Resisting from the Edge: Marginal Characters and Collective Empowerment (NeMLA)

"Resisting from the Edge: Marginal Characters and Collective Empowerment"

French and Francophone Studies - NeMLA 58th Annual Convention

Newport, Rhode Island (USA), 6-9 March 2027

This panel invites papers that examine the agency of marginalized characters in literary, visual, audiovisual, and artistic productions from the French speaking world across any historical period. Artistic works offer numerous examples of figures who maintain an ambivalent relationship to their communities. Because of their social or ethnic origins, their divergent perspectives, or their transgression of established norms, certain characters find themselves pushed to the margins of social, familial, or professional groups. While such exclusion may appear to weaken those who experience it, this panel asks whether marginalization might also function as a source of strength. Can marginality become a generative position? Do marginalized individuals succeed in forming new communities that enable them to confront stigma and ultimately overcome it?

This discussion seeks to shift our understanding of the place occupied by marginalized individuals and groups in fictional narratives. By considering the networks of solidarity that emerge among marginalized subjects, the panel explores what lies beneath their presumed inferiority, inviting critical attention to what is hidden, erased, or rendered invisible within dominant narratives. More importantly, we will examine how marginalized communities may become empowering spaces of resistance, mutual support, and hope.

Drawing on approaches from cultural studies, postcolonial theory, sociolinguistics, and intersectionality, this session seeks to understand how literary, visual, audiovisual, and artistic narratives stage the tensions between marginality and belonging, strength and vulnerability.

Proposals engaging with environmental humanities, posthumanism, Indigenous studies, as well as diaspora and migration studies are strongly encouraged. We also welcome submissions drawing on gender and queer studies, memory and trauma studies, digital humanities, or other interdisciplinary frameworks within the humanities.

We welcome proposals of 250-300 words, in French or English, submitted by September 30, 2026. Proposals should be submitted here: https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/22461