Actualité
Appels à contributions
French Écocritique and Disaster (Davis, California)

French Écocritique and Disaster (Davis, California)

Publié le par Marc Escola (Source : Karen Quandt)

“French Écocritique and Disaster”

Panel to be held at the ASLE (The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment) conference

“Paradise on Fire” June 26-30, 2019 at University of California, Davis.

Organizers: Abbey Carrico (Virginia Military Institute) and Karen Quandt (Wabash College)


Planned Format:  Traditional Panel (4 Presenters) 

In French Ecocriticism: From the Early Modern Period to the Twenty-First Century (2017), Daniel A. Finch-Race and Stephanie Posthumus make the case for a French ecocriticism liberated from “a more general suspicion in France about politically driven cultural studies that are perceived as glossing over the aesthetic, formal and stylistic elements of cultural production”. Addressing contemporary theory (Félix Guattari, Bruno Latour) alongside contemporary works of literature (Marie Darrieussecq, Michel Houellebecq), Posthumus explains in French Écocritique (2017) how a non-reductionist approach to ecological reading leads to “multiple discursive threads” in which “Theory and fiction become sounding boards for new eco-concepts”.   

Language, culture, methodology, cross-continental and bilingual academia -- all reveal the challenge of defining French ecocriticism. And yet, well before Guattari, back in 1989, viscerally highlighted the tight relationship between capitalism and environmental disaster, and well before Houellebecq became a controversial sensation with his exploration of human animality and its nihilistic implications, French and Francophone writers, whether through narratives or the development of aesthetic forms, have used disaster in its many manifestations (natural, social, political) as an opportunity to reflect on humans and their relationships to nature through lenses such as the environmental and moral implications of colonialization, the ramifications of science and travel, and the critique of the rigidly dualistic relationship between humans and the natural world (in)famously ingrained by Descartes. From Montaigne’s deep skepticism regarding European colonization in the New World; from Voltaire’s critique of abiding faith in optimism and progress no matter what the toll of natural catastrophe; from George Sand’s ecofeminist lamentation of a fading agrarian culture; from Samuel Beckett’s nihilistic representation of nature in a nuclear world; to colonial and postcolonial narratives that expose the persistent link between human subjugation and environmental degradation, French and Francophone writers have long been preoccupied, especially at our most disastrous moments, with our common écologie.

This panel seeks papers that address the broad role of disaster, and its ecological implications, in French and Francophone literature. Topics might include, but are not limited to, natural disasters, pollution, industrial accidents, climate change, urbanization, slow violence, science and its ethical implications, war and weapons, treatment or consumption of animals, colonialization and post-colonization and environmental justice. We seek a diverse range of authors and periods, and encourage submission of any paper that can continue to offer new “eco-concepts” to the field of French ecocriticism.

Proposals should be for traditional papers, include a 250-word abstract and contact information (email, affiliation, current academic position). Papers will be given in English. Submissions accepted October 15th through December 15th, 2018. Accepted panelists will be informed by January 10th, 2019. Please contact Abbey Carrico (carricoab@vmi.edu) or Karen Quandt (quandtk@wabash.edu) with any inquiries.

If submitting an abstract you must use the following link and create an account for submission through the ASLE website. Abstract deadline is December 15th, 2018.

https://asle.submittable.com/submit/126561/french-ecocritique-and-disaster

ASLE Conference link: https://www.asle.org/conference/biennial-conference/