Textual Ownership Banner

What happens when the author of a text borrows from another source? Where does reproduction end and invention begin? What burden of acknowledgement is due? To whom does the finished product belong? Questions of this kind have attracted growing attention in recent years in the works of Francophone African writers, where cultural hybridity is inherently intertwined with multiple forms of intertextuality. This international colloquium brings together leading specialists on northern, sub-Saharan and diasporic African literatures of French expression to examine the increasingly important and in many ways vexed issues associated with textual borrowings. In particular, they will explore questions of textual ownership, including acknowledged and unacknowledged forms of intertextuality, the relationship between oral informants and professional writers, “ghost” writing, the use of literary pseudonyms and plagiarism.

The conference is open to the public free of charge. For planning purposes, please inform the Winthrop-King Institute if you plan to attend: icffs@mailer.fsu.edu

Program
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22

9:30 am Registration and Coffee
10:00 am

Welcoming remarks and Introduction -

  • Dr Joe McElrath - Associate Dean, College of Arts & Sciences, FSU
  • Dr Alec G Hargreaves - Director, Winthrop-King Institute, FSU
10:30 am

Session 1
Chair: Doris Gray (Florida State University)

  • Mireille Rosello (Northwestern University) – Elissa Rhaïs: Scandals, Impostures, Who Owns the Story?
  • Roger Little (Trinity College, Dublin) – Reflections on a Triangular Trade in Borrowing and Stealing: Textual Exploitation in a Selection of African, Caribbean and European Writers
12:00 noon Lunch, Claude Pepper
2:00 pm

Session 2
Chair: Joseph Hellweg (Florida State University)

  • Lydie Moudileno (University of Pennsylvania) Gabriel Garcia Marquez : “arme miraculeuse” for the African novel ?
  • John Conteh-Morgan (Ohio State University) - “Ubu Roi” in Francophone Africa Theatre: On a Textual Relationship?
3:30 pm Coffee
4:00 pm

Session 3
Chair: Cheira Belguellaoui (Florida State University)

  • Alec G Hargreaves (Florida State University) Oral Informants and Professional Writers Among the North African Diaspora
  • Azouz Begag “Paul Smaïl m’a tuer” ou histoire parisienne d’un faux-beur écrivain
5:30 pm Close of session

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23

8:30 am Registration and Coffee
9:00 am

Session 4
Chair: Jean-Godefroy Bidima (Tulane University)

  • Dominic Thomas (UCLA) – Intertextuality and Recycling in Colonial and Postcolonial African Texts
  • Jean-Marc Moura (Université de Lille 3) – Ahmadou Hampâté Bâ’s Textual Borrowings
10:30 am Coffee
11:00 am

Session 5
Chair: Gabriel Essongo (Florida State University)

  • Nicki Hitchcott (University of Nottingham, UK) Calixthe Beyala: Prizes, Plagiarism and “Authenticity”
  • Abiola Irele (Harvard University) - In Search of Camara Laye
12:30 pm Lunch, Claude Pepper

Conference organizers
Alec G. Hargreaves (Florida State University), Nicki Hitchcott (University of Nottingham, UK), 
Dominic Thomas (UCLA).

 

 

For more information contact: 

Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics

Florida State University

Tallahassee, Florida 32306-1540

Telephone 850.644.7636

Fax 850.644.9917

E-mail icffs@mailer.fsu.edu

Website www.winthropking.fsu.edu