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2013 ARCHIVE January | February | March | April | May Back to Homepage | Current Calendar |
JANUARY Thursday, January 31, 7:30 p.m.
Local Space/Global Visions: Archives, Networks, and Visual Geography around 1900 Local Space/Global Visions explores the “visual geography” of the year 1900, the moment when amateur cameras, half-tone reproduction processes and multinational corporations expanded photographic production and distribution exponentially, and quite literally set the stage for a “world culture” of imagery. Focusing on three separate projects (Alfred Stieglitz’s magazine Camera Notes, Albert Kahn’s Archives of the Planet and the PhotoGlob AG collection of scenic views), the lecture will highlight how the image economy of this historical period – with its emphasis on networks, franchises, portability and outreach, its inherent tension between the domestic and the international, the artistic and the commercial, the elite and the mass – laid the foundations for our contemporary visual environment. Photo: Museum Court, Algiers, Detroit Publishing Co. (1899), photochrom print |
February Tuesday, February 5, 7:30 p.m.
Mensonge et philosophie: une approche psychologique du discours philosophique La condamnation morale du mensonge empêche d'en observer la richesse. Le plus intéressant des mensonges est sans doute celui qu'on se fait à soi-même, d'autant plus difficile à détecter qu'il prend l'apparence de la bonne foi. L'indice permettant de le suivre est l'insistance paradoxale à vouloir dire la vérité. À ce jeu-là nombre de philosophes figurent parmi les plus suspects, tant la recherche de la vérité leur est consubstantielle. Mais leur mensonge tient moins au contenu des thèses qu'à l'usage du langage spéculatif. La fonction du discours théorique pourrait être d'affirmer le contraire de ce que l'on vit. Quelques exemples de Rousseau à Foucault. |
Thursday, February 7, 7:30 p.m.
Monsieur Proust’s Library Reading was so important to Marcel Proust that it sometimes seems he was unable to create a personage without a book in hand. Everybody in his work reads: servants and masters, children and parents, artists and physicians. The more sophisticated characters find it natural to speak in quotations. Proust made literary taste a means of defining personalities and gave literature an actual role to play in his novels. |
Friday, February 8, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Les Archives de l’intime: questionnements méthodologiques et théoriques Round Table organised by Edward Berenson (IFS) and Christelle Taraud (NYU Paris). In English and in French. Emily ApteR Claudie BERNARD Todd SHEPARD Ann L. STOLER Judith SURKIS Christelle TARAUD This roundtable discussion is inspired by the pioneering work of Ann Laura Stoler, known for her studies of intimate life and of the construction, interpretation, and use of archives. Along with Stoler, who will give the keynote talk, we will bring together a group of scholars who have each worked on what we have termed the Archives de l’intime, that is, on sources that illuminate the mechanisms of regulation and control of intimate life, both in France and its colonies. Our discussion will begin by considering the concept of the “intimate” and how its use might enable us to rethink the categories “national” and “colonial,” “France” and “Outre-Mer,” and the relationships between them. Our next task will be to discuss how scholars should work with the “archives de l’intime.” The different possibilities include: the effort to bring together sources originally meant to be distinct; to place different sources in tension with one another; and/or to unravel them from within by examining their gaps, silences, paradoxes, and what they may have left unthought. In all of these efforts, it is crucial to consider these archives in relation to agents of power and as strategic and privileged sites for the production of normative discourses and official knowledge. In doing so, we will reflect on Stoler’s idea that scholars should question the very nature of these archives, seeing them differently from the way we usually do historical sources. Les archives de l’intime, according to Stoler, are virtual and protean in ways that might make possible a new kind of history. |
Monday, February 11, 7:30 p.m. French Literature in the Making Special edition: Olivier Barrot, the host of the French Literature in the Making series, switches roles and is the invited author for the evening. Discussion in French.
in conversation with More on French Literature in the Making
Presented with the additional support of Sofitel, the Centre National du Livre, Air France, Institut Français, and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. |
Concert Friday, February 15, 7:30 p.m.
