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Figures de violence

Figures de violence

Publié le par Marielle Macé (Source : Richard Bégin)

 

The Université du Québec à Montréal Équipe de recherche sur l'imaginaire contemporain, la littératures, les images et les nouvelles textualités (ERIC LINT) is organizing an online multidisciplinary symposium titled Figures of Violence, to be held on its Web site from February 1st, 2009 to April 30, 2009. We invite you to send us your presentation proposals by October 15th, 2008.


Currently it is common to accuse the different media of contributing to a certain “banalization” of violence. Whether everyday or recreational, violence as a media phenomenon is no longer a unique, exceptional and unusual harmful incident because it is immediately shared, considered newsworthy and instantly criticized by a society that is, in many ways, its contemporary. From the events of Tiananmen Square in 1989, to the attacks of September 11, 2001, by way of the Internet phenomenon of “bum fights” and online war games, violence is no longer witnessed only by the principals present at the scene. From that point on it has as its contemporaries a society of readers, watchers, players and Internet surfers who constantly reconfigure it according to the various devices of mediation through which it passes. Violence is playing itself out on the “Net”, and its image is thus being taken up in a media trajectory of constant extrapolation. In this sense, the value of inquiring into the contribution of different media practices to the process of transmitting violence lies also in how its emotional contours are constantly being transfigured.


Figures of Violence is an online symposium project that will extend over nearly a year and a half and bring together between 10 and 15 contributors. The presentations selected will focus on an analysis of the different ways in which violence is preconfigured, configured and reconfigured by the media. This does not mean that the focus of the study should be limited to single media recurrences of the same, single figure of violence, but implies capturing the idea and process around its formation and transformation. The goal is to apprehend the origin of violent images configured by and in media that propose to represent it (television news, Internet, magazines, radio, etc.) or fictionalize it (film, video games, art, literature, cartoons, theatre, etc.). We will favour studies intended to inquire into the impact of media practices on the development of a contemporary aesthetic of violence.


The proposals selected will make up the primary materials of the online symposium. The symposium will be hosted on the Figura Research Center's Web site and will post the presentations developed by the 10 to 15 contributors chosen by the project's scientific committee in the form of short texts of 1,500 to 2,000 words (short texts deadline is January15th, 2009). The use of visual or audio media supports is not only possible but required for any presentation dealing with audiovisual media. Consequently, technical assistance will be available to any participant who wishes to use one or more additional media supports. Once the papers have been posted online, it will be possible for Web users and other contributors to challenge or pursue the main contributions in a discussion space modelled on Internet forums. In addition, it would be desirable to have the original contributors respond in turn and make new interventions, perhaps even by appending or introducing into the Forum information or thoughts that would develop their own contribution.


The symposium will be online from February 1st, 2009 to April 30, 2009. At the end of this period, the original contributors will be asked to submit an article of 2,500 to 3,000 words which may take account of the Web contributors' messages, reflections and questions. This will also be an opportunity for them to reflect on the online symposium experience and, why not, add their thinking on the discursive reconfigurations of violence generated by this theoretical construct.


We ask all those who wish to participate to send us a brief 300-word abstract of their presentation proposal by October 15th, 2008.


Please send your abstract to: richard.begin@lit.ulaval.ca



Scientific Committee:

Richard Bégin (Laval University)

Bertrand Gervais (Université du Québec à Montréal)

Bernard Perron (University of Montreal)

Lucie Roy (Laval University)