THE AIZEN<sup>©</sup> BULLETIN

Fall 1997


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FROM THE EDITORS...

        The Sixth International Conference and Fourth International Film Festival is being hosted by California State University, Los Angeles. The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, chaired by Dr. Joseph Chrzanowski, will sponsor this major three-day Conference, October 23-25, 1997. Our special thanks to Professor Chrzanowski and Professor Carl Selkin, Dean of the School of Arts and Letters, for their cooperation and support. Both will be present for introductory remarks during the opening session.

        More than 55 participants from North and South America, Europe, and Asia will be discussing Emile Zola, Naturalism and the influence of Naturalism in diverse countries. Three new panels are being introduced this year: Rereading La Joie de vivre, Willa Cather, and The New American Naturalist Cinema. We are grateful to Professor Rosowski of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, for her suggestions and advice regarding the Willa Cather panel. Also, contributing to the realization of our goal to develop and expand the study of Cinematic Naturalism, we are pleased to present a Forum based on the New American Naturalist Cinema (Casino, Leaving Las Vegas, and Under the Sign of Saturn).

        Larry Cohen, a major independent American filmmaker, will be a special guest at the 1997 Conference. A reception will be held to present and celebrate the launching of Larry Cohen, the Radical Allegories of an Independant Filmmaker (Mc Farland & Co., Inc., Publishers), an exhaustive study of his entire work by Tony Williams who has lent his support to this special event. Two films by Larry Cohen will be shown during the Conference: Black Caesar (1973) and Original Gangstas (1996). Also featured in the Film Festival: La Terre (Antoine, 1921), an extremely rare silent adaptation of Zola’s novel; Call of the Wild (Wellman, 1935); and Caught (Young, 1996).

        Accomodations for the Conference have been arranged at two hotels: Metro Plaza and The New Otani Hotel and Garden. The “French naturalist Supper” will be at the Restaurant La Parisienne in Monrovia.

        We are looking forward to this event; highlights will appear in the Spring issue of the Bulletin.

        Our special thanks to Terry Butler and Andrew Migdal who designed the new AIZEN web site. We are grateful to the University of Alberta, and especially to Professor Patricia Clements, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, for encouragement and support in its development.

        In addition to the web site, the Association has an electronic discussion list (also called AIZEN) created by Anna Gural-Migdal for scholars specializing in Zola and Naturalism around the world.
To subscribe simply send the following message, with no subject heading, to:

        majordomo@ualberta.ca
        "SUBSCRIBE AIZEN YOUR NAME"

        As with most electronic list subscriptions, the message is processed automatically and should include no signature or other messages in the text.

        We are pleased to mention that the unedited extracts from correspondence between Emile Zola and Alexandrine Zola during the Dreyfus Affair, read by Dr. Brigitte Emile-Zola at the New York Conference in September of 1996, will appear in Volume X of Excavatio.

Anna Gural-Migdal, Brigitte Emile-Zola, Robert Singer, Monique Fol at the Fifth International Conference Emile Zola and Naturalism, New York City, 1996


        The University of Glasgow, UK will be hosting the upcoming 7th International Conference/5th International Film Festival, September 23-25, 1998 (see Call for Papers). Our thanks to the University and Geoff Woollen who is making all the arrangements. The sessions will be held in the Modern Languages Building where there is a theater with a BARCO projector for films, and an adjoining lecture theater for conventional papers. Buffet lunches will be served there or at the College Club. The cost of bed, breakfast and evening meals is only 20 £ per day.

        Every year, the AIZEN grows more and more toward the goals put forth by Professor Fol at the time of its foundation. The Association, under the management of a dynamic team, continues to create new aims and to develop new strategies for expansion. The reputation of the AIZEN is now firmly established. Dedicated to naturalist studies, the Association is unique and complementary, allowing scholars to pursue their “excavation” of the naturalist field.

Monique Fol and Anna Gural-Migdal,
October, 1997




A few words about our members:

        Monique Fol is recuparating slowly from an almost fatal incidence of respiratory failure. She wishes to thank members who sent her letters, cards, and gifts.

        Congratulations to Anna Gural-Migdal who was awarded the Harriet Winspear- Sheila Watson Fellowship. Her book, Le Cinéma de Paul Tana (in coll. with Filippo Salvatore) was published at Balzac, Montréal, 1997. Also congratulations to Robert Singer for his promotion to the rank of Associate Professor.

        Our special thanks to Geoff Woollen and Gilbert Darbouze, our first members to subscribe to AIZEN Lifetime Memberships.

        Michaela Marin, who received the AIZEN Award for best graduate student paper (1996), has been granted the Chateaubriand Fellowship to conduct research at the CNRS in Paris.

        Among our graduate students who were recently hired as Assistant Professors are: Elizabeth Emery (Montclair State University), Sayeeda Mamoon (University of South Dakota), and Oswaldo Voysest (Beloit College).

        And look for Messiah or Antichrist-A Study of the Messianic Myth in the Work of Zola (Associated University Presses, USA, 1997) by Anthony John Evenhuis of Tasmania, Australia.

        Nancy Weston, who is in charge of the AIZEN and Excavatio graphics / production, has designed our new laminated membership cards. Our thanks for her continued dedication and excellent work.

Please keep us appraised of your promotions, books, films, etc, so that we may announce them in upcoming issues.


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