Noire is the new noir: the Série Noire and the Franco-American detective traditions
[Colloque bilingue - pré-inscription obligatoire: rwilliams@aup.edu]
Plenary speakers:
Aurélien Masson, director, Gallimard Série Noire
Dominique Jeannerod, Queens University, Belfast
In 2015, the Série Noire, Gallimard’s iconic crime fiction imprint celebrated its 70th birthday. Throughout its history, the collection has published cult and classic texts from authors as diverse as Raymond Chandler and Chester Himes to Jean-Patrick Manchette and Thierry Jonquet in its distinctive yellow and black covers. Some of its writers were destined for mainstream and literary recognition outside the world of detective fiction, others, such as James Hadley Chase, James Gunn and Jean Amila were to remain appreciated only by a narrow, but voracious band of crime aficionados.
Best known for its compelling depictions of detectives striving to close cases in murky and ambiguous moral milieux, the novels of the Série Noire also maintain a consistent dialogue – both explicit and implicit – between France and the USA. While the early years of the collection post World War II saw pro-American feeling manifest through the popularity of US writers, the Série Noire gradually became more critical of American culture, politics and society as time progressed through 1968 and towards a contemporary networked and late capitalist world of American hegemony. If, as Dennis Porter argues, the figure of Chandler’s Philip Marlowe brandishing a Colt Detective pistol is quintessentially American, what are the implications when the image is doubled in a French setting by Manchette’s Martin Terrier? What does it mean when French language detective fiction is translated and filmed by Hollywood?
This one-day conference at the American University of Paris (AUP) will consider how the Série Noire reflects the dynamics of the relationship between France and the USA. It will explore how the novels of the Série Noire can be understood as a prism through which the social, political and cultural links between the two nations can be better understood.
This conference is jointly organised by the AUP departments of Comparative Literature and English and Film Studies. For further information, or to attend, please contact Russell Williams (rwilliams@aup.edu). Please note, all attendees must sign-up via email at least 48 hours in advance, and bring photo ID.
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Conference agenda
“Noire is the New Noir” conference
Saturday November 5th, 2016
Room, C-104, American University of Paris, Combes building,
6, rue du Colonel Combes. 75007 Paris
08h30 – 09h00 – Registration
09h00 – 09h15 – Welcoming remarks (Alice Craven & Russell Williams)
09h15 – 10h45 - Panel one, ‘Contextualising Noir Transnationally’, chair – Lucas Hollister
Natacha Levet (Université de Limoges), “Translating America through the Série Noire, from Marcel Duhamel to Aurélien Masson”
Alistair Rolls (University of Newcastle, Australia), Clara Sitbon (University of Sydney) and Marie-Laure Vuaille-Barcan (University of Newcastle, Australia), “Making Marcel Duhamel a Great Man for French Crime Fiction”
Benoît Tadié (Université Rennes 2), “Along the Ideological Divide: Female, Gay and Lesbian Noir between American paperback collections and the Série Noire”
10h45 – 11h00 – Pause
11h00 – 11h45 – Plenary session one
Dominique Jeannerod (Queens University, Belfast), “Spectres of French Noir: the long shadow of the Série Noire in French Literature and Culture”
11h45 – 13h30 – Lunch
13h30 – 15h00 - Panel two, ‘The Challenges of Noir: Translation and Transformation’, chair – Alice Craven
Cécile Cottenet (Université Aix-Marseille), “The transatlantic economics of the Série Noire”
Sophie Bélot (University of Sheffield), “Jean-Luc Godard’s conflict with-in the Série Noire”
Tyechia Lynn Thompson (Howard University), “Text Mining Race and Travel in Chester Himes’s Ne nous enervons pas!, The Heat’s On, and Cotton Comes to Harlem”
15h00 – 15h15 – Pause
15h15 – 16h45 –Panel three, ‘Close-up on the néo polar’, chair – Russell Williams
Sophie Vallas (Université Aix-Marseille), “Jerome Charyn’s noir New York and its French echoes”
Jean-Philippe Gury (Université de Bretagne Occidentale), “Amila, Série Noire et province”
Lucas Hollister (Dartmouth College), “Jean-Patrick Manchette, Alain Delon and the politics of French hard-boiled masculinity”
16h45-17h00 – Pause
17h00 – 18h00 – Panel four, ‘21st Century Noir’, chair – TBC
Jean Anderson (Victoria University of Wellington), “Noir (enfin) de femme… women of the Série noire”
Alice Jacquelin (Université de Poitiers), “Benoît Minville et Pierric Guittaut: l'avènement d'un country noir à la française?”
18h00 – Refreshments served
18h00 – 19h30 – Plenary session two
Aurélien Masson (Série Noire) and Russell Williams (AUP) in conversation