Talks by Marjolein Corjanus
Colloque International Université d'Angers, France : 'Michel Tournier - l'art de la brièveté', 2024
15h-15h30 : « De l'île au jardin : la poétique du conte chez Michel Tournier », Mathilde Bataillé... more 15h-15h30 : « De l'île au jardin : la poétique du conte chez Michel Tournier », Mathilde Bataillé (Université d'Angers, France) 15h30-16h : « La fugue du Petit Poucet, une écriture en rhizome. Paradoxe ou secret de la forme brève chez Michel Tournier ? », Nadège Langbour (Université du Mans, France) 16h-16h15 : Discours de clôture du colloque Composition du comité d'organisation : Mathilde Bataillé (université d'Angers, laboratoire CIRPaLL) Cécile Meynard (université d'Angers, laboratoire CIRPaLL)
UNIVERSITE D’ETE MARSEILLE, FONDATION D'ARES, FRANCE, 2024
Les enfants dans la Shoah : présences et témoignages dans la littérature européenne : entre post ... more Les enfants dans la Shoah : présences et témoignages dans la littérature européenne : entre post mémoire, identification et appropriation
Présence des Disparus de Daniel Mendelsohn dans la création contemporaine Université Cergy Paris, 2023
L'intervention offre une comparaison entre Les Disparus de Daniel Mendelsohn et trois récits non-... more L'intervention offre une comparaison entre Les Disparus de Daniel Mendelsohn et trois récits non-fiction, tous écrits par des auteurs de la troisième génération qui prennent le récit de Mendelsohn comme point de repère explicite, s’exprimant toutefois selon différentes modalités : Kurtz (2014, cité en français), Boltanski (2015) et Berest (2021).
Tous conscients de l’ère du non-témoin (Barjonet) qui s’approche, ces auteurs font un effort de reconstruire l’histoire et la réalité de leurs ancêtres, offrant des microhistoires comme pour contrebalancer l’histoire générale de l’Holocauste. En allant aux archives et sur les terrains, ils décrivent leurs itinéraires tout en partageant leur expériences et émotions, leurs récits fonctionnant comme une métanarration double : une réflexion de soi et une recherche de la forme narrative appropriée, communiquées à haute voix. (Decout) Les citations serviront d’exemples de ces thèmes communs.
Les différents objets déclencheurs (Boblet, Brodziak) méritent une comparaison aussi : la carte postale énigmatique de Brest, les bandes de film très émouvantes que retrouve Kurtz et les dessins qui se dispersent dans le récit de Boltanski. Comme Mendelsohn, les auteurs se font des questions d’éthique : ils expriment leur souci de la sentimentalité et du kitsch, leur responsabilité de présenter les faits dans un cadre aussi correct que possible tout comme l’impossibilité de parler pour les autres. A la fin de son récit, Mendelsohn se rend compte qu’il a certes sauvé un grand nombre de faits et de fragments mais que ceux-ci ne suffiront jamais à rendre une histoire complète ni à restituer ces vies antérieures : le savoir est toujours insuffisant. Tous les auteurs cités ici font un effort de résister à toute tentation de ventriloquie, donc de créer des fictions, ce qui cependant ne peut pas toujours être évitée.
An artist's life depicted: David Foenkinos' Charlotte (2014) between autofiction, biography and biofiction, Feb 15, 2023
My paper focuses on the novel Charlotte (2014), a biofictional account of the German artist Charl... more My paper focuses on the novel Charlotte (2014), a biofictional account of the German artist Charlotte Salomon (1917- 1943), written by the French writer David Foenkinos (1974). Foenkinos' novel fits within a trend that can be distinguished within contemporary French literature and what has been called 'la génération Littell'. Within the French literary reception, some critics saw the book as a truthful portrait while others branded it shameless and shallow. Nevertheless, Foenkinos' bestselling novel has contributed to a renewed interest in Salomon's work. In 2015, Gallimard published a new edition, adding 50 gouaches by the artist. Other exhibitions and publications ensued.
Conference 'Studies of Belonging' NIAS Institute, KNAW, Amsterdam , 2021
Participating as a panellist within the thread of 'Identity, Inequality and Politics', with a per... more Participating as a panellist within the thread of 'Identity, Inequality and Politics', with a personal story on ancestry (Schokland): dealing with uprootedness, inequality and race politics.
