The schedule begins with discussions marking the 300th year since the birth of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Friday & Saturday, Nov 2-3). It will also include a lecture (Wednesday, Nov. 7) by Brian Martin, Williams College associate professor of French and Comparative Literature, called “Queer Napolean: from Napoleonic Friendship to Gays in the Military,” as well as a separate lecture (Monday, Nov. 26) delivered by Serge Klarsfeld, an attorney and author who has published a dozen books on the fate of French Jewry during World War II. And much more.

New York University’s La Maison Française presents a multitude of enlivening classical music, literary and historical discourse, and artistic works during November and December, 2012. The schedule begins with discussions marking the 300th year since the birth of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Friday & Saturday, Nov 2-3). It will also include a lecture (Wednesday, Nov. 7) by Brian Martin, Williams College associate professor of French and Comparative Literature, called “Queer Napolean: from Napoleonic Friendship to Gays in the Military,” as well as a separate lecture (Monday, Nov. 26) delivered by Serge Klarsfeld, an attorney and author who has published a dozen books on the fate of French Jewry during World War II and has been active in bringing Nazi and Vichy officials to trial for their crimes. The French cultural center will additionally host a gallery exhibit of works by Paul Resika, entitled “Houses in Provence.” The center will also feature a classical concert (Dec. 7) by a trio of musicians playing flute, viola, and harp. And there’s much more.

Unless otherwise noted, the events are free, open to the public, and held at the La Maison Française, 16 Washington Mews, New York, N.Y. (enter the Mews from the west side of University Place, just north of Washington Square North). For further information: call 212.998.8750; email maison.francasise@nyu.edu; or visit the website at www.nyu.edu/maisonfrancaise.

Here, then, are the events that will take place during November and December:

November 2 & November 3:
Conference
Rousseau's Tricentennial 1712-2012
Sponsored by New York University;The Graduate Center, CUNY; Université Paris Descartes-Sorbonne (PHILéPOL)

Conference Organizers: Anne Deneys-Tunney, Helena Rosenblatt and Yves Charles Zarka

Friday, November 2:
Rousseau and the Great Thinkers
Location: The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue (between 34th and 35th Street), The Skylight Room (9100)

9:15 a.m.
Helena Rosenblatt (Graduate Center, CUNY) Welcome

9:30 - 11:00 a.m.
Maurizio Viroli (Princeton), Rousseau and Machiavelli
James Miller (New School), Rousseau and Montaigne
Richard Tuck (Harvard), Rousseau and Hobbes

11:15 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Bryan Garsten (Yale), Rousseau and Rameau
David Sorkin (The Graduate Center, CUNY), Rousseau and Mendelssohn

1:30 - 2:45 p.m.
Anthony LaVopa (North Carolina State University), Rousseau and A.L. Thomas
Barbara Taylor (University of East London), Rousseau and Wollstonecraft

3:00 - 4:15 p.m.
Jonathan Israel (Institute for Advanced Study), Rousseau and the philosophes
Bela Kapossy (Université de Lausanne), Rousseau and the Swiss Republicans

4:30 - 5:45 p.m.
Benjamin Barber (CivWorld), Rousseau and Burke
Jerrold Seigel (NYU), Rousseau and Marx


Saturday, November 3:
Rousseau: Nature and Culture
Location: La Maison Française, NYU
16 Washington Mews (at University Place)

9:15 - 9:30 a.m. Opening Remarks
Anne Deneys-Tunney and Yves Charles Zarka

9:30 - 11:15 a.m. Man in Relation to Nature
Lucien Nouis (NYU)
"Livre de la nature et livres des hommes" Rudy Le Menthéour (Bryn Mawr)
"A Sort of Nature: Rousseau’s Theory of Approximation" Pierre Saint-Amand (Brown University) "Late Botany: Rousseau's Vegetal Reverie"

11:30 a.m. - 1:15 p.m. Man in Relation to Himself
Guillemette Johnston (De Paul)
"Amour-propre and amour de soi: Instinctive and Introverted Languages of Culture and Integration in the Educational Philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau"
Masano Yamashita (University of Colorado, Boulder)
"Love as Habit in Rousseau"
Christophe Martin (Université Paris IV, La Sorbonne)
" 'La nature a tout fait mais sous ma direction': Nature and Supplement in La Nouvelle Héloïse"

2:30 - 4:15 p.m. Man in Relation to Others
Mira Morgenstern (The Graduate Center, CUNY)
"Alienation and Freedom: Rousseau and Transcending the Nature/Culture Dualism" Robert Stam (NYU) "Rousseau and the Brazilian Indian: From Jean de Léry to Lévi-Strauss" Paul Audi (Paris)
"Rousseau's Ethical Freedom"
Anne Deneys-Tunney (NYU)
"Is Technology Against Nature ?"

4:15 - 6:30 p.m. Man in Relation to Power                                                                                   Simon Critchley (The New School for Social Research) "Politics and Religion in 'The Social Contract' " Pasquale Pasquino (NYU) "Rousseau’s Dictatorship – Between Machiavelli and Carl Schmitt" Yves Charles Zarka (Sorbonne, Université Paris Descartes) "Le Langage dans son rapport à la liberté et à la servitude chez Rousseau"

[An International Conference funded with generous support of New York University; The Graduate Center, CUNY; the Humanities Initiative, Department of French , and the Center for French Civilization and Culture; the Center PHILéPOL of the University Paris Descartes-Sorbonne, the Consulate General of Switzerland, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, Vacheron Constantin, Air France.]