Performing Tessera Quintet was founded in 2006 by flutist Maureen Keenan and bassoonist Daniel Liao. Based in New York City, this talented group of artists focuses its energies on repertoire which best exemplifies the myriad combinations available from what is most analogous to a mosaic of sound, and thus takes its name from the Latin word for the tiles comprising a mosaic. Oboist Nick Abel, clarinettist Yi-Chuan Chen, and hornist Elizabeth Fleming Martignetti join the ensemble as guest artists for the 2012–13 season, which includes a 150-year survey of the music of Paris, and a premiere of a new work composed for the group. www.tesseraquintet.com |
Wednesday, February 20, 6:30 p.m.
Assisted Reproductive Technology in Contemporary France: Discourse and Practices As the French Parliament is moving to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples in early 2013, adoption and access to assisted reproductive technology (ART) for gay and lesbian parents have become increasingly contentious in French public debates. Opponents fear the destruction of the “natural anthropological foundations” of gender and family. Yet, 2.5% of all children are born in France thanks to ART, and very little is known about different-sex couples’ experiences with ART in France today. Since the 1994 law of bioethics (revised in 2004 and 2011), ART is open only to married or unmarried heterosexual couples with their doctor’s approval. How do couples and doctors request and grant access to ART? How do they construct a new “normal” when their experience challenges biological representations of birth giving and parenthood? This presentation is based on a ten-month ethnographic research in a French hospital, observations of discussions between parents-to-be and doctors, and in-depth interviews with patients and medical staff. |
Thursday, February 21, 7:30 p.m.
Le Corbusier: The Writings of an Architect On his French identity card, legendary architect Le Corbusier listed his profession as "Homme de Lettres" (Man of Letters). Celebrated for his architecture, which numbers fewer than sixty buildings, Le Corbusier also wrote more than fifty books, hundreds of articles, and thousands of letters. Le Corbusier, Homme de Lettres is the first in-depth study of Le Corbusier as a writer as well as an architect. Featuring more than two hundred archival images from Le Corbusier's life and work, this groundbreaking book examines his many writing projects from 1907 to 1947, as well as his letters written to two mentors: Charles L'Eplattenier and William Ritter. In Le Corbusier, Homme de Lettres author M. Christine Boyer focuses on the development of his writing style as it morphed from romantic prose to aphorisms and telegraphic bulletins. For each of his books, Le Corbusier was meticulous about the design of the page layout, the form of the type, the impact of the ideas, and even the promotional material. As a man of letters, Le Corbusier expected to contribute to the cultural atmosphere of the twentieth century. Le Corbusier, Homme de Lettres shows for the first time how his voluminous output books, diaries, letters, sketchbooks, travel notebooks, lecture transcriptions, exposition catalogs, journal articles reflects not just a compulsion to write, but a passion for advancing his ideas about the relationship between architecture, urbanism, and society in a new machine age. |
Monday, February 25, 7:30 p.m.
La Laïcité face aux mutations de la société française La laïcité s’est établie en France par le moyen de la neutralité religieuse de l’école publique (1882) et par la séparation des Églises et de l’État (1905). Ces dernières décennies, les mutations de la société française ont assoupli la séparation. Par contre, une conception nettement plus extensive de la neutralité s’est développée. La conférence examinera les conséquences de cette double évolution sur les finalités de la laïcité : la liberté de conscience et la non-discrimination. |
Thursday, February 28, 6:30 p.m.
