CARING, TOUCHING, MOVING, IN FRENCH AND FRANCOPHONE CULTURE

CFP - Special Session (accepted)

52nd Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)

Philadelphia, PA - March 11 - 14, 2021

CARING, TOUCHING, MOVING, IN FRENCH AND FRANCOPHONE CULTURE

(organized by Dr. Loïc Bourdeau, University of Louisiana at Lafayette)

As the world came to a sudden stop with the COVID-19 pandemic, topics such as (self)care, mental wellness, disability, (gendered) emotional labor, and social distancing have been at the center of many discussions: on social media, at home, in higher education at large, in politics, etc. Cultural productions prior to the virus had already engaged with these notions. For instance, A. Gefen, in his recent book Réparer le monde (2017), shows how contemporary literature seeks to fix the world, cares for traumas, and makes room for empathy. What the current situation has perhaps revealed or reminded us of in particular, is the importance as well as privilege of physical touch, presence, and motion. Each term should be construed broadly: think, for instance, of the struggle of being alone, deprived of touch, or, on the contrary, being surrounded by several individuals (in a small space). Worse, think of the rise of domestic abuse.

This panel thus seeks to investigate how French and Francophone cultural productions – literature and visual and performance arts – engage with these concepts. How does one deal with/represent caring, touching, and/or moving and to what ends? How are these concepts affected by or shedding light on social inequalities due to sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, ableness, age, class, etc. Of particular interests are productions which feature (individual/collective) traumas, though these need not be limited to health/medical crises.

Possible topics include:

-      Representing epidemics and quarantines (e.g., "journaux de confinement")

-      Urban/Rural spaces

-      Sexuality in the time of lockdowns/ sexuality and privacy

-      Social media: uses, practices, benefits, and limits

-      Healthcare, medical humanities

-      Language and diseases

-      (Domestic) abuse

-      (Im)migration

-      (Self) isolation

-      Islands, intimacies, public vs private spaces

-      Trauma, memory, fragmentation, patchwork, reconstruction

-      Reflections on the benefits/role of literature, cinema, dance, etc.

-      Productivity vs lack / immobility

Abstract of 250 words in English or French should be uploaded on the Online Submission System by September 30, 2020. Decisions will be made shortly after the deadline.

For more information, feel free to contact loic.bourdeau@icloud.com.