“Annie Ernaux’s Bodily, Domestic and Geographical Spaces”
20th- and 21st- Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium
Chicago (USA), 1-3 April 2027
Annie Ernaux has extensively written on places and spaces, even arguing that writing is her “vrai lieu” (Le Vrai lieu: Entretiens avec Michelle Porte, 2014). This panel offers to examine space in a broad yet literal sense in Ernaux’s work along three axes, i.e., the body, the domestic sphere, and actual places. Please send a proposal of 250-words maximum in English or French by August 15, 2026 to Jacqueline Dougherty (jdough@sas.upenn.edu) and Michèle Bacholle (bachollem@easternct.edu). Proposals could investigate: the body IN space, the body AS space / place, dark spaces / places (bedrooms, beds), spaces /places of illness/death, intimate spaces, domestic spaces, filmed spaces / places, photographed spaces / places, exotic spaces /places.