HomeMasculine Insubordinations: Creation, Contestation, and Plurality in the Arts and Literature

Masculine Insubordinations: Creation, Contestation, and Plurality in the Arts and Literature

Insubordinations masculines : création, contestation et pluralité dans les arts et la littérature

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Published on Friday, November 07, 2025

Abstract

The conference seeks to explore how dissident masculinities—whether plural, vulnerable, inventive, non-binary, trans, queer, racialized, or otherwise minoritized—are represented, staged, or problematized in artistic and literary creation.

Announcement

Masculine Insubordinations: Creation, Contestation, and Plurality in the Arts and Literature - October 14–16, 2026 - Marie and Louis Pasteur University / Centre de Recherches Interdisciplinaires et Transculturelles (CRIT, UR3224) - UFR SLHS, 30-32 rue Mégevand, 25030 Besançon, France

Argument

In the face of the growing influence of masculinist discourses and identity-based claims around a supposed “defense of men’s rights,” this conference aims to offer a space for critical and engaged reflection against these dynamics, focusing on dissident masculinities—those that subvert, divert, or reject dominant and oppressive models. The goal is to deconstruct hegemonic imaginaries by emphasizing the plurality, vulnerability, and creativity of alternative masculine figures, in dialogue with contemporary political, artistic, and social issues, at a time when categories of gender and masculinity are being profoundly questioned by feminist and LGBTQ+ movements. The objective is to analyze how these non-normative masculinities reinvent the place of men in society and collective representation, especially through literature, visual arts, and live arts. 

Masculinity is defined as the set of attributes, behaviors, and roles traditionally associated with boys, men, or the idea of the masculine in a given context. These are shifting and plural social constructions: hence, we speak of masculinities in the plural to reflect the diversity of existing models. Among them, hegemonic masculinity occupies a central position. According to sociologist Raewyn Connell, it refers to a configuration of gender practices that sustains male dominance—both over women and over other men. Positioned as a cultural reference point, this model tends to marginalize, stigmatize, or render invisible alternative forms of the masculine. It is inseparable from the hetero-patriarchal system, understood as a social, political, and symbolic organization that privileges heterosexual men, imposes binary norms of gender and sexuality, and oppresses those who deviate from them. 

The conference seeks to explore how dissident masculinities—whether plural, vulnerable, inventive, non-binary, trans, queer, racialized, or otherwise minoritized—are represented, staged, or problematized in artistic and literary creation. Proposals may, for instance, analyze representational strategies in the novel, poetry, or theater; consider their presence in the visual arts (fine arts, cinema, photography, etc.) in dialogue with art history, questions related to the body, the intersectionality of identities, or the regimes of the gaze; examine how live arts and performance become sites of experimentation and visibility for these masculinities; or study drag practices, considered both as a parodic art of gender roles, an inheritance of queer cultures, and a carnivalesque space for reimagining masculine and feminine codes. Contributions may also address transversal issues such as the critique of virility, the destabilization of norms, the role of emotion and vulnerability in defining the masculine, and the intersections between dissident masculinities, feminisms, queer movements, and intersectional struggles. 

Submission guidelines

Proposals (300–500 words) accompanied by a short biographical note should be sent to the following address: colloquecrit2026@gmail.com,

by February 15, 2026.

The answers will be communicated during the month of April.

Languages of the conference: French or English 

Presentation formats (20 minutes):

  • Standard conference paper presentation 
  • Dual presentation (artist/researcher) 
  • Performance, testimony, or case-study based presentations
  • Any other form of presentation, e.g. reflective practices rooted in corporeal experience or research-creation/research-action dialogue

Comité d’organisation

  • Erwan Burel, Université Marie et Louis Pasteur
  • Margaret Gillespie, Université Marie et Louis Pasteur
  • Dominique Soucy, Université Marie et Louis Pasteur
  • Nella Arambasin, Université Marie et Louis Pasteur

Partenaires STARS EU

  • Michaela Weiss (Silesian University in Opava)
  • Diana Adamová (Silesian University in Opava)
  • Eva Darias Beautell (Universidad de La Laguna)
  • Pablo Pérez Navarro (Universidad de La Laguna)
  • Cristina Mesquita (Instituto Politécnico de Bragança)
  • Benilde Moreira (Instituto Politécnico de Bragança)
  • Sofia Bergano (Instituto Politécnico de Bragança)
  • André Brasil (Instituto Politécnico de Bragança)

Comité scientifique

  • Andrea Cabezas Vargas (Université d’Angers)
  • Belén Tortosa Pujante (Université de Strasbourg)
  • Carolane Sanchez (Université Marie et Louis Pasteur)
  • Dalibor Prančević (Université de Split)
  • David Haigron (Université Rennes 2)
  • Fabrice Corrons (Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès)
  • Fabrizio Impellizzeri (Université de Catane)
  • Gabriela Cordone (Université de Lausanne)
  • Guillaume Marche (Université Paris-Est Créteil)
  • Laureano Montero (Université Bourgogne Europe)
  • Marianne Bloch-Robin (Sorbonne Université)
  • Muriel Plana (Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès)
  • Sandeep Bakshi (Université Paris Cité)
  • Sébastien Mignot (Université de Caen)

Bibliographie

Arthur Vuattoux, Meoïn Hagège & Haude Rivoal (Coordination éditoriale), Masculinités, E/P/A, Art De Vivre, 2023.