University of Leuven, Belgium, 2021
La littérature française connaît une importante lignée d'oeuvres qui prennent la Seconde Guerre m... more La littérature française connaît une importante lignée d'oeuvres qui prennent la Seconde Guerre mondiale, et l'Holocauste en particulier, comme sujet principal, présentant des choix très divers entre la fiction pure, le récit historique, le témoignage personnel et la biofiction.
Nous proposons d'analyser quatre oeuvres dont les auteurs combinent et alternent le témoignage, la vie imaginaire et la documentation : Le Roi des Aulnes de Michel Tournier (1970), Jan Karski de Yannick Haenel (2009), HHhH de Laurent Binet (2010) et La Disparition de Josef Mengele de Dominique Guez (2017).
Papers by Marjolein Corjanus
Filter, tijdschrift over vertalen, magazine on translation, 2018
HOLOCAUST TESTIMONY AS INTERTEXT IN FICTION AND TRANSLATED FICTION: the Ephraïm episode in Tourni... more HOLOCAUST TESTIMONY AS INTERTEXT IN FICTION AND TRANSLATED FICTION: the Ephraïm episode in Tourniers Le Roi des Aulnes.
This episode constitutes a turning point in the novel. In it, Tournier explicitly refers to a historical testimony by means of a footnote. As it turns out, Ephraïm's words have been closely based on the testimony of Yeduha Bacon, a Czech artist who survived the concentration camps as a child and testified at the nazi trials in Jerusalem and in Frankfurt.
One may ask whether this fictionalisation of testimony is justified or not, and could be seen either as 'sensationalism' or as a 'passage de témoin'. This is an ethical issue that is not only crucial for the reader, but perhaps even more so for the translator, who needs to navigate between translating fiction and genuine historical documentation (footnotes).
Revue Miranda, 2017
When Lolita was published in France in 1955, the then aspiring writer Michel Tournier most certai... more When Lolita was published in France in 1955, the then aspiring writer Michel Tournier most certainly witnessed the succès de scandale that Nabokov's novel soon became. What is vital for analyzing similarities between Lolita and Le Roi des Aulnes, Tournier's best-known novel (Prix Goncourt, 1970), is that Tournier wrote a first version of its first chapter in 1958.
Several striking similarities can be shown between Nabokov's Lolita and a specific storyline in the first chapter of Le Roi des Aulnes that features the interactions between the male protagonist Abel Tiffauges and the schoolgirl Martine. Comparison shows the use of identical words like 'faunelet' and many physical and psychological features that both protagonists share. Most resemblance can be found, however, in the way Humbert and Tiffauges perceive Lolita and Martine respectively. The identity of these girls is obliterated by the erotic and illusory images the male protagonists project upon them (“solipsizing”). This perspective is essential for the way in which rape and sexual abuse are described and perceived in both novels. The reference of both Nabokov and Tournier to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland as an intertextual source for their novels is also relevant here.
in: The return of the narrative: the call for the novel, S. van der Poll and S. van Wesemael (eds.), Jan 2015
Authorial ethos, postmemory and re-enactment in the writings of Mendelsohn, Binet, Munoz Molina a... more Authorial ethos, postmemory and re-enactment in the writings of Mendelsohn, Binet, Munoz Molina and Lewinsky. Focus on the theories of Hirsch, Amossy and Van Alphen and the writings of Semprun.
Nederlandse Letterkunde, Jan 2015
This article aims at analysing the early reception by the Dutch literary press of Le Roi des Auln... more This article aims at analysing the early reception by the Dutch literary press of Le Roi des Aulnes, the 1970 novel by the well-known French author Michel Tournier (1924). In this case of literary border transfer, the interpretations and qualifications expressed by Dutch critics are compared to those made by their German and French counterparts.
