The "Auto-fiction" in Contemporary French Novels
by Laura Wade & Shawn Temple (University of Miami - Department of modern languages and literatures)

On Wednesday April 14, 2010 - 6.30 pm
at the Alliance Française - in English

University of Miami doctoral students Laura Wade and Shawn Temple will speak about two contemporary French novels: Christine Angot’s L’Inceste (1999) and Abdellah Taïa’s Une mélancolie arabe (2008). Both texts have been taken to be “auto-fictions” – that is, works in which the narrator seems to be modeled quite closely on the author. In both novels, the line between fact and fiction is often blurred, and interpretation becomes a task left up to the individual reader. Both novels are also based on various forms of transgression (sexually, crossing the boundaries between heterosexuality and homosexuality; and legally, posing questions of authorship, authority, and, in Angot’s case, possible plagiarism).

Laura Wade will receive her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Miami School of Law in May 2010. She currently serves as an Articles and Comments Editor of the University of Miami Law Review. She is a Dean’s Fellow for the Academic Achievement Program and is a Research Assistant for Professor Stephen Schnably. Laura received her Bachelor of Arts degree in French and Women’s Studies, with honors, from the University of Kansas in 2005. She has a Certificat de langue from l’Université Catholique de l’Ouest in Angers (2003). Laura was an assistante d’anglais with the French Ministry of Education during the 2005-2006 school year.
Upon graduation, Laura plans to practice liability law as an associate with Shook, Hardy & Bacon in Miami, Florida. In her free time, Laura enjoys sailing, golf, and travelling. She volunteers with Paws 4 You, a local animal rescue organization.

Shawn Temple is a Ph.D. candidate in Romance Studies (French track) at the University of Miami. Shawn completed his Master’s Degree in French Literature at American University, as well as a second graduate program in foreign language pedagogy from the Catholic University of America. Shawn has worked for the French Embassy and the US Federal Government. In Washington, D.C. he was an instructor of French language and culture at the middle, high school, and college levels.
Shawn’s current research interests include the contemporary literature of the Maghreb.