Reda Bensmaia
University Professor and Professor of French Studies and Comparative Literature:
French Studies and Comparative Literature
Phone: +1 401 863 2741
Phone 2: +1 401 725 5641
Reda_Bensmaia@Brown.EDU
Professor Bensmaïa teaches courses on French literature and philosophy, film theory and French and Francophone postcolonial literature. His last book entitled EXPERIMENTAL NATIONS OR THE INVENTION OF THE MAGHREB has been published by Princeton University Press (Spring 2003). He is presently working on two projects : a Monograph on Gilles Deleuze's work and editing a special issue of CINEMAS on the same author; and a book on North African writers and is entitled: Politiques d'écrivain.
Biography
Réda Bensmaïa is currently University Professor of French and Francophone literature in the French Studies Department and in the Department of Comparative Literature at Brown University. He has published extensively on French and Francophone literature of the Twentieth century as well as on film theory and contemporary philosophy. He obtained his Doctorate from the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris in 1980 and his Master of Philosophy at the Université des Sciences Humaines of Aix-Marseille in 1978. He taught literature and philosophy for eight years at the University of Minnesota in the Department of French and Italian and the Departement of Comparative Literature. He also taught at Uva for two years between 1988 and 2000 before moving to Brown. He is the author of The Barthes Effect, Introduction to the reflective Text (Minnesota, THL, 1987); The Years of Passages (Minnesota, Theory out of Bounds, 1995); Alger ou la Maladie de la Mémoire (L'Harmattan, 1997) and Experimental Nations or The Invention of the Maghreb (Princeton University Press, Spring 2003) ; He is also the Editor of Gilles Deleuze (Lendemains, Berlin, 1989) and Recommending Deleuze (Discourse, 1998);
Interests
POLITIQUES D'ÉCRIVAINS : The principal objective of my new project is to gather pertinent material and information in order to write a new book on the evolution of democratic institutions in three North African countries as reflected in the works of Francophone writers and intellectuals during the last fifteen years. In Experimental Nations or the Invention of the Maghreb, a book published by Princeton University Press in April 2003, I explored the contribution of francophone writers of the Maghreb to the elaboration and revaluation of national identity after the independence of their countries. One of the premises of this new project stems from the observation that, in these countries (namely, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia), debates concerning democracy have taken place not in a public forum, but rather in the creative work of journalists, filmmakers, poets and novelists. In the short run my goal is to visit each one of the countries I have mentioned in order to gather material and to establish the contacts I need in order to achieve the goals I describe in the argument below. Considering that this year France is celebrating "The year of Algeria" -an event that will bring writers, journalists, and artists to participate in a number of cultural events-I think that it is of utmost importance to first spend some time in Paris this summer before visiting the countries of my study.
ARGUMENT:
The recent history of the three countries of the Maghreb has shown that problems related to human rights, freedom of expression, the political and social status of women, and the rights of ethnic, linguistic, and cultural minorities have found expression primarily in literary, artistic works and communication fora. Indeed, it seems that what was impossible to express through official institutions has been forced to take refuge in the works of fiction, newspapers articles, films, songs and, increasingly, over the Internet. Because these works confront problems that have been branded as taboo, they are often censored or banned by the Government. This is the case with the novels by Algerian writers Kateb Yacine and Nabile Farès as well as Moroccan and Tunisian writers, including Mohammed Kheireddine and Abdellatif Laâbi. These writers have endured many years of exile and in some cases imprisonment for their "offensive opinions." Rereading their works, it is easy to see that the repression brought on them because of their ideas was aimed not so much at specific contents deemed problematic or "seditious," but rather at the fact that these writers and intellectuals have raised questions directly related to democracy--freedom of speech, freedom of publication, freedom of circulation and travel, etc. Although democracy may be inscribed in these countries' constitutions, it is only rarely manifested in concrete realities.