The 1956 French Republican Front’s ‘Civilizing Mission’: This lecture will examine why the left-wing Republican Front Government, elected in January 1956 and led by the Socialist Party General Secretary, Guy Mollet, intensified the Algerian War in February, March and April, passing the ‘special powers’, recalling reservists and launching a concerted policy to win Muslim ‘hearts and minds’. It will analyze how this strategy, entitled ‘pacification’, was justified in terms of a third way between settler extremism and the FLN. At the same time this paper will set the Republican Front policy within the wider international context. It will analyze how strategy in Algeria was seen to be inseparable from opposition to pan-Arab Egypt and support for socialist Israel. Within this schema the Republican Front Government stressed the symmetry between France and Israel. Both were seen to be ‘civilized’. Both were seen to be ‘democratic’. Both were seen to be involved in a struggle against ‘feudalism’ and pan-Arab nationalism. Support for socialist Israel was seen to be an example of international solidarity against Nasser whose pan-Arab nationalism, it was argued, was ultimately controlled by the Soviet Union. It was also motivated by the belief that weakening Nasser through Israel would also destroy the FLN. In this way the paper will examine how support for Israel intersected with Cold War anti-communism, memories of appeasement and concepts of a democratic anti-communist ‘Eur-Afrique’. |
MARCH Friday, March 1, 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Masculinité(s) et virilité: contextes métropolitains Workshop organised by Edward Berenson (IFS) and Christelle Taraud (NYU Paris) In English and in French CHRISTELLE TARAUD EDWARD BERENSON During the first half of the 19th century, the idea of colonialism as the production of real men and as a space for masculine and national regeneration was developed in all the colonial metropoles. Based on the then-developing idea of Social Darwinism, they believed that Europeans were engaged in a “struggle for life” and that this fight would “naturally” lead to the triumph of the strongest people. Through exploration, military conquest or the “development” of territories, colonialism permitted the necessary toughening of men who were supposedly “castrated” and/or “emasculated” in Europe and needed to “regenerate” overseas. This masculinization of Europeans was constructed by and mirrored the de-legitimization of the colonized as “real” men. Consequently, the question of virility and masculinity must be analyzed in conjunction with the relationship between metropole(s) and colonies: between the social question, the national question and the colonial question. |
CINEMA Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2013 Screenings presented in cooperation with Unifrance, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, and the IFC Center. Location: IFC Center,
323 Sixth Avenue at West 3rd Street
Boudu Saved from Drowning (Boudu sauvé des eaux) A new digital restoration of Renoir’s innovative early work. Boudu (the irrepressible and unforgettable Michel Simon), a Parisian tramp, tries to end it all with a plunge into the river, only to be saved by a well-meaning bookseller.
Journal de France Raymond Depardon’s self-portrait (co-directed by his longtime collaborator and sound engineer Claudine Nougaret) takes a surprising point of view on the great documentarian’s life—not only as a filmmaker, but as a photographer of expressive precision, capturing the entirety of French society over the decades.
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Three Worlds (Trois Mondes) A hit-and-run accident involving a hotshot car salesman and an émigré worker from Moldavia triggers a chain of events with life-altering consequences. A Film Movement release. Followed by Q & A with director Catherine Corsini and actor RaphaËl Personnaz.
For the complete schedule of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema screenings at IFC Center, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, and BAM, visit www.rendezvouswithfrenchcinema.com |
Thursday, March 7, 7:30 p.m.
De la tragédie grecque au cinéma d'horreur: De la tragédie grecque au cinéma d’horreur, il s’agit de provoquer du plaisir avec des émotions fortes (la frayeur et les larmes de pitié). Aristote parlait en outre d’un phénomène de catharsis (purgation ou épuration) des émotions : depuis cinq siècles on multiplie les interprétations, morale pour les uns (les émotions servent à « purger » l’homme de ses passions, mauvaises), médico-psychologique pour d’autres (le spectacle violent comme cure personnelle). En fait, Aristote avait fait certainement d’abord allusion au processus psychologique qui permet à des émotions insupportables dans la réalité de devenir agréables dans le cadre d’une fiction. L’extrême violence cinématographique des dernières décennies nous invite à réfléchir à notre tour sur ce qui permet à la fiction de rendre l’horreur « plaisante », et à poser le problème du « plaisir paradoxal » qu’un philosophe comme Aristote a nécessairement envisagé : qu’est-ce qui permet à un individu parfaitement normal de jouir de la souffrance (fictive) d’autrui ? |
CONFERENCE Friday, March 8 and Saturday, March 9
An exploration of how art is defined, institutionalized, and practiced in the Francophone world, and how the boundaries between the spheres of art and non-art are established and shift. Friday, March 8, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday, March 9, 10:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. For full conference details and schedule, visit www.butisitartconference.webs.com |
Monday, March 11, 7:30 p.m. French Literature in the Making
in conversation with More on French Literature in the Making Presented with the additional support of Sofitel, the Centre National du Livre, Air France, Institut Français, and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. Photo: Pascal Victor/ArtcomArt |
Wednesday, March 13, 6:30 p.m. Griots, Nobility, and the Transformation of Musical Culture in Contemporary West Africa Lecture/Performance
ALHAJI PAPA SUSSO Moderated by IAN MERKEL, doctoral candidate (NYU)
What happens when a nobleman picks up a guitar and sings praise?
