Urban Bridges, Global Capital(s): Trans-Mediterranean Francosphères (Univ. of Leeds, en ligne)
Urban Bridges, Global Capital(s): Trans-Mediterranean Francospheres: A Symposium
19 March, 17h-19h (GMT)
In order to celebrate the publication of our volume, Urban Bridges, Global Capital(s): Trans-Mediterranean Francospheres (Liverpool University Press) we would like to invite you to join us at a symposium and book launch in discussion with contributors to the volume.
Programme
Charles Forsdick (Liverpool) Megan C. MacDonald and Claire Launchbury (editors) - Introduction and Welcome
Hakim Abderrezak (American Academy in Berlin Fellow, Spring 2021, University of Minnesota): Writing Capital(s), Narrating the City: Mediterranean allers-retours
Isla Paterson (Leeds): Marseille multiples: Capital of Culture
SA Smythe (UCLA): Mediterranean Beyonds
A space of cultural exchange, linguistic negotiation, multiple migrations and diverse identities, the trans-Mediterranean is also identified by long-existing trade links between the major, and ancient, cities situated on its coasts. From Athens to Casablanca, Nice to Tunis, these cities, administrative capitals in their own right, often rival their inland designated counterparts as places of cosmopolitan capital and exchange. Our collection reflects upon the different and often competing transnational spheres and borders—linguistic, religious, political—focusing on the concept of ‘bridging’ across and between Mediterranean urban centres. We locate as case studies of transcultural exchange texts which originate, or are located in, voyages to and from these centres. Following Jacques Derrida’s peregrinations in L’Autre Cap (1991), our collection interrogates the what of Europe; the when or where of Paris; the who of the Mediterranean. Or might the Mediterranean fall under the rubric of ‘paleonomy’, that is, as Michael Naas recalls Derrida’s words in Positions: ‘the “strategic” necessity that requires the occasional maintenance of anold namein order to launch a new concept’. Taking this forward, we understand the Mediterranean as an old name to launch a new conceptand the essays in the book each reflect on this in different ways. Issues concerning identity are challenged, since a Metropolitan, European, Arab or African identity may be preferred over a Mediterranean one. As borders become reinforced in the region, trans-Mediterranean bridging narratives may be thwarted, especially by those who write across Europe, Africa and Southwest Asia, in the face of the contemporary refugee crisis. Finally, chapters explore what it means to define a Mediterranean city—such as Marseille as European Capital of Culture—and interrogate how this feeds into the cultural production of a city whose multi-ethnic identities are as outward-looking towards North Africa as they are inward towards the French capital. In this way, Marseille becomes a node, a sitepar excellenceof trans-Mediterranean passages. Marseille seen in this light, put into conversation with unexpected interlocutors (such as the Comoros Islands), resituates Mediterranean francosphères through an examination of its new sites and the relationships between them.Our book examines cultural production and flows between urban capitals and ‘capital’ in and of a selection of Mediterranean cities and sites. The connections forged here are man-made, via literature, political considerations and cultural movements. This is a specific choice and moves away from the work on the natural world of the Mediterranean which not only privileges the geographic, but focuses on much earlier periods.
19 March 2021 17h00 (GMT)
Please register using the link below:
https://universityofleeds.zoom.us/.../tZwvduGprDMjEt1vpLO...
For any further information, please contact: C.L.Launchbury@leeds.ac.uk