“Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Literary Life
Under Nazi Occupation”

The New York Public Library
Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street
Celeste Bartos Forum (use the 42nd Street entrance)
Friday, April 3, 2009
9 a.m.–5 p.m. (doors open at 8:30 a.m.)
Reservations not required; admission is free on a first-come, first-served basis.

Symposium schedule subject to change

WELCOME: 9–9:15 a.m.
Paul LeClerc (The New York Public Library)
Olivier Corpet ( (IMEC, Institut Mémoires de l’édition contemporaine)
H. George Fletcher (The New York Public Library)

OPENING REMARKS: 9:15–10 a.m.
Robert O. Paxton, emeritus, Columbia University

Session 1: 10–11:30 a.m.
Engagement and Detachment
Chair: Alan Riding, The New York Times
Alice Kaplan, Yale University, “Choices: The Case of Ramon Fernandez”
Claire Paulhan, IMEC, “Jean Paulhan: A Singular Itinerary”
Comment: Jacques Lecarme, emeritus, University of Paris III

Session 2: 11:30 a.m.–12:50 p.m.
Isolation and Solidarities: Dispersal, Networks, Institutions
Chair: André Schiffrin, The New Press
Gisèle Sapiro, CNRS, Centre de sociologie européenne, “Forces of Solidarity and Logics of Exclusion: The Role of the Institutions of Literary Life”
Philip Nord, Princeton University, “Scout’s Honor: Catholic Scoutism and Vichy Culture”
Comment: Laurent Jeanpierre, University of Strasbourg

Lunch: 1–2:30 p.m.

Session 3: 2:30–4 p.m.
Tradition and Innovation
Chair: Tom Bishop, New York University
Denis Hollier, New York University, “Tradition and Invention in Blanchot’s Chroniques de la vie intellectuelle”
Susan Suleiman, Harvard University, “Other Than Suite française: Irène Némirovsky’s Wartime Fiction”
Comment: Ann Smock, University of California at Berkeley

Round Table: 4–5 p.m.
What Mark Did the Occupation Years Leave on French Literature?
Chair: Robert O. Paxton

This symposium is presented in conjunction with the exhibition of the same title, on view at The New York Public Library, April 3–July 25, 2009.

This symposium has been made possible by support from The Florence Gould Foundation, the Cultural Services of the Embassy of France in the United States, and The New York Public Library.