Condé's Presence Unnoticed

Last month, francophone novelist and Professor of Women's Studies and of Romance Languages and Literatures Maryse Condé's book Crossing the Mangrove appeared for the first time in English in bookstores throughout Cambridge.

Condé is a visiting professor at Harvard this semester, although this fact seems to be known by few inside the University itself. The administration in particular has been remarkably silent on the whole subject of Condé's arrival and the critical acclaim Crossing the Mangrove has received. The book was reviewed favorably in both the Washington Post and Publisher's Weekly.

In fact, with all of Harvard's resources, the only university officials to welcome Condé have been the faculty of the Department of Romance Languages. Nevertheless, the reception that they gave her four weeks after she arrived was scheduled at a time when Condé herself could not attend.

Condé has taught at the Sorbonne, the University of Virginia, the University of California at Berkeley and Cornell University. She was a producer for Radio France International and has lived in her native Guadaloupe, Senegal, France and Great Britain. Condé, invited to Harvard by Professor Susan Suleiman, is only here for one semester.

Condé currently teaches an undergraduate/graduate French literature class and a women's studies class. Both classes have small enrollments and relatively few undergraduates, although both were open to all students.

With so much University attention recently given to other authors, one would think that this author, who has garnered such literary praise for a translation of her novel, would and should receive the same treatment--especially since her novels contain topics that have been the subject of popular attention: women and race.

The University should not neglect international celebrities because they are invited to teach by a small department rather than one of the more well-known Harvard disciplines. Harvard's size and decentralized administration should not be an excuse for rudeness and lack of action. Perhaps next September students and faculty will realize that Maryse Condé was here at Harvard and, at the time, few people even noticed.