Presented by Jack Yeager (Louisiana State University) as part of the Literary Studies Seminar Series

Historically, novelists from former French colonies who write in French have come under special scrutiny. Some have been accused outright of plagiarism; in at least one case, such an accusation ended a writer's career. Linda Lê, the most prolific contemporary writer in French with ties to Viet Nam, implicitly probes the issues of originality, intertextuality and plagiarism in her fiction by casting writers as main characters. At the same time she examines the multiple identities of immigrant writers in French and their challenges to what constitutes French literature.

Jack A. Yeager is Professor of French Studies and Women's & Gender Studies at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. His work focuses on narratives in French from Viet Nam and from diasporic Vietnamese communities. At LSU he teaches classes on Southeast Asia, Québec and Francophone studies generally as well as courses in French language.