[Original article published by the Department of French and Italian at The Ohio State University]

In December 2020, the Department of French and Italian was selected by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States to join its prestigious network of Centers of Excellence. Housed at 22 major research universities in the US, Centers of Excellence receive yearly financial support and project-based support. The Center for Excellence at Ohio State aims to promote French and Francophone Literature and Culture in the Midwest.

Associate Professor of French Benjamin Hoffmann is the Inaugural Director of the Center of Excellence. This fall, Hoffmann organized two events that were co-sponsored by the Center. In September, we heard a lecture by Renan Larue of the University of California in Santa-Barbara for a talk on “Gastronomic Controversies: Veganism, Environmentally-Conscious Consumption, and French Agri-business.” In October, we welcomed Ian Curtis of Kenyon College on “Pleading Literature: Reading and Responsibility in a Postwar French Murder Case.”

The Center’s main focus is the Jules Verne Writing Residency. The Residency provides a space of creation and reflection to a Francophone writer who works on a literary project during their time at OSU. In Spring 2022, the Residency will have the honor of welcoming its inaugural resident, Michaël Ferrier, a French novelist and essayist as well as Professor at Chuo University in Tokyo (Japan) and Director of the Research Group Figures de l’Étranger.

Michaël Ferrier

During his time at Ohio State, Ferrier will work on a book on American architect Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983). “It is part of a trilogy about three major scientists, but whose work is hardly known to the public (the two others are the Japanese physicist Nakaya Ukichirô, 1900-1962, and the Hungarian biologist Tibor Gánti, 1933-2009),” explains Ferrier. “The aim of this trilogy is, through these three characters from three continents and three very different cultures, to describe the evolution of the relationships between science and progress in the modern era, in order to ask some of the most crucial questions facing us today, in these times of global warming, nuclear proliferation and environmental degradation on a planetary level.”

Hoffmann has been following Ferrier’s work for about ten years. He was particularly struck by Ferrier’s Fukushima, récit d’un désastre (Gallimard, 2012), which describes the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan and caused the Fukushima nuclear disaster. “Ferrier’s description of the tsunami in the book’s first page is simply extraordinary, its power of evocation rivals, to me, the best pages by Victor Hugo,” says Hoffmann. Hoffmann also admires Ferrier’s novel Sympathie pour le fantôme (Gallimard, 2010) and collection of short stories about Japan called Tokyo, Petits portraits de l’aube (Gallimard, 2004).

Hoffmann first learned of Ferrier while researching contemporary French writers who develop their work online. “Ferrier leads a very interesting collaborative website [https://www.tokyo-time-table.com], in which he reflects on contemporary Japan and invites others to publish articles about Japanese culture and Franco-Japanese cultural exchanges,” says Hoffmann.

Upon creating the Jules Verne Writing Residency, Hoffmann immediately thought of Ferrier, who, as chance would have it, had already started his work on Buckminster Fuller and was looking for an opportunity to spend some time in the United States. Hoffmann comments, “As we say in French, le hasard fait bien les choses, chance arranges things well.”

The influence of Buckminster Fuller can be seen near Cleveland, Ohio at the headquarters of ASM (ASM Headquarters and Geodesic Dome). Fuller’s direct participation in the dome is controversial, but the principles of his work have been beautifully applied to it. Beyond encountering physical examples of Fuller’s work, Ferrier will certainly gain inspiration from living in the US and interacting with its citizens.

“Creating memories is vital for a writer, he or she needs to have a personal, intimate experience of a place to be able to write about it,” explains Hoffmann, who is himself a creative writer with multiple novels published. “It’s all about creating memories and keeping them somewhere in your brain, so you have exactly what you need when you start writing.”

Ferrier will have many opportunities to interact with the university and Columbus communities. In January, he will give a lecture about his current literary project. He will participate in several classes offered by the Department to French and Italian and will meet with both graduate and undergraduate students.

“Michaël Ferrier has been living in Japan for many years and is a Professor of French at the prestigious Chuo University in Tokyo, so it is also my hope that the department of East Asian Languages and Literature (DEALL) at Ohio State will take an interest in his visit and perhaps extend an invitation to him to visit some of their classes,” says Hoffmann. “I am certainly hoping to make this connection happen!”

Hoffmann hopes to strike a balance between enjoying the opportunity to interact with Ferrier and involve him in the activities of the university, and leaving him a fair amount of uninterrupted hours to work on his project.

A few future events by The Center of Excellence are also in the works. The Center will host a talk by Philippe Vilain, an influential French writer, during spring semester. Hoffmann is also thinking about the next resident of the Writing Residency, and hopes to welcome a novelist published by Éditions de Minuit, a prestigious publishing house established in Paris in 1941.

“I want the Center of Excellence to further the dialogue between France and the United States, and I welcome proposals from all members of the Ohio State community – faculty, undergraduate, or graduate students – who wish to organize an event or create a project linking France and the US,” says Hoffmann. “The French cultural services in the US indeed attribute, on a competitive basis, a financial support up to $15,000 to members of the Centers of Excellence network, and I am always curious to discuss ideas for the next project we can submit to them.”