French professor Bessy publishes new book

Book explores representations of migration in contemporary French cinema

Furman University Associate Professor of French Dr. Marianne Bessy has published a new book which examines representations of migration in contemporary French cinema.

The book, a multi-author essay collection co-directed by Dr. Carole Salmon of the University of Massachusetts Lowell, is titled Racines et déracinements au grand écran: Trajectoires migratoires dans le cinéma français du XXIème siècle (translated: Roots and Uprootedness on the Silver Screen: Migratory Trajectories in 21st Century French Film) and is published in French by Brill (Leiden/Boston).

The volume is suited for anyone interested in the broad field of Francophone cultural studies, particularly, students and scholars interested in film studies, migration studies, and postcolonial studies.

With the historical legacy of the French colonial past and of decolonization, the subsequent waves of immigration to the Hexagone, and their impact on French society in mind the book and its eleven contributors ask important questions. Indeed, debates over “national identity” and insecurity, the increasing success of the ideas of the Front National party, the recent Roma repatriations, and migrant crisis in the Mediterranean are only a few examples of how crucial the migration question is in French society and politics today. The book aims to analyze how migratory trajectories (past and present) within the national French space, and the debates surrounding them, have been addressed by contemporary French directors in their films.

Bessy, a native of France educated in Brittany, Ireland, and Louisiana came to the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Furman University in 2008. She holds a Ph.D. from Louisiana State University, a master’s from University of Limerick (Ireland), and degrees from Université Rennes 2, Haute Bretagne (France).

Her research interests include contemporary literatures in French, self-translation, literary bilingualism, exile narratives, and the literary productions of the Haitian diaspora. Her last book, Vassilis Alexakis: Exorciser l’exil, was published in 2011 (Rodopi). Bessy’s research interests are complemented by diverse study away and teaching endeavors: French language and literatures in French; First Year Seminars about French politics, Haitian-American literature, and the image of French women in American self-help books.

For more information, contact Furman’s News and Media Relations office at (864) 294-3107.