UVic professor to receive national award from France
Colleagues of University of Victoria French professor Marc Lapprand are making a joke by addressing Lapprand as “Sir,” with his recent elevation to the Ordre des Palmes Académiques, a national award of France.
In an interview, Lapprand said with a laugh that France threw off its monarchy more than 200 years ago, so royal honours such as knighthoods no longer have any meaning in that country’s culture, even if the award gives him the title of a Chevalier (knight).
“We can’t compare the Palmes Académiques to anything ‘royal’ in the anglophone world,” he said.
Last week, the French consul visited UVic to elevate Lapprand to the position of Chevalier of the Order des Palmes Académiques, an academic award established in 1808 by Napoleon.
Lapprand, originally from Paris and a professor of French studies at UVic since 1989, is being honoured for his study of Boris Vian, a French author, poet, cultural political critic, jazz trumpeter and singer, who lived from 1920 to 1959.
He said Vian’s “Jack-of-all-trades” approach to life, thought and culture has meant the man has not been taken seriously in elite circles in France.
“Vian is a cult figure, but not studied that closely in universities where he is still a bit shunned,” said Lapprand. “That just makes me like him even more.”
Vian is still recognized as a foundational jazz musician and critic in France. But in his books, and other works, Vian was also a critic of his country’s colonial conflicts in Indochina and Algeria. Vian even wrote a song called, in English, The Deserter, that was banned on French radio. “It was the sort of thing that Bob Dylan might have done,” Lapprand said. “Vian still has a very big readership among young people.”
He said his own writing about Vian was published in France and likely brought him to the attention of those responsible for nominations to the Ordre des Palmes Académiques.
But Lapprand said the award is also being granted for his 30 years of teaching French studies at UVic. It’s a recognition for his dissemination of French culture outside France. It’s an element of the Ordre des Palmes that makes him very proud.
“What’s kind of neat is the French Republic will use this award to honour people like me who are not even in France,” he said.
“I may be an expatriate, but I’m still regarded as living and working and part of French culture,” said Lapprand.