When a djéli or griot crosses an ocean, changing both his patronage
network and the very stories that establish his legitimacy? How are
castes remade, both by individuals and by the societies in transition
from which they emerge? |
Thursday, March 14, 7:30 p.m. Young French Entrepreneurs in New York City Roundtable
An introduction to French-influenced, New York-based start-ups, with CHRISTOPHE GARNIER, co-founder, Totsy; CEO, sparks-lab Moderated by AMY OMAR, BA/MA student, French Studies, NYU |
Wednesday, March 27, 6:30 p.m.
Queer Napoleon: from Napoleonic Friendship to Gays in the Military Based on extensive archival research in France, Napoleonic Friendship traces the development of affectionate friendships in the French Army from 1789 to 1916. Following the French Revolution, radical military reforms created conditions for new physical and emotional intimacy between soldiers, establishing a model of fraternal affection during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars that would persist amid the ravages of the Franco-Prussian War and World War I. Sponsored by Dean of the Humanities, Department of French, and Institute of French Studies |
SPECIAL EVENT Thursday, March 28, 7:00 to 10:00 pm
Marathon reading from the novel, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the publication of Du Côté de chez Swann In French Readers include Marie-Christine Barrault, Antonin Baudry, Benoît Bolduc, Georges Borchardt, Joan Juliet Buck, Jacqueline Chambord, Elisabeth Cros, Emmanuelle Ertel, Daphne Guinness, Ronald Guttman, Denis Hollier, Richard Howard, Julie Hugonny, Florent Masse, Judith Miller, Anka Muhlstein, Eugène Nicole, Sophia Wilson, Lila Zanganeh, and Tom Bishop |
APRIL SPECIAL EVENT April 1 & 3
Monday, April 1, 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, April 3, 6:30 p.m. |
Tuesday, April 2, 7:30 p.m. Translating One Another
Photo: Sigrid Estrada
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Thursday, April 4, 7:30 p.m. A Piece of My Assets: Puns, Proper Names, and Filthy Jokes
NANCY REGALADO RICHARD SIEBURTH One of the most original and important voices of the Middle Ages, François Villon took his inspiration from the streets, taverns, and bordellos of Paris. A rare instance of a medieval poet who lived on the margins of society, Villon wrote about love and sex, money trouble, bent cops, lewd monks, “the thieving rich,” and the consolations of good food and wine. With David Georgi’s ingenious translation, English-speaking audiences finally have a text that captures the riotous energy, humor, and wordplay of the original. This bilingual edition presents Villon’s French side-by-side with the translation, in a newly revised text that reflects the latest scholarship. Addressing everything from gambler’s slang to the ingredients of 15th-century flan to the presence of prostitutes in the graveyard, Georgi’s notes provide an inviting and informative guide to the poems and to the colorful, chaotic world of medieval Paris. |
Friday, April 5, 4:00 p.m Illustrated Presentation
BOULET Boulet is a comic book writer who has published over 40 books in France, including the "Raghnarok" series. He began drawing for Tchô! magazine almost 15 years ago, while he was studying at the Beaux Arts of Strasbourg. In 2004 he began working on Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar’s series "Dungeon" for Back in Style, before starting his own webcomic. Available to U.S. audiences in English, the blog receives nearly 8,000 unique visitors per day, while the French blog receives 50,000 visitors daily and has been the basis for seven books published by Delcourt. 4/16 Update: La Maison Française featured in the Bouletcorp blog |
