Désert” – The migrant, cultural identity and strategies of resistance in “Désert” and “Poisson d’or”: Le Clézio, Aimé Césaire and Frantz Fanon – The Revolutionary Wars and colonial Mauritius: violence, cultural oppression and slavery in “Révolutions” – Republican ideology, neocolonialism and the new racism (Paul Gilroy) in “Révolutions” – The quest for utopia in “Révolutions”: Le Clézio’s concept of relationality and the thought of Edouard Glissant.

Bronwen Martin is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Languages and Cultures at Birkbeck College, University of London. She has taught literature for many years at Birkbeck and has published widely in the fields of twentieth-century French literature, semiotics and discourse analysis.

3.4 Polygraphies: Francophone Women Writing Algeria

Alison Rice

About the book:

Coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of Algeria’s independence, Polygraphies is significant and timely in its focus on autobiographical writings by seven of the most prominent francophone women writers from Algeria today, including Maïssa Bey, Hélène Cixous, Assia Djebar, Malika Mokeddem, Zahia Rahmani, and Leïla Sebbar. These authors witnessed both the “before” and “after” of the colonial experience in their land, and their fictional and theoretical texts testify to the lasting impact of this history. From a variety of personal perspectives and backgrounds, each writer addresses linguistic, religious, and racial issues of crucial contemporary importance in Algeria. Alison Rice engages their work from a range of disciplines, striving both to heighten our sensitivity to the plurality inherent in their texts and to move beyond a true/false dichotomy to a wealth of possible truths, all communicated in writing.

Reviews:

Polygraphies is a fascinating study of ‘women writing Algeria,’ and it is innovative in its inclusion of important writers born in Algeria, whether now considered “French” or “Algerian”. Bringing these women’s voices together through their use of the autobiographical mode is an inspired move, and the title expresses the range of personal experience, as well as literary form, that is involved. The author is especially gifted in her ability to ground her literary analysis in a wide range of contemporary literary theory. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. —Mary Jean Green, Dartmouth College

The connections among texts by these various authors are articulated clearly and persuasively. The book’s elegant analysis of parallels in several of these authors’ autobiographical scenes makes the case for reading Cixous and Djebar together in ways that have not been done before. It also provides an original contribution to the scholarship on less-studied but important authors. —Anne Donadey, San Diego State University

Additional information:

Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2012. 256 pages.

ISBN 9780813932910 Cloth $55.00

ISBN 9780813932927 Paper $24.50

ISBN 9780813932934 Ebook $55.00

Website: http://books.upress.virginia.edu/detail%2Fbooks%2Fgroup-4517.xml

 

Other news

4.1 Winthrop-King events, 2012-2013. Florida.

Maryse Condé, Une Voix Singulière

Date: Thursday, 29 November 2012

Time:  5-7 p.m.

Venue: The Globe

Guadeloupean writer Maryse Condé presents a new documentary film on her life and work. The film includes interviews conducted in Paris, New York, French Guiana and the Caribbean as well as archival footage. The screening of the film will be followed by a question and answer session with the author.

Haiti in a Globalized Frame

International Conference

Date: 14-16 February 2013

Venue: The Globe

This conference focuses on Haiti’s role in shaping history, culture, politics and thought beyond its borders and throughout its history. Invited speakers include Arnold Antonin, J. Michael Dash, Edouard Duval Carrié, David Geggus, Dany Laferrière, Kettly Mars, and Rodney Saint-Eloi.

Cosmopolitan Contexts: David Bezmozgis, Yoko Tawada, and Marvin Victor on Writing in a Globalized World

Date: Friday, 1 March 2013

Time: 2-4 p.m.

