Franklin College Switzerland will be hosting the fourth biennial Lugano Conference of Caribbean Literature and Culture, “The Caribbean Unbound IV - Reconceiving Hispaniola”, from April 2 to April 4. The conference will be held on the Sorengo (Lugano) Kaletsch campus of the College. The three-day conference will officially kick off with Jean-Claude Fignolé’s keynote address, “Marvelous Realism, or the Metamorphosis of the Real?” at 18:00 on Thursday evening, April 2. The keynote address will be conducted in French and translated into English. That will be followed by a reception in his honor and a film after the reception. The reception is generously sponsored by the Franklin College Alumni Council. The following two days will offer a wide selection of inter-disciplinary topics exploring the history, politics, art, literature, religion, film, music of the Caribbean and more specifically of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Panels will be primarily held in English, but with some in French and Spanish.
This year’s keynote speaker will be the acclaimed Haitian novelist Jean-Claude Fignolé. Fignolé, together with the Haitian writers Franketienne and René Philocète, is the co-founder of the Haitian literary movement, “Spiralisme.” Besides his first two novels, Les Possédés de la pleine lune (Seuil, 1987) and Aube tranquille (Seuil,1990), he also published Moi, Toussaint Louverture in Montreal (Plume & Ancre) in 2004. From 1990 to 2000, Fignolé wrote a column for Haiti’s oldest and largest daily newspaper, Le Nouvelliste. In January, 2008, Fignolé published Une heure pour l’éternité with Parisian publisher Sabine Wespieser. Having been a teacher as well as an art critic, Jean-Claude Fignolé is also the mayor of Les Abricots, a small village in southwestern Haiti.
The Franklin College Conference on Caribbean Literature and Culture was first organized some six years ago by Dr. Robert H. McCormick, Jr., Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at Franklin College. At previous conferences keynote speakers were Antonio Benítez-Rojo, J. Michael Dash and Maryse Condé. Multi-cultural in conception, the conference has grown to global dimensions. This year, literary and cultural scholars from prestigious academic institutions as near as Bern and as far away as Louisiana and Martinique will be participating.
Key Conference Facts and Information:
Pre-Conference Registration and Film
Wednesday, April 1, 19:00-21:15
Franklin College Auditorium Foyer
Conference Registration
Thursday, April 2, 16:00-17:45
Friday, April 3, 8:30 - 9:30
Franklin College Auditorium Foyer
Opening Ceremonies and Keynote Address—Jean-Claude Fignolé
Thursday, April 2, 18:00-19:15
Franklin College Auditorium. Reception will follow in Holman Hall.
Registered conference attendees will be allowed to participate in all panels and events, including the student and staff prepared Caribbean meal Friday night, for a nominal fee of 110 Swiss francs (100 US dollars). Students will have a reduced rate of 55 Swiss francs (50 US dollars). Additional meal tickets for non-conference participants can be purchased at the registration desk for 15 Swiss francs.
Only cash will be accepted at the registration desk. If you would like to pay in advance by credit card, you can do so from the Franklin College web site in the online payments section.
For more information on Caribbean Unbound IV or a complete conference agenda and program, please see the Conference Program page, write to caribbean_unbound@fc.edu, or contact Belma Dizdarevic de Marchi at +41 91 986 36 09 or Marta Leto at +41 91 986 36 01.
