ULIP Postgraduate Conference Summer 2012 – La Littérature authentique? - June 8, 2012

A postgraduate conference organised and supported by the University of London Institute in Paris will take place on Friday,June 8, 2012. Leading on from postgraduate reading group sessions held during 2011/2012 at ULIP, this conference day will culminate in a publication late 2012.

« Il n'y a pas de maladie en soi, de même qu'il n'y a pas de malade en soi, il n'y a qu'un être-dans-le-monde authentique ou inauthentique » - Pierre Solié

« L'authenticité est l'intelligence des imbéciles » - Jean-Michel Ribe

The ambiguous relationship between reality and representation, between lived experience and spectacle, between the politics of the street and the corridors of power has consistently made the issue of authenticity a central concern of French literature. In fiction the problem of the authentic has ignited a number of historical debates and stylistic responses, from the realism of Balzac or Zola's naturalism to more experimental forms of literary representation to be found in the modernism of the Surrealists or the nouveau roman.

French philosophers, from Rousseau to the existentialism of Sartre and the virtual realities of Baudrillard, have seen the question of authenticity as one of the essential problems of the modern condition. While on the level of politics, the Situationists Guy Debord and Raoul Vaneigem critiqued modern life as a Spectacle and claimed authenticity as a revolutionary weapon of the working class.

The marginal social position of authors has also been seen to act as a subversive input of authenticity, including proletarian literature, gay writing, black writing and literature by migrant communities. At the same time, authenticity is often used as a decidedly reactionary tool in French society. Certain social practices and communities are oppressed and marginalized in the name of 'authentic' French culture. The notion of authenticity can therefore act as both a tool of critical empowerment and disempowerment. This raises questions as to the usefulness of authenticity as a concept and how it should be defined. Moreover, the origins of the discourse of authenticity in French culture remain an obscure area in the history of ideas. This conferences aims to examine, reassess and define the use of authenticity in French writing. Questions to be considered might include:

• How have different French authors and critical paradigms defined authenticity?

• In what way has the question of authenticity shaped literary representation in the 20th and 21st centuries?

• Why has the issue of authenticity been a central concern in modern French Literature and culture?

We invite proposals for twenty-minute papers from postgraduate researchers. Papers can be in English or in French. Abstracts (maximum 300 words), together with a short biography indicating your academic background and research interests, should be submitted via e-mail to eugene.brennan@ulip.lon.ac.uk by March 16th 2012. Please include your name, academic affiliation, and contact details.

This conference is organised by the ULIP Postgraduate Society: Russell WIlliams, Eugene Brennan and Alastair Hemmens.