Writing in French as another language (2)

The second part of the international conference Écrire en français langue autre au XXIe siècle [Writing in French as Another Language in the 21st Century] took place at Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi on April 25–26, 2024, as part of the Festival de la Francophonie 2024. Bringing together scholars, students, and writers, the conference explored the aesthetic, linguistic, and political dimensions of writing in French as another language today.

The program included academic presentations by researchers such as Sara De Balsi, Anne Godard, Olga Anokhina, Angeliki Kordoni, and many others, as well as exceptional encounters with major contemporary authors and poets, including Makenzy Orcel, Miguel Bonnefoy, Elke de Rijcke, Raluca Maria Hanea, Ryoko Sekiguchi, and Mehtap Téké. I also chaired the session “Du Maghreb au Machrek : traversées et altérités linguistiques”, which examined questions of language, displacement, and literary creation across North African and Middle Eastern Francophone contexts. The two-day event created a rich space for dialogue between literary criticism and creative practice, with roundtables, readings, discussions, and exchanges with the public around what it means to write in French beyond inherited linguistic, cultural, and national boundaries.