As it turns out, early Dutch criticism of Tournier’s novel is a hybrid one, oscillating between a more German-orientated, historical interpretation and a psychological, symbolical interpretation, which is typical of French criticism of Le Roi des Aulnes. Moreover, Dutch criticism of Tournier’s novel is far from outspoken, lacking any debate or overtly negative criticism, especially in comparison with certain critics in the German press, such as Jean Améry. As such, no attempt is made to evaluate Tournier’s novel within a distinct Dutch frame of reference, which might be explained by the fact that Dutch critics know that their literary field is a peripheral one, dominated by literary fields such as those in France and Germany. It is also argued that the Dutch, as a polyglot nation, are able to review Le Roi des Aulnes at a very early stage in its original, French version, which could have created a bias towards French criticism.
Michel Tournier - La réception d'une œuvre en France et à l'étranger. dir. A. Bouloumié, May 2013
C'est de cette reconnaissance de l'œuvre de Tournier aux Pays-Bas que nous esquissons ici l’histo... more C'est de cette reconnaissance de l'œuvre de Tournier aux Pays-Bas que nous esquissons ici l’historique, en fournissant une description de plusieurs agents qui y ont joué un rôle important et en nous basant principalement sur l'attention que l'œuvre a reçue dans la critique littéraire néerlandaise.
Tijdschrift Vooys, Dec 2012
Analysis of recent plagiarism affairs in French literature (Houellebecq, Poivre d'Arvor and Macé... more Analysis of recent plagiarism affairs in French literature (Houellebecq, Poivre d'Arvor and Macé-Scaron). How plagiarism is closely linked to the struggle for prestige and power, the pressure by the publishing industry and the endless debate on intertextuality.
Reference made to the work of Marilyn Randall and Hélène Maurel-Indart
the Dutch Review of Books by Marjolein Corjanus
De Nederlandse Boekengids, 2025
Wrote a portrait of Michel Tournier (1924-2016) through his friendships with Claude Lanzmann, Hel... more Wrote a portrait of Michel Tournier (1924-2016) through his friendships with Claude Lanzmann, Hellmut Waller, Gilles Deleuze, François Bondy and Arlette Bouloumié. Known for this solitary life and discretion, new or posthumous publications reveal interesting facts on his life, thinking and the genesis of his work.
Dutch Review of Books, 2024
Familiegeschiedenissen, verwijzingen naar Perec, klimaatfictie, politieke onderzoeken, niet eerde... more Familiegeschiedenissen, verwijzingen naar Perec, klimaatfictie, politieke onderzoeken, niet eerder gepubliceerde dagboeken en natuurlijk de grote jaarlijkse prijzenregen: Manet van Montfrans en Marjolein Corjanus gidsen ons weer door de oogst van de jaarlijkse Franse rentrée littéraire en lichten de noemenswaardigste romans uit.
De Nederlandse Boekengids, 2023
Together with Manet van Montfrans, we wrote an overview of the French literary season of fall 202... more Together with Manet van Montfrans, we wrote an overview of the French literary season of fall 2022, highlighing interesting books and debuts, award candidates, signalling events and possible outsiders that deserve literary attention.
De Nederlandse Boekengids, 2023
Wrote an essay on the groundbreaking research by Laurent Joly on 'La Rafle du Vel d'Hiv' (2022) a... more Wrote an essay on the groundbreaking research by Laurent Joly on 'La Rafle du Vel d'Hiv' (2022) and three third generation novels : Les enfants de Cadillac by François Noudelmann (2021), La Carte Postale by Anne Berest (2021) and Le guerrier de porcelaine by Mathias Malzieu (2022)
de Nederlandse Boekengids, 2022
De Nederlandse Boekengids, 2022
Together with Manet van Montfrans, we wrote an overview of the French literary season of fall 202... more Together with Manet van Montfrans, we wrote an overview of the French literary season of fall 2022, highlighing interesting books and debuts, award candidates, signalling events and possible outsiders that deserve literary attention.
De Nederlandse BoekenGids, 2022
On January 13th, the DNBG published an overview of new French literary publications, as part of ... more On January 13th, the DNBG published an overview of new French literary publications, as part of the 'rentrée d'hiver'.
