News & Forum

A philosopher, economist, writer and musician, the Senegalese Felwine Sarr is one of the most prominent intellectual figures of the moment. In recent years, his work has taken on a new form: that of plays. Two of them are currently on tour in the United States, and carry this singular voice that invites us to believe in the possibility of utopia. On September 19, your plays Traces - Speach to African Nations and Freedom, I’ll Have Lived Your Dream until the Last Day began to tour in America. They… read more about Felwine Sarr: Reinvest History and Utopia »

Two Duke students from a Romance Studies class have helped elect the winner of France’s most prestigious literary prize, which expanded its reach to the United States for the first time ever this year. First awarded in 1903 by French writer Edmond de Goncourt’s literary society, now known as the Académie Goncourt, the prize is France’s version of the Pulitzer. It recognizes a work of “great imagination in prose” and has been awarded to internationally recognized authors such as Marcel Proust and Simone de Beauvoir. Though… read more about Duke Students Help Select the Winner of France’s Most Prestigious Literary Prize »

Le récit familial sur la transmission de la mémoire de la Shoah de la romancière française, au cœur d'une polémique dans le milieu littéraire parisien, a été sacré ce samedi à New York. Le récit sur l'Holocauste et sur les racines juives de l'écrivaine française Anne Berest, La Carte postale, au cœur d'une polémique dans le milieu littéraire parisien, a décroché samedi à New York le premier prix Goncourt version américaine. Le plus prestigieux des prix littéraires français s'est internationalisé avec des «… read more about La Carte postale d'Anne Berest décroche le Goncourt version américaine »

Philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, renowned for his wide-ranging, challenging, and thoughtful writing on art, film, and politics, died August 23 at the age of eighty-one. Best known for his unfetteredly fresh takes on giants of thought, including Heidegger, Kant, and Sartre, he wrote extensively on art, taking as his subjects Simon Hantaï, Soun-Gui Kim, and On Kawara, the last of whom he especially admired for his works investigating death, time, and human existence. Nancy’s 2000 essay “L’intrus” (The Intruder), perhaps his most… read more about Jean-Luc Nancy (1940-2021) »

In 2011, at the unveiling of a highway marker honoring Pauli Murray — the lawyer, priest, civil rights advocate, and Durham native — Helen Solterer began a literary journey through time and place. It was there that Solterer, a professor of Romance Studies, first learned of Murray’s poetry. Solterer was particularly struck by Murray’s 1944 poem “Dark Testament,” calling it Murray’s “freedom song” about “the curse of lynching in North Carolina.” It’s a stunning work of literature in its own right, and Solterer also heard a… read more about Duke Guggenheim Fellow Asks What Makes Literature Feel Timely »

Six visiting scholars representing liberal arts institutions, historically black colleges and universities (HBCU), and Durham Technical Community College will arrive at Duke this summer to collaborate with faculty as part of an innovative humanities initiative. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded Humanities Unbounded is designed to nurture collaboration and inventive expressions of the humanities at Duke and beyond. Among other aims, it expands Duke's curriculum by launching research-based humanities labs that enrich … read more about Duke Welcomes NCCU, Durham Tech, Liberal Arts Collaborators to Humanities Unbounded initiative »

It is with profound sadness that we have learned of Pascale Casanova's passing at age 59 on September 29 in Paris. A highly innovative literary critic and a wonderful person, she had been a visiting professor in Romance Studies at Duke a few years ago. For more information, see Xavier de La Porte's remembrance: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4061-pascale-casanova-world-citizen-of-... and her obituary in Le Monde by Gisèle Sapiro:  LE MONDE | 03.10.2018 La mort de la chercheuse et critique littéraire Pascale… read more about In memoriam: Pascale Casanova »

The campus novel invented by English-speaking writers made a splash some years ago, with Duke providing more than the décor.  In Changing Places (1975), David Lodge creates Morris Zapp, a globe-trotting professor of literature resembling Stanley Fish who transformed the English Department during the 1980s-90s. Now it’s the turn of a writer in France, Agnès Desarthe, whose novel, La Chance de leur vie [Editions de l’Olivier] is just out.  The scene is Earl University, in North Carolina, and the scenario, a… read more about A Novel Duke: Agnès Desarthe »

In November 2017, the Louvre Abu Dhabi opened on the island of Saadiyat in the United Arab Emirates. The museum is the product of an intergovernmental agreement between France and the UAE and as a result members of the Agence France-Muséums, representing not only the Louvre in Paris but many other French cultural centers that have pledged to lend resources for exhibitions in the coming years. The UAE reportedly paid four hundred million euros for the use of the Louvre’s name in addition to two hundred and twenty million… read more about Louvre Abu Dhabi: Part of a Partnership or a Business Transaction? »