Venue: Turnbull Center

Three internationally-acclaimed writers – David Bezmozgis, Yoko Tawada, and Marvin Victor – read from their works and participate in a roundtable discussion on writing in a globalized world.

http://www.fsu.edu/~icffs

http://www.facebook.com/WinthropKing

4.2 Les réalisatrices africaines francophones: 40 ans de cinéma (1972-2012). Paris.

Colloque-rencontres à Paris les 23 et 24 novembre 2012

Musée du quai Branly et Bibliothèque Nationale de France

Cette manifestation célébrera les quarante ans de l’émergence d’un cinéma africain fait par des femmes : en 1972 sont tournés Sambizanga, film de long métrage angolais de Sarah Maldoror (Antillaise de naissance mais angolaise d’adoption) et le court métrage La Passante de la Sénégalaise Safi Faye. En effet, les célébrations du cinquantenaire des indépendances, et les diverses manifestations évoquant l’émergence d’un – jeune – cinéma africain, que ce soit à travers les projections à la BNF ou le DVD spécialement édité par le CNC ont rarement souligné la contribution et le rôle des réalisatrices à une exception près (le programme du festival du film de Créteil). Le but de cet événement est donc de réparer cet oubli.

La manifestation (que suivra de peu un numéro spécial du Journal of African Cinemas à paraître en décembre 2012) se déroulera en deux parties afin de permettre un échange entre les réalisatrices africaines francophones et les universitaires travaillant sur le sujet. Le colloque au musée du quai Branly rassemblera le vendredi 23 novembre, des spécialistes, dont Beti Ellerson, Sheila Petty, Odile Cazenave, Patricia Caillé entre autres, dans des sessions consacrées aux films et à leurs auteures de 1972 à nos jours.

Le samedi 24 novembre, des réalisatrices de générations, pays et horizons divers, telles Sarah Maldoror, Anne-Laure Folly, Fanta Regina Nacro, Farida Benlyazid, Osvalde Lewat, Nadia El Fani se retrouveront à la bibliothèque nationale de France dans le cadre de masterclass et tables rondes pour discuter et analyser le rôle majeur joué par les femmes dans le développement du cinéma sur le continent africain ces quatre dernières décennies.

La manifestation est organisée en collaboration avec la BNF et le musée du quai Branly. Elle bénéficie du soutien du Centre d’Histoire Culturelle des Sociétés Contemporaines (UVSQ), du LabEx Patrima et de l’Institut Emilie du Châtelet ainsi que d’un partenariat avec TV5 Monde “Les Terriennes”, NYU Paris et l’institut français.

Le programme est disponible en suivant le lien:

http://www.chcsc.uvsq.fr/centre-d-histoire-culturelle-des-societes-contemporaines/langue-fr/actualites/colloques/colloque-international-les-realisatrices-africaines-francophones-40-ans-de-cinema-1972-2012–189985.kjsp?RH=1295347720272

Pour tout renseignement, contacter Brigitte Rollet: brigitte.rollet@uvsq.fr

4.3 ‘African Popular Culture in the 21st Century’ Africa In Motion 2012 International Symposium. Edinburgh.

Hosted jointly by the

Africa in Motion Film Festival and the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh

Date: Saturday 27 October, 9.30am to 5.30pm

Venue: Seminar rooms 1&2 (ground floor), Chrystal MacMillan Building, 15a George Square, University of Edinburgh, EH8 9LD

Please register at: www.africa-in-motion.org.uk/symposium (Deadline: October 15, 2012).

Agenda:

09:30 – 10.00am Registration

10.00 – 10.15am Welcome

10.15 – 12.15pm PANEL 1: Popular art forms

 Youth Agency in Ghanaian Hiplife Music

Halifu Osumare, University of California, Davis, US

 Kinshasa’s Artists and their Medial Distribution Strategies

Linda Kröger, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

 Who no know go know: New Directions in African Popular Fiction

Jane Bryce, University of the West Indies, Barbados

12.15 – 1.30pm Lunch

1.30 – 3.30pm PANEL 2: Popular arts institutions

 “Cinefication” in West Africa

Amadou T Fofana, Willamette University, Salem, US

 How Mandela’s Dancers changed the world of dance

Rodreguez King-Doset, University of Cambridge, UK:

