The Many Faces of Madness: Representations of madness in French Literature
--Deadline: 30th June 2011--
This year's London French Postgraduate Conference at the IGRS on the 14th November, 2011 is honoured to have as its keynote speakers Professor Ann Jefferson (Oxon) and Professor Celia Britton (UCL), who will speak on our title theme The Many Faces of Madness in French Literature.
We invite proposals for papers from current postgraduate students and researchers, and recent post-doctoral graduates. This is a unique opportunity to present a paper in a supportive, unintimidating environment, to try out new research and receive useful feedback (and encouragement) and to meet fellow doctoral researchers in the field.
The broad title allows scope for papers from a wide range of periods and perspectives – find the madness in your research! The discussion will seek to respond broadly to the questions below:
· What is it about madness that both fascinates and repels the human subject? What does our own reaction to the madness of others, and the discourses produced by those reactions, say about ourselves?
· Who defines madness, and what power relations do this classification and objectification of the ‘mad other' reveal?
· Can madness be used successfully as protest?
· Why is madness such a common trope in French literature across the centuries, and a frequent subject of critical discourse and theory?
· How (and how much) does contemporary madness as represented differ from madness of the Middle Ages; what changes might it have undergone in the Enlightenment period?
· How has the post-psychoanalytic context impacted representations of madness?
We are interested in papers considering the treatment of madness by male and female French authors and authors writing in French, including but not limited to the following topics:
· feminism and madness
· hysteria and anorexia
· madness as protest
· the asylum
madness of the past
· madness of today
· theories of madness
· writing and madness
Papers may be in English or French. Participants should submit abstracts of 300-400 words for 20-minute papers by email before 30th June 2011 to: pgfc2011@gmail.com
Conference organisers: Gillian Ni Cheallaigh (KCL) & Laura Jackson (QMUL) with the generous support of SFS; KCL; UCL; QMUL & RHUL