San Francisco 1999

8th International Conference
Emile Zola and Naturalism
5th International Film Festival



In Memory of Monique Fol

October 7-9, 1999


hosted by

City College of San Francisco
Foreign Language Department


Organizers:

Prof. Anna Gural-Migdal, President of the AIZEN, (University of Alberta, Canada)
Prof. Robert Singer, Vice President of the AIZEN, (Kingsborough Community College, CUNY, USA)
Assistant to organizers: Dr. Carolyn Snipes-Hoyt, Secretary of the AIZEN, (University of Alberta, Canada)


THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7

    8:30-10:00 AM REGISTRATION,
    Rosenberg Library Entrance



Science Hall, City College of San Francisco, Phelan Campus

    Section A

    10:15-11:45 AM, Science 121

American Naturalist Cinema and Literature
President: Robert Singer

    Drew Limsky (New York University, USA), "Sexual Warfare in Naturalist Cinema: The Films of Todd Solondz and Neil LaBute"

    Monty Kosbial Ernst (Fairfield University, USA), "Beyond the Limitations of Form: Dreiser from Sister Carrie to An American Tragedy"

    Lawrence Hussman (Wright State University, USA), "Doomed Desire and Existential Ethics in American Fiction from Naturalism to Postmodernism"

    11:45-1:00 PM LUNCH AND OPENING SPEECHES:
    Statler Wing, Pierre Coste Room

    Robert Singer, Vice President of the AIZEN

    Jacquelyn W. Green, Chair, Foreign Language Department, City College of San Francisco

    Bruce Smith, Dean, School of Liberal Arts, City College of San Francisco

    Emmanuel Delloye, Consulat Général de France, San Francisco

    Anna Gural-Migdal, President of the AIZEN

    Section B

    1:15-2:15 PM, Room 301

The Dreyfus Affair
President: Chantal Morel

    Eric Cahm (Université de Tours, France), "Zola, the Dreyfus Affair and North American Opinion in 1898"

    Lorraine Beitler (Beitler Family Foundation, USA), "An American Theatrical Response to the Dreyfus Affair from the Collections of the Beitler Family Foundation"

    Section C

    2:15-3:45 PM, Room 301

Zola after Les Rougon-Macquart
President: Jurate Kaminskas

    Evlyn Gould (University of Oregon, Eugene, USA), "Educating Consumers in Au Bonheur des Dames and Vérité"

    Renée Kingcaid (Saint Mary’s College, USA), "Of Polars and Polarités: The Creation of the Citizen-Reader in Zola’s Vérité"

    Katrina Perry (University of Richmond, USA), "L’encre et le lait: Writing the Future in Fécondité"

    3:45-4:00 PM BREAK

    Section D

    4:00-5:30 PM, Room 301

Spanish Naturalism
President: Oswaldo Voysest

    Fernando Barroso (James Madison University, USA), "La Pardo Bazan y su vision del Naturalismo"

    Gayle Roof Nunley (University of Vermont, USA), "Modelling French Culture in Blasco Ibáñez’s Early Works"

    Duane Hodges Bell (University of Arizona, USA), "Observaciones sobre el naturalismo zoliano en Arroz y tartana de Vicente Blasco Ibáñez"

    5:30-6:00 PM SPECIAL PRESENTATION, Room 301

Tribute to Monique Fol
Anna Gural-Migdal, President of the AIZEN (University of Alberta, Canada)


    Section E (Thursday, October 7)

    10:15-11:45 AM, Bungalow 617

Sue, Hugo, and Zola
President: Mihaela Marin

    Rosemary Peters-Crick (Harvard University, USA), "Origins of the Criminal Species: Sue to Zola"

    Marie-Sophie Armstrong (Lehigh University, USA), "Intertexte et Psychotexte: Zola, Hugo et Germinal"

    Bernadette Lintz (Colgate University, USA), "De ‘Nox’ à ‘Lux’: parcours parodiques hugoliens dans Nana"

