CfP: 'Le Cœur dans tous ses états...' Annual Cambridge French Graduate Conference
- Ort: Cambridge
- Beginn: 18.03.10
- Ende: 19.03.10
- Disziplinen: Literaturwissenschaft, Medien-/Kulturwissenschaft
- Sprachen: Französisch
- Frist: 11.12.09
CALL FOR PAPERS
'Le Cœur dans tous ses états...'
Annual Cambridge French Graduate Conference
University of Cambridge
18th - 19th March 2010
Confirmed keynote speakers: Dr Barbara Kennedy (Staffordshire)
Prof John O’Brien (Royal Holloway) Dr Andy Martin (Cambridge)
In the 'Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers', Diderot writes of the heart that ‘[sa position], sa fonction dans le corps humain, l'importance de ce viscère, ont fort multiplié les acceptions figurées de ce mot, tant au moral qu'au physique.’
Because of its central position in the human body and its function – comparable to that of a motor which drives the movement of the body and is indispensable to the working order of the organism – the heart is synonymous with life.
Furthermore, as the regular rhythm of heartbeat can be affected by emotions felt from outside stimulus, the heart seems to be the repository of our innermost secret feelings and is traditionally read as the core of our emotions, even the kernel of our conscience. The crossroads between body and soul, the heart makes us ‘one’ and is therefore essential to our identity. This central role in the definition of our identity seems to be the origin of the diversity of signifiers around the term ‘cœur’. Holding the full truth of the structure of which it is the centre while simultaneously underpinning its dynamic, the heart constitutes the founding principle of the structure which envelops it. However, its own workings are not always fully explained and the heart often stays obscure, even inaccessible and inscrutable, thus giving way to expressions such as ‘cœur de la question’ or ‘cœur du problème’ which echo a certain physical vacuum of the human organ that is the heart.
The University of Cambridge French Graduate Conference will explore the different aspects of the notion of ‘cœur’, allowing us to better define this often elusive concept which seeps through our discourse. Without ignoring the traditional metaphor of love and feelings that is the heart, the conference seeks to explore anatomical descriptions of this organ, as well as the different conceptualisations of the heart, be it as core, kernel, centre or origin of a phenomenon.
The conference places itself within the realms of French and Francophone Studies, but interdisciplinary projects will be considered. Proposals for papers (20 minutes max.) on any aspects of the notion of ‘cœur’ are invited.
Abstracts in French or English (max. 300 words), together with university affiliation, should be sent before 11th December 2009 to Claire Bisdorff (cjb205@cam.ac.uk) and Marie-Christine Clemente (mcc57@cam.ac.uk). It is anticipated that a selection of papers from the conference will be published.
The following non-exhaustive list gives some ideas of questions to be explored:
Le Cœur/The organ
- medical treatises
- cinematic, literary, visual representations of the organ
- descriptions of the effect of emotions and feelings on the heart
Le Cœur du texte
- core or kernel of a textual body
- core of the text
- core narrative event
- narrative ellipsis which drives the narrative structure
- syntactical structure, leitmotiv which underpins a text
Le Cœur/The centre
- geographical or urban centre
- centre vs periphery
- utopia
- heart/core of an image, central or otherwise
Le Cœur/The origin - the source of a problem, of a historical, geographical or cultural question - the centre of a revolt, of a rebellion - the heart as the seat of feelings, of passions, and of conscience - the heart of trauma
Claire Bisdorff
Clare College, University of Cambridge
French department PhD candidate
Email: cjb205@cam.ac.uk
Publiziert von: Kai Nonnenmacher