FROM THE EDITOR...
The three-day International AIZEN Conference at the University of Philadelphia marked the 10th anniversary of the foundation of our association in North America. The largest number of participants ever planned to attend the conference and many special activities were slated for the occasion. Although somewhat darkened by the September 11 tragedy, the event went very well and participants entered enthusiastically into the scholarly exchange with colleagues. The challenge was to resist the thought of canceling the conference and instead follow through with our conviction that it was a crucial moment for the affirmation of scholarly and humanistic endeavors, especially in an association devoted to an intellectual respected for his bold involvement in current events. It was important to inspire strength and show our solidarity when confidence was in danger of faltering. Since the AIZEN came into being on the East Coast of the United States, participants felt a return to origins, in the beautiful city of Philadelphia, in spite of the fact that access was denied to the Liberty Bell, one of the most important symbols of America. At the conference itself, participants particularly valued the contributions of the honored guests, which, now in retrospect, can be seen as precious gifts.
Naomi Schor |
Eric Cahm |
Honored guest Naomi Schor (Yale University, USA), internationally recognized nineteenth-century scholar and foremost Zola specialist in North America, fell victim to a brain hemorrhage on December 2, 2001. And then, on January 26, 2002, our other honored guest, the greatest specialist of the Dreyfus Affair, Eric Cahm (Université de Tours, France) died suddenly of a heart attack. The 10th International AIZEN Conference at the University of Philadelphia was to be the last formal speaking engagement for the two luminaries. The AIZEN executive, on behalf of its members, offers heartfelt condolences to these scholars' families and other colleagues. We pay tribute in the pages of this publication and, in order that their memory remain alive, we have decided to rename the AIZEN Award, meant to reward the best paper written by a doctoral student and presented at one of our conferences, the Schor/Cahm Award. What these two scholars held in common was their remarkable combination of great erudition and intellectual audacity, a stance that led them to view their own research as pedagogy, in terms of innovation or even provocation. They remained committed to providing carefully documented, astounding new insights that have affected the way we, from our 21st-century perspective, view attitudes and preoccupations during Zola's lifetime. One need only think of Naomi Schor's bold examination of the representation of the feminine in Zola's novels or Eric Cahm's emphasis on the necessity of taking into account the reactions of political moderates, relatively "silent" majorities, to issues raised by Zola's intervention in the Dreyfus Affair. Not only do we hold in high estimation the products of these seemingly indefatigable researchers' efforts, but we have been touched as well by the extraordinary modesty and human warmth they exhibited when taken into confidence.
We are grateful to Professor Schor for having chosen the AIZEN conference as a forum for her very challenging paper "Visualizing Zola," which called into question the value of a Cultural Studies approach to Zola's preparatory sketches of novels. We were privileged to hear the results of Eric Cahm's unique research into immediate reactions of the French press to Zola's intervention in the Dreyfus Affair, a paper entitled "Brave Champion of Truth or Insulter of the French Army: The View of Zola in France after 'J'accuse ...!'"
We thank Samuel Preston, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, and Associate Dean Joseph Farrell, for welcoming the AIZEN to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and are grateful to Carlos Alonso, Chair, Department of Romance Languages, for hosting the conference. Our thanks go to the French Institute for Culture and Technology at the University of Pennsylvania, and its director Jean H. Gallier, for sponsoring the event. A special thank you to Juliette Parnet, Assistant Director of the French Institute for Culture and Technology, who coordinated all local operations and made sure the conference ran smoothly; to Maurice Samuels and Jean-Marie Roulin, our liaisons with the Department of Romance Languages; and to Lucienne Frapier-Mazur for initiating the project of bringing the AIZEN to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Opening Wine & Cheese 2001, University of Pennsylvania |
The Dreyfus Affair received special attention at this conference. The Beitler Family Foundation, with the collaboration of the AIZEN and the University of Pennsylvania, brought an exhibit entitled "Zola and the Dreyfus Affair: Intellectuals and the Struggle for Social Justice" to the Lessing J. Rosenwald Gallery of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library (University of Pennsylvania) in celebration of our association's 10th anniversary and to coincide with the 2001 AIZEN International Conference. We extend our thanks to Lorraine Beitler, president of the Beitler Family Foundation, and Michael Ryan, Director of the University Libraries. The Opening Wine and Cheese took place on the evening of October 4 at this exhibit in the presence of dignitaries from the University of Pennsylvania, the city of Philadelphia, and members of the local Franco-American community. During the cocktail, honored guest Professor Eric Cahm made introductory remarks and commented from a historian's perspective on the items in the exhibit.
Other internationally known scholars attended this conference as well. We thank them for their invaluable contributions to its intellectual climate and success. Pierre Dufief of the Université de Bretagne Occidentale, France, who is President of the Association des Goncourt, and Anne-Simone Dufief, from the Université de Paris X - Nanterre, and internationally recognized Daudet specialist, provided, through their participation, an important new dimension to this conference. We thank Vasily Tolmatchoff and Wojciech Tomasik, who courageously made the trip to Philadelphia when many were afraid to board international flights destined for the U.S.
