Resilience in Francophone Caribbean Literature: Patrick Chamoiseau’s Creole Folktales
Speaker: Dorothea Heitsch
Date: November 17, 2022
Time: 6:00PM
The area studies centers at UNC and Duke partner with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to offer globally-focused professional development during International Education Week. International Education Week, held in November annually, is a national week of the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department of Education that celebrates the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide.
Participants will receive a certificate for 1.5 PD hours for each event attended.
Hosted by UNC’s Center for European Studies
This workshop examines the social, political, and historical issues present in Francophone Caribbean writing through the example of Patrick Chamoiseau’s Creole Folktales. We will examine text and context in a variety of activities around questions of space, race, trauma, or identity. We will also keep in mind how historical repercussions of French colonialism might usefully be brought to current discussions in the United States.
For this workshop, we encourage everyone to read two short stories before attending: Patrick Chamoiseau’s “The Rainmaker” and Wendy Walters’ “Lonely in America.” Though this is encouraged, all are welcome to attend regardless of whether not they have read the stories beforehand!
Dorothea Heitsch is Teaching Professor in French & Francophone Studies in UNC’s Department of Romance Studies. She teaches a wide variety of courses ranging from French language to content courses at all levels in French and English. Her research focuses on literature’s intersection with other fields, such as medicine, religion, philosophy, feminism(s), alchemy, or the history of the book. She currently works on early modern interreligious dialogue and examines the worth that discussions across the faiths may have held for fifteenth- to seventeenth-century readers and writers within and beyond Europe.
Learn more and register for the event at the "Read More" button below.
