Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Lecture: Goulet, "Derrida Meets the Demon-Baboon," 12/7 4pm
"Derrida Meets the Demon-Baboon: Leroux's Balaoo and the Paleontological Imaginary of Crime"
Tuesday, December 7
4pm, Nicholson 275
Light refreshments will be served.
In 1911, a year before the first Tarzan installment appeared in America, the popular French daily Le Matin published Gaston Leroux's Baloo, the lurid tale of a murderous ape-man brought to France from the Javanese jungle. My talk reads this story of civilization and savagery within three contexts: 1) the evolutionary debates that followed paleontological discoveries of prehistoric human skulls in Europe; 2) the underground imaginary of nineteenth-century crime fiction in France; and 3) today's field of animal studies, especially Jacques Derrida's The Animal That Therefore I Am.
Dépêche de Williamsburg: Vlad Dima
Along with a packed teaching, advising, and service schedule at W&M, Vlad's continued to publish in his area of research, cinematographic sound. Recent articles include Vlad has published on sound issues in Quentin Tarantino's films in "Moviement" (Indicatori sonori in Kill Bill), on Anne Hébert in "Dalhousie French Studies" (Les personnages dans Les Fous de Bassan : la nature de leurs identités). He has two more articles forthcoming in "The Quarterly Review of Film and Video," The Aural Fold and the Sonic Jump-cut: Godard's Baroque Sound, and in "The Journal for Film and Video," Aural Narrative Planes in Djibril-Diop Mambety's Films.
He has also published numerous theatre reviews for Aisle Say, and has contributed to the "Bright Lights Journal" with reviews of A Single Man and Inglourious Basterds.
He is currently working and has submitted articles on Hitchcock, one dealing with the evolution of the murder scene, and the other with connections between Baudelaire's spleen and Hitchcock's Vertigo, as well as a study of the female voice in Seinfeld.
Alumni, send us your news!
Monday, November 29, 2010
Lecture: Mall, "Mercier ou les Lumières au jour le jour" (Macalester, 12/1)
Wednesday, December 1, 2010 at
4:45 p.m.
at Macalester College in Humanities 401.
ABSTRACT: Mercier's sprawling Tableau de Paris (1781-89), a fascinating description of pre-revolutionary Paris, can also be read as a a proto-sociological text. Along with most philosophes Mercier criticizes the Ancien Régime's weak administration and corrupt government, but his interest lies in the very concrete impact this weakness and corruption have on Parisians and their immediate environment. Work and everyday life will be highlighted as two domains where philosophical values, political criticism and sociological insight combine most remarkably.
BIO: Laurence Mall is an associate professor of French at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). She obtained a PhD in French in 1990 from the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of two books on Rousseau. Her current research focuses on Louis Sébastien Mercier's Tableau de Paris and Le Nouveau Paris.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
NPR Covers SUNY-Albany Closings
Cuts To University's Humanities Program Draw Outcry
by MARGOT ADLER
As a colleague quipped, referring to SUNY-Albany's motto The World Within Reach", "I guess that is a literal expression nowadays, e.g., within arm's length..."
But the question remains, what are we doing, and what are we not doing, to make visible the connections we know should be apprent to our culture?
Monday, November 15, 2010
The Chronicle: "Deficiency in Foreign Language Competency: What is Wrong..."
Among those of us engaged in international education, it is considered a basic premise that, in today's knowledge-based global economy and society, a full command of at least one second language is a core competency that should become mandatory for all graduates of higher-education institutions.
"Deficiency in Foreign Language Competency: What Is Wrong with the U.S. Educational System?" -- November 9, 2010, 2:45 pm
By Francisco Marmolejo
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Graduate Seminars in French, Spring 2011
Three seminars will be offered in our department next semester. Some seminars in our department require participation in French, others require reading knowledge of French. See below for details...
