French Author Marie Darrieussecq Will Speak At Ursinus College

French author Marie Darrieussecq will discuss racism in France and how it influenced her latest book, Il faut beacuoup aimer les hommes (One Must Love Men a Lot), Monday, April 7, at 7 p.m. in Musser Auditorium in Pfahler Hall at Ursinus College.

She will be introduced by Colette Trout, Professor of French at Ursinus College, who is writing a book about Darrieussecq’s work. Dr. Trout’s expertise is in contemporary French women writers.

A reception will follow. The event is sponsored by the French and English departments, Le Cercle francais, and the Fulbright Association.

Darrieussecq recently received the prestigious Prix Medicis for Il faut beacuoup aimer les hommes. The book moves from Los Angeles to the Congo as it follows the biracial relationship between a French white woman and an African man.

Darrieussecq was raised in a small village in the Basque Country. While finishing her Ph.D. in French literature, she wrote her first novel, Truismes (Pig Tales), which was published in 1996 by Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens (POL), which has published all her subsequent novels as well. After the success of Truismes, Darrieussecq decided to quit her teaching position at Charles De Gaulle University – Lille III to concentrate on writing her novels.

The essential theme in all her works is that of disappearance and absence. One also finds the theme of the ocean as “memory tank.” She chooses female main characters, who often have questions of identity and belonging.

Ursinus College is a highly selective, independent coeducational liberal arts college located on a scenic, wooded, 170-acre campus in suburban Philadelphia. The college is one of only 8 percent of U.S. Colleges to host a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.