Explorations – No 55 Australian Summer 2013-2014

ELAINE LEWIS, Foreword

IVAN BARKO, The Alliance Française of Sydney between the Two World Wars: A Study in Leadership

In contrast to the Melbourne Alliance, no archives of the Sydney Alliance (either local, including Australian libraries, or at the Paris headquarters) have survived for the period under consideration. The author’s main source for this history was the holdings of the French-language weekly Le Courrier australien which, between 1899 and 1937, described itself as the ‘organ of the Committee of the Alliance Française and the Chamber of Commerce’. Other sources include newspaper articles and correspondence.

Keywords: Alliance Française of Sydney, Alfred Wunderlich, Paul Bonnet, leadership

MARIA CHISARI, Dual Nationality in France and Australia: Recent Debates on Social Cohesion and Civic Values

This article presents an historical analysis of the debates and events that have put into the spotlight the notion of dual nationality in contemporary France and provides a comparative analysis with recent reforms to citizenship laws in Australia.

Keywords: national identity, citizenship, immigration, Nicolas Sarkozy, the Front National, Goasguen Report, civic education, Australian Values Statement, Australian Citizenship Council, Marine Le Pen, football

JACQUES BIRNBERG, A Cultural Mediator Who Took Innovation from Australia to France: Roger Maurice Armand Laufer 1928–2011, Obituary

WALLACE KIRSOP, Scholar of French Poetry over Three Continents: James Ronald Lawler 1929–2013, Obituary

KERRY MULLAN, The Melbourne Salons 2013

The other Napoleon: the extravagant gas-lit Second Empire of Napoleon III, presented by David Hood with assistance from Carl Ridgeway (April 2013)
A City of Love and a terre sauvage: French Dreams, Australian Dreams, by Stephen Alomes, and Sarah Turnbull in conversation with Elaine Lewis (July 2013)
Colette’s France: Her lives, her loves, by Jane Gilmour in conversation with Elaine Lewis (October 2013)

KERRY MULLAN, ISFAR Events 2013
A note about the three ISFAR events held in Melbourne in 2013

BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTE

Nicole Starbuck, Baudin, Napoleon and the Exploration of Australia, reviewed by Margaret Sankey

Jane Gilmour, Colette’s France: her lives, her loves, reviewed by Patricia Clancy

Valérie Benghezal, Olivia Lau, Georges-Goulven Le Cam et al., Jetlag Stories: Australie (French Edition), reviewed by Colin Nettelbeck

EMUE, a French publishing house based in Melbourne: French books on the move, note by Elaine Lewis

ELAINE LEWIS, French-Australian Bibliographical Notes

Explorations – No 50 Jun 2011

COLIN NETTELBECK, Foreword

JEAN FORNASIERO, Strangers on the Shore: Musical Encounters in Terra Australis, 1802

This article documents the cultural encounter between members of the 1802 Baudin expedition and indigenous Australians through the medium of music. In their attentive observation of the importance of art in the Aborigines’ daily lives, the French explorers projected an image quite distant from British colonists’ views of a ‘terra nullius’.

Keywords: Nicolas Baudin, Society of Observers of Man, cross-cultural encounters, Joseph-Marie Degérando, Péron, anthropology

KERRY MULLAN, Une entente glaciale? French and Australian English Interaction

An examination of how present-day intercultural misunderstandings in conversations between French and Australian English interlocutors cast light on stubborn stereotypes. Without being overly optimistic about overcoming judgmental attitudes, the author guides her readers towards a greater awareness of how social interactions are informed by underlying cultural values.

Keywords: interactional styles, respect, speaking one’s mind, expressing an opinion

SOPHIE MASSON, The Language of Astonishment: A French-Australian Author’s Reflections on her Identity

This article is based on the author’s reflection on her childhood and on the ‘in-betweenness’ of her identity as a French-Australian and as a writer. The author’s book The Hunt for Ned Kelly has won the 2011 Patricia Wrightson Prize, the children’s literature category in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and was recently elected as President of the Australian Society of Authors. The article concludes with a list of all her published works.

Keywords: Andreï Makine, Le Testament Français, bilingual writers, citizenship

BOOK REVIEWS

Jean Fornasiero and Colette Mrowa-Hopkins (eds), Explorations and Encounters in French, reviewed by John Dunmore

Anselme Ricard, Lettres d’Australie, reviewed by Ivan Barko

ELAINE LEWIS, French-Australian Bibliographical Notes