CONFERENCE Tuesday, April 9, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Location: Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South, Room 914 Aurignacian Genius: Art, Technology, and Society of the First Modern Humans in Europe
Among the speakers are NYU Anthropology Professor RANDALL WHITE and RAPHAËLLE BOURRILLON of the University of Toulouse whose discovery of the earliest form of wall art was reported last fall, a finding that offers rich evidence of the role art played in the daily lives of Early Aurignacian humans. Other speakers include: MARC AZÉMA, FRANÇOIS BON, CAROLE FRITZ, WILLIAM RENDU, and GILLES TOSELLO of the University of Toulouse; and HARALD FLOSS and SIBYLLE WOLF of the University of Tuebingen. Detailed information and registration materials can be found here. Sponsors include NYU’s Center for the Study of Human Origins, the NYU Center for International Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences (UMI 3199 CNRS-NYU), in collaboration with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. |
Friday, April 12, 6:00 p.m. Location: Institute for Public Knowledge, NYU, 20 Cooper Square, 7th floor
Révolution numérique, revolutions démocratiques Comme les deux précédentes révolutions industrielles, la révolution numérique modifie radicalement l'espace public: il est devenu sans frontières et il s'est ouvert aux individus. Ce bouleversement technologique offre d'immenses opportunités démocratiques qui affrontent les pouvoirs étatiques et les puissances économiques. A partir de l'expérience française de Mediapart, journal numérique, indépendant et participatif, une réflexion sur les enjeux politiques d'Internet. Like the previous two industrial revolutions, the digital revolution has radically changed public space: it has become borderless and open to all individuals. This technological revolution offers huge democratic opportunities that confront state authorities and economic powers. The event will use the French experience of Mediapart—a digital newspaper, both independent and participatory—to reflect upon the political Internet. In French, translation provided. Reservations recommended: www.nyu.edu/ipk |
Saturday, April 13, 4:00 p.m. Location: Jerry H. Labowitz Theatre for the Performing Arts, 1 Washington Place
Social Networking and Neuropower Followed by a discussion moderated by BEN KAFKA (Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, NYU). Co-sponsored by the Department of Comparative Literature; the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication; the Gallatin School of Individualized Study; the Humanities Initiative; Information Futures; and Cultural Services of the French Embassy. |
Monday, April 15, 7:30 p.m.
Nombreux sont les hommes de lettres et les philosophes des Lumières à avoir fait du passage au crible des bibliothèques une étape nécessaire du changement : ouvrir d’autres possibles suppose pour eux que l’on parvienne, dans le présent, à séparer le grain de l’ivraie, c’est-à-dire à prendre le meilleur dans la masse infinie des livres pour le restituer au public sous une forme concentrée et à nouveau lisible. La Révolution va donner une urgence politique extraordinaire à ce type de discours : régénérer la vie, la société, c’est aussi agir sur les livres. Il s’agira ici de s’interroger sur la façon dont Louis Sébastien Mercier met en scène, à plusieurs reprises, l’autodafé de la Bibliothèque du Roi en l’opposant à cette autre archive, ouverte et populaire, que serait la « bibliothèque instructive » des affiches des rues. La question qui nous servira de fil rouge est la suivante : l’épuration des bibliothèques doit-elle venir du haut, d’élites composées d’hommes de lettres et de gouvernants, ou peut-elle être pensée comme un processus spontané, immanent au peuple ou au public ? |
Thursday, April 18, 7:30 p.m.
