The Literary Vision Of Jean Anouilh Throughout His Books Lecture
Lecture by Dr. Efrin Knight
Friday, September 23rd at 6:30pm
Alliance francaise of Miami
618 SW 8th St
Miami, Fl 33130
events@afmiami.org

Lecture in French by Efrin Knight, Doctor of the Sorbonne University, currently teaching French at FIU-BBC, followed by a book signature
Free and open to the public

Ever since men started writing, many of them have felt the need to expose their point of view about the subject. But this was generally reserved to prefaces or dedications. However, Jean Anouilh distinguishes from his predecessors in several ways. Unlike his masters, he does not write prefaces because he does not like them. Similarly, he does not write technical exposés.

Nevertheless, whether he treats a mythological, religious or historical subject; whether he writes about an impossible love (one of his favorite themes); whatever the argument, he always finds the way to refer in his works to an author of the past, a colleague of his time and, most of all, to the theater world, that he exposes in detail.

On the other hand, we find in his plays a plethora of historic figures ranging from Cato the Elder and Aliénor d’Aquitaine to Général De Gaulle including Bayard, Bismarck, Kissinger, Beethoven or Mignard.

Here we are quite far from the superficial boulevardier pretending to have no other goal than to amuse us and make us forget our sorrows.
EFRIN KNIGHT: Born in Havana June 18, 1943, of British origin on his father’s side and Spanish on his mother’s side, Efrin Knight arrived in Paris in 1963, where he celebrated his twentieth birthday. After learning French at the Alliance française de Paris between 1963 and 1964, he began studying at the Sorbonne, where he followed a double course during twelve years. In history, and in French literature, that he completed with the grade of Docteur de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV). His dissertation titled Critique et vision littéraires dans le théâtre de Jean Anouilh, was agreed with Mention Très Honorable.

Licencié ès lettres in 1968, he then started to teach french in France as a foreigner.

After teaching french to French native students during thirty five years, he retired in December 2003 at the legal age of sixty and moved to join his family in Miami Beach.

Five months after he arrived in Florida, he was hired as an adjunct professor to teach french for free (or almost…) at the Florida International University in Miami in May 2004 and he is still a member of that faculty at the moment of his last publication in July 2011.

In March 2000, his annotated anthology of articles and prefaces of Jean Anouilh was published in Paris by La Table Ronde under the title En Marge du théâtre. He has also published several texts in french about the famous playright in the Revue d’histoire du théâtre since 1997. His last article, titled: L « Histoire de Monsieur Mauvette et la fin du monde » et la dislocation de la chronologie dans le théâtre de Jean Anouilh was published by this academic review in October 2010.

His photographs are also used from time to time since 1980 to illustrate book covers, schoolbooks, and postcards.
The Literary Vision of Jean ANOUILH throughout his works
By Efrin Knight, Ph.D. Paperback, 550 pages
To BUY the book: LULU Site Web : www.lulu.com ~ ID: 9449697
Price US: $35.00 – Prix UE: 25.00 €