Algerian Author, Slimane Benaïssa, author of the novel The Last Night of a Damned Soul (Grove Press, 2004) translated from the French by Jan and Dan Gross, will receive a doctorate honoris causa on November 22, 2005 at the Institute of Eastern Languages and Cultures (INALCO) of the Sorbonne University in Paris. Author, actor and director, he is being honored for his pioneering work in theatre both in Algeria and in France since 1993, as well as for his recent novels that recount the experience of global terrorism.

Mr. Benaïssa visited Grinnell College in September 2004 as the featured speaker of the series on “ Muslim Perspectives on 9/11” sponsored by the Rosenfield Program and the Center for International Studies. Professor Jan Gross will attend the honorary degree ceremony in Paris on November 22.

Below is further information regarding Mr. Benaïssa’s last visit to Grinnell.

Playwright, actor, and director Slimane Benaïssa examines the events of 9/11 and the relations between Islam and the West in his recent novel The Last Night of a Damned Soul, (Grove Press, September 2004).

His visit to Grinnell coincides with the publication of his first work in English, translated by Janice and Daniel Gross of the Grinnell College Department of French. The novel gives a human face to terrorism through the character of a young Arab American man in search of spiritual and cultural identity. With extensive quotations from the Koran, it exposes the terrifying logic of the suicide bomber. The novel earned recognition in France as a Prix Méditerranée 2003.

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Susan Ireland recently published a book with Greenwood Press (2001); the volume is co-edited with Patrice J. Prouix of the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Professor Ireland is also an editor of The Feminist Encyclopedia of French Literature.

Immigrant Narratives in Contemporary France examines the different ways in which the experience of immigration is presented in literary texts written by authors whose families came to France from the Caribbean, the Maghreb (Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco), sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia (Vietnam). In particular, the volume looks at how these works shape debates about French national identity and raise questions about what it means to be French today. The seventeen essays discuss issues related to gender, cultural hybridity, race, class, generational difference, and the status of "minority" literature within the traditional canon. Immigrant Narratives is the first book in English to explore the post-war literature of immigration to France in a comprehensive fashion.

Special Topic Seminar
offered in Spring 2003
FRN 395.01 Masculine Identities in French Literature


Monday and Wednesday 8:30-9:50 a.m.

Conducted in French. Explores the emergence of a certain crisis of masculinity
that starts in the Romantic era, and evolves through the Nineteenth and the
Twentieth Century in literature, art, and film. Topics to be studied include
desire, ambition, relational problems, sexuality, paternity, and the
problem of writing the masculine self. We may read authors such as
Chateaubriand, Stendhal, Gide, Sartre, Leiris, Camus, Robbe-Grillet,
Toussaint, Guibert, Beigbeder, and Houellebecq.
As in all seminars, the MAP option is avalaible
(FRN 395.02)

