Appel à contributions (ACLA 2022) : Island of Shattered Dreams, 15 Years On: Reframing Francophone Oceanian Studies

Island of Shattered Dreams, 15 Years On: Reframing Francophone Oceanian Studies

ACLA Annual Meeting, June 15-18, 2022

Organizer: Nathalie Segeral

Co-Organizer: Léa Vuong

2022 marks the 15th anniversary of the publication of Jean Anderson’s English translation of Chantal Spitz’s "L’île des rêves écrasés," a turning point in the reception and production of contemporary Oceanian literary production in French. While Francophone Oceanian studies have been gaining traction over recent years (Ramsay 2014; Frengs 2017; Pfersmann et Porcher 2019; Pfersmann 2021), the Oceanic region remains a severely under-studied part of the Francophone world, despite its booming literary, artistic, and cultural productions.

This seminar seeks to reposition Oceanian studies within the global Francophone studies academic discourse by establishing an état présent of research into the literary, artistic and cultural productions in French in the region. Selected papers from this seminar will be included in a book proposal submission to Liverpool University Press's ‘Francophone Postcolonial Studies’ series to be submitted in February 2022. By publishing this volume with Liverpool University Press, one of the only Anglophone academic publisher to have previously published a monograph on Francophone Oceanian literature (Ramsay 2014), we aim to give increased visibility to recent and contemporary literature, visual arts, film, and performing arts from Oceania while creating island-to-island bridges. We seek to interrogate Oceanian studies’ relative exclusion from the postcolonial Francophone discourse, and a lack of focus on Francophone writers and artists in Anglophone Pacific studies. 

In this perspective, we seek contributions from established and early-career scholars, as well as graduate students, dealing with Francophone literature, including poetry, in the Francophone South Pacific context (Tahiti, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, or the Francophone diaspora in Australia and New Zealand or Hawai'i). We are also particularly interested in contributions engaging with visual arts, film, theatre and performance in French-speaking Oceania. Contributions that explore cross-artistic dialogues, island-to-island cultural exchanges or examine the place of Oceanian studies in Francophone studies are also welcome. The preferred language of proposals is English, since that will be the language of our volume, but proposals in French may also be considered.

Possible topics include:
- local/regional and global reception and exhibition of contemporary Francophone artists based in Oceania 
- Case-study on specific writer, filmmaker, artist/artwork/exhibition, film and cultural festivals or comparative analyses across time, region, language, artistic expression
- How today’s writers, directors and artists navigate between traditional knowledge and contemporary concerns (climate, political and social issues)
- Position of Francophone Oceanian artists within contemporary Pacific art 
- Reappropriation of colonial gaze on Oceania by contemporary Oceania-based writers, filmmakers, artists

To submit a proposal for this seminar before October 31st, please follow the instructions on ACLA's website:

https://www.acla.org/node/add/paper

For any questions, please contact the organizers:

nathalie.segeral@sydney.edu.au
lea.vuong@sydney.edu.au