De Nederlandse Boekengids, Jun 22, 2017
Wrote an essay on Susan Rubin Suleiman's biography on Irène Némirovsky's life and work, the 'Némi... more Wrote an essay on Susan Rubin Suleiman's biography on Irène Némirovsky's life and work, the 'Némirovsky Question'. Also wrote about her 2006 book 'Crisis of Memory and the Second World War', and about recent titles by Françoise Frenkel ('Rien où poser sa tête'), Marcel Cohen ('Sur la scène intérieure') and David Foenkinos ('Charlotte').
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Talks by Marjolein Corjanus
Tous conscients de l’ère du non-témoin (Barjonet) qui s’approche, ces auteurs font un effort de reconstruire l’histoire et la réalité de leurs ancêtres, offrant des microhistoires comme pour contrebalancer l’histoire générale de l’Holocauste. En allant aux archives et sur les terrains, ils décrivent leurs itinéraires tout en partageant leur expériences et émotions, leurs récits fonctionnant comme une métanarration double : une réflexion de soi et une recherche de la forme narrative appropriée, communiquées à haute voix. (Decout) Les citations serviront d’exemples de ces thèmes communs.
Les différents objets déclencheurs (Boblet, Brodziak) méritent une comparaison aussi : la carte postale énigmatique de Brest, les bandes de film très émouvantes que retrouve Kurtz et les dessins qui se dispersent dans le récit de Boltanski. Comme Mendelsohn, les auteurs se font des questions d’éthique : ils expriment leur souci de la sentimentalité et du kitsch, leur responsabilité de présenter les faits dans un cadre aussi correct que possible tout comme l’impossibilité de parler pour les autres. A la fin de son récit, Mendelsohn se rend compte qu’il a certes sauvé un grand nombre de faits et de fragments mais que ceux-ci ne suffiront jamais à rendre une histoire complète ni à restituer ces vies antérieures : le savoir est toujours insuffisant. Tous les auteurs cités ici font un effort de résister à toute tentation de ventriloquie, donc de créer des fictions, ce qui cependant ne peut pas toujours être évitée.
Nous proposons d'analyser quatre oeuvres dont les auteurs combinent et alternent le témoignage, la vie imaginaire et la documentation : Le Roi des Aulnes de Michel Tournier (1970), Jan Karski de Yannick Haenel (2009), HHhH de Laurent Binet (2010) et La Disparition de Josef Mengele de Dominique Guez (2017).
Papers by Marjolein Corjanus
This episode constitutes a turning point in the novel. In it, Tournier explicitly refers to a historical testimony by means of a footnote. As it turns out, Ephraïm's words have been closely based on the testimony of Yeduha Bacon, a Czech artist who survived the concentration camps as a child and testified at the nazi trials in Jerusalem and in Frankfurt.
One may ask whether this fictionalisation of testimony is justified or not, and could be seen either as 'sensationalism' or as a 'passage de témoin'. This is an ethical issue that is not only crucial for the reader, but perhaps even more so for the translator, who needs to navigate between translating fiction and genuine historical documentation (footnotes).
Several striking similarities can be shown between Nabokov's Lolita and a specific storyline in the first chapter of Le Roi des Aulnes that features the interactions between the male protagonist Abel Tiffauges and the schoolgirl Martine. Comparison shows the use of identical words like 'faunelet' and many physical and psychological features that both protagonists share. Most resemblance can be found, however, in the way Humbert and Tiffauges perceive Lolita and Martine respectively. The identity of these girls is obliterated by the erotic and illusory images the male protagonists project upon them (“solipsizing”). This perspective is essential for the way in which rape and sexual abuse are described and perceived in both novels. The reference of both Nabokov and Tournier to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland as an intertextual source for their novels is also relevant here.
As it turns out, early Dutch criticism of Tournier’s novel is a hybrid one, oscillating between a more German-orientated, historical interpretation and a psychological, symbolical interpretation, which is typical of French criticism of Le Roi des Aulnes. Moreover, Dutch criticism of Tournier’s novel is far from outspoken, lacking any debate or overtly negative criticism, especially in comparison with certain critics in the German press, such as Jean Améry. As such, no attempt is made to evaluate Tournier’s novel within a distinct Dutch frame of reference, which might be explained by the fact that Dutch critics know that their literary field is a peripheral one, dominated by literary fields such as those in France and Germany. It is also argued that the Dutch, as a polyglot nation, are able to review Le Roi des Aulnes at a very early stage in its original, French version, which could have created a bias towards French criticism.
