File spoon-archives/lyotard.archive/lyotard_1998/lyotard.9802, message 13


Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 02:06:38 -0500 (EST)
From: Bayard Gardiner Bell <bbell01-AT-vader.cc.emory.edu>
Subject: Re: Request for info


To refer back to a previous message, Prof. Lyotard is currently scheduled 
to teach a course entitled "Le Differend, l'affect, la fatigue" through 
the Departments of French and Philosophy and the Program in Comparative 
Literature.  Prof. Lyotard's health problems were chronic and necessitated 
his regular return to France.  They necessitated that a colleague (I 
believe it was Claire Nouvet but am not sure) to take over a course he 
was to have offered last year.  Prof. Lyotard has been able to offer a 
number of day-long colloquia in the last two years which have featured 
such guests as his Emory colleague Prof. Philippe Bonnefis, Prof. Denis 
Hollier, and Prof. Dolores Dziczek-Lyotard of University of Littoral-Dunkirk.
	Prof. Lyotard is a member of all three faculties listing his 
current course.  I would, however, emphasize what Charles has already 
said: if you wish to have news of him, you would be best advised to 
contact the French Department.  Having *talked* to a couple of graduate 
students who have took a class he offered in the fall of 95 and seen one 
of his symposia, I would say that while French language competence is not 
an absolute prerequisite  (the last class I knew him to have taught was 
in English), his current syllabus is entirely in French, as was his last, 
that one need not be in either of the three programs to take his class 
(registration for his class this semester did not close and theology 
students were able to take the last class he taught), and that he is very 
generous with deadlines andin no way lacking in his zeal for teaching (I did 
not detect the slightest tone of arrogance in the open question and 
answer session of the round-table I saw, he gladly made himself 
available for further questions afterwards).  Don't expect him to reveal 
directly you the light and the way: from my minimal experience and from 
what I have heard, he tends to muse aloud for a while and then turn 
things over to his students or audience, sometimes with seeming 
abruptness.  I'm afraid that I can only give these few rather scattered 
impressions.
	As I am not his physician, I cannot say what limits his health might 
impose (and I would rather not have the Emory French Department asking 
for my head on a platter for making irresponsible conjectures).  I would 
add that Emory does have rather remarkable faculties in French and 
Comparative Literature (as wanting in the competence I might imply I have 
in either subjects, I cannot comment on the quality of the Philosophy 
faculty for even greater want--for this I would refer you to Charles, who 
is so qualified), so I would say that there is no reason to apply to any 
Emory  program in which he teaches strictly because he's there but, 
rather, because one desires the greater range of opportunities that your 
program of choice might present (for I example, I seem to recall that all 
fourth-year French Ph.D. are sent to Paris for a year).  And, more simply, 
you cannot make it through any graduate program with the one course 
listed every year under Lyotard's name, even if you could spend your 
entire graduate career and more just reading Lyotard's works.  And every 
admissions committee knows that ("put that application in the "would-be 
disciple of Lyotard" stack).
	The address for the Department of French and Italian Studies 
(through which Lyotard receives the office he shares with Philippe 
Bonnefis) is:

	N405 Callaway Center
	Emory University
	Atlanta, GA 30322

Further information is available through the French department web site:

	http:\\www.emory.edu\FRENCH\index.htm

And for anyone who's wondering, Prof. Lyotard does not have e-mail 
through Emory.  Do you really think that his phone number is a direct line?

-Bayard Bell
part-time student in the Program in Comparative Literature
Emory University

On Wed, 25 Feb 1998, Charles Latham Sherman wrote:

> A brief note on all that I know.  Lyotard currently teaches in the French
> Department at Emory University (www.emory.edu).  However, he is currently
> ill and is not teaching this semester.  My best guess is that he is
> probably back in France during his convalescence.  If you want to get in
> contact with him, I would suggest doing so through the French Department
> at Emory.
   

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