The Bi-Weekly MFLL E-Newsletter
MONDAY, September 24, 2007
The Newsletter for Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
web.utk.edu/~mfll

• Kodjo Adabra a first-year GTA in French, has just had his first novel, "L'Exilé" (The Exile), appear. The book, published by Syracuse Press in France, tells the story of the reconciliation of the protagonist's past in West Africa and his present confronting the challenges of a radically different culture in the United States. (http://web.utk.edu/~kadabra/)



• Raúl Carrillo Arciniegas (PhD in Spanish, 2004) recently had published a book based on his dissertation, which dealt with the poetry of the Mexican writers, Jorge Cuesta and José Gorostiza: "Huellas y oquedades. Teoría de la poesía de Jorge Cuesta y José Gorostiza." Raúl wrote his dissertation with Oscar Rivera-Rodas; he is an Assistant Professor at the College of Charleston. He is currently working on his second book.



• Erec R. Koch (French, head of MFLL) will deliver a keynote talk titled "Pascal's Sensible Body Politic" at a conference sponsored by the Humanities Institute, University of South Florida. The conference on "Blaise Pascal, His Times and Influence: 350 Years after the Provincial Letters" will be held October 5-6, 2007.



• Rong Li (GTA, Chinese) had her article "Dialogue, collaborative learning and three types of teaching" published in the "Journal of Hehai University," Nanjing, China, March 2007.



• The 2007-08 school year of the German Saturday School of Knoxville started on September 8. So far about 60 students have signed up for the various classes offered for children, teenagers, and adults. This is an increase of 20% as compared to the beginning of the 2006-07 school year and – based on experience from previous years -- we anticipate that enrollment will increase to at least 70 over the next two to three weeks. In 2007-08, this outreach activity is run and supported by the following people affiliated with MFLL: Stefanie Ohnesorg, Jeff Mellor, Maria Gallmeier, Rosemarie Greenman, Ingrid McMillen, Raluca Negrisanu, Zsuzsanna Zádori-Roth, Erin Read, and Eric Johnson.



• The German Section held a Picnic for all students of German on Sept. 20 at Tyson Park. More than 100 students from all levels of German attended, and this picnic was a huge success. Main organizers of this German event were the graduate students in the German Program under the leadership of Brad Hinton, Nicole Nöller, Sylvia Schubert, and David Schulz.

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• Italian Film Series, Monday, September 24, 253 Hodges Library: "Agata e la Tempesta," 2004. A movie by Silvio Soldini. Director Silvio Soldini's lively, vibrant ensemble comedy follows--among other multifaceted and likeable characters--a kindhearted Genoan bookstore owner named Agata (Licia Maglietta), who suddenly finds her stable life shaken up when she's pursued by a much younger man…



• September 26, Wed., Hodges Library Auditorium, 3:30pm; Speaker: Dr. Gius Gargiulo, University of Paris X-Nanterre, "Popular culture and cinema: comedy Italian style and their actors."

  Italian comedy is a type of comedy quite specific to Italy. The Italian comedy revolves around issues and themes that are very dramatic, and sometimes tragic. Even if the theme is tragic, the point of view is often comical and humoristic. This is a type of comedy that grows precisely out of classic literature, Boccaccio and the Commedia dell'Arte. My lecture analyzes the “comedy Italian style and its actors” in the context of Italian postwar history, arts, and popular culture of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, touching on topics as the ‘economic miracle’, television reception, the new middle class and the blue collar class, the north and south conflict. The movies of directors as Monicelli, Risi, Scola, starring Gassman, Tognazzi, Manfredi, Sordi, Sophia Loren and Monica Vitti, present in a satiric way conflicts of gender, of class, and the clash between sexual orientation and catholic culture.




• On October 9th, "Meet the Authors" is going to be held during the Hispanic Heritage Celebration at Barnes & Noble, at 6:00 p.m. Dr. Luis Cano will present "Intermitente Recurrencia. Ciencia Ficcion y el Cano Literario Hispanoamericano," and Dr. Jon White will present "Goya and the Duchess of Alba at Sanlucar." Everyone is cordially invited to come.

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