Exil: mode(s) d'emploi -- Experiencing Exile in Literature and the Arts

The UCLA French and Francophone Studies graduate students present a conference on exiled writers with keynote speakers Emmanuel Dongala (Congolese author) and Christopher Miller (Yale University). Conference dates: Thursday, October 13 and Friday, October 14, 2005.

Friday, October 14, 2005
10:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Rooms 314 and 306
Royce Hall
UCLA campus
Los Angeles, CA 90095

As political turmoil, economic imbalances and other forms of oppression encourage the movement of peoples to new spaces, geographical or psychic, cultural practitioners are faced with the challenge of forging new idioms by which to understand their world. The rise of exile as an experience has stimulated important dialogue on its function in artistic production as well as its place in discourses across disciplines. Choosing exile as their theme, the graduate students are particularly interested in exploring the various ways in which writers and artists “translate” exile, and how in turn exile complicates or complements creative endeavors. How does one simultaneously live and imagine exile? What are the tensions inherent in the exilic experience and how do they color the creative process?

The keynote addresses will be on Friday, October 14, in 314 Royce Hall from 3:30 - 5:30 PM.  A reception will immediately follow the presentations.

Keynote Speakers 2005:  Emmanuel Dongala and Christopher L. Miller

Emmanuel Dongala has been living in exile in the United States for seven years. His novels, such as his most recent Johnny chien méchant, treat far-reaching themes, from the re-telling of history to globalization and political corruption.

Christopher L. Miller is Frederick Clifford Ford Professor of French and African American Studies at Yale University. His most recent publication, entitled Nationalists and Nomads, is one example of his important contributions to the fields of postcolonial and Francophone studies.

Excellent information, complete schedule, directions available on the conference website at www.french.ucla.edu/gradconf

Schedule:

Friday, October 14 - Graduate Student Panels from 10 AM - 2:45 PM in room 306, Royce Hall, followed by keynote addresses from 3:30 - 5:30 PM in room 314, Royce Hall. 

9:30-10:00- Breakfast
 
10:00-11:45 - Language in Exile

• Logan Connors, Confucian and Confusion: Pham Van Ky’s Construction of a French Reader
• Misgav Har-Peled, Being ex-terminus: the Jews between Exile and Extermination
• Rifat Yalman, Chess, a Linguistic Refuge
• Monica Garoiu, Exil linguistique: le cas d’ Emile Cioran

12:00-1:00 - Lunch Break

1:00-2:45 - (Hi)stories of Exile

• Bimbisar Irom, ‘At Home Only in Airports’: To Come to America, or to Run from America?  The Politics of Exilic Retreat in Joan Didion’s Democracy and Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters
• Elizabeth Vitanza, Another Grand Illusion: Jean Renoir’s First Year in America
• Kelly Duke-Bryant, Exile and Diaspora: Cyrille Bissette and the Creation of Black Identity in the French Empire
• Zara Bennett, Articulating Exile, Remembering Africa: Gorée Island in the Afro-Atlantic Diasporic Imagination

2:45-3:30 - Break
 
3:30-5:30 - Keynote Addresses

• Emmanuel Dongala - "From Negritude to Migritude: The African Writer in Exile"
• Christopher L. Miller - "Glissant, the Slave Trade, and the 'Privilege' of Exile"

5:30 - Closing Reception

(See Thursday, October 13, 2005 listing for Thursday schedule)

Cost : Free and open to the public; parking is available for $8.

For more information please contact:

Amy Marczewski or Julie Nack Ngue

frenconf@ucla.edu

www.french.ucla.edu/gradconf

Sponsor(s): African Studies Center, Art History, Fowler Museum at UCLA, French and Francophone Studies, Graduate Students of the UCLA Department of French and Francophone Studies, Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation, Consulate General of France in Los Angeles, Eugen Weber Chair of Modern European History, UCLA Graduate Students Association, UCLA Campus Programs Committee of the Programs Activities Board, Patricia Blake