French 8270: Literature Out of Bounds in Modern and Contemporary France (Prof. Mária Brewer)
French 8410: Storied Identities: Women Writers in Contemporary Quebec (Prof. Eileen Sivert)
French 8120: The Problem of the Fifteenth Century (Prof. Susan Noakes)
French 8270 Critical Issues: Prose. Literature Out of Bounds in Modern and Contemporary France
Mária Brewer--Th 2:30-5:00pm
The questions of the literary and its boundaries (or lack of them) have undergone dramatic changes in response to historical situations and events as well to the propositions of avant-garde aesthetics and its various forms of experimentation. This course aims to provide the opportunity for discussing selected narrative and critical works that have contributed significantly to resetting the boundaries for an understanding of literature and the socio-symbolic conditions for representation in modernity. Seminar readings and discussions will be organized according to the following topics: 1) The novel and subjectivity in the early 20th Century; 2) What is literature in existentialist thought and action? 3) The New Novel reconsidered; 4) Boundaries of the subject in la societe de fiction. Literary works will be selected from the following: Marcel Proust, Louis-Rene des Forets, Nathalie Sarraute, Samuel Beckett, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Claude Simon, Georges Perec, Monique Wittig, Marguerite Duras, Amelie Nothomb, Marie Darrieussecq, and Kossi Efoui. (Note: no more than six texts will be selected from the above for common reading, but all of the above as well as the critical theorists below may be chosen as subjects for the presentation and/or the seminar paper.) In conjunction with these works, we will read essays by theorists who have engaged with the notion of literature and its status in history, culture, and critical thought. Selections will be made from writings by the following: Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Roman Jakobson, Julia Kristeva, Roland Barthes, Fredric Jameson, Helene Cixous, Maurice Blanchot, Paul de Man, and Jacques Ranciere. The course will be conducted in French. If you have a reading knowledge of French, you are welcome to participate in either English or French.
French 8410 Topics in Quebecois Literature: Storied Identities: Women Writers in Contemporary Quebec
Eileen Sivert--Tu 2:30-5:00pm
This course looks at the disproportionate role women writers have played in the transformation of the novel in Quebec. We will touch briefly on the development of the Quebecois novel from the `novel of the land? (which dominated literature of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Quebec) to contemporary writing. The class, however, will concentrate on more recent novels (and some films) which pose questions about power, authority, language and form. Changes in narrative will be considered in the context of changes in the social order. We will see how, with these writers, there is a shift from a male-centered `novel of the land? to, first, a modern psychological novel, which foregrounds the female and announces and participates in the liberalization of social institutions. At the same time these novels reveal the beginnings of experimentation with form that are so evident in the literature of Quebec today. The writers selected work in different ways to question boundaries or limits imposed by lingering traditions in a changing society. Through novels as well as cultural and theoretical readings, we will analyze the acts of writing and storytelling as means of reconstructing social meaning as well as forming and altering social relations and community in contemporary (that is to say rootless and itinerant) society. The experience of Quebec women writers, moving suddenly from limited access to the published word to near dominance in many literary circles, as well as the radical transformation of their place in modern Quebec society, makes them particularly suitable subjects for this kind of study. They all suggest, through storytelling, a kind of fluid self-determination, teased out in a process of shuttling between a community standpoint and a growing individual perspective, with community chosen and created, constructed through writing and storytelling. Indeed these novels serve as case studies that both test and expose the creative power of narrative on identity. Primary readings will include novels by Gabrielle Roy, Monique LaRue, Anne Hebert, Louise Dupre, Elise Turcotte and possibly Nicole Brossard or Lise Tremblay. Cultural and theoretical readings will be chosen from writings of Sherry Simon, Deborah Parsons, Michel de Certeau, Julia Kristeva, Lori Saint-Martin, Jacques Derrida and Walter Benjamin. Readings are mostly in French with some in English. Seminar discussions will be in English. A reading knowledge of French is required.
