Depuis près de dix ans, des chercheuses de l’ILLE s’intéressent à l’écriture du Féminin à travers des sujets comme l’apprentissage du devenir féminin, le crime et son interrogation selon son genre, son origine, son parcours de vie. Les profonds changements dans la conception du monde et de l’environnement bouleversent ce thème, le prolongent et le font évoluer. Les structures asymétriques du pouvoir restent : les femmes dont la vie et l’action sont encore, malgré les progrès sociaux, souvent assimilés à une mise sous tutelle ou une mise hors champ, sont encore aujourd’hui dans la lutte contre le patriarcat et la domination masculine. Mais quel est l’apport de la perspective écologique dans ce domaine ? Depuis plus de trente ans, de nombreuses études internationales montrent un parallèle entre le traitement du féminin et de l’écologie, la pensée de la nature et du féminin connaissant le même combat dans l’écoféminisme.

Argument

For the past ten years, researchers at ILLE have been exploring how femininity has been written about, on subjects such as learning to become a woman, crime and how it is questioned according to gender and life path. The profound changes of our conception of the world and of the environment are transforming this theme, extending it and making it evolve. Asymmetrical power structures persist: women, whose lives and actions are still, despite social progress, often equated with being under guardianship or out of the limelight, are still fighting against patriarchy and male domination. But what is the contribution of the ecological perspective in this area? For over thirty years, numerous international studies have shown a parallel between the treatment of the feminine and ecology, with thinking about nature and femininity undergoing the same struggle in ecofeminism.

First used in France by Françoise d'Eaubonne in a book published in 1972, this word, a contraction of "ecology" and "feminism", suggests that women, like nature, are victims of male domination and that it is time to think differently about our relationship with the earth. For this reason, the ecological revolution also requires a feminist revolution, but how can we thwart the system of male domination of nature and of women themselves? D'Eaubonne denounces the sexist organisation of society, which has led to the domination of women by men and the destruction of nature through relentless exploitation. She sees masculinity as the force behind the technological destruction of nature with femininity and feminine values as the only valid means for the survival of nature and human beings. She argues that time is running out and that, more than revolution, the earth and humanity need mutation. She also advocates for a change in the relationship between the genders.

Though the construction of a critical, comprehensive ecofeminist lens is still a work in progress, it has nonetheless been particularly appreciated in the European context. As far back as 1994, Dagny Kaul identified the relationship between feminist thought, nature, science and socio-cultural research. The same ideas are today reaffirmed by ecofeminist activists and writers from various European countries; one example from Spain is Yayo Herrero López – who proposes concrete and similar solutions for the climate  and feminist crises. Similarly, the concept of ecofeminism has been taken up by Anglo-Saxon feminists who have given it a political twist by making it into a tool for social protest. They have turned ecofeminism into a way of thinking that encompasses today's major ecological, economic, and ethical challenges. They denounce the atrocities committed against nature, while their political and economic analyses are coupled with a reinvention of the spiritual or a reinterpretation of the religious. Spiritual ecofeminism consists of rethinking the sacred, either by criticising the main religions to rehabilitate nature and women, or by reinventing the sacred on the fringes of the major monotheistic religions. In this way, a certain form of spiritual ecofeminism revives polytheistic or animist beliefs, in which nature is presented as an immanent, asexual divinity. Spiritual ecofeminism, whether as part of an existing religious current or by inventing a new form of the sacred, sets itself the challenge of going beyond a hierarchical and dualistic understanding of the world.

In contemporary European literature and culture, ecofeminism is an emerging subject that motivates writers and artists who are particularly aware of both the visible effects of climate change in these geographical areas and the tradition of feminist demands. As Katarina Leppänen (2022) shows, the quantity of cultural productions dealing with ecological disasters and dystopian and apocalyptic scenarios about the future of the planet have increased in recent years and are increasingly situated within Nordic spheres, with the fashion for Norwegian disaster films (Troll, The Wake or The Wave, for example), not forgetting Lars von Trier's Melancholia, which associates female characters with a tragic and aestheticised representation of the future of the planet. However, only a limited number of these productions are explicitly feminist or ecofeminist, even if these works do offer gendered readings. In Portugal, the contribution of writers such as Isabel do Carmo has allowed for the consideration of the social implications of ecofeminism in the connection between women, nature, and education - similar to what is proposed in Italy by Lisa Muraro - which focuses on the concept of motherhood and its opposition to patriarchy and the capitalist model of environmental exploitation.

While European literature and culture are drawing upon these concepts, the fact remains that English-language ecofeminist literature remains relatively unknown in France; the same can be said for German-language ecofeminist literature, though Austrian writer Marlen Haushofer's 1963 novel Die Wand (The Wall), was a resounding success and functions as a paradigm for ecofeminist narratives.

The aim of this conference is to study European ecofeminisms; several variants of ecofeminism can be examined, a literary and cultural ecofeminism, based on care ethics; a more social and political ecofeminism, using literary works to show the social domination of women; and an aesthetic and artistic ecofeminism, following the example of the Icelandic feminist performance activists, Love Icelandic Corporation, who use videos and performances to deconstruct gender codes and current environmental abuses. Particular attention will be paid to subjects that focus on ecological and environmental issues and the development of female identity.

The aim of the conference is to give voice to a diversity of women's voices, to take account of cultural differences, to highlight the ways in which women are oppressed and to show the solutions envisaged in renewed literary and cultural scenarios, in/through a new ecological consciousness.

Working languages

french, English. Modalité de soumission des propositions : les propositions de communications (1500 à 2000 signes espaces compris), accompagnées d’une brève bio-bibliographie, sont à envoyer à ecofeminismes2024.ille@uha.fr avant le 15 juin 2024. Réponse du comité : le 30 juin 2024.

Submission guidelines

Please send abstracts  (1500 to 2000 characters including spaces), together with a short bio-bibliography, by e-mail, to ecofeminismes2024.ille@uha.fr

before 15th June 2024

Notifications will be sent by 30th June 2024.

Scientific Committee 

• Alessandra Ballotti (Sorbonne Université)
• Régine Battiston (ILLE-UHA)
• Frédérique Toudoire-Surlapierre (Sorbonne Université)
• Camille Thion (doctorante, ILLE)