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Alice Yaeger Kaplan

アリス・ヤーガー・カプラン

Alice Yaeger Kaplan

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1954-06-22 （Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.）
Nationality
United States
Languages
English, French

Career

Occupations
Academic, Literary scholar, Literary historian, Writer, Translator, Professor
Active Years
1981-
Affiliations
Duke University, Yale University
Memberships
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Influenced By
Albert Camus

Education

University of California, Berkeley
French (major)
Degree: BA
Period: 1971–1975
Year of Graduation: 1975
Country: United States
Junior year abroad in Bordeaux. Phi Beta Kappa.
Yale University
French (Ph.D. program)
Degree: PhD
Period: 1976–1981
Year of Graduation: 1981
Country: United States
Ph.D. in French with a minor in philosophy.

Awards

Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History
2001
Work: The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach
Category: History
Organization: Los Angeles Times
Result: Winner
Henry Adams Prize
2006
Work: The Interpreter
Organization: Society for History in the Federal Government
Result: Winner
Guggenheim Fellowship
1994
Organization: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Result: Fellow
Legion of Honour
2013
Organization: Government of France
Result: Recipient
Ordre des Palmes Académiques (Officer)
2001
Organization: French Ministry of Education
Result: Officer
Gustav Ranis International Book Prize
2017
Work: Looking for The Stranger: Albert Camus and the Life of a Literary Classic
Organization: Yale MacMillan Center
Result: Winner
Prix Littéraire FETKANN! Maryse Condé (Honorable Mention)
2024
Work: Seeing Baya: Portrait of an Algerian Artist in Paris
Organization: Prix Fetkann
Result: Honorable mention
Le Prix spécial de l’Académie des Jeux floraux
2025
Organization: Académie des Jeux floraux
Result: Recipient (for collective oeuvre)
National Book Critics Circle Award (Nonfiction) — Finalist
2000
Work: The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach
Organization: National Book Critics Circle
Result: Finalist
National Book Critics Circle Award (Biography/Autobiography) — Finalist
1993
Work: French Lessons: A Memoir
Organization: National Book Critics Circle
Result: Finalist
National Book Critics Circle Award (Criticism) — Finalist
2016
Work: Looking for The Stranger: Albert Camus and the Life of a Literary Classic
Organization: National Book Critics Circle
Result: Finalist

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

French Lessons: A Memoir

1993 Memoir / Nonfiction

A memoir about learning French and formative youthful experiences, describing personal growth and encounters with French culture.

Language and identityEducationCultural exchange
Translations
  • Translated into French (editions exist)

Reproductions of Banality: Fascism, Literature and French Intellectual Life

1986 Scholarly study

A scholarly analysis of fascism and French intellectual life through literary and intellectual-historical perspectives.

FascismIntellectualsLiterature and politics

The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach

2000 History / Biography

A detailed account of Robert Brasillach's trial and execution, examining collaboration and responsibility in postwar France.

CollaborationLaw and literaturePostwar France
Translations
  • Translated into French (Intelligence avec l’ennemi) and other languages

The Interpreter

2005 Nonfiction / Cultural history

A work exploring translation and interpretation as acts negotiating culture and memory.

TranslationMemoryCultural exchange

Dreaming in French: The Paris Years of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Susan Sontag, and Angela Davis

2012 Nonfiction / Cultural history

Examines the Paris years of three American women to illuminate twentieth-century cultural exchange and identity formation.

WomenMobility and identityUS-French exchange

Looking for The Stranger: Albert Camus and the Life of a Literary Classic

2016 Literary studies / Criticism

Traces the birth and reception history of Camus's The Stranger, exploring the relation between the work and its social contexts.

Reception historyLiterature and historyCamus studies

Seeing Baya: Portrait of an Algerian Artist in Paris

2024 Nonfiction / Biography

A biographical study of Algerian artist Baya, using her life and work to reconsider colonialism, migration, and art history.

ColonialismArt historyAlgeria and France
Translations
  • Translated into French (Baya ou le grand vernissage)

Bibliography

  • Seeing Baya: Portrait of an Algerian Artist in Paris (2024)
  • States of Plague: Reading Albert Camus in a Pandemic (2022, co-authored)
  • Maison Atlas: (translation) (2022)
  • Turbulences, USA (2016–2020) (2020)
  • Looking for The Stranger: Albert Camus and the Life of a Literary Classic (2016)
  • Dreaming in French: The Paris Years of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Susan Sontag, and Angela Davis (2012)
  • The Interpreter (2005)
  • The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach (2000)
  • French Lessons: A Memoir (1993)
  • Relevé des sources et citations dans "Bagatelles pour un massacre" (1987)
  • Reproductions of Banality: Fascism, Literature and French Intellectual Life (1986)

Translations by Author

  • Translations of works by Roger Grenier (e.g., Palace of Books)
  • Translation of Louis Guilloux's OK, Joe
  • Translation of Evelyne Bloch-Dano's Madame Proust: A Biography

Translations of Works

  • En quête de L’Étranger (French translation) of Looking for The Stranger
  • Baya ou le grand vernissage (French translation) of Seeing Baya

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Blend of scholarly analysis and narrative essayClear, explanatory proseCareful voice informed by translation studies
Recurring Motifs
Memory and testimonyMediation of translation and voiceOccupation and colonial memoryLiterature and law / responsibility

Legacy

Alice Kaplan is an internationally recognized scholar of twentieth-century French literature, translation studies, and memory studies. She has been influential in Camus scholarship and reception history of postwar France, reaching audiences through both scholarly and general-interest books and acting as a cultural bridge between the U.S. and France.

Academic Societies

  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Archives

  • Yale University Library / Archives

Quotes

  • The definitive account of Brasillach’s crime and punishment.
    Source: Praise cited by the National Book Award (2000)

Trivia

  • Her father, Sidney J. Kaplan, served as a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials.
  • At 15 she studied for a year at Le Collège du Léman in Switzerland to learn French.
  • Founding member of MaisonDAR and active in cultural projects in Algiers.