French 8120 Topics in Later Medieval French Literature. The Problem of the Fifteenth Century
Susan Noakes--W 2:30-5:00pm
French literary historiography has long struggled with the literature of the fifteenth century. Perhaps the best-known and most coherent overview of the period and its cultures appears in Johan Huizinga's THE WANING OF THE MIDDLE AGES. The class will work to develop an understanding of this century of literary experimentation and change by studying especially the works of Christine de Pizan, Charles d'Orleans, and Francois Villon. Attention will also be given to THE FARCE OF PIERRE PATHELIN, Rene d'Anjou's LE LIVRE DU CUER D'AMOUR EPRIS, LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI, and Froissart's LA PRISON AMOUREUSE. Important themes will include nostalgia for courtliness, the reaction against courtliness, the representation of gender, and the literary effects of the Hundred Years' War. Some attention will be given to the development of Middle French and to the early history of French poetic forms and their relation to the history of music. Conducted in French.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Frieda Ekotto Lecture 11/19, 3-5pm, 115 Nicholson Hall
The Department of French and Italian announces a lecture by Frieda Ekotto (University of Michigan) entitled: "What is the Color of Blackness?" on Friday, November 19 from 3-5pm in 115 Nicholson Hall.
Light refreshments will be served.
J-L Nancy responds to Albany
Jean-Luc Nancy, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Strasbourg and the European Graduate School, has written a rather snarky critique of Albany that pretty much sums up what is at stake here. Since it is short I have reposted the entire response...
"Choisir entre supprimer le français et supprimer la philosophie... Quel beau choix ! Enlever plutôt le foie ou le poumon ? Plutôt l'estomac ou le coeur ?..."
Film Premiere: Enemies of the People
Please join the Human Rights Program at the University of Minnesota in a discussion with the Director/Producer of the award-winning documentary, Enemies of the People, Thursday, November 11 from 3:30 to 5:00 pm in Room 614 Social Sciences, University of Minnesota.
Enemies of the People Director/Producer Rob Lemkin will join Patricia
Hampl, award-winning author and U of Minnesota Regents Professor of
Creative Writing, to discuss documenting human rights violations
through film and writing. Short clips from the documentary will be
shown.
Also join them at 7:00 pm for the Twin Cities premiere of Enemies of
the People at St. Anthony Main Theater, 115 Main Street, SE,
Minneapolis, MN 55414. Discussion following the premiere with
Director, Rob Lemkin, Cambodian refugee and U of M graduate, Vuth
Chhunn, and Human Rights Program Director, Barbara Frey. $8 students
$10 adults. For more info, click here.
About the Film
Enemies of the People turn the camera onto Nuon Chea aka Brother
Number Two, the highest ranking Khmer Rouge leader still alive today.
The Khmer Rouge was one of the twentieth century's most brutal
regimes. While in power, the Khmer Rouge was responsible for the
deaths of approximately 1.7 million people by execution, starvation
and forced labor in camps that were later described as the Killing
Fields.
In the film, one of Cambodia's best investigative journalists, Thet
Sambath, persuades Nuon Chea to admit, for the first time, how he and
Pol Pot (the two supreme powers in the Khmer Rouge state) decided to
kill party members whom they considered 'Enemies of the People'. The
mystery of the Killing Fields is unveiled as the men and women who
perpetrated the massacres break a 30-year silence to give testimony
never before seen or heard.
Enemies of the People is being screened as part of the Minneapolis-St.
Paul Asian Film Festival sponsored by the Minnesota Film Arts Event
sponsored by the Human Rights Program at the University of Minnesota
and the Program in Human Rights, Center for Holocaust and Genocide
Studies at the University of Minnesota and Humanitarianism at
Macalester College.
For more information about the Cambodian Genocide please visit our
links page.
