February 22-24, 2024
Villanova University
Organizing Committee: Étienne Achille & François Massonnat
Villanova University
Organizing Committee: Étienne Achille & François Massonnat
Independence
Philadelphia, the first capital of the United States, is where the Declaration of Independence was famously signed in 1776. Taking its inspiration from this site, this year’s conference examines the theme of independence in 20th and 21st century French and Francophone literatures, cultures, cinema, bande dessinée, theater, music, history, theory, and translation studies from a wide range of theoretical and methodological perspectives.
National, communal, and personal ideals have often hinged upon the promise of some form of independence: from the Haitian Revolution to the Algerian War, from Corsica to Quebec, and from struggles for gender equality to the battles over the protection of the welfare state. Yet, while colonial legacies and debates around national sovereignty and self-determination drive sociopolitical engagements, globalization threatens the very achievability of independence. At the same time, quests for sustainable and non-normative modes of living often collide with neocapitalist logics and the traditional order of things. Conversely, the independentist impulse has also fed into separatist, sovereignist, and isolationist trends, which can manifest through populist, identitarian, and xenophobic policies and acts. As for artistic production, it is caught in a double bind in which economic viability is predicated on a willingness to either abide by market rules or tolerate state or corporate censorship also increasingly affecting the academic world. We will consider the ways in which artists and intellectuals from the French-speaking world have engaged with independence and its adjacent concepts of liberty, emancipation, autonomy, experimentation, and agency in the face of the successive economic, political, social, and cultural shifts of the past century. The organizing committee will welcome particularly, but not exclusively, proposals addressing the following areas of critical inquiry:
Academic freedom
Addiction
Animal liberation / Animal rights
Autonomy
Censorship
(Co-)Dependence
Conflicts for independence
Corporatization of the arts
Decolonization (the nation, the canon, the curriculum)
(Dis-)Ability/Inability
Gender and sexual self-identification
Gender and sexual rights/Identities
Futures
Independence (un)sung (poetry and the lyrical form)
Independent publishers/publishing and film production
Institutions/Constitutions
Laïcité
Land claims (boundaries, natural resources, birthrights, immigration, xenophobia)
Memory
Narratives of independence (coming of age, group consciousness and contestations, fractured collectives)
National celebrations
Nationhood and nationalism
Neocolonialism
New/Old World(s)
Performing independence (digital media, photography, theater, street art…)
Political rhetorics
Republic(s)
Resilience
Resistance
Revolutions
Self-publishing
Slavery/Emancipation
Sovereignty
Subjection
State-sponsored artistic production
Transnational and global movements and narratives
Youth
Academic freedom
Addiction
Animal liberation / Animal rights
Autonomy
Censorship
(Co-)Dependence
Conflicts for independence
Corporatization of the arts
Decolonization (the nation, the canon, the curriculum)
(Dis-)Ability/Inability
Gender and sexual self-identification
Gender and sexual rights/Identities
Futures
Independence (un)sung (poetry and the lyrical form)
Independent publishers/publishing and film production
Institutions/Constitutions
Laïcité
Land claims (boundaries, natural resources, birthrights, immigration, xenophobia)
Memory
Narratives of independence (coming of age, group consciousness and contestations, fractured collectives)
National celebrations
Nationhood and nationalism
Neocolonialism
New/Old World(s)
Performing independence (digital media, photography, theater, street art…)
Political rhetorics
Republic(s)
Resilience
Resistance
Revolutions
Self-publishing
Slavery/Emancipation
Sovereignty
Subjection
State-sponsored artistic production
Transnational and global movements and narratives
Youth
We also welcome proposals for papers and panels on the works of our plenary speakers Sonia Kronlund and Makenzy Orcel (subject open).
Paper proposals (250 words maximum, in French or English, along with a brief bio-bibliography) and proposals for complete panels (strongly encouraged) should be submitted directly from this page before September 15, 2023.
Paper proposals (250 words maximum, in French or English, along with a brief bio-bibliography) and proposals for complete panels (strongly encouraged) should be submitted directly from this page before September 15, 2023.
Please note that the colloquium will take place in person only at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Center City Philadelphia and won’t accommodate remote participation.