The two broad lines of this conference were determined by the two honored guests' cultural studies approaches to naturalist texts and issues of ethnicity associated with Zola's novels or his intervention in the Affair. In harmony with the American location, the conference featured a panel on Dreiser, to mark the 130th anniversary of the author's birth. We would like to acknowledge the efforts of a number of our members who organized panels for this conference. Our thanks go to Tony Williams for putting together a panel entitled "American Psycho: Literary and Cinematic Naturalist Approaches." We are grateful to Rohini Bannerjee, for her panel on Thérèse Raquin, and to Rachel Mesch, for another entitled "Science and Sex: Desire in Zola and After." Finally, we would like to express our appreciation to Gayle A. Levy for organizing the panel, "The Hero as Genius in Nineteenth-Century France," and to Sayeeda Mamoon and Juan Spicer-Escalante for their panel: "Uncontainable Bodies: Adulteresses, Androids, Androgynes, and Vampires in European and South American Literature."
At the AIZEN Banquet held at the Sheraton University City Hotel, the AIZEN Award for the Best Graduate Student Paper was presented to Göran Blix, from Columbia University. He read his text, entitled "'Le trou dans L'Œuvre': Zola's Punctured Text," at this event, commanding the attention of diners. A longer version of his paper is included in Volume XVI of Excavatio.
George Romero |
We thank Robert Singer for organizing the 7th International Naturalist Film Festival. In line with the focus on the Dreyfus Affair at the Philadelphia conference, two films produced in the English-speaking world on this topic were shown: Prisoner of Honor (1991), by Ken Russell, where the event is recorded from the point of view of the (real) counter-intelligence agent who confronts the French military establishment; and I Accuse (1958), by José Ferrer, where the director of the film also gives a compelling performance as Dreyfus suffering horrific injustices contrived by the French military. Thank you to Tony Williams, who arranged for the invitation of filmmaker George Romero, best known for The Night of the Living Dead, to the conference, as a special guest. Two of this filmmaker's horror films were screened: Dawn of the Dead (1979), a film that has recourse to the figure of ingestion Zola used in Au Bonheur des Dames to render concrete the frenzied monopolization of the retail market by department stores before the turn of the twentieth century; and Martin (1976), which explores the influence of milieu.
The conference participants ended their stay with a walking tour of the University City area, one of Philadelphia's first suburbs. They also enjoyed a visit to the Rodin Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This latter is one of the largest art museums in the U.S. and features, in particular, a very rich collection of impressionist paintings. The 10th International AIZEN Conference ended on a note of cultural enjoyment that detracted from signs of a city in mourning and reaffirmed, in the minds of participants, the much-repeated slogan: "Philadelphia is the place that loves you back."
It is a great privilege for the AIZEN to honor the One-Hundredth Anniversary of Emile Zola's death in Spain. I wish to thank the Universidad de Jaén and Rector Luis Parras Guijosa, for welcoming us. We owe a special thank you and word of appreciation to the Departamento de lenguas y culturas mediterráneas, and its director, Guadalupe Saiz Muñoz, for hosting and sponsoring this event. We would like to express our appreciation as well to the Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación and the Secretariado de Relaciones Internationales, here at the Universidad de Jaén, for their support. We are grateful to the Spanish Ministerio de ciencia y technología and the Ministerio de Educacion, cultura y deporte, for their endorsement of this conference. And we heartily thank the Junta de Andalucía, the Diputación Provincial de Jaén and its president Felipe López, and the City of Jaén, for their warm welcome to this fascinating region.
As Organizer-in-chief of this conference, I would like to extend a special thanks to Encarnación Medina Arjona, Professor in the Departamento de lenguas y culturas mediterráneas at the Universidad de Jaén, for initiating the project of bringing the 11th International AIZEN Conference to Spain. As Co-organizer, she has played a key role in ensuring its success. It has been my distinct pleasure to work with her, Robert Singer, and Carolyn Snipes-Hoyt, my closest collaborators, in the organization of this conference.
The result of our efforts and the positive response of our members and all participants is a unique conference offering many opportunities for the circulation of knowledge. Ninety participants have come from eighteen different countries and four continents to share in the extraordinary scholarly exchange that has become part of the AIZEN's renown. We welcome scholars from Spain, Portugal, France, Finland, Greece, Austria, Italy, Germany, Canada, the USA, Mexico, South Korea, the Netherlands, England, Poland, Australia, Brazil, and Israel. This is the AIZEN's most international conference to date. The centenary of Zola's death will be featured in the sessions, as well as the impact of Zola, Naturalism and the Dreyfus Affair in Europe and in the Americas in literature and film. This conference offers special panels on Les Trois Villes, Une Page d'amour, and Thérèse Raquin, and sessions devoted to various aspects of naturalist representation in fiction and cinema: for example, motifs and themes, utopia and dystopia, mythology, pre-texts, the feminine, critical and aesthetic approaches, and the representation of animal instincts.
We are privileged to welcome honored guest Brigitte Emile-Zola, M.D., great-granddaughter of the writer we celebrate. Dr. Emile-Zola maintains a private collection, her legacy from her great-grandfather's family. At the Naturalist Dinner, it will be our pleasure to hear her presentation entitled "Portrait de Jeanne Rozerot d'après les souvenirs de son fils Jacques et un choix de lettres inédites de Zola" based on unique, unpublished material. We are thrilled to welcome two special guests. Yves Chevrel comes to us from Université de Paris IV - Sorbonne, world-renowned specialist in naturalism and comparative literature and author of major works, such as Le Naturalisme: Étude d'un mouvement littéraire international (PUF 1982, 1993) and La Littérature comparée, collection "Que sais-je?" The title of his presentation on Thursday will be "Zola et le renouveau de l'art dramatique en Europe à la fin du XIXième siècle." Françoise Gaillard teaches at the Université de Paris VII - Denis Diderot, and has been a Guest Professor at New York University and Northwestern University, in the U.S. She has written numerous articles on nineteenth-century French novelists Balzac, Stendhal, Flaubert, Huysmans and Zola. Her most recent longer work is La Modernité en questions (Editions du Cerf 1993), prepared in collaboration with Jacques Poulain. On Friday she will present a paper entitled "Zola, le oui à la vie: de La Bête humaine au Docteur Pascal".