 Between Pan-Africanism and Popular Culture: Searching for an Audience at the Zanzibar International Film Festival

William Bissell, Lafayette College, US

3.30 – 3.45pm Coffee break

3.45 – 5.15pm ROUNDTABLE: Popular African video-film industries

 Ono Okome, University of Alberta, Canada

 Birgit Meyer, Utrecht University, Netherlands

 Alessandro Jedlowski, University of Naples “L’Orientale”, Italy

 Mona Mwakakinga, University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

 Alex Bud, Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, UK

Chair: Lizelle Bisschoff, Film researcher, AiM festival founder & advisor, UK

5.15 – 5.30pm Closing remarks

4.4 Resources in Anti-Colonial Thought (Part 1). Open University – Post-Colonial Literatures Research Group. London.

Autumn 2012

Research seminar organised in collaboration with the Institute of English Studies at the University of London.

Venue: Senate House, London. Seminars are on Thursdays from 17.30 -19.00

This is the first of a two-part series of seminars on anti-colonial thinkers whose work has to date been relatively neglected in Postcolonial Literary Studies. You can download the programme in PDF format here: http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/english/post-colonial/anti-colonial-thought1.shtml.

Seminar Schedule

Thursday 15 November 2012

Senate House Room 234

David Murphy

‘Race, communism and anti-colonial politics in 1920s Paris: the case of Lamine Senghor’

David Murphy is Professor of French and Postcolonial Studies at the University of Stirling. He is the author of two monographs, Sembene: Imagining Alternatives in Film and Fiction (2000), and (with Patrick Williams) Postcolonial African Cinema: Ten Directors (2007), and he is currently completing a third on Senegalese anti-colonial militant Lamine Senghor. He has co-edited several collections of essays: with Aedín Ní Loingsigh, Thresholds of Otherness (2002), with Charles Forsdick, Francophone Postcolonial Studies (2003) and Postcolonial Thought in the French-Speaking World (2009), and with Michelle Keown and James Procter, Comparing Postcolonial Diasporas (2009).

Thursday 29 November 2012

Senate House Room 234

Martin Evans

‘Islamist perspectives on the Algerian anti-colonial struggle: the case of Abdelatif Soltani’

Martin Evans is Professor in Contemporary European History at the University of Portsmouth. He is the author of several monographs: The Memory of Resistance: French Opposition to the Algerian War 1954-62 (1997), (with Emmanuel Godin) France 1815-2003 (2004), (with John Phillips) Algeria – Anger of the Dispossessed (2007), and Algeria: France’s Undeclared War (2012). He has edited/ co-edited several collections of essays: with Ken Lunn, War and Memory in the Twentieth Century (1997), with Martin Alexander and J. F. V. Keiger, The French Army and the Algerian War: Images, Experiences, Testimonies (2002), and Culture and Empire: The French Experience (2004).

Thursday 6 December 2012

Senate House Room 234

Pierre-Philippe Fraiture

‘V. Y. Mudimbe and Decolonisation’

Pierre-Philippe Fraiture is Associate Professor and Reader in French Studies at the University of Warwick. He is the author of two monographs, Le Congo belge et son récit à la veille des indépendances. Sous l’empire du royaume (2003) and La Mesure de l’autre. Afrique subsaharienne et roman ethnographique de Belgique et de France (1918-1940) (2007), and is completing a third, VY  Mudimbe’s Undisciplined Africanism: an Intellectual Journey. He has co-edited several collections of essays: the section on Belgium in A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures: Continental Europe and Its Empires (2008), with Nathalie Aubert and Patrick McGuinness, La Belgique entre deux siècles: laboratoire de la modernité, 1880-1914 (2007), and with Nathalie Aubert and Patrick McGuinness, From Art Nouveau to Surrealism. Belgian Modernity in the Making (2007).

For any queries regarding the Autumn 2012 seminar series, contact the organisers David Johnson (D.W.Johnson@open.ac.uk) or Alex Tickell (A.Tickell@open.ac.uk), Department of English, The Open University.