April 2 - April 21, 2001, Visiting Professor Denise Brahimi schedule Professor Denise Brahimi has been Professor of Comparative Literature at the Université de Paris-VII since 1971. She taught in Algiers, Algeria from 1960-1971, and has lived and traveled in Africa. She is a specialist on francophone writers, dramatists, and filmmakers, especially women. Her numerous books and articles cover a wide range of writers, especially from North Africa (interview with Tahar Ben Jelloun, articles on Assia Djebar, Leïla Sebbar, Kateb Yacine, Albert Memmi, Taos Amrouche, Mohammed Dib, Fatima Gallaire (visiting author at Grinnell in 2000), as well as authors and filmmakers of sub-Saharan Africa and Québec. She has also published a book on Nadine Gordimer Nadine Gordimer: la femme, la politique, le roman, and an article on Agota Kristof, writer of new-wave European fiction. In a comparative study of literary texts on similar topics written by men and women, her work Appareillages illustrates how gender affects storytelling. In Maghrébines, she compiled literary profiles of women of the Maghreb and a more recent book Les Femmes africaines dans la littérature follows a similar model with profiles of African women. Her work often draws upon the organic connections between North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. http://sir.univ-lyon2.fr/limag/copielvnet/Pagespersonnes/Brahimi.htm http://www.republique-des-lettres.com/b/brahimi.shtml She has edited critical works on North Africa, and written numerous prefaces and introductions to collections on Algerian and North African literature. Her reviews of literature, film and theater appear frequently in the influential journal Algérie Littérature / Action (Burling receives this publication), the main publishing site for francophone writers of Algeria. She also serves on the editorial board of numerous prominent literary journals. Her most recent books focus on French women filmmakers: Cinéastes françaises (Paris: Fus-Art, 1999) and African francophone cinema Cinémas d'Afrique francophone et du Maghreb (Paris: Nathan, 1997). The latter is available at the Grinnell College Bookstore. Her short course this spring will feature films by women from the Caribbean, North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and immigrant populations in Paris. The following films will be shown in ARH 302 on the dates indicated. (*subtitled in English) Monday April 2, 7:00 p.m. (107 min) *Rue Cases-Nègres by Martinican Euzhan Palcy (Sugar Cane Alley) Wednesday April 4, 7:00 p.m. (52 min) *Femmes aux yeux ouverts by Togolese Anne-Laure Folly Monday April 9, 7:00 p.m. (55 min) - in French, no subtitles Femmes d'Alger by Kamal Dehane Wednesday April 11, 7:00 p.m. (160 min) *Mémoires d'immigrés by Yamina Benguigui Sunday April 15, 7:00 p.m*Miel et Cendres by Tunisian Nadia Farès (Honey and Ashes) Monday, April 16, ARH 102, (see below) Wednesday April 18, 7:00 p.m. (80 min) - in French, no subtitles Une Porte sur le ciel by Farida Belyazid PLEASE NOTE: Professor Brahimi will deliver a public lecture in English "Francophone Women Filmmakers" on Monday April 16 at 8:00 p.m. in ARH 102. November 10 at 4:15 p.m. (ARH 305) Roberts Lecture by Professor Richard Goodkin, University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Tragic Heroines, Comic Heroines: Women in French Classical Theatre." Professor Goodkin, author of the new book Birth Marks: The Tragedy of Primogeniture in Pierre Corneille, Thomas Corneille, and Jean Racine (U. of Penn Press), will be discussing women's roles in comedy and tragedy. February 15 at 4:15 p.m. Talk by LeNeon Theatre Directors, Didier Rousselet and Monica Neagoy "Staging Fatima Gallaire's Princesses in English: The Directors' View". The Directors discuss the choice of play, translation and interactions between director, author, troupe and dramaturg as Le Neon Theatre prepares for the Grinnell avant-premiere performance of the provocative play by Franco-Algerian playwright, Fatima Gallaire, Princesses at Grinnell on April 15. The following are a series of events scheduled for From Page to Stage: Fatima Gallaire's Princesses. All events are sponsored by the Cowles Visiting Artists and Authors Program. February 16 at 4:15 p.m. (Wall Theater -- Bucksbaum Center) "Spectacle interactif" par LeNeon Theatre - vignettes et interactions 45-minutes of short sketches performed in French and English interspersed with audience interaction. April 3-April 21 - Visit of Fatima Gallaire French mini-course 395.03 "The Theater of Fatima Gallaire" offered by Cowles Visiting Author, Fatima Gallaire. Saturday April 15 at 8:00 p.m. (Roberts Theater) Avant-première of Fatima Gallaire's play Princesses performed in English translation by LeNeon Theatre, directed by Didier Rousselet and Monica Neagoy, followed by a post-production discussion with the playwright, directors, and troupe. February 20-25 - German Marshall Fund Fellow, Daniel Vernet of Le Monde Director of the international relations desk at the prestigious French news daily Le Monde (Directeur des relations internationales), Daniel Vernet, will visit classes, deliver two public lectures and participate in informal round table discussions. February 21 at 8:00 p.m. (South Lounge, Forum) Public Lecture: The Future of the European Union (Daniel Vernet) February 22 (Tuesday) at 4:15 p.m. (Forum Coffee House) Informal Discussion: Russian Elections February 23 (Wednesday) at 8:30 p.m. French House reception at 1130 East Street for M. et Mme Vernet February 24 (Thursday) at 8:00 p.m. (South Lounge, Forum) Public Lecture: The French-German Relationship in Perspective (Daniel Vernet) NOTE ALSO: May 8-12 Capstone Presentations (time and place to be announced) Students enrolled in French 395.02 (Postcolonial Identities) will present in French a summary of their individual research projects. Date and time to be announced. French Table - Mondays in Cowles Private Dining Room beginning at 6:00 p.m. French Film Series (sponsored by the French House) - see [link to French House] for schedule Weekly Radio Show on KDIC - (International programming by language assistants) Saturdays from 4:00-6:00 p.m.

THURSDAY, MAY 9 4:15 P.M. ARH 102

· Kate Bagshaw "Antoine Doinel ou l'éternel adolescent"
· Nina Bilandzic "Le Cinéma de Jean-Luc Godard et les relations masculin/féminin: entre réalité et illusion"
· Leah Blasiak "La Masculinité dans le couple contemporain"
· Alexander Hirshfeld "L'Homme brisé: la nouvelle littérature masculine en France"
· Mirabelle Moreau "L'Identité masculine: de la perspective des immigrant de l'Afrique saharienne"

Refreshments will be served.

Terese Grant, a high school French teacher, is currently on campus through the Community of Teachers Program. She has been teaching at Grinnell High School for 14 years. She is attending French classes at Grinnell College to see how students transition from high school to college level courses. She is also working on a project to develop a high school curriculum based on the new standards for foreign language learning.