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2017 Edition of the Newsletter

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2017 Edition of the Newsletter yale department of french fall 2017 THIS YEAR FINDS THE DEPARTMENT and artists of the period. Our other new GREETINGS in another period of transition. We were hire, JILL JARVIS, who joined us fresh sad to say goodbye to our specialist of from receiving her PhD in Comparative FROM THE seventeenth-century literature, CHRIS Literature at Princeton, has added to our SEMK, who left us to take up a position existing strength in francophone studies. CHAIR at The Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, Her expertise in colonial violence in Connecticut. In addition to being a devoted Algeria, coupled with the work of ALICE teacher and a dedicated DUS, Chris is the KAPLAN and TOM CONNOLLY, makes author of a wonderful book entitled Playing our department one of the best places the Martyr: Theater and Theology in Early to study the literature and culture of the Modern France, which was published last Maghreb. year by Bucknell University Press. He will be ALICE KAPLAN’s study of Albert missed by everyone. At the end of last year, Camus and his Algerian context made an we also received the most unwelcome news enormous splash last year. The English that NED DUVAL will begin his phased version, Looking for the Stranger: Albert retirement. As everyone knows, Ned is a Camus and the Life of a Literary Classic , world-renownedthe specialist of sixteenth- published by Chicago, was a finalist for century literature, the author of path- the National Book Critics Circle Award. breaking books on Rabelais, and the winner The French edition, En quête de l’Etranger, of Harwood F. Byrnes and Richard B. published by Gallimard, was a finalist for Sewall Teaching Prize, one of Yale’s most Le Prix Médicis. As we mentioned in our fall prestigious teaching awards, in 2015. 2013 newsletter, Alice was nominated as Chevalier in the National Order of the Legion of Honor in July 2013, in recognition of her exceptional contribution to the promotion of French literature and the enhancement of transatlantic intellectual exchanges. We were Last year was actually quite a banner all thrilled to witness the French ambassador, year for publishing in the department. In Gérard Araud, present Alice with her medal addition to the books by Alice Kaplan and on February 10, 2017. The ceremony, also Chris Semk, HOWARD BLOCH’s One Toss attended by Cultural Counselor Bénédicte of the Dice: The Incredible Story of How a de Montlaur, was held in the department Poem Made Us Modern, a fascinating cultural and drew students, deans, and colleagues history of Mallarmé’s “Un coup de dés,” was Chris Semk reading from his new book from across the university. published by W.W. Norton. My book The Right to Difference: French Universalism and These are enormous losses. Fortunately, the Jews was published by Chicago. however, the administration has approved We are all sorry to see CHRIS MILLER our request to conduct an open-rank step down as DGS. His deep knowledge search in the fields of sixteenth- and/or of the department and his devotion to the seventeenth-century French literature and graduate students will be sorely missed. culture this year. Our goal is to recruit the Thanks to Chris, our placement record has most exciting scholar available who will then been unparalleled, with recent graduates join our new hire, PIERRE SAINT-AMAND, accepting tenure-track jobs at Harvard, to ensure that Yale remains a top center for Vanderbilt, Ohio State, Austin College, early-modern French studies. Loyola, and Brandeis just in the past three Pierre’s arrival has already re-energized years. I am deeply grateful to Chris for his the department. In addition to his dynamic years of service and also to HOWARD teaching, Pierre’s Naomi Schor lecture, BLOCH who replaced Chris during his entitled “Inside the Eighteenth-Century CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 leave this year despite his many other French Bedroom,” led us on a fascinating 1 commitments across the university. and erudite romp through the boudoirs Alice Kaplan and Ambassador Gérard Araud of some of the most important writers GREETINGS FROM THE CHAIR, continued from page 1 Professor, of MARYAM SANJABI as Senior Lecturer, and of three of our expert language teachers as Senior Lector 1: SOUMIA KOUNDI, CONSTANCE SHERAK, and MATUKU NGAME. They will be joined in the Lector rank by returning RAMLA BEDOUI, alumna JESSICA DEVOS, and newcomer JULIE HUGONNY st . Matuku Ngame, Soumia Koundi and Ruth Koizim On May 1 , the Writing Center organized a reception at the home of the a truly wonderful group of students from Head of Timothy Dwight College in honor the École Normale Supérieure: DANIEL DIANE CHARNEY Pierre Saint-Amand and Howard Bloch of ’s retirement from MONTIN, APOLLINE PERNET, BENOIT Yale after 33 years. Diane began teaching CHATARD, and