16 april.indd - American Association of Teachers of French

ACCLAIMED FRENCH NOVELIST JULIEN SUAUDEAU
ON POST-NOVEMBER 2015 FRANCE AND TERRORISM
2016 KEYNOTE SPEAKER IN AUSTIN (JULY 3, 2016)
Quand la fiction puise
dans la réalité sociale
Le 13 novembre restera toujours gravé
dans nos esprits. Today we continue to
struggle as we remember what took
place on that late
fall Friday evening in
Paris, and face the fear
of terrorist attacks on
our doorsteps. How
did the French live
before November, and
how do they face the
violence of our world
today? What understanding do French
people draw from
what happened? How
deeply can we search
for understanding as
we know the November terrorists were of
French and European
descent? What is the
place of not just Islam
but also class struggle, economic depression in French society nowadays? What
is French society today? Julien Suaudeau
will be with us in Austin and share with
us his perspective as a French novelist.
The author of two acclaimed novels
(Dawa, 2014; and Le Français, 2015) Julien
Suaudeau was born in 1975. He grew up
in the small city of Evreux, was an amateur boxer, studied at Sciences Po, started
his career as a consultant for the French
Embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan. From film
critic he then became a documentary
filmmaker. His first feature documentary,
Il était une fois en Côte d’Ivoire (2004),
aired in France, Germany, Switzerland,
and Canada, followed by two others, Derrière les cordes, American Dreamers, as well
as three short fiction films, Zé, Une pierre
au coeur, and Un an et un jour.
Today Julien Suaudeau lives in
Philadelphia with his wife and two small
children. Amazingly, he is one of our own,
a colleague currently teaching French in
Haddonfield, NJ. He finds time to write
everyday, standing as one of France’s
most prominent contemporary literary
voices.
Dawa is a realist psychological and
sociopolitical thriller, a reflection on the
link between past and present, an interpretation on chaos, terrorism, vengeance,
manipulation, complexity, Paris’ banlieues.
Le Français follows the narrator, a young
Vol. 41, No. 4 (April 2016)
Frenchman with no marks from a small
provincial town, who as he faces the brutality of his environment, takes the jihad
route and becomes an ISIS executioner
in Syria. These two novels are strong
and impactful. Journalist Élise Lépine (Le
Point, March 30, 2014)
speaks of Dawa as a
“roman-choc” and wrote:
“Quand la fiction puise
dans la réalité sociale, la
littérature fait l'effet d'un
coup de poing. La preuve
avec le livre de Julien
Suaudeau.”
We are extremely
grateful that Julien
Suaudeau accepted our
invitation to join us in
Austin. Without a doubt
his keynote address will
be a unique and powerful
moment, and our time
with him will allow us to
reach a better and clearer
understanding of identity construction,
inequalities and socio-economic realities,
the fluidity of French culture, and the
world and French society seen through
the eyes of a novelist.
In Julien Suaudeau’s words, about his
first book, Dawa:
J'ai écrit Dawa à Philadelphie,
une ville où l'Amérique se rappelle ce
qu'elle doit à la France des Lumières,
en me demandant si cette idée de
la France et de la République a un
avenir, ou si elle n'est plus qu'un
mythe consigné aux livres d'histoire.
À travers chaque personnage, chacun des milieux qu'explore le récit, je
me suis efforcé de regarder la France
d'aujourd'hui avec ce qu'on appelle
l'oeil américain: observateur, précis,
sans complaisance. Sous le coup de
la colère et de la déception, aussi,
devant les impostures identitaires et
leurs exploitations politiciennes qui
polluent l'image que notre société
a et donne d'elle-même. Dawa est
le fruit noir de cette rumination, de
mon exil loin d'un pays que j'aime,
qui me manque tous les jours, mais
qui ne tourne pas rond.
Do not miss Julien Suaudeau’s keynote address!
Catherine Danielou
Présidente
[[email protected]]
2016 National French Week - November 4-10
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