On Thursday and Friday, all conference sessions will take place in the Building D1 "Edificio Zabaleta" of the Campus Las Lagunillas, Universidad de Jaén, either in the "Sala de Grados" or in the "Sala de Juntas." On Saturday, June 15, the sessions will be held in the Hospital San Juan de Dios, either in the room "Capilla" or in the room "San Vicente 2." On Thursday afternoon, you are invited to attend the Opening Cocktail, where tapas, beer, and Sangría will be offered by the Faculdad de Humanidades and the Secretariado de Relaciones Internacionales de la Universidad de Jaén. In the evening, the Jaén City Hall is offering a reception for conference participants and a guided tour of this city that boasts architectural examples from most periods of the history of the Iberian peninsula.
Friday evening, the Naturalist Dinner in honor of Brigitte Emile-Zola will take place at the Parador Hotel, Castillo de Santa Catalina, Room "Sala Condestable." Conference participants and their guests are invited to attend the banquet at this magnificent hotel located at the summit of the Cerro Santa Catalina. The hotel is adjacent to a castle by the same name, built for King Alhamar, the king who built the Alhambra in Granada, and was later conquered by King Ferdinand III El Santo. The price per person for this dinner is 42 euros, all inclusive. Drinks available are as follows: beer, soft drinks, mineral water, white and red wine, a Catalan champagne, and coffee. The recipient of the Schor/Cahm Award for the Best Graduate Student Paper will be announced on this occasion.
On Saturday, participants are cordially invited to a lunch offered by the Diputación Provincial de Jaén, at the Restaurante de l'Hospital San Juan de Dios, where the conference session will be held. In the early evening, there will be a guided tour of the Arab Baths.
The two films that make up our Naturalist Film Festival at this conference are about dogs: an older one that influenced a more recent one. The first film to be shown is a rare copy of Un Chien andalou (1929), by Luis Buñuel. This film, made in collaboration with Salvador Dali, anticipates Buñuel's later style in its exaltation of erotic desire. The bizarre imagery of this classic includes severed hands, priests, and rotting donkeys, creating a poetic illusion of reality that has no equal in film history. The complex drama Amores perros (2000), by Mexican director Iñárritu, centers on a dreadful automobile accident and its consequences as played out in the lives of several characters. Love, politics, sex, violence, jealousy, and our four-legged friends make this a fascinating film.
On Sunday, the AIZEN is offering conference participants an excursion to Granada and the Alhambra. Transportation will be provided in a luxury coach for sixty persons. At 8:45 a.m. participants will depart for Granada. Conference-goers will benefit from a group rate for admission to the Alhambra, making a visit to various sections-the Alcazaba, Palacios Nazaríes, and Generalife. On the return trip to Jaén, there will be a stop in Mirador San Nicolás, where participants will be able to eat lunch and shop, before returning to Jaén.
Accommodations in Jaén have been arranged at two hotels-Hotel Condestable Iranzo and Hotel Infanta Cristina. The Hotel Infanta Cristina, ten minutes from the university by public transportation, is a recently built four-star luxury hotel with a courtyard patio and swimming pool on the Avda. de Madrid s/n. The Hotel Condestable Iranzo is a three-star establishment, twenty minutes from the university by public transportation, Paseo de la Estación, 32. Both hotels offer parking, swimming pool, breakfast, and air-conditioned rooms. We encourage you to consult the tourist information provided in your folder and try the authentic Andalusian cuisine in some of the recommended nearby establishments. Please keep in mind that there are no restaurants in the immediate vicinity of the university. However, meals at the university cafeteria cost no more than 10 euros and this service is available from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm.
(from left) Iole Checcone, Pierre Dufief, Anne-Simone Dufief |
Looking ahead to future conferences, you will find some not-to-be-missed opportunities to present conference papers. In 2003, the International AIZEN Conference will take place from October 9 to 11 at the University of Texas in San Antonio. A special thank you to Jeanne Campbell Reesman, Dean of Graduate Studies, for initiating this project of bringing the AIZEN to the University of Texas in San Antonio and making preliminary arrangements. Her continued support is much appreciated. We extend our thanks to the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, and its Chair, Marita Nummikoski, for hosting the conference, and to local organizer and liaison with the department, Santiago Daydí-Tolson, who has already shown a great deal of enthusiasm in the initial preparations. The conference sessions will be held on the Downtown Campus of the University of Texas in San Antonio. All the major attractions of this old Spanish city will be easily accessible, including restaurants and the historic river valley, where you can take a moonlit cruise and learn of local lore.