Figures de l’événement « Par l’événement seul nous devenons nous-mêmes », affirmait avec force Martin Heidegger dans l’un des textes fondateurs du concept d’événement dans ses Holzweg. Repris par les phénoménologues, le concept allait se transformer en ce que Jean-Luc Marion a qualifié de « phénomène saturé », soit comme une expérience du monde qui passe dorénavant par un « surcroît » de l’intuition sur tous les concepts et catégories d’appréhension de la réalité mondaine par une conscience. |
Wednesday, April 24, 6:30 p.m. Roundtable discussion “Marriage for All!”: The French Debate on Same-Sex Marriage
Moderated by A proposed law that would extend marriage rights to same-sex couples and allow them to adopt children has prompted mass demonstrations and heated discussions in the French Press and Parliament. As the legislative procedure is nearing completion, our round-table will examine the French debate on same-sex marriage (“le marriage pour tous”), the recent history of the same-sex marriage agenda, and the changing dynamics of sexual politics in France. |
Thursday, April 25, 7:30 p.m.
Le cinéma, une pensée de la littérature ? Ces dernières années, on s’est de nouveau intéressé à la relation entre les deux arts, au-delà de l’ « adaptation » ou de l’ « influence du cinéma » sur la littérature. Comment la question revient-elle ? L’évolution des études littéraires et cinématographiques, l’archéologie du cinéma, la « philosophie du cinéma » ont modifié le paysage. En replongeant la littérature et le cinéma dans leur contexte historique, on peut observer comment la littérature s’approprie, avant la naissance du cinéma, l’expérience de la modernité (moyens de transport, sollicitations visuelles...). De même, après une réflexion qui a souligné le pouvoir de préfiguration utopique du cinéma par la littérature, un tournant récent est, au contraire, de voir comment le cinéma aide à penser la littérature. Le « cinématisme », la pensée cinématographique serait à l’oeuvre en dehors même du cinéma. En quel sens l’entendre ? Quelle part de la littérature est concernée ? On essaiera de mesurer ce renversement, d’en interroger les présupposés, d’en observer et d’en défendre la productivité. Peut-on penser littérature et cinéma comme explorant en miroir leurs propres limites ? |
CONFERENCE Friday, April 26, 2:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Organized by EMMANUELLE ERTEL, NYU 2–2:30 p.m. |
Monday, April 29, 7:30 p.m. French Literature in the Making
in conversation with OLIVIER BARROT More on French Literature in the Making Presented with the additional support of Sofitel, Centre National du Livre, Air France, Institut Français, and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy |
MAY
Friday, May 3 La Maison Française welcomes the Ninth Annual PEN World Voices Lunchtime Literary Conversations Part of the Literary Mews Mini Festival
Friday, May 3, Noon to 1:00 p.m.
Friday, May 3, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.
EMMELIE PROPHÈTE The Ninth Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, New York City, April 29–May 5, 2013. Writers from across the globe convene in New York City to explore bravery in art, politics and personal life. Chaired by Salman Rushdie, this year’s festival examines writers’ impact on political transformations in recent global hot spots—Burma, Palestine, South Africa, Haiti, and Guantanamo Bay—and honors small acts of bravery displayed in daily life. |
Friday, May 10, 6:30 p.m.
Translation Night An evening of new translation by the students of NYU’s M.A. program in Literary Translation Translators/readers |
SHELLEY RICE
FranÇois Noudelmann
Anka Muhlstein
OLIVIER BARROT
TESSERA QUINTET
SÉVERINE MATHIEU
M. CHRISTINE BOYER
JEAN BAUBÉROT
MARTIN EVANS
Saturday, March 2, 1:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 3, 1:15 p.m.
Tuesday, March 5, 9:30 p.m.
GEORGES FORESTIER
...but is it art?
CHÉRIF KEÏTA 
BRIAN MARTIN
FATHER PATRICK DESBOIS
New York University will host an international symposium, on Aurignacians, who inhabited much of Europe and parts of southern Asia until approximately 28,000 years ago. They are the first modern humans outside Africa, and their practices and advances shed light on the origins of the arts in Europe. The symposium will consider the social, technological, and environmental contexts of Aurignacian art and how science can inform our understanding of Aurignacians’ contributions to today’s cultural landscape.
GUILLAUME SOULEZ
Translating / Writing / Publishing Caribbean Literature
PEN World Voices
AGATA TUSZYNSKA
in conversation with 
JAMES KELMAN
in conversation with 