Reference made to the work of Marilyn Randall and Hélène Maurel-Indart
the Dutch Review of Books by Marjolein Corjanus
Tous conscients de l’ère du non-témoin (Barjonet) qui s’approche, ces auteurs font un effort de reconstruire l’histoire et la réalité de leurs ancêtres, offrant des microhistoires comme pour contrebalancer l’histoire générale de l’Holocauste. En allant aux archives et sur les terrains, ils décrivent leurs itinéraires tout en partageant leur expériences et émotions, leurs récits fonctionnant comme une métanarration double : une réflexion de soi et une recherche de la forme narrative appropriée, communiquées à haute voix. (Decout) Les citations serviront d’exemples de ces thèmes communs.
Les différents objets déclencheurs (Boblet, Brodziak) méritent une comparaison aussi : la carte postale énigmatique de Brest, les bandes de film très émouvantes que retrouve Kurtz et les dessins qui se dispersent dans le récit de Boltanski. Comme Mendelsohn, les auteurs se font des questions d’éthique : ils expriment leur souci de la sentimentalité et du kitsch, leur responsabilité de présenter les faits dans un cadre aussi correct que possible tout comme l’impossibilité de parler pour les autres. A la fin de son récit, Mendelsohn se rend compte qu’il a certes sauvé un grand nombre de faits et de fragments mais que ceux-ci ne suffiront jamais à rendre une histoire complète ni à restituer ces vies antérieures : le savoir est toujours insuffisant. Tous les auteurs cités ici font un effort de résister à toute tentation de ventriloquie, donc de créer des fictions, ce qui cependant ne peut pas toujours être évitée.
Nous proposons d'analyser quatre oeuvres dont les auteurs combinent et alternent le témoignage, la vie imaginaire et la documentation : Le Roi des Aulnes de Michel Tournier (1970), Jan Karski de Yannick Haenel (2009), HHhH de Laurent Binet (2010) et La Disparition de Josef Mengele de Dominique Guez (2017).
This episode constitutes a turning point in the novel. In it, Tournier explicitly refers to a historical testimony by means of a footnote. As it turns out, Ephraïm's words have been closely based on the testimony of Yeduha Bacon, a Czech artist who survived the concentration camps as a child and testified at the nazi trials in Jerusalem and in Frankfurt.
One may ask whether this fictionalisation of testimony is justified or not, and could be seen either as 'sensationalism' or as a 'passage de témoin'. This is an ethical issue that is not only crucial for the reader, but perhaps even more so for the translator, who needs to navigate between translating fiction and genuine historical documentation (footnotes).
Several striking similarities can be shown between Nabokov's Lolita and a specific storyline in the first chapter of Le Roi des Aulnes that features the interactions between the male protagonist Abel Tiffauges and the schoolgirl Martine. Comparison shows the use of identical words like 'faunelet' and many physical and psychological features that both protagonists share. Most resemblance can be found, however, in the way Humbert and Tiffauges perceive Lolita and Martine respectively. The identity of these girls is obliterated by the erotic and illusory images the male protagonists project upon them (“solipsizing”). This perspective is essential for the way in which rape and sexual abuse are described and perceived in both novels. The reference of both Nabokov and Tournier to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland as an intertextual source for their novels is also relevant here.
As it turns out, early Dutch criticism of Tournier’s novel is a hybrid one, oscillating between a more German-orientated, historical interpretation and a psychological, symbolical interpretation, which is typical of French criticism of Le Roi des Aulnes. Moreover, Dutch criticism of Tournier’s novel is far from outspoken, lacking any debate or overtly negative criticism, especially in comparison with certain critics in the German press, such as Jean Améry. As such, no attempt is made to evaluate Tournier’s novel within a distinct Dutch frame of reference, which might be explained by the fact that Dutch critics know that their literary field is a peripheral one, dominated by literary fields such as those in France and Germany. It is also argued that the Dutch, as a polyglot nation, are able to review Le Roi des Aulnes at a very early stage in its original, French version, which could have created a bias towards French criticism.
Reference made to the work of Marilyn Randall and Hélène Maurel-Indart