    11:45-12:45 PM LUNCH

    Section F

    1:15-2:15 PM, Room 304

Screen Adaptations of Zola’s Novels
President: Drew Limsky



(From left) Yvonne Bargues-Rollins, Mihaela Marin, Jennifer K. Wolter

    Jennifer K. Wolter (Ohio State University, Columbus, USA), "Viewing Au Bonheur des Dames in the context of Occupied France"

    Katherine Golsan (University of the Pacific, USA), "From Theater to Cinema: Jean Renoir’s Nana (1926)"

    Section G

    2:15-3:45 PM, Room 304

New Critical Approaches to Zola’s Fiction
President: Jack Street

    Scott Sprenger (Brigham Young University, USA), "The Logic of Failed Union in Zola’s Thérèse Raquin"

    Silvia Iankova (University of Toronto, Canada), "La Figure de la machine dans La Bête humaine"

    Mihaela Marin (Ohio State University, Columbus, USA), "La ville structuraliste de Zola: urbanisme et architecture romanesque dans L’Assommoir"

    3:45-4:00 PM BREAK

    Section H

    4:00-5:30 PM, ROOM 304

Mother and Child in Zola’s Text
President: Renée Kingcaid

    Yvonne Bargues-Rollins (North Carolina State University, USA), "Il était une fois un pauvre homme: Le Ventre de Paris"

    Leslie Ann Minot (University of California, Berkeley, USA), "Dangerous Witnesses: Zola’s Children"

    Carmen Mayer-Robin (University of Oregon, Eugene, USA), "The Formidable Flow of Milk Le Docteur Pascal and Fécondité: Two Feminine Allegories for the ‘République en Marche’"

Naturalist Film Festival

    6:45-9:45 PM, Room 301

    Regeneration (Raoul Walsh, 1915, USA, 72 min)

    This nearly lost silent film, which has been beautifully restored, is a grim and realistic look into the lives of the inhabitants of old New York--immigrants, drunkards, criminals--and slum environments. Based on the autobiography of a turn-of-the-century gangster, Regeneration occasionally lapses into the formula-melodrama, yet it is justifiably read as a seminal Naturalist silent film text for its insistence on milieu and character.

    Mamma Roma (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1962, Italy, 110 min)

    In this rare and censored film, Magnani stars as an ex-prostitute trying to escape her past and build a new life for herself and her teenage son. The city of postwar Rome tempts her son into a life of criminal behavior, and then her ex-pimp returns. One of the best postwar Naturalist film texts!


FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8

    Section I

    8:30-10:00 AM, Room 301

Zola and the Visual Novel
President: Anna Gural-Migdal

    Susan Barrow (CUNY Graduate Center, USA), "Zola’s Images of the Parisian Floating World: the Japoniste Landscape of Une Page d’amour"

    Jurate Kaminskas (Queen’s University, Canada), "La Débâcle pour une représentation de la guerre de 1870"

    Jack D. Street (Beloit College, USA), "The Cinematic, the Visual and Scarcely perceptible Movements in Emile Zola’s La Bête humaine"

    10:00-10:15 AM BREAK

    Section J

    10:15-11:45 AM, Room 301

Panel: Indigestible Texts: the Trouble with Naturalism
Organizer and President: Elizabeth Emery

    Michelle Koenen (New York University, USA), "Uncovering Zola’s Banquets"

    Elizabeth Emery (Montclair State University, USA), "Dying to taste: Ambiguous Appetites in Zola’s Rome"

    Juliana Starr (Christian Brothers University, USA), "Voracious Vixens: Women and Culinary Problems in Three Novels by J.-K. Huysmans"

    11:45-12:45 PM LUNCH

    Section K

    12:45-1:15 PM

Special Presentation: Jack London
President: Diane M. Smith



(From left) Bernadette Lintz, Lawrence Hussman, Jeanne Campbell
Reesman, Fernando Barroso, Gilbert Darbouze

    Guest Speaker: Jeanne Campbell Reesman (University of Texas, San Antonio, USA), "Socialism and Race in the Fiction of Jack London"

    Section L

    1:15-3:15 PM, Room 301

Critical Reception of Zola’s Work
President: Eric Cahm

    Chantal Morel (Institut Français de Londres, UK) "Fécondité. A Fruitful Reception in the UK?"

