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Thomas C. Spear

Thomas C. Spear - Professor - profile photo

Research Interests

  • Contemporary French and Francophone Literature
  • Autobiography

Education

  • Ph.D.

Contact

Affiliated Campus(es)

  • Lehman College

Books:

See full listings below.

Selected translations:

  • Leslie Kaplan, Brooklyn Bridge. Barrytown, NY: Station Hill Press, 1992.
  • Edouard Glissant, Faulkner, Mississippi (with Barbara Lewis) New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999; paperback: Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 2000.

Editor:

  • "Autobiographical Que(e)ries," two special issues of a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, volume 15, numbers 1 and 2 (Spring and Fall 2000).

Fiction/récits:

  • "Le Scorpion." L'Atelier d'écriture 7 (January 2010): 43-84.
  • "Pour Sergine." Le Serpent à Plumes pour Haïti. Paris: Du Rocher, 2010: 115-20.
  • "Point of View." Haiti Rising: Essays on Haitian History, Culture and the Earthquake of 2010. Ed. Martin Munro. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2010: 35-42.
  • "Moderato con variazioni." IntranQu'îllités 1 (mai 2012): 70-77. 
  • "Priape."  IntranQu'îllités 5 (novembre 2020): 53-55. .
  • "Métamorphoses à Manhattan" (with English translation, "Manhattan Metamorphoses" by Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert). Vingt ans après le 11 Septembre/Twenty Years After 9/11. Ed. Suzanne Dracius. Paris: Idem, 2021: 164-184.

Selected articles:

  • "Dame Duras: Breaking through the Text." In Language and in Love; Marguerite Duras: The Unspeakable. Ed. Mechthild Cranston. Potomac, MD: Scripta Humanistica, 1992: 12-36. Adapted to hypertext in 1996.
  • "Literature and Politics: an Interview with Tahar Ben Jelloun." Trans. Caren Litherland. Yale French Studies 83 (1993): 30-43. Rpt. Contemporary Literary Criticism 180 (2004): 125-131.
  • "Doo-doo in the Classroom; Doubrovsky's Professorial Performances." Genre 26.1 (Spring 1993): 109-125.
  • "Staging the Elusive Self." Robbe-Grillet and the Fantastic. Eds. Virginia Harger-Grinling and Tony Chadwick. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994: 55-76.
  • "Jouissances carnavalesques: représentations de la sexualité." Penser la Créolité. Ed. Madeleine Cottenet-Hage et Maryse Condé. Paris: Editions Karthala, 1995: 135-152. English translation (by Richard D. Reitsma): "Carnivalesque Jouissance: Representations of Sexuality in the Francophone West Indian Novel." Jouvert 2.1 (1998).
  • "Le 'véritable' Jean Genet." Europe 808-809 (août-septembre 1996): 26-33.
  • "Autofiction and Nationality." Sites, the Journal of Twentieth-Century/ Contemporary French Studies 2.1 (Spring 1998): 89-105.
  • " 'Foreign' Sexualities in Francophone Contexts." Modern Language Studies 28.3 (Fall 1998): 193-200.
  • "La plume bifide, le cœur québécois; l'usage de l’anglais chez les écrivains québécois francophones." Globe, Revue internationale d'études québécoises 4.1 (2001): 71-91.
  • "Émile Ollivier: enracinerrant de Notre-Dame-de-Grâce." Études françaises 34.3 (été 2002): 15-27.
  • "Variations sur la langue de Molière; l'enseignement du français aux États-Unis." Présence francophone 60 (2003): 12-38.
  • "Patrimoine haïtien (Ayiti Toma)." Africultures 58 (mars 2004): 11-18.
  • "Élans du bicentenaire haïtien." Revi Kiltir Kreol, Journal of the Nelson Mandela Centre for African Culture (Mauritius) 4 (October 2004): 1-13.
  • "Productions marginales et décentrées: l'exemple d'Haïti." Les Représentations de la déviance. Ed. Corinne Duboin. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2005: 185-194.
  • "Réseaux créoles et insulaires." Situations créoles: pratiques et représentations. Ed. Carlos Célius. Québec: Nota Bene, 2006: 281-297.
  • "Lectures francophones ex-centrées". L'Écrivain dans l'espace francophone. Paris: Les Dossiers de la Société des Gens de Lettres, 2006: 95-97.
  • "Identités virtuelles." Autofiction(s); Colloque de Cerisy. Claude Burgelin, Isabelle Grell and Roger-Yves Roche, ed. Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 2010: 441-460.
  • "(R)Evolutions." Trans. Teresa Bridgeman. Transnational French Studies; Postcolonialism and Littérature-monde. Alec G. Hargreaves, Charles Forsdick and David Murphy, ed. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2010: 164-177.
  • "Introduction: Mauritius in/and global culture: politics, literature, visual arts" (by Françoise Lionnet, with Thomas C. Spear). International Journal of Francophone Studies 13.3-4 (February 2011): 371-400.
  • "Poles and Centers." Contemporary French and Francophone Studies. 15.1 (January 2011): 37-45.
  • "Paulette Poujol Oriol's Polyphonic Tragicomedies." Journal of Haitian Studies 17.1 (Spring 2011): 15-26.
  • "La tronche de Bolya." Bolya: nomade cosmopolite mais sédentaire de l'éthique. Françoise Naudillon, ed. Montréal: Mémoire d'encrier, 2012: 61-64.
  • Marginalisations prothétiques." Femmes en francophonie; Écritures et lectures du féminin dans les littératures francophones. Isaac Bazié et Françoise Naudillon, ed. Montréal: Mémoire d'encrier, 2013: 25-41.
  •  "Marie Chauvet: The Fortress Still Stands." Yale French Studies 128 (2016): 9-24.
  • "Souffles numérique." Une saison ardente; Souffles, 50 ans après. Casablanca: Sirocco, 2016: 243-50.
  • "Cent ans de silence." En amour avec Marie. Emmelie Prophète, ed. Port-au-Prince: L'Imprimeur II, 2016: 181-187.
  • "Entr'hommes." Pourquoi Doubrovsky? Isabelle Grell, ed. Paris: Le bateau ivre, 2018: 161-170.
  • "Straight, No Chaser,” translated by Sam Ferguson and Jon Templeman. Jean-Claude Charles: A Reader’s Guide. Eds. Martin Munro and Eliana Văgălău. Liverpool University Press, 2022: 241-251.

Selected broadcast radio interviews:

  • "L'avenir de la langue française dans le monde." Interviewed by Réginald Martel for "Signes des Temps" on Radio-Canada, as response to citation in "Le français piégé par le multiculturalisme américain" (Le Monde 27 February 1994, Le Devoir 1 March 1994). Broadcast 6 March 1994.
  • "L'Anniversaire de l'Abolition de l'Esclavage dans les Antilles." Interviewed by Donald Jean for "L'Invité du jour" on Radio Vision 2000 (Port-au-Prince). Broadcast 1 September 1998.
  • "Le Magazine du Net." Interviewed by Dominique Desaunay on RFI with "île en île" as web site of the week. Broadcast 26 November 2001.
  • "Entre Nous." Interviewed (with Joëlle Vitiello) by Jan J. Dominique for Radio Haïti-Inter. Broadcast 17 November 2002.
  • "Francophonie" on RFI, interviewed by Dominique Baillard. Invited guest for the publication of La Culture française vue d'ici et d'ailleurs. First broadcast 14 February 2003. Reproduced on audio CD, RFI Magazines, Francophonie April 2003.
  • "French-bashing." Interviewed by Léo Kalinda for "Dimanche Magazine" on Radio-Canada. Broadcast 16 February 2003.
  • "La langue française vue d'ailleurs." Invited guest on Radio-Méditerranée, interviewed by Christophe Drevet, for the publication of La Culture française vue d'ici et d'ailleurs. Broadcast 6 April 2003. 
  • Invited guest for the program "Signes particuliers" on RFI, interviewed by Pierre-Edouard Deldique, broadcast 19 March 2008.
  • Invited guest on Radio Plus FM (Réunion), interviewed by Bernard Colomb, broadcast daily on Radio Plus FM, 6-12 September 2009.
  • "Conversation: Haitian Literature Is a Living Art." Interviewed by Jeffrey Brown. Art Beat, PBS NewsHour. Broadcast 14 January 2011.
  • From 2013 to 2017, fourteen, short chronicles for Franco Nuovo's program, "Dessine-moi un dimanche" on Radio-Canada.
  • Invited guest, “Dimanche Culture” on Radio One (Mauritius), hosted by Finlay Salesse (25 November 2018).

