Department of French Literature, Thought, and Culture New York University
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L’ARC Department of French Literature, Thought, and Culture New York University FALL 2020 | VOLUME 34 Contents 32 36 52 56 LETTER FROM THE CHAIR 6 LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES AND GLOBAL COORDINATOR 10 LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR OF GRADUATE STUDIES 12 HOMMAGE À TOM BISHOP 13 POSTDOCTORAL LECTURERS 18 President Andrew Hamilton at 20 La Maison Française of New York University NEW GRADUATE STUDENTS Contents UN TOUT AUTRE SARTRE François Noudelmann and Laëtitia Deleuze 26 THE WORLD OF REFERENCE AND THE WORLD OF REPRESENTATION Nancy Freeman Regalado and Krystin C. Christy 28 READING THE SPECTACULAR Benoît Bolduc and Whit Martin 32 PENSER LA FAMILLE AU XIXE SIÈCLE...ET AU XXIE SIÈCLE? Claudie Bernard and Annabelle Dance 36 "QUAND JE PARLE FRANÇAIS, JE SUIS LIBRE" Matigan King and Lisa Chow 40 FACULTY NEWS 44 STUDENT AND ALUMNI NEWS 48 CARTOGRAPHIC HUMANISM: THE MAKING OF EARLY MODERN EUROPE Phillip John Usher and Katharina Natalia Piechocki 52 Thinking in Pandemic Times is a series of contributions by NYU professors designed to offer a critical perspective on the staggering COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to French-language literature, CHRISTIAN BIET 1952-2020 56 thought, and culture. Episodes include: Artaud, Theater and the Plague L'ARC Make a Gift Judith Miller Created in 1986 and published annually by the Department Help us maintain and strengthen our commitment to of French Literature, Thought and Culture at New York the research and teaching of French-language literature, Fuir ou affronter l'épidémie ? Montaigne, la politique de soi University theory and the arts at the New York University Department François Noudelmann of French Literature, Thought and Culture. Donations of Editors Professor Phillip John Usher, Lisa Chow, all sizes will help fund research, teaching, and public Guillaume Parodi programming. Places for Thinking: Latour, Boccaccio, Marguerite de Navarre Photography All photos are © New York University, Phillip John Usher unless otherwise indicated. Please make your gift online: https://www.nyu.edu/giving/give-now/?id=1000412 The Art of Making Do New York University Department of French Hannah Freed-Thall Literature, Thought and Culture Or by mail with your check made payable to: 19 University Place, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10003 New York University Office of Gift Administration To Quarantine from Quarantine. Rousseau, Robinson Crusoe and I Email: Phillip John Usher, [email protected] P.O. Box 6706, Hagerstown, MD 21741-6706. Catherine Malabou https://as.nyu.edu/french In the memo, write "French Department Special Fund, facebook.com/nyudeptoffrench CAS, 22-90511-R1728." Waiting for Dr. Fauci. Thinking with Daniel Defoe and Albert Camus on Why the Day After the instagram.com/nyufrench Lockdown Should Not be Our Focus Now Or write Emmanuelle Hernandez, Department Ulrich Baer Administrator, at [email protected] for more information. All contributions are available on the Maison Française of NYU's website. © 2020 New York University Cover Design:Cover Lisa Chow 4 L’ARC - New York University Department of French Literature, Thought and Culture Fall 2020 Fall 2020 L’ARC - New York University Department of French Literature, Thought and Culture 5 future L’Arc, once access to NYU’s physical archives in Paris by members of the department on topics Letter from the Chair is again possible, which will allow us to do justice close to their own research. The pandemic now to such a CV as Tom’s. When we find ourselves living makes the Boulevard Saint-Germain and the steps in a world not shaped by social distancing, the that lead up into NYU Paris between two wings of department will also organize a public celebration the Librairie Eyrolles seem so far away, like another of Tom’s many achievements.” galaxy. I’m confident that, in due course, the Paris- he events of the past and current academic New York axis will continue to be strengthen. years truly tax the superlatives. Of all the Before Tom retired, we were able back in September Tthings that I had thought I might have 2019 to celebrate the fiftieth birthday of NYU Paris Before the pandemic unleashed itself upon us all, to tackle as Chair, filling in a form with our that Tom founded in 1969. (It should have opened the department voted to hire Sylvaine Guyot, a Full fabulous administrator Emmanuelle Hernandez in 1968 but didn’t for obvious reasons!) Tom flew to Professor of French Literature in the Department to “guestimate” what levels of Personal Protective Paris for the birthday party, accompanied by myself of Romance Languages at Harvard University, and a Equipment (PPE) — gloves, masks, goggles, gowns — we might need for the Fall 2020 semester was and two former directors of NYU Paris, Professors scholar of seventeenth-century literature. Sylvaine not one of them. I