30/05/2011
Autour de l'extrême littéraire
Vendredi 3 juin 2011, University of London Institute in Paris
A postgraduate conference organised and supported by the University of London Institute in Paris. Leading on from postgraduate reading group sessions held during 2010/2011 at ULIP, this conference day will culminate in a publication late 2011.
« Les extrêmes marquent la frontière au-delà de laquelle la vie prend fin, et la passion de l’extrémisme, en art comme en politique, est désir déguisé de mort. » Milan Kundera
The French literary imagination has been consistently drawn to the extreme from the writings of Sade and Bataille to the novels of Céline and Michel Houellebecq and the poetry of Baudelaire and Mallarmé. In continually seeking to push conceived boundaries of the extreme, whether through physical experience, psychological exploration, linguistic experimentation or metaphysical reflection, the avant-garde has shifted perceptions and definitions of this term.
Through the expression of the extreme, writers have been confronted with the insufficiency of language and the act of writing. The following questions will be considered during the conference:
- Is the extreme in literature a critical perspective?
- Does the extreme in literature express absence?
- What do we mean by the extreme and its literary expression?
All are welcome to attend. For further information, or to pre-register your attendance at the event (please note places are limited so this is recommended) please contact extreme@ulip.lon.ac.uk.
‘Autour de l’extrême littéraire’
Conference schedule
9.00 – 9.30am Registration
9.30 – 10.15am 1st panel: The nineteenth-century extreme
Denis Saint-Amand (FNRS – Université de Liège): ‘La Littérature à l’ombre’
Sven Greitschus (Bangor University): ‘Sodom and Gomorrah Revisited: Modern Heroes, Modern Cities and Baudelaire’s Le Spleen de Paris‘
10.15 – 10.45am Keynote paper
Dr Jeremy Stubbs (University of London Institute in Paris/Institut d’études politiques de Paris): ‘When is excess really too much? Horror, parody, self-parody’
10.45 – 11.00am – Coffee break
11.00am – 12.30pm 2nd panel: Violence
Nadia Bongo (Université de Provence à Aix-en Provence): ‘L’extrême corporel dans la trilogie des jumeaux d’Agota Kristof’
Gregory Herman (University of Aberdeen): ‘Writing the Ineffable: Sartre, Semprún and the Self as Subject’
Jennifer Row (Cornell University/ Université de Paris IV Sorbonne): ‘Desire in the Ashes of Time: The extremes of temporality and queer perversion in Racine’s Andromaque‘
12.30 – 13.30pm Lunch
13.30 – 15.30pm 3rd panel: The ‘contemporary extreme’
Russell Williams (University of London Institute in Paris): ‘Cults, crimes and coprophilia. Subversive communities in Richard Morgiève’s Sex Vox Dominam and Thomas Hairmont’s Le Coprophile‘
Liza Steiner (Université de Strasbourg): ‘Influences et échos sadiens chez les écrivains de l’extrême contemporain’
Zoe Roth (King’s College, London): ‘The Death of Desire: Reconsidering the Erotic Extreme in Houellebecq’s Plateforme‘
15.30 – 16.00pm Coffee break
16.00 – 18.00pm 4th panel: Extreme sexualities
Gillian Ni Chellaigh (King’s College, London): ‘‘Un Cri écrit’: Emma Santos, Speaking from the Semiotic’
Leona Archer (University of Cambridge): ‘Extremities of Space and Gender in the Old French Queste del Saint Graal‘
Francesca Forcolin (Université de Nantes/ Università degli Studi de Turin): ‘Le corps et l’extrème: pour une lecture de l’oeuvre de Christine Angot et Annie Ernaux’
18.00pm + Drinks TBC
Organisation and editorial Committee: Laura Owen, Russell Williams, Alastair Hemmens