Conference and round-table with author Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Goncourt Prize 2021
Open to the public
In English
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr was born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1990. He studied literature and philosophy at the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris. In 2021, Sarr became the first writer from sub-Saharan Africa to be awarded France’s oldest and most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, for his fourth novel The Most Secret Memory Of Men (trans. by Lara Vergnaud, Other Press). In this gripping literary mystery and coming-of-age novel, Sarr unravels the fascinating life of a maligned Black author, based on Yambo Ouologuem. The text has been widely acclaimed: David Diop called it a “magnificent novel that also offers a profound reflection on the resonance of literature in our lives” and Leïla Slimani commented that: “a love letter to literature, this novel is already a classic and it will haunt you”.
Presentation by Dr. Lionel Cuillé, director of the French Connexions center of excellence ( Washington University in St. Louis)
Talk by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr: "(In)visible writer, for whom do you sing?"
Round-table : "The Most Secret Memory Of Men", conversation with Dr. Ama Bemma Adwetewa-Badu Assistant Professor of English, Washington University in St. Louis.
Book signing, with the support of Left Bank Books.
Organized by the French Connexions Center of Excellence with support from the cultural services of the French Embassy in Washington D.C., the Center of Humanities, the Center for the Literary Arts, the Department of African and African-American Studies (AFAS), the Department of Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies (JIMES), the Department of English, and the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures (RLL).
RSVP