had never imagined dealings Judy Miller and Benoît Bolduc. A day of celebrations is the author of a first monograph, Racine et le with the Office of Space Planning and Management organized by current director Professor Alfred Galli- corps tragique, which re-reads the theater of one regarding the installation of plexiglass screens. chon and a Paris-New York committee showcased of France’s most famous playwrights in the light of I had never expected to be lying awake at night the past, present, and future of our Paris site. The performance theory, and she is currently working wondering if an absurd and callous presidential day began with a department-sponsored short film on a second monograph, Les Scénographies de order would result in students on F1 visas — my own that featured Tom in dialogue with Judy Miller and l’éblouissement, which explores the relationship original status in this fine land — being deported others, recounting the early days of the what was between politics, theatricality, and aesthetics in the from the country. And the list could continue… I originally called “NYU in France.” The day ended seventeenth century, asking more specifically how had never imagined so much of what has happened with a presentation of a new initiative, NYU Paris “bedazzling” spectacles (fireworks, “machine” plays, since the coronavirus erupted into the “mesh” that Masterclasses, graduate-level courses to be offered court ceremonies, official painting) created intense connects every living being on the planet. In March 2020, undergraduate classes, graduate seminars, faculty meetings, and everything else all moved to Zoom more or less overnight. Every member of the department — undergraduates, graduate students, staff, faculty — saw their lives turned upside down in countless ways. To state, as a Chair’s letter might, that everyone has shown resilience would be, I fear, not be here without him. In addition to his schol- to say very little. There has, of course, been a lot of arship and teaching, Tom chaired the department resilience — but also so many struggles, so much from 1966 until 2003, a feat I cannot even begin “getting by despite…,” so much that cannot be summed to comprehend and will certainly not be trying to up in a single tidy and overly optimistic recasting imitate; he founded the Institute for French Stud- of difficult times. What is around the corner is, as ies in 1978; also in 1978, he founded the Center for yet, uncertain. For a whole host of reasons, and French Civilization and Culture (later Center for whether a vaccine is quickly found and made widely French Language and Cultures), which has just available, the academic world of tomorrow will be very different from anything we’ve known before. recently merged with the Maison française, which Anyone who claims to know will likely be proved he also directed from 1959-64. I first heard of Tom wrong. It is pointless to hope for a return to what when I was a young teenager, many years before we knew — all we can do is work collectively on the ever setting foot in the United States or even on a future, gathering whatever lessons we have learned university campus in any capacity, when I saw him from these times. interviewed by Bernard Pivot on Apostrophes, an episode now viewable on the Inathèque’s YouTube Another major change is the retirement of Profes- channel. His energy and dedication are palpable in sor Tom Bishop who began teaching at NYU in 1956. that interview. We are much his debtor. The present As of September 2020, Tom has taken on the new issue of L'Arc features several tributes from some of title of Professor Emeritus. It is quite impossible Tom's close collaborators, namely the poet Michel to overstate Tom’s contribution to the building of Deguy, Sartre scholar Michel Contat, author Colette NYU’s French universe. He was its architect and its Fellous, and the author and journalist Laure Adler. Tom Bishop at NYU Paris to celebrate the site's fiftieth birthday, alongside Dean Gene A. Jarrett, Linda Mills (Vice Chancellor and Senior Vice Provost for guiding spirit for decades. We would, quite simply, A further celebration of Tom’s career will follow in a Global Programs and University Life), Phillip John Usher, and others. September 2019. 6 L’ARC - New York University Department of French Literature, Thought and Culture Fall 2020 Fall 2020 L’ARC - New York University Department of French Literature, Thought and Culture 7 and unanimous admiration while also allowing for cruelly young age of 68 and will be missed greatly. Scholastique Mukasonga (Sept), the French philoso- the Chair in various tasks, Guillaume brought new the appearance of visual subcultures in the grand pher of art Georges Didi-Huberman (Oct), the French energy to public-facing events. I think, especially, siècle that, in one way or another, questioned The undergraduate program, thanks to the truly self- writer Pierre Michon (Feb), and the philosopher and of his creation with Sarah Kay of the Festival des political consensus.