In this work, I have also chosen to study the impact of a newly "imported" ideology--namely Islamic fundamentalism--on the cultural and political institutions of the three countries of the Maghreb. I want to follow the construction and workings of this ideology in the borderlands of political science, philosophy and literary criticism. Political science, because the present conflicts are directly related to political events which occurred during the last ten years: namely, the liberalization of the laws pertaining to the freedom of speech, information, and association; the creation of several associations of the Rights of Man; and the creation of non-governmental newspapers and political organizations. Philosophy, because the major issues which are at stake in the present debates are essentially philosophical, particularly the status of the individual vis-à-vis the state, freedom of speech, gender, status of women in an Islamic society, education, arts, etc. And finally, literary theory, because the most important political and ideological debates stem from the production of newspapers or journal articles, literary studies, novels and poetry.
Degrees
Doctorat de Troisième Cycle, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris.
Awards
-Director of the Paris Center for Critical Studies, 1985-88.
-Brittingham Visiting Scholar, University of Wisconsin, at Madison, October 5-9, 1993.
- École Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Fellow, June 1996.
- Visiting Professor, Emory, French Department, Fall 1997.
- Visiting Professor, Harvard University, Department of Romance Languages (French), "Nations of writers", Spring 2001.
- University Professor of French Studies, Brown University, since June 2001.
- Chevalier de l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques, November 2001.
- Member of the Pembroke seminar. Seminar : « Technology and Representation ». Fall 2001.
- Recipient of the Scaglione Prize of French and Francophone Literary Studies, « Honorable Mention » for Experimental Nations, or the Invention of the Maghreb, (Princeton University
Affiliations
Associations:
- Member of the Modern Language Association.
- Member of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA)
- Member of the French Studies Association;
- Member of the Society for Cinema Studies.
- Member of the African Literature Association.
- Member of the American Institute for Maghrebi Studies (AIMS), Johns Hopkins University and The University of California at Los Angeles.
Journals (Member of the Board) :
- Les Deux Ecrans, Revue algérienne de cinéma et de television, 7, Blvd Ahmed Khemisti, Algiers (Algeria).
- Artefakt and Lendemains, (University of Berlin, Director: Prof: Michaël Nerlich)
- La Main de Singe, Directors : Henri and Dominique Poncet, Lyon, France.
- Focales, Revue d'histoire et de théorie du cinema, Université de Nancy II, France.
- Awal, École Pratique des Hautes etudes, 4, Rue de Chevreuse, Paris 75006.
- Algérie Littérature/Action, 103, Bd MacDonald, Paris 75019.
- Sites, Storrs University, Connnecticut.
- International Journal of Francophone Studies, University of Leeds, UK.
- French Forum, Department of Romance Languages, University of Pennsylvania.
- Comparative Literature Studies, The Pennsylvania State University.
Teaching
TEACHING :
1991-2006: Brown University, French Studies Department: 1) Graduate Seminar: "Écrivains à l'Essai" - a study of the form of the Essay as a specific genre in Modern French Literature; 2) Film course: "Le roman du cinéma"- a study of the relationships between cinema and Literature; 3) "Littérature et Philosophie mêlées"- a study of the relationships between philosophy and literature; 4) "Introduction au concept de Littérature Mineure" (Francophone Literature: "From Kafka to Kateb Yacine" 20-30 students;); 5) "La découverte du Nouveau Monde : les intellectuels français face à l'Amérique"; 6) "French Literature and Social thought: Memory and History"; 7) "Figures de l'étranger dans la littérature française et Francophone du XXème siècle"; 8) "Le récit postmoderne" ( Graduate Seminar); 9) "Nations d'écrivains" (Graduate Seminar); 10) "Littérature, histoire et cinéma"; 11) "L'Orient littéraire" (Representations of the Orient in French and Francophone literature; 12) "Littérature, appartenance et identité" (on contemporary and modern Francophone literature); 13) « L'Utopie littéraire » (the problematics of utopianism from Thomas More to…Jean Baudrillard); 14) "Théorie(s) du texte moderne; 15) Théories de la littérature ; 15) Litterature and Philosophy ;
1989-1991: University of Virginia, Department of French Language and Literature: 1) Littérature et Cinéma; 2) La Littérature d'aujourd'hui (XXth Century); 3) La critique du roman; 4) Seminar: "Le texte entre littérature et philosophie"; 5) Proseminar: "Introduction to Narratology"; 6) French Composition.
