Findingthe Plot:
Onthe Importance of Storytelling in Popular Fictions
A conference co-organised by the Popular Cultures Research Network (University of Leeds)and the Centre de Recherches sur lesLittératures Populaires et les Cultures Médiatiques (University of Limoges)
14-16 April 2010
Story-tellingis a basic human function. By telling stories we make sense of our own lives,of our society and of history. We live in time, our lives circumscribed by aninevitable end or dénouement, yetalso woven into the lives of others, or into innumerable sub- or parallelplots. Yet plotting – the skilful structuring of event into story - hasgenerally been considered, in Peter Brooks' words: ‘the element of narrativethat least sets off and designs high art'. Meanwhile, popular fictions areacknowledged to owe their success to the craft of story-telling, of compellingthe reader to turn the pages. This compulsion was defined by Barthes as ‘leplaisir' (instant gratification), in contrast to ‘la jouissance' (intellectualfulfilment) that awaited those prepared to engage with the properly literarytext. However, in recognition of the enduring appeal of the popular forms ofthe novel, researchers have recently begun to challenge the barthesian view bypresenting the story rather than the text as the key locus of the readingexperience. This repositioning of the story has allowed not only for there-evaluation of the relationship between ‘high' and low' forms of fiction, butalso for the exploration of the interface between production and reception andof the numerous extensions and diversifications of the literary into thecinematic and other fields.
Adopting aninterdisciplinary approach, with contributions welcomed from scholars working(for example) in the fields of literature, sociology of culture, culturalstudies, text/image, psychology, philosophy - this conference will explore therelationship between storytelling, reading and pleasure, within popularFrench/francophone and English/anglophone literature and associated culturalforms. The definition of ‘popular' remains open and debatable: some highly‘literary' texts have also achieved massive popularity with readers.
Boththeoretical papers and ‘case-studies' are welcome.
Questions to be asked will include:
- How doesthe re-evaluation of story affect our understanding of literary history sincethe 19th Century?
- how havethe pleasures of fiction been theorised and evaluated in anglophone andfrancophone cultures? How have hegemonic notions of cultural legitimacy shapedthe experience of reading and the reception of texts?
- what isthe significance of storytelling now, and what new forms does it take?
- what isthe nature of literary pleasure, and is this significantly different between‘high' and ‘low' cultural forms?
- to whatextent, and in what ways, does the transnational and multi-media nature ofcontemporary texts alter the nature of reading pleasure?
- what isthe relationship between the cognitive and the affective in the experience ofreading fiction?
- are thepleasures of consuming fiction necessarily gendered, and how?
- beyondthe limitations of a critical discourse that accords literary value only to thehigh brow, can we distinguish between ‘good' and ‘bad' fictions?
The conferencewill be held at the University of Leeds UK,14-16 April 2010, and will includethe AGM of the internationalresearch network CoordinationInternationale des Chercheurs en Littératures Populaires et Culture Médiatique.
Languages of communication: English and French.
Keynotespeakers will include the novelist and essayist NANCY HUSTON.
Proposals (MAXIMUM 300 WORDS/ 1500 CHARACTERS –in English or French) are invited for papers or panels on the themes outlinedabove, deadline 15th September 2009.
The focus of the conference will be onfrancophone and anglophone literatures and related forms (e.g. film and otheradaptations) from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, and on thetheoretical questions defined above.
Diana Holmes Jacques Migozzi
David Platten Loïc Artiaga
(LEEDS PCRN) (Limoges CRLPCM)
Selective bibliography
Artiaga,Loïc (dir.). Le Roman populaire (1836-1960). Des premiers feuilletons auxadaptations télévisuelles (Paris: Autrement, 2008)
Baroni,Raphael. La Tension narrative. Suspense,curiosité, surprise (Paris: Seuil, 2007)
Barthes,Roland. Le Plaisir du texte (Paris:Seuil, 1973)
Bleton,Paul. Ca se lit comme un roman policier: comprendre la lecture sérielle(Québec: Nota Bene, 1999)
Brooks, Peter. Reading for the Plot: Design and Intention inNarrative (Oxford: Clarendon, 1984)
Constans,Ellen. Parlez-moi d'amour : le romansentimental des romans grecs aux collections de l'an 2000 (Limoges: PULIM,1999)
Couégnas,Daniel. Introduction à la paralittérature (Paris: Seuil, 1992)
Durand,Pascal et Lits, Marc (dir.), Hermès n° 42, « Peuple, populaire,populisme » (CNRS Editions, 2005)
Grivel,Charles. Production de l'intérêt romanesque (Paris, La Haye: Mouton, 1973)
Hoggart, Richard. The Uses of Literacy (London: Chatto andWindus, 1957)
Huston,Nancy. Professeurs de désespoir (Actes Sud/Lemeac, 2004)
- Lignes de faille (Actes Sud2006)/ Fault Lines (Atlantic Books 2008)
-L'Espèce fabulatrice (ActesSud/Lemeac, 2008)
Le Bris,Michel, Rouaud, Jean et collectif. Pourune littérature-monde (Paris: Gallimard, 2007)
McCracken,Scott. Pulp. Reading Popular Fiction (Manchester: Manchester University Press,1998)
Migozzi,Jacques. Boulevards du populaire (PULIM,Mediatextes, 2005)
Picard, Michel (dir.). Comment la littérature agit-elle ? (Paris: Klincksieck, 1994)
Ricoeur, Paul. Temps et récit, 3. Le temps raconté (Paris: Seuil, 1985)
Ryan, Marie-Laure. Narrative as Virtual Reality. Immersion andInteractivity in Literature and Electronic Media (Baltimore & London: The Johns Hopkins UniversityPress, 2001)
Salmon,Christian: Storytelling : La machine à fabriquer des histoires et à formater lesesprits (Paris: LaDécouverte, 2008)
Thiesse,Anne-Marie, Le Roman du quotidien : lectures et lecteurs populaires àla Belle Epoque (Paris: Le Chemin vert, 1984)
Vareille,Jean-Claude, Le Roman populaire français, 1789-1914 : idéologies etpratiques (Limoges: PULIM, Québec: Nuit Blanche éditeur, 1994).