--
Jodi Elowitz
Outreach Coordinator
Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies
768 Social Sciences Building
267 19th Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612-626-2470
elow0001@umn.edu
www.chgs.umn.edu/
Lecture: Cox, "Immigrant Writing" 11/15 4:45 (Macalester College)
Stephanie Cox, Visiting Professor from Carleton College will present "Immigrant Writing in Quebec and Ying Chen"
Francophone Asian-Canadian Writer Ying Chen was born in Shanghai, came to Montreal in the 1990s, and now lives in Vancouver. As the first Chinese writer in Quebec, she attracted attention and her first three novels have been popular in and outside the classroom. Since Quebec society had always identified itself strongly in opposition to the Other, be it the English, the Amerindian, the French and the American, the immigrant gaze reversed its position and inaugurated its role as dominant society. After becoming an icon of Immigrant Writing, Ying Chen made major changes within her writing, thereby risking to lose a portion of her readers but with the aim to avoid the kind of ethnic reading which she felt the categorization of "écritures migrantes" (Immigrant Writing) leads to. Instead of instructing Western readers about the Chinese culture as a cultural ambassador, she invites the reader to meet through the universal experience of exile, whether it be geographic or social.
Stephanie Cox is a Visiting Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Carleton College where she teaches courses on Quebec, Acadia and Louisiana, including "Women of New France" and "Marginality and Renaissance in Francophone North America." She is the author of "La vie probable" a forthcoming study on the writing of Ying Chen. She is the recipient of a Faculty Enrichment Grant from the Canadian Embassy to design a course on "Transnational Writers of Quebec."
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Fellowship: IDF (final deadline 2/15/11; internal deadline TBA)
The Graduate School, on behalf of the Provost's Interdisciplinary Team, is pleased to announce that it will award a limited number (approximately 10) of one- and two-year Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowships for 2011-12 to outstanding Graduate School students with interdisciplinary dissertation topics who would benefit from interaction with faculty at one of the University's interdisciplinary research centers or institutes. The fellowship provides a unique study opportunity for our very best students with research and scholarly interests that complement those of the host center or institute and its faculty. Prospective fellows are asked to designate the host center or institute they believe is the best match with their dissertation topic, contingent upon a faculty member's willingness to work with the student during the fellowship year.
TERMS OF THE AWARD
Recipients of the 2011-12 fellowship will receive a stipend of $22,500 for the academic year beginning September 2011, plus full tuition. Eligible recipients are also covered by comprehensive health insurance, including subsidized dependent and dental care.
A select number of students will receive a two-year award. Award of fellowship funds for the second year will be contingent upon satisfactory degree progress and active participation in the host center or institute, as documented by the student's adviser, DGS and center/institute mentor. The stipend in 2012-13 will be determined by spring 2012.
Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellows must register in the Graduate School as full-time students each semester. Fellows may hold supplemental support up to the value of a 25-percent graduate assistantship from any source in each semester. Awards may not be deferred beyond the original award period.
ELIGIBILITY
The competition is open to Ph.D. students by application, with endorsement by the student's graduate program and college dean/associate dean. Successful applicants are likely to be students who will be in the second, third, or fourth year of their program in the 2011-12 academic year and who are making timely degree progress. Students who have passed the preliminary oral examination are eligible, as well as those who have not yet passed this exam. Students who have received a Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship are not eligible.
APPLICATION PROCEDURES
Directors of Graduate Studies are responsible for assisting the student in preparing the application file and submitting the completed application to the Graduate School Fellowship Office by the specified deadline. The following information must be included in the student's application:
1. the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship application form
2. a three-page statement, written by the student, that:
describes the proposed interdisciplinary research or scholarly project
explains how the student's scholarship will benefit from residence at the center/institute at which the student proposes to study
if the application is for a two-year award, provides justification for two years of support
3. the student's c.v. that includes documentation of the student's involvement in, or contributions to, research, scholarly or creative activities (e.g., publications, abstracts, presentations at professional conferences or university seminars, exhibits)
4. a letter of support from the director of the research center or institute at which the student intends to study; in addition to supporting the student's application, the letter from the center/institute director must:
a. demonstrate how the student will benefit from an affiliation with the center/institute and how the center/institute will benefit from the student's participation
b. identify the resources the director will commit to the student in terms of:
study space funds for student travel to a professional conference (directors are encouraged to provide $2,500 for activities related to the student's professional development)
c. explain how the center/institute would be an appropriate host site for the student, e.g.:
the mix of disciplines represented among its faculty related to the student's interdisciplinary interests, the diversity of faculty research interests and methodologies
regular, events that feature faculty members' work opportunities for students to feature their work other support the center/institute might provide (financial support, mentoring, professional development opportunities)
5. letter(s) of support from the faculty member(s) at the selected research center or institute with whom the student plans to study
6. a letter of support from the student's academic adviser/co-advisers
7. a letter of support from the Director of Graduate Studies of the student's major program; the DGS's letter may focus principally on the overall academic quality of the student and the student's scholarly potential
8. transcripts from each college or university attended (photocopies are acceptable, including the University of Minnesota transcript)
9. an up-to-date copy of the official degree program form, if the student has filed it.