    Denise Merkle (Université de Moncton, Canada), "Quel fut l’apport de Nana ‘en expurgation victorienne’ au système littéraire britannique?"

    Francis Lacoste (Université de Sousse, Tunisia), "Barbey d’Aurevilly lecteur de Zola: une dénonciation ambiguë?"

    Zlitni Hichem (Université de Sfax, Tunisia), "Zola vu par Flaubert: une admiration nuancée"

    3:15-3:30 PM BREAK


(From left) Anna Gural-Migdal, Brigitte Emile-Zola, Robert Singer

    Section M

    3:30-5:00 PM, ROOM 301

Hispanic Naturalism
President: Gilbert Darbouze

    Ellen Mayock (Washington and Lee University, USA), "Naturalist Ambience in Zola’s L’Assommoir and Gamboa’s Santa"

    Oswaldo Voysest (Beloit College, USA), "Love and Self-Denial in Mercedes Cabello’s Las Consecuencias: An Exemple of Sentimentality and Racial Divide in Peruvian Naturalism"

    John Paul Spicer-Escalante (Hope College, USA), "Naturalism’s Paradigms of Self and Nationhood in Eugenio Cambaceres’ Sin rumbo"


    Section N

    8:30-10:00 AM, Room 304

Zola’s Influence on Naturalist Writers around the World
President: Francis Lacoste



Exhibit of books from Brigitte Emile-Zola's collection

    Marie-Françoise Delaneuville-Shideler (Carleton University, Canada), "Persuasion et dysfonction familiale dans Le Docteur Pascal d’Emile Zola, et Jennie Gerhardt de Theodore Dreiser"

    James C. Madden (University of Illinois, Urbana, USA), "Enfants terribles: Figures of Transgression in Emile Zola and Marie-Claire Blais"

    Gilbert Darbouze (Bloomsburg University, USA), "La Prostituée et le Ministre: Transgression et châtiment dans Nana d’Emile Zola et Le Bel immonde de Vumbi-Yoka Mudimbé"

    10:00-10-15 AM BREAK

    Section O

    10:15-11:45 AM, Room 304

History, Ideology, Utopia and Politics in Zola’s Work
President: Carolyn Snipes-Hoyt

    Ada Giusti (Montana State University, Bozeman, USA), "La misère humaine dans l’oeuvre de Zola: Histoire du XIXème siècle ou histoire contemporaine?"

    Gary Smith (University of Toronto, Canada), "Zola and the Polemical Approach to Law Reform"

    Jean-Philippe Mathy (University of Illinois, Urbana, USA), "La mémoire du dreyfusisme: Zola, Bourdieu et la République"

    11:45-12:45 PM LUNCH


The Embarcadero: (From left) Brigitte Emile-Zola,
Eric Cahm, Carolyn Snipes-Hoyt

    Section P

    1:15-3:15 PM, Room 304

French and American Naturalist Writers: Urban Discourse and Representation
President: Evlyn Gould

    Ian F. Roberts (Missouri Western State College, USA), "Un/Civil Discourse: Jack London’s Representation of the City"

    Isabelle Schaffner (Université de Paris III, France), "The City as Matter in Movement in La Curée and The Pit"

    Mary E. Wolf (New Mexico State University, USA), "Workers and Immigrants in Fin-de-Siècle France: Zola’s Goutte d’or"

    Amy Reid (New College of the University of South Florida, USA), "Talking Back: The Voices of Working-class Women in Huysmans’ Naturalist Novels"

    3:15-3:30 PM BREAK

    Section Q

    3:30-5:00 PM, ROOM 304

The Representation of Women in French Naturalist Fiction
President: Katrina Perry

    Elizabeth Lanois (Maryville College, USA), "Spatial Limits: Emile Zola’s La Curée"

    Carolyn Snipes-Hoyt (University of Alberta, Canada), "La femme cuirassée chez Zola et Huysmans"

