CFP: Representations of Marginal Paris (Edited Volume)
We invite book chapter proposals for the forthcoming scholarly volume In the Shadows of the City of Light: Representations of Marginal Paris, to appear in Brill publisher’s series “Francopolyphonies.” This interdisciplinary edited collection of essays will examine how marginal Paris, including particular populations, spaces and practices, has been represented in literature and other cultural productions from the French-speaking world.
Paris, Capital of the World according to Patrice Higonnet (2005), has been a source of great admiration and influence across borders and centuries. As a literary and artistic motif though, the City of Light has attracted as much for its dark sides as its “shiny” ones. Nineteenth-century literary works that depict conventionally unaesthetic or disparaged aspects of the French capital, such as texts by Honoré de Balzac, Charles Baudelaire, and Émile Zola, are testaments to artists’ fascination with Paris’s “mud” (Baudelaire, “Draft of Epilogue for the Second Edition of The Flowers of Evil,” 1861). In contemporary times, the artistic fascination with Parisian margins has led to movements such as cinéma de banlieue, which explores the social struggles of the youth in underprivileged suburbs. Paradoxically, while literature and other art forms that celebrate “off-beat” Paris oppose mainstream aesthetics, the establishment has become more and more interested in cultural productions created in the margins. The increasing governmental recognition and commercialization of Parisian street art in the last few years attests to it. The lines of demarcation between the French capital’s “light” and “darkness” are now also blurred at a political and economic level, giving even more legitimacy to The Other Paris (Lucy Sante, 2015).
This volume invites original contributions from various disciplines that explore marginal Paris as depicted in literature, theater, cinema, music, and other cultural productions from the French-speaking world since 1800. The concept of “margins” is taken in a broad sense in order to encompass a great variety of populations, spaces and practices, all of which can be defined as outside the mainstream intellectual, political, geographic, discursive or social realm. Aspects of marginality include but are not limited to:
- race
- socio-economic status
- LGBTQ+
- immigration
- mental and physical disability
- nightlife
- the banlieue
- sports and leisure
- street art
Contributions will be in English. Previously published work or essays that are purely historical will not be considered.
Submission Instructions
Please submit a 300-word abstract and a 100-word biography in English, along with a C.V., to co-editors Aurélie Van de Wiele (axvandewiele@salisbury.edu) and Carole Salmon (carole.salmon@furman.edu) by March 15, 2022.
Authors of accepted proposals will be asked to contribute an original essay in English of 6,000-9,000 words (including notes and bibliography), as well as a short abstract and an index by June 15, 2022. Contributors who wish to use illustrations that are not their own will be responsible for securing any copyrights and for the financial cost associated with the process.
Timeline of the project
Abstract Due: March 15, 2022
Notification of Acceptance: April 1, 2022
Finalized Draft Due: June 15, 2022 for blind peer-review
Publication of the volume is tentatively scheduled for early 2023.
About the publisher
Founded in 1683, Brill is a publishing house with a rich history and a strong international focus. Its publications focus on the Humanities and Social Sciences, International Law and selected areas in the Sciences. Brill publishes close to 1,400 books and reference works per year in both print and electronic format.