“Cancel culture” and “culture wars” in the social imagination: transnational, diachronic, and interdisciplinary perspectives (MSH Paris)
Perceived by some as symptoms of a new leftist moralism, a threat to liberal thought and freedom of expression, by others as the result of a moral panic underpinned by a neoconservative agenda, the notion of “cancel culture” has permeated public discourse, not only in the US, where it originated, but also all over Europe.
Among the various issues that become perceived through the lens of the “cancel culture” term, we find various literary and cultural topics: the revision of canonical works, cf. the “Roald Dahl debate”; the moral validity of authors, cf. the “J.K. Rowling debate”; the legitimacy of authors and/or translator to address specific literary topics.
In addition, “cancel culture” has become a cultural motif, thematized in fiction, including in bestselling and award-winning novels.
The seminar will adress the various tropes, figures, narratives, and debates that transmit and engage in ideas of “cancel culture” and “culture wars”, both in the last decade and in historical iterations.
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Programme
1 October
10.00-10.15: Welcome and introduction
10.15-10.45: Massimo Lucarelli (Université de Caen) – “Ma tu che sol per cancellare scrivi” (Paradiso, XVIII, 130): Dante et les Cancel cultures anciennes et contemporaines
10.45-11.15: Christopher Messelt (Østfold University College) – From Harring to Handke. Literature and controversy in the Norwegian public sphere, 1850–2015
11.15-11.30: Coffee break
11.30-12.00: Inga Henriette Undheim (Western Norway University of Applied Sciences) –Too good to cancel? Cancel culture from a Norwegian perspective
12.00-13.00: Lunch break
13.00-14.00: Laurent Martin (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle) – Can and should we say everything in today's France? A look back at some recent controversies concerning censorship, freedom of expression and cancel culture
14.00-14.15: Coffee break
14.15-14.45: Janicke S. Kaasa (University of Oslo) – Translation and cancellation: Norwegian authors abroad in the interwar period
14.45-15.15: Eli Løfaldli (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) – A Preemptive Strike? Contentious material in adaptation
15.15-15.30: Coffee break
15.30-16.00: Marius Warholm Haugen (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) – Cancel culture satires in contemporary French-language novels
16.00-16.30: General discussion
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2 October
16.00-18.00: Artistic self-defence workshop, with Sophie Rabau (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle) and Marie Bouard (Niji-Kan Karaté Do).