1981-1986: University of Minnesota:
1) Comparative Literature: 1) Basic concepts of Cinema; 2) Cinema: Theories of Montage; 3) Literature and Cinema: Topics; 4) African Literature: topics; 5) Literature and philosophy : the notion of text";
2) Department of French: 1) French Literary Texts: cinema; 2) Topics in French literary texts: the Novel; 3) Poetics: "La poésie moderne"; 4) "Literature and modern philosophy"; 5) Francophone literature : North Africa.
3) Comparative Literature and the Humanities Program: 1) "Cinema and Ideology"; 2) "Art and ideology"; 3) "Direct cinema and Cinéma-Vérité". 4) "Emergent literature in Postcolonial North Africa";
1980-1981: Lycée français of San Francisco, Prof. of Philosophy for the Terminales (preparation to the French Baccalauréat);
U.C. Berkeley, Visiting Professor in the Department of French: "Introduction to the concept of "Minor Literature": Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia ", Spring 1980.
1979-1981: Lycée français of San Francisco, Prof. of Philosophy for the Terminales (Baccalauréat).
1974-1976: University of Algiers, Department of romance languages :Assistant Professor, Department of French: 1)Literature and Semiology in contemporary French Literature; 2) The Essay: History, Morphology, Rhetorics; 3) The Folktale: Semiotics, psychoanalysis, poetics: "from G. Bédier to Claude Lévi-Strauss; 4) The Russian Formalist School and Structuralism; 5) "Littérature africaine et bilinguisme".
1973-1974: Institut d'Études Politiques, Algiers, Assistant Prof.: 1) "History of political ideas in France from the French Revolution to the Commune de Paris"; 2) "La littérature maghrébine d'expression française".
Fall 1972: Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines, Algiers, , Psychology Department, Assistant Prof.:"Psychology and Psychoanalysis: Doctrines and Theories".
Funded Research
Grants and Fellowships :
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) summer stipend for the study on "The Rhetorics of the machine" in the works of D.Vertov. 1983.
Grant-in-Aid from the Graduate School (University of Minnesota) for the same project, 1982-1983.
EDP Grant, Graduate School (University of Minnesota), 1984.
Single Quarter Leave, Spring 1984. University of Minnesota.
EDP Grant, University of Minnesota: "Understanding and Proficiency: Studying World Politics through and as a means of developing proficiency in French and Russian Languages", Spring 1989.
American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS) Fellowship Recipient 1994-1995 for a Research project on Francophone Literature and Democracy in North Africa. $ 7500.
Henry Merritt Wriston Grant for the improvement and testing of a course on Post-Colonial situations: Figures of Democracy in North African Literature", Brown University, 1995-96, $ 3000
Curricular Development Grant 1995-1996 for a new course on "Cinéma et Histoire" (Cinema and History), July 95-June 96.
Curriculum Development Grant 1996-97 for a new course on "Le récit Postmoderne" (literature and postmodernity).
Lectureships Committee Grant of $ 2300 allocated to my project on the French Philosopher Gilles Deleuze entitled "Gilles Deleuze : A philosopher of our Time".
French Consulate Grant for the Colloquium on Gilles Deleuze, April 1997. $2000.
Curriculum Development Grant 1997-98 for a new course on "Le récit Postmoderne" (literature and postmodernity), July-June 1997.
Faculty Development Fund, Brown University: 1999, 2000, 2001
Recipient of the Wendy J. Strothman Faculty Research Award in the Humanities for 2002-2003, $ 5000
Recipient of an Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) Grant, Brown University, Summer 2003, $ 2000
Recipient of an Vice President Research Grant, Brown University, Spring 2005, $1000
Recipient of a Grant for a Study Group, Humanities Center at Brown, $ 5000
Recipient of a Vice President Research Grant, Brown University, Spring 2006, $2000
Recipient of a Lectureships Committee Grant, Fall 2005-Spring 2006, $4500
Cogut Center for the Humanities, Brown University, Spring 2005.
$ 5000.
Curriculum Vitae