    Christian Mbarga (Johns Hopkins University, USA), "Hommes et femmes: l’enjeu du pouvoir dans les Rougon-Macquart"


6:30-7:30 PM AIZEN COCKTAIL, The Argent Hotel


Brigitte Emile-Zola gives her presentation at the Argent Hotel.
To her left are: Carolyn Snipes-Hoyt, Anna Gural-Migdal,
Debbie Shideler, Holly Woodson Waddell

Special Presentation: "Le triptyque Emile, Alexandrine et Jeanne"
Guest Speaker: Brigitte Emile-Zola, M.D., France
Presentation of the AIZEN Award for the Best Graduate Student Paper

7:30 PM CONFERENCE SUPPER, The Argent Hotel



SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9

    Section R

    9:00-10:30 AM, Room 301

Beyond Naturalism
President: Marie-Sophie Armstrong

    Leonard R. Koos (Mary Washington College, USA), "Touchy Subjects: Naturalist Influence and/or Naturalist Parody in Paul Bonnetains’s Charlot s’amuse..."

    Philippe Chavasse (Southern Illinois University, USA), "Deux points de vue "décadents" sur le Naturalisme: Bourget et Wilde"

    Didier Maleuvre (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA), "Philosophy in a Naturalist Setting"

    10:30-10:45 AM BREAK

    Section S

    10:45-11:45 AM, Room 301

Au Bonheur des Dames Revisited
President: Pamela Wilson

    Holly Woodson Waddell (Northwestern University, USA), "Au Bonheur des Dames: ‘La misère en robe de soie’"

    Eleanor Salotto (Sweet Briar College, USA), "Shopping for an ‘I’: Zola’s the Ladies’ Paradise and the Spectacle of Identity"



    From left: Carmen Mayer-Robin, recipient of the Aizen Award, 1999;
    her dissertation supervisor, Evelyn Gould.

    Naturalist Film Festival

    12:45-1:30 PM, Room 301
    Just Another Girl on the IRT
    (Leslie Harris, 1993, USA, 97 min)

    A Naturalist film about a black teenage girl living in a housing project in contemporary Brooklyn. Her experiences in school, on the street, and by herself reveal a complex and contradictory disposition. The performances and location shots in Harris’s film are powerful!

    12:45-2:30 PM, Room 304Gravesend (Salvatore Stabile, 1997, USA, 90 min)
    Gravesend (Salvatore Stabile, 1997, USA, 90 min)

    This recent Naturalist urban film text is fiercely original and detailed; it takes Scorsese’s Mean Streets one block further. Produced in the white ghettos of Brooklyn, Gravesend examines the lives of the working-class, disaffected youth of the other "’hood." The introduction of drugs, violence, and a criminal code of conduct underscores the aimlessness of the lives of these four young men.


    Section T (Saturday October 9)

    9:00-10:30 AM, Room 304

Panel: German Naturalism
Organizer and President: Robert B. McFarland



The Panel on German Naturalism: (From the left)
Kerstin Gaddy, Robert McFarland, Astrid Weigert, Norman Roessler,
JenniferAskey; Anna Gural-Migdal, AIZEN president

    Astrid Weigert (Georgetown University, USA), "Gender-Arts-Science: Elsa Bernstein’s Critique of Naturalist Aesthetics"

    Jennifer Askey (Washington University, USA), "I read it secretly: Clara Viebig’s Struggle with Naturalism"

    Robert B. McFarland (University of California, Berkely, USA), "From Zola’s Milieu to Zille’s Milljoeh: Berlin and the spaces of Naturalism"

    10:30-10:45 AM BREAK

    10:45-11:45 AM, Room 304

Panel: German Naturalism (continued)

    Kerstin Gaddy (Catholic University of America, USA), "Contemporary Reality in Hauptmann’s Vor Sonnenaufgang: Helen’s Struggle for Emancipation"

    Norman Roessler (University of Pennsylvania, USA), "Exploring the Dynamics of Wax-Work Cabinets: Naturalist Theater and the Bourgeois Carnavalization of History"

    11:45-12:45 PM LUNCH

In memory of Monique Fol
1933-1999


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