The 13th International AIZEN Conference will be held for the first time in South America, in the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from May 25 to 28, 2004. This event will last four days, instead of the usual three, and will be open to approximately 125 participants, in order to emphasize the importance of Emile Zola in Brazilian culture and show his influence on naturalist writers using the Portuguese language. The conference will be sponsored by the Faculty of Humanities at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the Casa de Rui Barbosa Foundation, which has played an important role in promoting literature and culture and has, interestingly, a close connection to the Dreyfus Affair. We extend heartfelt thanks to Ligia Vassallo and Pedro Paulo Catharina, from the Faculty of Humanities, who have offered their collaboration with the AIZEN to bring this project into existence, and will serve as co-organizers of the conference. We are grateful to Marcelo Jacques de Moraes, the Coordinator of the Programa de Post-graduaçao em Letras Neolatinas at the same university and to Dr. Mario Brockmann Machado, President of the Fondation Casa de Rui Barbosa, where the conference sessions will take place, as well as the Naturalist Film Festival. This is a magnificent edifice from the 19th century, surrounded by gardens, and outfitted with ultra-modern facilities.
Unfortunately, in moving now to news of our members, we have one more item of sad news to report. We must register the passing of Colin Burns, the founding and honorary president of the Emile Zola Society based in the United Kingdom. Before his retirement in 1988, Colin Burns was Head of Department at the University of Birmingham. He was a specialist in Céard and author of Henry Céard et le naturalisme (1982), in addition to editing a collection of this author's short stories and another of his correspondence, notably with Émile Zola. He published many articles on Huysmans, Vizetelly, Zola, and the Dreyfus Affair.
The very good news we can report about our members helps to rectify the negative balance incurred by these losses to Zola Studies. Some members have published books. The publication of Colette Becker's recent book, entitled Zola. Le saut dans les étoiles (Presses de la Sorbonne Nouvelle), coincides with the centenary of Zola's death. The originality of this work lies in its illustration of Zola's aesthetics as they were actually carried out, taking into account his own carefully elaborated theories, but showing to what extent and how he was not limited to their realization. Philippe Hamon, who wrote the preface, notes that Becker reveals the "poétique inscrite et en acte" of Zola's novelistic enterprise.
Opening Lunch at the White Dog Café |
The compilation of AIZEN members' essays on the representation of women in Zola and naturalist fiction will be available in August of 2002 from Peter Lang in Berne, Switzerland. L'Écriture du féminin chez Zola et dans la fiction naturaliste, edited by Anna Gural-Migdal, contains thirty articles in French or English by researchers at various points in their careers. The book will enjoy a wide distribution, not only in the English- and French-speaking world, but in German-speaking countries as well.
In Beauty Raises the Dead: Literature and Loss in the Fin de Siècle (Univ. of Delaware Press, 2002), Robert Ziegler examines, according to psychoanalytical models, the expression of melancholy that characterizes the writings of Decadents as a formulation of loss; he posits sickness and isolation as a precondition to their literary creation. In fact, these writers evolved an aesthetics of sickness and isolation and fostered a belief in the unknowability of objective reality and the impending end of the world, rather than engage with the enduring, healthy, or present.
Janice Best's recent book analyzes the process by which censorship attempts to justify its decisions and, conversely, authors try to meet its requirements. In Subversion silencieuse: Censure, autocensure et lutte pour la liberté de l'expression (Montréal: Editions Balzac, 2001), the author interprets the traces and the "gaps" left by this negotiation between authorities of censorship and nineteenth-century authors, such as Hugo, Musset, Dumas (father and son), Balzac, and Zola, in order to establish the actual subversive discourse that is grafted onto the actual words of their texts.
AIZEN members Tony Williams and Steven Schneider have contributed to Mikita Brottmann's new anthology on naturalist film, entitled Car Crash Culture (Palgrave Press 2002), which contains the following quotation from La Bête humaine: "She loved accidents: any mention of an animal run over, a man cut to pieces by a train, was bound to make her rush to the spot."
AIZEN Conference 2001 |
Elizabeth Emery is co-author of a book coming out this year, to be published with Ashgate Press. The title is Consuming the Past: The Medieval Revival in Fin-de-Siècle France.
Our congratulations go to Nelly Sanchez, a member of the AIZEN who has successfully defended her doctoral thesis and was conferred a doctorat de lettres modernes from the Université de Bordeaux III in October of 2001. This project, carried out under the direction of M.Gérard Peylet, bears the title "Images de l'homme dans les œuvres romanesques de Rachilde et de Colette."
Members of the AIZEN executive would like to solicit articles on two topics. Robert Singer and Anna Gural-Migdal wish to prepare a book on film adaptations of Zola's novels. Carolyn Snipes-Hoyt, along with a colleague in art history, Anne Dymond, invites submissions in French or English for an interdisciplinary and international collection on representations of men and women in a regionalist discursive context at the turn of the twentieth century. Anyone who would like to submit an article of fifteen to twenty pages to one of these collections should do so before June 30, 2003, according to MLA format.
Volume XVI of Excavatio, No 1-2. is now available and contains twenty-nine articles that fall into the following categories: Race, Regionalism, Nation; Cultural Studies Approaches to Zola's Text; Zola and his European Contemporaries; Naturalism and the Nineteenth-Century French Hero as Genius; Naturalism and the Arts; South American and Spanish Naturalism. I have greatly appreciated the efforts of my editorial team, in particular Elizabeth Emery, Carolyn Snipes-Hoyt, and Gust Olson. I am grateful to the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta, and Dean Harvey Krahn, for financing the publication of this volume. And I wish to thank the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies, its Chair, Donald Bruce, and his staff, for their kind assistance.