LAURA MONFLEUR I am pleased, however, to say that this year (left to right in photo below). In addition PIERRE SAINT-AMAND will serve as DGS to teaching and hosting language tables, in the fall and ALICE KAPLAN will replace they organized an exciting and packed him when he goes on leave in the spring. presentation and discussion, on the eve I am also delighted that TOM of the French elections, of the different CONNOLLY has agreed to stay on for candidates and their proposals. another year as DUS. Tom has helped This year is no less eventful. It started resurrect the Kenneth Cornell French Major with a conference I organized with the Research Grants, which are described in support of the Whitney Humanities Center the DUS report in this newsletter. Under on “Racism, Antisemitism, and the Radical Tom’s patient care, the French major has Right,” dedicated to exploring the rise of continued to thrive. populist movements in the U.S. and Europe ALYSON Also on a happy note, Diane Charney and Maurice Samuels and their attitudes toward minorities. WATERS will return to the department as Recently we welcomed renowned French Senior Lecturer to once again teach her very in the department in 1984, and served writers EDOUARD LOUIS, CHRISTINE popular series of courses on translation. A for many years as our first French Writing ANGOT, MATHIAS ENARD, and ERIC prize-winning translator herself, Alyson will Tutor. Although she subsequently became CHEVILLARD giving our community an continue in her role as editor of Yale French the Writing Tutor at TD, the first Directed exciting first-hand appreciation of the Studies. RUTH KOIZIM, the Director of Studies Writing Tutor, the Director of contemporary literary scene in France. the Language Program, will continue to fight TD’s Mellon Forum, and a Lecturer in In January 2018 we will host a workshop, for justice in her role as an elected member Daily Themes, she said she has always in cooperation with the ATLAS group, of the Faculty Senate. And I am also pleased considered our department her true home dedicated to “Translating Critical Thought.” to announce the successful reappointments base. Farewell, Diane! TOM CONNOLLY and JULIE ELSKY ’ 14 of MARIE-HÉLÈNE GIRARD as Visiting Last year, we were very lucky to welcome PhD are teaming up to plan an international conference on the work of Benjamin Fondane to take place in April. Let me conclude by thanking the Photo by Michael J. Marsland members of the administration for helping us to enjoy such a busy and successful year: EMILY BAKEMEIER, Deputy Provost; TAMAR GENDLER, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences; AMY HUNGERFORD, Chair of the Humanities Divisional Committee; JOHN MANGAN, Senior Associate Dean of FAS; and DOREEN NEELANS, Operations Manager. IAN SHAPIRO, the Director of the MacMillan Center, deserves our special thanks for providing research support for faculty and 2 students in French. — Maurice Samuels FACULTY NEWS R. HOWARD th in narratives from the 1970s onward. Her in Compar(a)ison on creative ways of BLOCH paper at the 19 century French Studies reading Celan’s poetic drafts, and in Mosaic. lectured on Conference focused on the muddied clothes on musical ekphrasis and Chagall. An Boccaccio and of upwardly mobile characters. At an MLA article on mystical ekphrasis in Rimbaud’s the fabliaux panel on 1967, she detailed the theoretical Illuminations recently appeared in PMLA at the Freie framework of Perec’s Un Homme qui dort. His book, Paul Celan’s Unfinished Poetics: Universität- She analyzed the bodily metamorphosis Readings in the Sous-Œuvre is due to appear th st Berlin; on of transfuges in the panel she led at the in the fall of 2017. Mallarmé at 20 / 21 century French Studies Colloquium, NED DUVAL writes, “Three papers made the American “Le corps en trans-.” She also discussed “Les it into print this year: a keynote address Comparative actualités de Patrick Modiano” at a University on hybridity in the works of Rabelais, Literature of Minnesota roundtable, and was awarded delivered long ago at a conference on that Association meeting in Seattle; and on a Griswold Fellowship to work on the social subject and now appearing at last in the Baudelaire and Haussmanization, and on map of harbor cities rebuilt after WWII. acta; an article on Erasmus and the early Kafka, at Yale-NUS, Singapore. Professor DIANE th French Renaissance written for the Princeton Bloch delivered a lecture on E. M. Forster CHARNEY History of Modern French Literature; and and Marcel Proust at the 50 reunion of writes, “Our an article titled ‘Maurice Scève and the his class at Amherst College. He stepped department Feminized Voice of Courtly Lyric’ which, by down as Chair of the Humanities Program and the Writing the time this newsletter reaches you, will on January 1, and assumed Chairship of Center kindly have appeared in a festschrift I cannot name Medieval Studies on July 1, 2015.
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