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Display and disguise

Display and disguise

Publié le par Alexandre Gefen (Source : Manon Mathias)

La conférence doctorale du département d'études françaises d'Oxford est de retour cette année avec un colloque, " DISPLAY AND DISGUISE ", qui aura lieu le jeudi et le vendredi 2-3 octobre 2008 à la Maison française d'Oxford. Nous invitons les doctorants à soumettre des propositions pour des communications de 20 minutes, soit en anglais, soit en français. Les approches à la question peuvent provenir de tout aspect des études françaises (littérature, critique, art, cinéma, linguistique...) Veuillez trouver ci-dessous l'appel à contribution en version originale.

DISPLAY AND DISGUISE - CALL FOR PAPERS A Two-Day French Postgraduate Conference
Thursday - Friday 2-3 October 2008 at the Maison Française d'Oxford www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/events/gradconf ‘Le marxisme me semblait procéder de la même façon que la géologie et la psychanalyse entendue au sens que lui avait donné sa fondateur : tous trois démontrent que comprendre consiste à réduire un type de réalité à un autre ; que la réalité vraie n'est jamais la plus manifeste ; et que la nature du vrai transparaît déjà dans les soins qu'il met à se dérober.' Levi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques (1955) ‘When we are confronted with any manifestation which someone has permitted us to see, we may ask: what is it meant to conceal?' Nietzche, The Dawn of Day, section 523 (1903) The desire to project a certain image of the self is a drive innate to humans and animals alike for both sexual reproduction and self-preservation. Since Freud's seminal work on the unconscious and Marx's theories of alienation, we have become increasingly preoccupied with the disguises and distortions which hide our real desires and our relations with others. Yet humans are also capable of employing display and disguise in conscious and cynical ways. Forms of display and their manipulation through the means of disguise have been the focus of literary and cultural reflection across the centuries. But in a culture increasingly obsessed with the visual, with self-representation and with maintaining one's own image, it is an appropriate moment to explore the ways in which display and disguise have figured in literature, criticism and visual culture. Proposals are invited for 20-minute papers on the theme of Display and Disguise. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • Physical disguise: transvestism, masquerade, role playing
  • Sexual display: flirting, flaunting, framing oneself
  • Pomp and decadence; humility and modesty
  • Display of the book: illustration, publicity, frontispieces, libraries
  • Display and disguise as narrative tools
  • Intimate and public spaces 
  • The media and their relations to the real/truth
  • Hidden motives and the unconscious 
  • Gender roles: complicity and deviance
  • The screening of memories
  • Ethnic difference and racial tension: prejudices hidden and explicit
  • Display and disguise of man as social animal
  • The expression and repression of emotions and desires
  • The power and the overpowering of the senses 

Abstracts of 200-300 words (in either English or French) are to be submitted to Ruth, Manon and Maria on oxfordpostgradconf@googlemail.com by 1st May 2008. Please indicate your name, institution, level of research, and any audiovisual requirements you may have. Please note that speakers will be encouraged to apply to their home institutions for funding towards the conference.