Full conference details available on the following website: http://french.as.nyu.edu/object/rousseau_2012.html

 

 CANCELLED: *   Wednesday, November 7, 7:30 p.m.:
Lecture in English

2010-2011 Wylie Prize in French Cultural Studies

BRIAN MARTIN
Associate Professor, French and Comparative Literature, Williams College; author of Napoleonic Friendship: Military Fraternity, Intimacy, and Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century France

Queer Napoleon: from Napoleonic Friendship to Gays in the Military

Sponsored by Dean of the Humanities, Department of French, and Institute of French Studies

* This Nov. 7 event will be rescheduled in 2013.


 RESCHEDULED TO Nov. 13 at 6:30 p.m.: * Thursday, November 8, 7:30 p.m.:
Film screening

Maryse Condé: Une Voix singulière
(Jérôme Sesquin, 2011, 52 min) In French, no subtitles.

followed by Q&A with MARYSE CONDÉ
This documentary traces the life of the celebrated author who has published over a dozen novels exploring the relationships between African peoples and the Diaspora.
(See also November 13.)

* The Nov. 8 film screening will be shown at the MARYSE CONDÉ event of Nov. 13.

Monday, November 12, 7:30 p.m.:
Florence Gould Event

French Literature in the Making
FRANÇOIS BON
Novelist, playwright, essayist; author of Sortie d’usine; Tous les mots sont adultes; Daewoo; Rock’n roll: un portrait de Led Zeppelin; L’incendie du Hilton in conversation with

OLIVIER BARROT Writer, journalist, Un Livre un jour (France 3)
Presented with the additional support of Sofitel, Centre National du Livre, Air France, Institut Français, and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.

 

Tuesday, November 13, 7:30 p.m.:

On the occasion of the publication of her memoir La Vie sans fards (J.C. Lattès, 2012)

MARYSE CONDÉ
Novelist, playwright, essayist; author of Ségu; La Vie scélérate (Prix de l'Académie Française); Le Coeur à rire et à pleurer (Prix Yourcenar); Victoire (Prix Tropiques)

in conversation with

MICHAEL DASH
Professor of French, NYU; author of The Other America: Caribbean Literature in a New World Context

In French. See also November 8.

 

Tuesday, November 20, 7:30 p.m. :
Presented by the Institute of French Studies, NYU, and Frenchmorning.com
Conversation with PAMELA DRUCKERMAN Author of Bringing up Bébé! One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting
Response by Giselle McGEE, Principal, P.S. 58 The Carroll (Brooklyn, NY)

 

Monday, November, 26, 7:30 p.m.:
Co-sponsored by the NYU School of Law
Location: NYU School of Law, 40 Washington Square South, Greenberg Lounge, 1st Floor

Militant of Memory: A Conversation with

SERGE KLARSFELD

Historian, lawyer, activist, Nazi hunter; author, French Children of the Holocaust: A Memorial; Mémorial de la déportation des Juifs de France

 

November 30 & December 1:

Conference Co-sponsored by Jordan Family Center for the Advanced Study of Russia and Institute of French Studies

Cultures of War: From the French Revolution to the Russian Revolution

Details available on the conference website: http://jordanrussiacenter.org/event/cultures-of-war-from-the-french-revolution-to-the-russian-revolution/

 

Monday, December 3, 7:30 p.m.:
Lecture in English
KAREN SULLIVAN
Professor, Romance Culture and Literature, Bard College; author of The Inner Lives of Medieval Inquisitors; Truth and the Heretic (MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize)

What Happened by the Lake: History, Fiction, and Arthurian Romance


Tuesday, December 4, 7:30 p.m.
:
Lecture in English
KATHRYN BANKS Senior Lecturer, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Durham University; author of Cosmos and Image in the Renaissance

Literature, Prophecy, and Apocalypse in Sixteenth-Century France: The Case of Rabelais


Wednesday, December 5, 7:30 p.m.:
Lecture in English
STEPHANE GERSON
Associate Professor, French and French Studies, NYU; author of Nostradamus: How an Obscure Renaissance Astrologer Became the Modern Prophet of Doom (St. Martin’s Press, 2012)

Nostradamus: A Cultural History in Modern Times


Friday, December 7, 7:30 p.m.:
Concert
JANUS TRIO
Amanda Baker, flute
Beth Meyers, viola
Nuiko Wadden, harp

Gossamer Threads
Music by Debussy, Caleb Burhans, Cameron Britt, Jan Bach, Martin Matalo

Reservations: 212 998.998.8750 or email maison.francaise@nyu.edu
Tickets available at the door: $20 General Admission; $10 Students with valid ID.


EXHIBITION:

PAUL RESIKA

Houses in Provence
Paintings Through November 15
Works on Paper November 19 – December 19

Monday - Friday, 10 – 5
Gallery occasionally closed for university events. Please call to verify hours: 212-998-8750.

Press Contact

Robert Polner
Robert Polner
(212) 998-2337