The success we have enjoyed following the celebration of the AIZEN's ten years of existence, in spite of the events we never imagined having to confront, shows that our organization is a large, well-oiled machine. If we take stock of our activities in terms of figures, we could say that our yearly conferences welcome close to one hundred participants coming from the four corners of the earth, that our international review Excavatio, produced bi-annually, allows us to publish approximately sixty articles, that is, about eight hundred pages per year, that our membership has tripled in the last three years. We can only congratulate ourselves on our stunning success, which has surpassed all our expectations. We have come to a turning point in our development, where we can emphasize the official third language of our association and give it the wide berth it deserves as the cultures where it is spoken gain in popularity the world over. In this way, we continue our work of breaking new ground, that is, of opening our doors to larger and larger numbers of researchers on an international scale in the area of Zola and Naturalist Studies. Our conferences are envisaged years in advance and our calendar is already almost filled for the next ten years. San Antonio, Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans, and Victoria are beautiful cities where we will take you in the years to come. All that lacks is that we decide on where to celebrate our 20th year of existence ...
As I look forward to seeing you in the enchanting atmosphere of Andalusia, I wish you, on behalf of the entire team, an excellent summer.
Anna Gural-Migdal, the 23rd of May, 2002
University of Alberta
10th AIZEN International Portfolio, University of Pennsylvania, October 4-6, 2001
Dear Anna, Carolyn and Robert:
I just wanted to say that it was a real pleasure to see you again in Philadelphia. The AIZEN conference went well. As usual, your excellent planning, your foresight in preventing or solving problems that could arise made the conference a success. I enjoyed and learned quite a great deal in the sessions that I attended.
I wish you continued success in all your activities.
Very cordially,
-- Gilbert Darbouze, Bloomsburg University, USA
Bonjour Anna:
Merci encore une fois pour un colloque agréable et stimulant! Merci de tout ce travail d'organisation, à toi, à Carolyn et à Robert.
J'espère vous retrouver tous au Texas en octobre 2003!
Bien amicalement,
-- Janice Best, Acadia University, Canada
Dear Professor Gural-Migdal,
I wish to express my sincere and cordial thanks to you for your kind hospitality during the 10th AIZEN Conference in Philadelphia. It was a pleasure seeing you again. I will long remember my short stay in USA.
I wish to congratulate you on the success of the 10th Conference and hope that the next meeting in Spain will be as fruitful and as interesting as this one.
With best regards,
-- Wojciech Tomasik, Casimir the Great Academy of Bydgoszcz, Poland
Chère Mme Gural-Migdal,
Merci beaucoup pour la dernière conférence à Philadelphie qui était si bien organisée. Merci surtout pour l'esprit de convivialité qui, je sais, émanait particulierement de vous, mais également des co-organisateurs, Mme Carolyn Snipes-Hoyt et M. Robert Singer.
Plus qu'à toute autre conférence, j'ai rencontré des personnes très agréables, en plus des thèmes plus interessants les uns plus que les autres; et je suis content que le colloque n'ait pas été annulé.
Cordialement vôtre,
-- Christian Mbarga, Johns Hopkins University, USA
View of the Perelman Quadrangle, University of Pennsylvania |
Dear Anna:
It was great meeting you and your team. It was also very odd-strange really, the reason being Monique's absence, and the odder fact that she was a currency among us all to connect. She must have planned it, or seen it this way. The conference was of good quality and the editorial committee of Excavatio will have no shortage of high caliber proposals. The AIZEN is obviously a mature organization.
The exhibit was great. It was a treat to see the original caricatural drawings of Zola. As your guest historian was talking, I suddenly felt in the time frame of two of your displays, enjoying the privilege of retrospect, knowing what the conclusion would be, is, was-a privilege of course none of the persons concerned could have enjoyed.
That moment revealed the true courage of Zola, visibly somber and disturbed in some of the courtroom illustrations, looking old, tiny, and frail for all his girth; looking dignified as well, even caricatured with the belly of a sturdy pig. I had seen the Dreyfus Affair as the political moment in Zola's biography, as the precursor to Sartre's engaged literature. But really there was nothing comparable to Sartre's situation here. It was definitely dangerous for Zola, and costly in all kinds of ways. I heard the roars of the now-defunct opponents reduced to nothing. And, to think, Zola did not even experience the glorious moment when Dreyfus was reinstated into the Army, as in the illustration.
I met quite a few pleasant people at the conference and my trip was definitely an adventure. I am glad I met you all.
Thank you,
-- Servanne Woodward, University of Western Ontario, Canada
Dear Anna,
Thank you very much for all your hard work in making the conference a smashing success again this year! Please extend my thanks to Robert Singer and Carolyn Snipes-Hoyt as well as to Elizabeth Emery, who chaired my session on "Other Naturalist Genres."
I truly enjoyed meeting everyone and hearing so many interesting presentations, especially the keynote speeches by Naomi Schor and Eric Cahm.
Merci encore,
-- Jennifer Wolter, Ohio State University, USA
Dear Professor Gural-Migdal,
This was the first time I'd attended an AIZEN conference, and I was very impressed by the quality of the papers, the congenial atmosphere, and especially the excellent organization-bravo! and thanks for all you did.
