Humanities in the Village: Writing and Translating Love with Julien Tribotté

Description

After the publication of his first book in France in January 2021, Julien Tribotté will read and introduce for the first time a few pages translated from his book in English.

In Chronique d'un amour (Chronicle of a Love), the story of the love he shared with someone from Baltimore, Tribotté explores how such relationships can affect bodies, thoughts, and desires. The diary form leads to sincerity, but what does it mean to be sincere when describing a love relationship? How can we talk about sex? By staying as faithful as possible to the sensations and emotions experienced, his chronicle confronts the paradox of love: both trivial and sublime.

This reading will be followed by a brief discussion.

Julien Tribotté is a Ph.D. student in the French section at the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Johns Hopkins. His research focuses on the issues related to eroticism and willpower. He is a winner of several literary contests. He published poems in national French newspapers and web journals, such as Libération and Lundimatin. He is currently finishing a translation of Langston Hughes' first collection of poems.

Humanities in the Village is hosted by the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute and The Ivy Bookshop.