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The Freak and its discontents (Trinity College Dublin)

The Freak and its discontents (Trinity College Dublin)

Publié le par Université de Lausanne (Source : LOUISE KARI MEREAU)

Call for papers/ Appel à contribution

"The Freak and its discontents",

Trinity College Dublin, 29-30 Octobre 2019

Funded by the French Department of Trinity College, the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (TCD), the Society for French Studies (SFS) and the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France (ASMCF).  

‘There’s a quality of legend about freaks. Like a person in a fairy tale who stops you and demands that you answer a riddle. Most people go through life dreading they’ll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma.’ -Diane Arbus

The symbol of ‘the freak’ is a transcultural allegory that exists across boundaries of nation and discipline. Often perceived as a bad omen, it serves to inform both the pejorative representation of the other and our understanding of the mainstream society which deems the ‘freak’ as other. A cross-disciplinary study of what society finds shocking illuminates the cultural norms that the hegemony considers its constituent pieces. A curiosity or willingness to study the heteroglossia outside of this constituency offers a unique opportunity to expose elements of such hegemonic structures that might otherwise be taken for granted and raise a critical awareness of the processes that define ‘normalcy’ and freakishness. An interdisciplinary approach allows us the vantage point of multiple academic perspectives into what exactly it is in various understandings of the freakthat frightens society and what pieces of society are incompatible with the freak. What elements of cultural consciousness function to define the other as ‘freakish’? To what extent is ‘the freak’ both exiled from society and an extension of society itself? Which elements of ‘the freak’ are defined by society, and which are self-imposed? Is ‘the freak’ simply a caricatured exaggeration of ‘the other,’ or is it something separate?

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This conference, organised by a postgraduate committee, will explore the concept of the freak in relation to Literature, Cultural Studies, Film, Philosophy, Literary Theory, History, Anthropology, History of Art, Drama, Theology, and Folklore. It will take place in the Trinity Long Room Hub on 29-30 October 2019.

We welcome papers in relation to:

- Psychology and Sociology
- Gender Studies
- Film Studies
- History and Social Studies
- Architecture (e.g. gargoyles, grotesques, etc.)
- Social, religious, and cultural identity
- Biography and autobiography
- Ethics in Biology, Immunology, and Medicine
- Literary Theory: (e.g. Bakhtin and the carnivalesque, Rabelais and the grotesque, etc.)
- Ostracised and marginalised figures in literature and history
- Language Studies


We request an abstract of 250-300 words along with a short biography sent to Alexandra Corey & Jason Marrott at thefreakconference@gmail.com by 30 July 2019.