Cordially,
-- Carol Rifelj, Middlebury College, USA
Dear Anna,
I just wanted to let you know what a nice time I had on Saturday at the AIZEN conference. It was a pleasure meeting you there, and I hope I get the opportunity to attend the conference in full next year and thereafter.
Once again, many thanks, and I look forward to seeing you again soon.
With best wishes,
-- Steven Schneider, Harvard University, USA
Dear Professor Gural-Migdal,
Thanks for all the work in making the meeting such a success. I truly enjoyed participating and am only sorry that I could not stay for the whole meeting.
Looking forward to hearing from you, the organization, and being with you in Spain.
Sincerely,
-- Robert S. April, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, USA
Très chère Anna,
Tout d'abord permettez-moi, encore une fois, de vous remercier pour ces journées de colloque. Je ne saurais vous dire à quel point j'étais heureuse d'y participer. D'ailleurs, en vue d'une prochaine fois, auriez-vous les dates exactes de celui qui se tiendra au Brésil?
Je tenais à souligner aussi, comment, malgré les événements actuels, vous, votre organisation, la tenue du colloque ont réussi, non pas à nous faire oublier l'actualité, mais à la rendre plus supportable.
Amitiés,
-- Véronique Cnockaert, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada
Chère Anna,
Je ne sais pas si tu es déjà rentrée au Canada, mais je tenais à te féliciter, ainsi que Carolyn Snipes-Hoyt et Robert Singer, pour votre travail de préparation de la conference (je parle d'expérience!).
J'espère que vous garderez un bon souvenir de Philadelphie.
A bientôt par courrier electronique.
Amitiés,
-- Juliette Parnet, French Institute for Culture and Technology, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Dear Anna,
A warm congratulations to you, Carolyn, and Robert for a most successful and enjoyable conference. Without your energies and devotion, Zola and Naturalist Studies would be gravely impoverished. Thank you. In the hope of seeing you next year in Spain,
Sincerely yours,
-- Camille Collins, Columbia University, USA
Dear Anna, Robert and Carolyn:
Just a brief note to thank you all for your tremendous effort in preparing and making AIZEN 2001 -- Philadelphia so successful!!! Although my health seemed to "crash" during the conference-I finally appear to be getting over a nasty case of bronchitis-I enjoyed the opportunity to meet, discuss, and celebrate once again with my AIZEN colleagues greatly. In the wake of Sept. 11, it was nice to see that our lives and our passions can still be shared with those colleagues who populate and enrich our personal worlds.
Next year, may the ritual continue in Jaén!!!
Saludos,
-- Juan Pablo Spicer-Escalante, Oakland University, USA
Chère Anna,
Ce fut un plaisir de vous revoir à Philadelphie et de faire partie du stimulant et enrichissant colloque AIZEN.
Merci de votre énergie, de vos efforts et des soins que vous apportez à l'organisation du colloque et qui, année apres année, en assurent le succès.
Bravo et bonne continuation!
Bien amicalement,
-- Bernadette Lintz, Colgate University, USA
Dear Carolyn,
I've just read the most recent AIZEN Bulletin and found out about your appointment as Assistant Professor at the University of Lethbridge and of your nomination as Associate Editor of Excavatio. Congratulations on both counts, and thank you for all the efforts and energy you devote to the AIZEN Colloquium. I enjoyed the Philadelphia meeting very much and admire the work that you and Anna devote each year to the preparation and running of the Colloquium. It was again a big success.
Good luck in your new position and best regards,
-- Bernadette Lintz, Colgate University, USA
Hi Anna,
It was great having you and getting to meet you! And I'm glad everything went so well. I think the conference was a big success. Good luck on the next one!
Best,
-- Maurice Samuels, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Chère Anna, Carolyn et Robert,
Juste un petit mot pour vous remercier encore une fois pour cette conférence très réussie de Philadelphie. J'ai été enchantée d'écouter tant de communications intéressantes et de rencontrer d'anciens amis, participants aux conferences précédentes de San Francisco et d'Edmonton. Je suis très heureuse de voir que l'ouverture et la renommée du colloque et de l'AIZEN attirent des chercheurs de domaines si divers. C'est encourageant pour tous les colloques à venir.
En vous souhaitant bonne continuation,
-- Mihaela Marin, Ohio State University, USA
Dear Dr. Snipes-Hoyt,
I was glad to be able to present at the conference in Philadelphia. I thought it was a very well-organized event with many interesting papers.
With best wishes,
-- Patrick Cable, Cleveland Museum of Art, USA
Vasily Tolmatchoff |
Dear Anna,
I am very sorry I have not been in touch earlier as promised. Thank God, I arrived home safely last Tuesday (October 16) after a week of leisure in New York. So now I am in a whirlpool of busy work. Let me thank you cordially for all you have done to make my participation in the conference possible. I was flattered by the attention of the audience to my paper.
The tragedy stressed the human and intellectual importance of an event such as the AIZEN conference in times of trouble. So, Anna, you did a superb job, not only as a fine organizer, but also as a good and reliable gal.
With love,
-- Vasily Tolmatchoff, Lomonosov State University of Moscow, Russia
Dear Anna,
What a fantastic conference!! Diane and I send our congratulations to you and Carolyn for creating such a wonderful experience and enlightening time for all. I really enjoyed myself. I hope you have heard from other participants too who have echoed my sentiments!