Selected television interviews:

  • CUNY-TV, for the program, "Canapé," hosted by Jerry Carlson, broadcast September 2003, archived online.
  • France2, featured guest on "Double je," interviewed by Bernard Pivot, broadcast on France 2 (May 2004) and internationally on TV5 and Tempo (June 2004) and in New York on CUNY-TV (July-October 2004).
  • France Ô, "Frictions francophones," platform hosted by Christian Tortel, broadcast 22 March 2006.
  • Canal Bleu (Haïti), featured guest on "Kiskeya, l'île mystérieuse," hosted by Marie-Alice Théard (3 July 2011).
  • MBC (Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation), featured guest, “Portrait d’artiste” hosted by Sedley Assonne (29 November 2018).

Distinctions and Awards:

  • Trophée de la diversité culturelle (one of the "Trophées de la langue française" from the French Minister of Culture), for Île en île web site, Amiens, March 2005.
  • Excellence in Research, Scholarship & Creative Works Award, Lehman College, May 2007.
  • Le Trophée du Gardien du Livre, for his promotion of Haitian literature, Livres en Folie, Port-au-Prince, 2016.
  • Le Prix du rayonnement de la langue et de la littérature françaises, L'Académie française, 2018.
  • Member of L'Ordre des Francophones d'Amérique, 2018.

Elected positions:

  • The Francophone Association of CUNY (FRACUNY). Secretary. 1993-2002.
  • Advisory Committee on the MLA International Bibliography, 2000-2003.
  • Executive Committee of the Division on Francophone Literatures and Cultures, Modern Languages Association, 2000-2004.
  • Member of the Committee on Information Technology of the Modern Language Association, 2005-2008.

Web links:

Thomas C. Spear - Professor - profile photo

Contact

Affiliated Campus(es)

  • Lehman College

Books

Book cover: Les mascarades du Wisconsin

Les mascarades du Wisconsin

by Thomas C. Spear Professor, French

In a small, Midwestern town that embodies the wholesome prosperity of the baby boom years, a foul-mouthed, wisecracking father rules over his brood. He is a gregarious eccentric who buried existential secrets when leaving behind his urban, East-coast roots. In this novel, one of his sons addresses his father, directly and posthumously, to uncover their shared heritage and expose the patriarchal myth. It is a story of social imperatives that constrain and define masculinity in the American Heartland and of the son's resistance to a predetermined destiny.

Published September 2023
Éditions Hamac

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Book cover: Une Soiree Haitienne

Une soirée haïtienne

by Thomas C. Spear Professor, French

Centered around the theme of night, this collection assembles short, original works by thirty contemporary authors who convey the magic and mysteries of life after dark in Haiti. The texts are lively stories of unbridled imaginations, a quick succession of tales inspired by traditions of late night storytelling, including the Haitian lodyans. From midnight to midnight, the stories begin at the time of the authors' inspiration, offering a twenty-four-hour evening of tales at times macabre or surprising, tragic or comic. More than a decade after Une journée haïtienne, this collection assembles a diverse group of well-known and emerging writers from Haiti and the Haitian diaspora. Une soirée haïtienne is "a polyphonic exploration of Haitian life, creativity and dreams" (Edwidge Danticat). 

