French

Since arriving at Boise State University in 2005, I have had the pleasure of teaching over a dozen different courses on film, literature, politics, language and culture. Three classes that I have created include a film class on the depiction of social outcasts in contemporary French cinema, a literature class on the representation of the femme fatale in French literature from the 18^th-century to today, and a politics course on the French presidential elections. I find that my research interests are continually influencing my teaching and vice versa. In fact, my “Social Outcasts in French Film” course inspired me to research and write my most recently published article—“Reinterpreting Cinematic Utopia in Coline Serreau’s Chaos (2001)” (The French Review, April 2012).

I earned a Ph.D. in French from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BA in French from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. My research combines theories of feminism and narratology (the study of narrative) as a method to examine the role and representation of women and otherwise marginalized figures in twentieth- and twenty-first-century French and Francophone literature and film. In my book, Wandering Women in French Film and Literature: A Study of Narrative Drift (Palgrave Macmillan, October 2013), I examine the destabilizing narrative effect of wandering women in 20^th-century French film and literature. Currently, I’m researching the role of the female concierge character in 20^th– and 21^st-century French film and literature.

Thanks to Boise State’s affiliation with USAC (University Studies Abroad Consortium), I’ve been able to teach French film courses in Pau, France, to American students. While in France, I have been able to see—and hear!—Boise State University students use the French that they have studied in our classrooms in Boise.  It is so very rewarding to see their hard work pay off as they express themselves in French to native French speakers.

Advising French majors and minors is an important and rewarding aspect of my work. If you are interested in pursuing a major or minor in French, please do not hesitate to contact me for more information.

View Mariah Devereux Herbeck’s Publications on ScholarWorks

After earning a B.A. in French at the University of Wisconsin (1993), I spent a year studying at the Université de Nanterre-Paris X as part of my M.A. in French from Middlebury College, Vermont (1995).  I then returned to Madison, Wisconsin, for my Ph.D. in French (2002), for which I wrote a thesis on the philosophical implications of quest in the works of Franco-Algerian writer Albert Camus.

Ever since, my research has, with some exceptions, taken one of two directions.  I continue to research and write on Camus (examining, for instance, topics such as philosophical approaches to literature, lovers’ discourse and theatre) and, since 2009, serve as Coordinator of the North-American Section and Ex-officio Vice-President of the Société des Études Camusiennes.  I am currently working on an article that examines the theatrical in Camus’s works for the Cahier Camus to be published by Éditions de L’Herne in 2013.  I also focus on literature of the French Caribbean and, in particular, evolving narrative forms of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and how these forms relate to expressions and constructions of identity.  In this vein, I have written articles and book chapters—as well as conducted interviews—on topics such as Caribbean intertextuality, detective fiction and jazz improvisation.  My current research in this area involves a book-length project tentatively titled, Architextual Authenticity: Constructing Literature and Literary Identity in the French Caribbean.

Having been at Boise State University since 2005, I feel fortunate to work at a university where I am not only able to actively pursue both of these avenues of inquiry in my research, but where it is furthermore possible for me to create and teach courses in these varied areas of interest.  Advanced courses I have taught include: The Caribbean Detective Novel, Albert Camus’s Absurd Heroes, Haiti, Of Minds and Men: Camus & Sartre and 21^st-Century French-Caribbean Literature.

One of the particularly rewarding ways in which I have been able to combine my teaching and research has been in the form of interviews that my students and I have conducted with writers of the works we study.  One such interview, conducted with Haitian author Évelyne Trouillot, was published in The French Review in 2009; an interview with French Martinican author Fabienne Kanor is forthcoming in the same journal.

I cannot stress enough the importance of studying abroad—not only as a means to better understanding and speaking a second or third language, but in order to view one’s own culture through the eyes of others and to more fully comprehend theirs in return.  Boise State University is a founding partner of USAC, whose study abroad programs I highly recommend.

Brittney Gehrig is a French Lecturer in the Department of World Languages. She has lived in Boise since 2010 when she came to study at BSU. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English literature and French from Boise State. She has spent time living in France as an English language assistant with the TAPIF program and during several study abroad sessions with USAC. She has taught French and AVID at the Junior High and High School levels in Boise and taught French classes as an adjunct at Boise State from 2017-2020. She has served as treasurer and secretary of the Alliance Française of Boise and as the secretary for the Idaho Association of Teachers of Language and Culture. She received her MA in French with a specialization in Pedagogy and Linguistics from Middlebury College in Vermont in 2022. Brittney will be advising the BSU French club.