Let's keep in touch.
-- Robert Singer, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY, USA
Hi, Anna:
I want to thank you very much for allowing me to present a paper at the Philadelphia AIZEN conference. I had a wonderful time, and I found the whole experience exciting and informative. It was great to see you. I hope the pictures turned out OK.
Best,
-- Pamela Wilson, California State University, Los Angeles, USA
Chère Anna,
La remise en route a été plus difficile que les autres années, peut-être était-ce parce que j'avais réussi à déconnecter totalement ! Quoiqu'il en soit, je tiens à vous remercier ainsi que toute l'équipe AIZEN pour cette Conférence internationale, ce "melting pot" fort réussi.
J'espère que vous avez pris quelques jours pour récupérer avant la reprise à la Fac.
Meilleurs souvenirs à tous et à toutes.
-- Chantal Morel, Institut français de Londres, England
Dear Anna:
Thank you once again for your generous hospitality and invitation to present a panel at this year's conference which was an excellent follow-up to last year's. Your organizational abilities have again made AIZEN one of the most exciting and prominent conferences in this field of study. It is always a pleasure to attend and listen to stimulating papers in a very positive atmosphere.
Hope you had a safe trip back.
Best wishes,
-- Tony Williams, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA
Carlos J. Alonso |
Dear Anna,
Thank you for the opportunity to host this event! I think it went extremely well, and both our faculty and students reported that they learned from and enjoyed the experience.
I wish you the best of luck in the planning of the next AIZEN conference!
Warm regards,
-- Carlos J. Alonso, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Dear Anna,
I wish to thank you for your warm hospitality and skillfull organization of your wonderful AIZEN Conference at the University of Pennsylvania. I enjoyed meeting you, Robert, Carolyn, and the AIZEN participants. It was inspiring to be able to listen to many stimulating papers!
I hope you had a safe trip back to Canada, and have the opportunity for a well deserved rest!
Affectionately,
-- Sharon L. Reeves, CUNY Graduate Center, CUNY, USA
Chère Anna, Chère Carolyn:
Bravo les filles! Je vous remercie encore une fois du travail impressionnant que vous avez fait pour faire de cette conférence une grande réussite. Vous êtes formidables! Merci, merci, merci! Je ne peux pas vous dire combien j'ai apprecié ce colloque!
-- Elizabeth Emery, Montclair State University, USA
Dear Anna,
Wonderful to see you at the conference. I had a great time, and my reading went well.
Best to you,
-- Drew Limsky, New York University, USA
Chère Anna,
J'ai eu de très bons échos de l'ensemble du colloque. Je tiens à vous remercier encore de votre courtoisie à l'égard de Jean-Marie comme au mien. Cette collaboration, que j'ai simplement fait démarrer, a été un véritable plaisir. En vous souhaitant une bonne année universitaire et une bonne santé, je vous adresse mes meilleures pensées d'amitié.
-- Lucienne Frappier-Mazur, University of Pennsylvania, USA
2001 AIZEN Award winner |
Dear Anna,
I just wanted to let you know that I had a wonderful time at this year's AIZEN conference in Philadelphia. It was my first ever visit to the conference, but it certainly won't be the last. The group was so warm and welcoming, and so full of interesting scholars coming from a truly varied and diverse set of backgrounds and preoccupations that it was a genuine learning experience just to be there. You did a miraculous job putting all this together-along with Carolyn and Robert-especially in these tough circumstances, which have put a strain on everyone's travel experience. I just want to thank you personally for all the effort you've put into this, and congratulate you on making this a great event. I already look forward to the next conference, and to seeing you there again, as well as to being once more among the true and tried "aficionados" of naturalism.
All the best!
-- Göran Blix, Columbia University, USA
Chère Madame, ou plutôt chère Anna,
Nous vous remercions de votre accueil à Philadelphie. Nous avons été très heureux de participer à ces journées de l'AIZEN; la diversité des panels, le sérieux des communications, l'atmosphère très conviviale du colloque ont beaucoup contribué à l'intérêt de cette manifestation. Ętre là en cette période troublée et douloureuse et continuer à travailler fort pour nous tous est une façon d'exprimer votre solidarité à l'égard d'un pays éprouvé.
Nous n'oublions pas de parler favorablement de l'AIZEN autour de nous.
Nous espérons vivement vous retrouver à Paris et nous vous adressons nos bien amicales pensées.
-- Pierre Dufief, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, France, & Anne-Simone Dufief, Université de Paris X -- Nanterre, France
Dear Anna,
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for another great AIZEN Conference! I regret having to leave on Friday, as the remaining papers promised to be as interesting as those of the first day. The warm, collegial atmosphere was most welcome and reassuring after the events of September. I hope to be able to participate next year, as what can be better than a meeting of my favorite conference in the south of Spain? My thanks go to you, Carolyn, and Robert for all your hard work.
Sincerely,
-- Holly Haahr, Yeshiva University, USA
Dear Professor Gural-Migdal,
Again, many thanks for another wonderful conference this year. The papers were excellent, and I was particularly pleased to hear people speak about how naturalism manifests itself in Hispanic literature of the twentieth century.
Best wishes to you and yours.