Published December 2020
Éditions du CIDIHCA

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Book cover: Une Journee Haitienne, 2nd edition

Une Journee Haitienne, 2nd edition

by Thomas C. Spear Professor, French

Updated and with a new introduction by the collection's editor Thomas C. Spear, Une journée haïtienne was released in a second edition simultaneously with the publication of Une soirée haïtienne in 2020. Together, the two collections cover a century of creation with original stories by major and sometimes lesser-known writers from Haiti and the Haitian diaspora. Beginning with their day and place of composition, the short texts of Une journée haïtienne share glimpses of life as if through a year's chronicle of letters. In their vast differences of style, humor and imagination, the forty authors offer a composite portrait of Haiti that reads as refreshingly true as when the collection was first published in 2007.

Published December 2020
Éditions du CIDIHCA

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Paroles et silences chez Marie-Célie Agnant: L'oublieuse mémoire d'Haïti book cover

Paroles et silences chez Marie-Célie Agnant: L'oublieuse mémoire d'Haïti

by Thomas C. Spear Professor, French

COLETTE BOUCHER AND THOMAS C. SPEAR, EDS.


Twelve contributors offer diverse perspectives on the work of Agnant, a Canadian author of Haitian origin, as "a voice against the silences" of Haitian history-silences surrounding women, racism and slavery, injustice and impunity. The essays explore, with the writer, gray areas in Haitian and world history and delve into the complexity of an oeuvre that includes poetry, novels, and children's books and that crosses the borders of time and territory. The volume underscores Agnant's importance as a multicultural, francophone author of the twenty-first century. In French. 

Published October 2013
Karthala, 2013

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THOMAS C. SPEAR La culture française vue d'ici et d'ailleurs

La Culture Francaise vue d'ici et d'ailleurs

by Thomas C. Spear Professor, French

The French language is a fundamental element of identity for the 13 contributors to this volume, just as it is a site of conflict when confronted with other national and cultural realities. As French speakers, the essayists react strongly and diversely to the official politics of institutionalized Francophonie" and to the influences of French culture as it radiates from the cultural hub of Paris. They redefine the relationship between the language's European center and its multicultural, postcolonial variations, both within and outside of France itself. Written in the first person, these essays offer poignant critical perspectives and give testimony to particular paths taken in various communities. The book also contains a preface by Edouard Glissant, distinguished professor in the French program.

Published April 2002
Karthala, 2002

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Book cover: Celine and the Politics of Difference

Céline and the Politics of Difference

by Thomas C. Spear Professor, French

co-edited by Rosemarie Scullion and Philip H. Solomon

For decades Louis-Ferdinand Celine has been viewed in terms of a stark critical polarity: is he the consummate stylist and iconoclast who assailed bourgeois literary norms in his novels, or the abhorrent racist who authored maliciously anti-Semitic, misogynist pamphlets that endorsed authoritarianism? The answer has been obscured by critical evaluations that traditionally drew attention away from Celine's often blatantly exclusionary discourse. This collection cuts through the mythos of literary style to investigate the constructs of race, class, ethnicity, and gender in the whole of Celine's oeuvre. Essays examine the much-debated topic of his sanity, the political context of his writing, the role of the female body in his fiction, the place of historicism and politics in a critical reinterpretation of his canon, and his relationship with contemporaries like Sartre and Renoir. By looking at Celine's essentializing notions readers come to a clearer understanding of how his "surly, often outrageous discourses on human difference mirror the hierarchies of value and relations of dominance" characteristic of his culture. That mirror, Scullion suggests, reflects an oddly conformist stance for a self-styled maverick like Celine.

Published February 1995

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Related News

February 10, 2017

Professor Thomas Spear Honored with the 'Gardien du Livre' Prize

Professor. Thomas Spear of the French Program at CUNY Graduate Center was honored in June 2016 at the annual Livres en Folie book festival, held in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, with the Gardien du Livre-or 'Keeper of the Books' -prize for his work promoting Haitian literature. He was one of three recipients of the award.