Hobart and William Smith Colleges

9 November 2011 Gallout publishes on the Enlightenment

An essay by Professor of French and Francophone studies Catherine Gallout was recently published in a collection of essays titled Geographiae Imaginariae. Dresser le cadastre des mondes inconnus dans la fiction narrative de lAncien Regime, (Presses de l'Universite Laval, 2011.) The volume analyzes how geography was constructed in European narrative fictionfrom the Middle Ages through 1800.

Gallouts essay, La Nigritie, ou geographies de lAfrique dans la fiction narrative, is concerned, she says, with the way 18th century geographies of Africa are based more on imaginary constructions than actual contemporary facts derived from travel accounts.

As part of similar research, Gallout also presented a paper in Hamilton, Ontario, at the joint meeting of the Canadian Society, and the North East American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies, (she currently serves as NEASECS first vice president and will serve as next years president.) Her paper analyzed the representation of the exotic in the 1735 opera Les Indes galantes by Jean-Philippe Rameau, one of the most important composers of the French XVIIIth century. In particular, the paper deals with how the exotic spaces of the opera (Turkey, Persia, Peru and North America) are represented through libretto, scenography and music. Gallout defines exotic as coming from foreign lands and cultures, therefore also foreigner, and even strange and bizarre. The Orient is considered exotic in the XVIIIth century.

Gallouts work has been published widely in North America and Europe; she has several forthcoming articles, and is currently working on two book projects.

A member of the HWS staff since 1986, Gallout received her doctorate and masters from Rutgers University, her B.A. cum laude from Hope and her Bacalaureat, with honors, from Academie de Grenoble. She was the initiator of HWSs French study abroad programs.