-- Ellen C. Mayock, Washington and Lee University, USA
Anna,
I hope you've been well since the conference. I'd like to say again that I had a wonderful time: at the panels, at our dinner Thursday night, at the banquet, and in the City of Brotherly Love itself after the conference was over. Please schedule the AIZEN conference somewhere (relatively) nearby again-I'd love to come back for more! Though I do have to say, Brazil seems very, very tempting.
Best,
-- Steve Amarnick, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY, USA
Dear Professor Gural-Migdal,
It was such a pleasure meeting you in Philadelphia at the AIZEN conference, and I regret not having been able to stay longer. I look very much forward to the next AIZEN conference in Spain. Until then, thanks for a great conference in Philadelphia!
Yours sincerely,
-- Peter Schulman, Old Dominion University, USA
Dear Professor Gural-Migdal,
I very much enjoyed the AIZEN conference, and look forward to seeing you again in the future.
Best regards,
-- Cary Hollinshead-Strick, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Dear Anna,
After last year's wonderful conference in Edmonton (my first AIZEN) I wondered whether the Philadelphia meeting would be able to rekindle the flame. I needn't have worried: for a second year I came away inspired and encouraged. Many thanks for this and for all that you do.
Until next time,
-- Jeremy Worth, Western Ontario University, Canada
Chère Anna,
Laissez-moi d'abord vous remercier bien chaleureusement de votre invitation à prendre la parole encore une fois sur l'Affaire Dreyfus au colloque de l'AIZEN à Philadelphie. Personnellement je ne connais pas d'association dont l'accueil soit si sympathique et si généreux. Grâce à vous et à l'AIZEN, j'ai pu présenter à Philadelphie le résultat de travaux qui me tiennent à cœur, et sur un thème qui me semble à la fois capital et en même temps pas encore suffisamment étudié: l'accueil fait au "J'accuse...!". J'ai encore pu retrouver beaucoup de mes collègues qui sont devenus des amis. Cette invitation de l'AIZEN était pour moi à la fois flatteuse et un grand honneur, une chance exceptionnelle sur le plan universitaire et humain.
Comme toujours, à ce 10ième colloque de l'AIZEN, nous avons tous retrouvé à la fois une masse de communications de qualité, un grand encouragement aux jeunes, et, naturellement la convivialité habituelle, et tout cela malgré les circonstances difficiles du moment. Et cette fois, en plus, il y avait la belle exposition de la Fondation Beitler qui témoigne de l'intérêt soutenu pour l'affaire Dreyfus au sein de l'AIZEN et qui a ajouté une excellente dimension supplémentaire au colloque.
Le succès de l'AIZEN témoigne de la vitalité des études sur Zola et le naturalisme, notamment en Amérique du Nord, et qu'il soit permis à un invité venu du Vieux Continent de saluer cette association, à bien des égards un modèle à la fois en ce qui concerne le niveau des travaux, la promotion des jeunes et la gentillesse de l'accueil. De tout cela nous pourrions tirer des leçons.
Recevez, chère Anna, l'expression de mes sentiments les plus chaleureux et de toute mon amitié.
-- Eric Cahm, Université de Tours, France †
Chère Professeur Gural-Migdal,
Quel plaisir cela a été de vous rencontrer à Philadelphie! Je regrette seulement d'avoir dû partir plus tôt que prévu et de n'avoir ainsi pu davantage profiter de votre riche conférence.
Avec mes meilleures salutations,
-- Hélène Julien, Colgate University, USA
Dear Anna,
Just a quick note to you and your collaborators to thank you for the Philadelphia colloquium which was a great success. The atmosphere was friendly as always and the papers presented were of a very high calibre. I was very happy to have the chance to listen to Naomi Schor.
Thank you very much for all your efforts which are very much appreciated.
Take care.
With all best wishes,
-- Jurate Kaminskas, Queens University, Canada
Dear Anna,
I had a great time at the conference. You and your colleagues have the planning of these events down to a science.
Congratulations,
-- Barbara Romanczuk, Ohio State University, USA
(from left) Marie-Sophie Armstrong, Cary Hollinshead-Strick, Evelyn Gould, Barbara Romanczuk |
Chère Anna,
La conférence de Philadelphie était excellente, les présentations d'un très bon niveau, et le cadre très agréable. Bien qu'avec retard, je te dis donc «bravo à toi et Carolyn», pour tout le travail et l'énergie que vous avez investis dans cette conférence.
Bien amicalement,
-- Marie-Sophie Armstrong, Lehigh University, USA
Dear Anna,
I had meant to write earlier and tell you how much I enjoyed AIZEN 2001 in Philadelphia: the different sessions, Prof. Naomi Schor's talk, the library exhibit, and the banquet. I also managed to go to the museum which houses the best collection of Mary Cassatt's works.
Amitiés,
-- Sayeeda Mamoon, Edgewood College, USA
Chère collègue,
Merci encore une fois d'avoir organisé un si beau colloque.
Amicalement,
-- Naomi Schor, Yale University, USA †
Chère Professeur Gural-Migdal,
Je voudrais vous dire que j'ai vraiment apprécié la conférence AIZEN à Philadelphie, et j'espère pouvoir participer au colloque de San Antonio en 2003. Entretemps, je lirai avec intérêt le prochain numéro d'Excavatio et, en l'attendant, je vous adresse mon meilleur souvenir.
Bien cordialement,
-- Jelena Jovicic, University of Western Ontario, Canada