Presenters:
Abou-Bakar Mamah, Department of French & Italian
Title: Ourika's Malaise.
Claire de Duras in Ourika spotlighted a Negress tortured in her soul by the contrast of the estranged worldly life of an aristocratic family. What arouses our intellectual curiosity is to understand Ourika's discomfort in another malaise, that of the aristocratic class that is hosting her and must pay the price of the Revolution. Many factors, evoked through the narrative subtlety of the writer, will guide us in giving our perspective on the issue.
Alexandre Dubois, Department of French & Italian
Title: Man in Revolt and Ecstatic Nihilism in Sade's Philosophy.Through Nietzsche and Camus' philosophies, we will see how Sade's characters, by constantly being in revolt, are torn apart between two interdependent worlds: the ancient one and the new one. Evolving in a fictional land-the book in itself-these Sadists are praising Nihilism in order to contest the values and create their own, resulting in an endless Dionysiac confrontation where the Revolution is always
in being. Having this in mind, we will note that the outcome is no longer relevant, for what matters now is the constant revolt.
(presentation in French)Agnès Schaffauser, Department of French & Italian
Title: Mal à L'Aise: Where Are the French Blacks?This presentation proposes to tackle the place of
French Blacks in France. Who are those Blacks of France? What is their place in French History? Or rather, what place has French society left for them? Considering contemporary debates, this talk aims at understanding why France happens to still feel "ill at ease" with its Black citizens.
Charlotte Soulpin, Department of French & Italian
Title: Looking in a Mirage: Visual Objects of Rememberance and Carcissism in Anne Godard's L'Inconsolable.This presentation considers the process of identification for the mourning subject within a literary context. By focusing on the speech of the mother-character in mourning in Anne Godard's
L'Inconsolable (2006), recent scholarship has argued for the pathological narcissism of the latter. This talk wishes to switch the emphasis and analyze the interaction between the mourning subject and visual objects of remembrance such as photography and film. Such an approach sheds light on the problematic aspects of diagnosing the mother-character as narcissistic and allows for a reconsideration of the question of identification through visual objects as a process between remembrance and decay.
We hope to see you there!
