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Unbecoming Masters
The Department of French at New York University
Annual Graduate Conference
March 27-28, 2009
(Papersin English and in French)
What is amaster? Ignominious or venerable, alluring or vile, above all else, it seems, themaster dominates beings or things. Whether we consider the master as person or personnage, desirous to rein in theextraneous, to tame the intractable; whether the master is a narrative, aninstitution, or the prevailing doxa regulating the horizon of a given time and place– the scene of mastery involves an encounter between master and some other. Onthe one hand, the sovereign proclaims his or her will, the Nation writes itshistory, the schoolmaster dictates the text, and beings and things succumb asthe stuff to be ordered, molded or amassed. On the other hand, within these andother configurations of an apparently static scene move the countercurrents ofpromiscuous stuff – so many secondary figures complicating, dynamizing,destabilizing the scene of mastery. In this sense, the history of mastery mayalways also be the history of the master's unbecoming.
We invite participants to explore scenes ofmastery and in particular their complications as they have been thematizedand/or theorized in the domains of French literature, theory, politics, historyand art. Among our guiding questions: How to define/find the master? How manymasters? What is the master's due? How to have done with the master?
Topics ofexploration include but are not limited to the following:
· ComplexCouples: Dominants/dominés,sovereigns/subjects, masters/valets, citadins/paysans,colonize/colonized, pedagogues/pupils, executioners/victims, seducers/seduced,prudes/perverts, chefs/chefs d'oeuvre, mastertexts/translations, natives/sans papiers;questions of fidelity/infidelity.
· MiddleVoices: Creolization, hybridization; bricolage,detournement; art brut; converts,exiles, delinquents.
· Discours(des) maîtres: French Hegelian dialectics, Lacan'sdiscourses; Foucault's episteme;Lyotard's différend, Rancière's mésentente; master narratives past andpostmodern; arguments to authority.
· (Un)Timeliness:Questions of periodization, anachronism.
Graduatestudents from all disciplines are invited to present 15 to 20 minutepapers addressing the topic of “UnbecomingMasters.” Abstracts of 300-500 words should be submitted to nyufrenchconference@gmail.com(Attn: “Grad Conf”) no later than February 6, 2009. Papers may be in French orEnglish.