La Maison Française of New York University, located at 16 Washington Mews (at University Place), will host a number of special events in September and October, including a reading from Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past by renowned French actor Guillaume Gallienne on Sept. 20, a day-long conference exploring the work of French feminist Hélène Cixous on Sept. 24, and the return of “French Literature in the Making” with host Olivier Barrot with two events on Sept. 27 and Oct. 25.
La Maison Française of New York University, located at 16 Washington Mews (at University Place), will host a number of special events in September and October, including a reading from Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past by renowned French actor Guillaume Gallienne on Sept. 20, a day-long conference exploring the work of French feminist Hélène Cixous on Sept. 24, and the return of “French Literature in the Making” with host Olivier Barrot with two events on Sept. 27 and Oct. 25. All events are free and open to the public, and take place at La Maison Française, unless otherwise noted. For further information, call 212.998.8750 or visit www.nyu.edu/maisonfrancaise.
A schedule of events follows:
Tues., Sept. 14, 7 p.m.
Book launch: Véronique Godard, sister of filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, presents her book of photographs Détours, de Oaxaca à Tannay (Editions Filigranes, 2010). In French.
Thurs., Sept. 16, 7 p.m.
Lecture: François Dosse, intellectual historian and professor, IUFM Créteil, discusses his latest book, Gilles Deleuze et Félix Guattari: un couple intellectuel singulier, which examines the prolific if improbable relationship between the authors of such groundbreaking works as Anti-Oedipus, What Is Philosophy? and A Thousand Plateaus. In French.
Mon., Sept. 20, 7 p.m.
Performance: An Evening with Guillaume Gallienne. The renowned French actor and member of La Comédie-Française reads an excerpt from Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu. Reservations: 212-998-8750; maison.francaise@nyu.edu. Tickets: $15 general admission; $10 students with valid identification. In French.
Tues., Sept. 21, 7 p.m.
Lecture: Catronia Seth, professor of 18th century French studies, Université de Nancy, Les Liaisons continues: récritures de Laclos des romances de salon du XVIIIe siècle aux romans du XXIe. This talk will look at works derived from Laclos’ Les Liaisons dangereuses: imitations, adaptations (for stage and screen), translations, and illustrations throughout the centuries. In French.
Wed., Sept. 22, 7 p.m.
Lecture: Rosemary Wakeman, professor of history and urban studies, Fordham University, discusses her new book, The Heroic City: Paris, 1945-1958. Countering the traditional narrative that Paris’s public landscape became sterile and dehumanized in the 1940s and ’50s, Wakeman instead finds that the city’s streets overflowed with ritual, drama, and spectacle.
Fri., Sept. 24, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Conference: In Le Rire de la Méduse (1975) (translated as The Laugh of the Medusa by Keith and Paula Cohen), Hélène Cixous articulates her notion of “l’écriture féminine” (writing through the body). A day-long seminar with readings and lectures on Cixous’ groundbreaking text will help celebrate and contemplate the meaning of her work today.
Mon., Sept. 27, 7 p.m.
Literary Conversation: French Literature in the Making with Christian Oster, novelist and author of Mon grand appartement (Prix Médicis), in conversation with Olivier Barrot, journalist and host of Un livre un jour (France 3 TV); publisher of Senso. In French.
Wed., Sept. 29, 7 p.m.
Book launch: Jean-Christophe Valtat, novelist and author of ’03 (FSG, 2010) will appear in conversation with novelist and translator Bruce Benderson and publisher Dennis Johnson (Melville House).
Tues., Oct. 5, 7 p.m.
Lecture: Christian Biet, Les Luttes raciales dans le théâtre de la cruauté français: Début XVIIe siècle / Mises en scène du XXIe siècle. Christian Biet is a visiting professor in the French Department of New York University. In French.
Wed., Oct. 6, 7 p.m.
Lecture: Authorship and Responsibility: Literary Trials in France from the Restoration to the Liberation, a talk by Gisele Sapiro, visiting professor, NYU and author of La Responsabilité de l’écrivain. Littérature et morale en France (19e-20e siècles) (Seuil, 2011).
Thurs., Oct. 7, 7 p.m.
Lecture: The Disorder of Things: Description, Enlightenment, and the Problem of Form, a lecture by Joanna Stalnaker, associate professor of French, Columbia University, and author of The Unfinished Enlightenment: Description in the Age of the Encyclopedia (Cornell University Press, 2010).
Fri., Oct. 8, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Conference: Journée d’étude : La mémoire du geste et de la voix. Work in progress by NYU French Department faculty and graduate students on the written and iconographic sources of modern and medieval performance. Participants: Christian Biet, Benoît Bolduc, Henriette Goldwyn, Michael Ritchie, Scott Sanders, and Timmie Vitz. In French.
Tues., Oct. 12, 7 p.m.
Lecture: Qui a tué Madame Bovary? Petite enquête sur l'esthétique de Flaubert, lecture by Françoise Gaillard, professor, University of Paris VII.
Thurs., Oct. 14, 7 p.m.
Lecture: Improvisational Mallarmé, lecture by Ann Smock, visiting professor in comparative literature, Princeton University; author of Double Dealing (on Giraudoux, Nabokov, Klossowski, Kafka) and What is There To Say? (on Blanchot, Melville, des Forêts, Beckett).
Mon., Oct. 18, 7 p.m.
Roundtable discussion: Honoring the 2008-09 winner of the Wylie Prize in French Cultural Studies, Peter J. Bloom, author of French Colonial Documentary: Mythologies of Humanitarianism (University of Minnesota Press, 2008). Discussion with NYU scholars Edward Berenson, Ludovic Cortade, and Denis Hollier. Moderator: Stephane Gerson.
Thurs., Oct. 21, 7 p.m.
Lecture: Foucault face à l'histoire: périodisation, discontinuité, événement, by Judith Revel, professor of philosophy, University of Paris I-Sorbonne. Revel is the author of Foucault: Experiences de la pensée and Dictionnaire Foucault. In French.
Mon., Oct. 25, 7 p.m.
Literary Conversation: French Literature in the Making with Claire Castillon, novelist and author of Insecte; Dessous c’est l’enfer; and Les cris, in conversation with Olivier Barrot, journalist and host of Un livre un jour (France 3 TV); publisher of Senso. In French.
Tues., Oct. 26, 7 p.m.
Reading: Alan Riding, journalist, The New York Times, presents his new book, And the Show Went On: The Cultural Life of Nazi Occupied Paris (Knopf, 2010).
Wed., Oct. 27, 7 p.m.
Lecture: The Dreyfus Affair: Beyond the Orthodoxy, by Ruth Harris, fellow and tutor in modern history, Oxford University. Harris discusses her new book, Dreyfus: Politics, Emotion, and the Scandal of the Century (Metropolitan Books, 2010).
Thurs., Oct. 28, 7 p.m.
Lecture: Hédi Kaddour, professor (NYU in Paris), translator, novelist, poet and author of Waltenberg; Savoir-vivre, and Les Pierres qui montent, in conversation with Emmanuelle Ertel, NYU.