Potential applicants are strongly encouraged to consult with prospective mentors and host center/institute directors early in the application process to ensure that the student and research project are a good match for the host site.
REVIEW AND SELECTION
The review will be conducted by a committee of the Graduate School Fellowship Office.
Selection of recipients will be based on the following criteria:
• the importance of the research and the clarity with which it is conveyed to the non-specialist
• the potential for the student to make an unusually significant contribution to the field
• the degree to which the proposed or current research manifests the student's independence, originality, and resourcefulness
• the potential for the research project to incorporate methodologies from more than one discipline
• the synergy that can be created by the student and faculty member working together around the interdisciplinary topic or problem
• the comparative strength of the student's academic record
• the clarity, coherence and strength of the letters supporting the student's application
Special attention will be given to the interdisciplinary nature of the current or proposed dissertation research and the willingness of the particular center or institute and its faculty to host the student during the fellowship year.
The DGS and dean of the student's program will be notified of the outcome of the student's application in March.
Please direct questions about these awards to the Graduate School Fellowship Office at 612-625-7579 or gsfellow@umn.edu.
Lecture: Lynch, "Obituaries for Poetry," 11/19
The English Department's Nineteenth Century Subfield presents
"Obituaries for Poetry: Dead Poet Love, the Life of the Author, and Photographed Romanticism"
Deidre Shauna Lynch, University of Toronto
Friday, November 19, 2010 at noon
A light lunch will be served
Please join us for a presentation by Deidre Shauna Lynch, the Chancellor Jackman Professor and Associate Professor of English at the University of Toronto. Dr. Lynch is an established literary scholar specializing in eighteenth-century and romantic-era literature with particular interests in women authors and the history and theory of the novel. Her first book, The Economy of Character: Novels, Market Culture, and the Business of Inner Meaning was the winner of the 1999 MLA Prize for a First Book.
Co-sponsored with the Department of English, Theorizing Early Modern Studies, the Center for Early Modern History, the Coca Cola Activity Initiative and GAPSA.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Working toward a better understanding of the Humanities
"Colleges Aim to Revive the Humanities"
I like the change of tone, but there are a lot of aspects to what this article covers that make me wonder... For example, I don't think we need "reviving;" just better understanding. Am I naïve? And more crucially, check out our spokespeople:
the leaders of many prestigious universities -- including Cornell,Why is this happening first and foremost at the privates, or so-called "luxury" institutions. Are the humanities a luxury that public institutions really do without?
Dartmouth, and Harvard -- are increasingly espousing the virtues of the
humanities...
Fellowship: CGES Berlin (due 12/3)
The Center for German & European Studies is now accepting applications for our 2011 Minnesota Goes to Berlin fellowship. Open to U of M system undergraduate and graduate students in any discipline or field beyond their sophomore year; minimum age 20; demonstrated interest in working with school-age children; German language proficiency desired but not required.
Live and work in Berlin! Spend 1 month living with a German host family and serving as a native speaker resource person in an elementary school. You will also conduct research on a topic of your choice, explore Berlin's culture as a group and participate in organized social and cultural programs.