Banoun, Bernard, Anne Tomiche, et Mónica Zapata. Fictions du masculin dans les littératures occidentales. Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2014.

Bard Christine, Mélissa Blais, François Dupuis-Déri, Antiféminismes et masculinismes d’hier et d’aujourd’hui, Paris: PUF, 2019.

Butler, Judith. Trouble dans le genre ; le féminisme et la subversion de l’identité. Paris: La découverte, 2006.

Bourdieu, Pierre. La domination masculine. Paris: Editions Seuil, 1998.

Carroll Rachel. Transgender and the Literary Imagination: Changing Gender in Twentieth-Century Writing. Edimbourg: Edinburgh UP, 2018.

Chambrun, Noëlle de, et Blanchon Elisabeth. Masculinité à Hollywood : de Marlon Brando à Will Smith. Paris: l’Harmattan, 2011.

Chaouche Sabine (dir.) : European Drama and Performance Studies n.10 : masculinité et théâtre, 2018 – 1.

Collectif d’auteur.ices. Si t’es un homme ! : regards dessinés sur les masculinités. Grenoble: Glénat, 2024.

Connell, Raewyn. Des masculinités : hégémonie, inégalités, colonialité. Paris: Éditions Payot & Rivages, 2024.

Connell, Raewyn. Masculinités : enjeux sociaux de l’hégémonie. [Nouvelle édition]. Paris: Éditions Amsterdam, 2022.

Corbin, Alain, Georges Vigarello, Jean-Jacques Courtine, Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau, Antoine de Baecque, et Christine Bard. Histoire de la virilité . 3 . La virilité en crise ? : XXe-XXIe siècle. Paris: Éd. du Seuil, 2011.

Dollimore, Jonathan Sexual Dissidence: Augustine to Wilde, Freud to Foucault Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1991

Enriquez Chacha (coord.), Sexualités et dissidences queers, Montréal: Les éditions du remue-ménage, 2024.

Feinberg, Leslie; Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to RuPaul. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.

Ferguson Gary (dir.), L’homme en tous genres. Masculinités, textes et contextes, L’Harmattan, 2019.

Gazalé, Olivia. Le mythe de la virilité. Paris : Pocket, 2019.

Halberstam, Jack. Female Masculinity. NYC: Duke University Press, 1998.

Halberstam, Jack. Trans* : Brève histoire de la variabilité de genre. Montreuil: Libertalia, 2023.

Hooks, Bell. La volonté de changer : les hommes, la masculinité et l’amour. Paris: Éditions divergences, 2021.

Jablonka, Ivan. Des hommes justes : du patriarcat aux nouvelles masculinités. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2019.

Letourneur, Daisy. On ne naît pas mec : petit traité féministe sur les masculinités. Paris: Zones, 2022.

Preciado, Paul B. Testo junkie ; sexe, drogue et biopolitique. Paris: Points, 2021.

Prosser, Jay. Second Skins; The Body Narratives of Transsexuality. New York: Columbia UP, 1998.

Rich, Adrienne. « La contrainte à l’hétérosexualité et l’existence lesbienne ». Nouvelles questions féministes 1, no 1 (1981): 15‑43.

Sedgwick, Eve K. Between Men. English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire, Thirtieth anniversary edition. New York: Columbia UP, 2015.

Stone, Sandy, “The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttransexual Manifesto”, Camera Obscura (1992) 10 (2 (29)): 150–176. https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-10-2_29-150

Stryker, Susan, & WHITTLE, Stephen (ed.) The Transgender Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, 2013.

Thorne, J. & Graham, S. (2025). Adolescence [Mini-série télévisée]. Netflix.

Tuaillon, Victoire. Les couilles sur la table. Paris: Binge Audio Éditions, 2019.

Viveros, Mara. Les couleurs de la masculinité : Expériences intersectionnelles et pratiques de pouvoir en Amérique latine. Paris (9bis, rue Abel Hovelacque 75013): La Découverte, 2018.

Vörös, Florian. Désirer comme un homme : Enquête sur les fantasmes et les masculinités. Paris: La Découverte, 2025.

Welzer-Lang, Daniel. Les hommes et le masculin. Paris: Payot & Rivages, 2008.

Places

  • 30-32 rue Mégevand
    Besançon, France (25030)

Event attendance modalities

Full on-site event


Date(s)

  • Sunday, February 15, 2026

Keywords

  • masculinité, dissidence, art visuel, art vivant, littérature, queer, drag, intersectionnalité, féminisme, vulnérabilité

Information source

  • Erwan Burel
    courriel : colloquecrit2026 [at] gmail [dot] com

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« Masculine Insubordinations: Creation, Contestation, and Plurality in the Arts and Literature », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Friday, November 07, 2025, https://doi.org/10.58079/15459

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