Fellowship package includes:
* room and board with host family
* international health and liability insurance for 1 month
* public transportation pass
* stipend of EUR 150
* $500 grant towards airfare reimbursement
For more information and to download an application, please visit: http://www.cges.umn.edu/fellowships/internships.htm#USAgoesBerlin
Deadline is *Friday, December 3, 2010 by 4:30 p.m.*
--
Center for German & European Studies
University of Minnesota
214 Social Sciences Building
267 19th Ave. South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: (612) 626-7705
Fax: (612) 625-0528
Email: cges@umn.edu
www.cges.umn.edu
The Art of the Conference Paper
symptomatic of the same underlying features of post-graduate life: one is often at a low point in intellectual confidence, one has yet to produce original work, and most importantly, one is new at this. So one either communicates this felt fragility or compensates for it with unmeasured bombast.
Do you agree?
Thanks to Corbin Treacy for sharing.
Paris apartment locators
Here are two on-line services
lokim.com. Used to be called paris-be-a-part-of-it. Luckily they changed their name. Reputed to be "user-friendly and professional, and there are a range of prices."
France-USA Contacts has a very active site with professional and private rental availabilities: fusac.com.
Any other suggestions?
FLAS information sessions
International: http://igs.cla.umn.edu/grad/fundflas.html
Europe: http://esc.umn.edu/funding/flas.html
These fellowships provide opportunities for students to pursue foreign language study, with primary emphasis on advanced study in the less commonly taught languages (any language other than French, German, or Spanish). During the academic year, graduate students are provided with a $15,000 living stipend and up to $18,000 in support for tuition and mandatory fees. The summer award provides a $2500 living stipend and $5000 in tuition/fee support. (Note: departments are no longer required to cover tuition overages.)
Later this month IGS will hold information sessions for students interested in the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships.
Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010, 400 Ford Hall, 2:30-3:30 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010, 2-207 Carlson School, 1:00-2:00 p.m. (special emphasis on professional schools)
Monday, Nov. 22, 2010, 260 Social Sciences, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
Contact:
Laura Seifert
FLAS Coordinator
Institute for Global Studies
214 Social Science Building
P: 612.624.6527
F: 612.626.2242
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Gallica, the BNF's Bibliothèque numérique, gets better and better!
Exemplaires tachés du sang de Marat, des n.os 678, 13 août 1792, et 506, 30 juin 1791, de l Ami du Peuple
Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France
I am particularly fond of this new widget they've developed that allows visualizations of Gallica documents in other sites. Now that's freedom of information!
Check out some of the works of the 18th-century Swiss Rodolphe Töpffer, considered by many to be the original comic-book artist:
Histoire de M. Cryptogame, par l auteur de M. Vieux-Bois, de M. Jabot, de M. Crépin, du docteur Festus, etc. [R. Töpffer]... 5e édition
Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France
Monday, November 1, 2010
Filmmaker Michael Prazan: 11/4-11/7
Mr. Prazan will be on campus on Thursday, Nov. 4th, and we would like to invite you to join us for an informal gathering to welcome him to campus. If you are available, please join us in the CHGS Library (room 710 in the Social Science Building) from 12:45pm - 2pm.
As this gathering is over the lunch hour, feel free to bring a brown bag lunch, or if you would prefer, a box lunch from Kafe 421 can be provided for $10. See the attached order form for box lunch options. Please let me know which sandwich and side you would like to order. You can bring cash or a check to the lunch.
I hope you will be able to join us. Please RSVP to lech0045@umn.edu.
Eintazgruppen.pdf
Freelance: Translator Needed
Monday, November 01, 2010 1:16 PM
Hello! We need a script translated from English to French, or French Canadian if possible. The script is about 45 pages long and approximately 18,000 words.
Email me at Susan@WFCResources.com
Susan Seitel
WFC Resources
5197 Beachside Drive
Minnetonka, MN 55343
952-936-7898
800-487-7898
www.WFCResources.com
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