The important roles played by literature and by autonomous frameworks of discussion in the formation of a democratic public space, in Europe at the time of the Enlightenment, are well known. How can we, in a now globalized world, rethink the question of possible links between literature and democracy – whether we define the latter as a form of society (the exchange of words and discourses), a problem, or a moment in time? How can we define the place of literature in the public space as it is now configured?

Literature and Democracy programme : theoreticla, historical and comparative perspectives

International Conference

Programme

1st November

• 9:00-9:15 : Welcome
• 9:15-9:45 Alain Viala, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford : «Littérature restreinte et démocratie restreinte, retour à Victor Cousin» (Restricted literature and restricted democracy, looking back at Victor Cousin)
• 10:00-10:30 Jean-Marie Gleize, ENS-Lyon: «Démocratie (d')après Rimbaud» (Democracy according to/after Rimbaud)

Pause/Break

• 11:00-11:30 Esther Cheung, Hong-Kong University : «The Iterability of Hong Kong Topographical Poetry»
• 14:00-14:30 Carle Bonafous-Murat, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle : «The writer, the intellectual and public space in Ireland»
• 14:45-15:15 Graciela Montaldo, Columbia University : «Culture, Democracy, and Spectacle in Early Twentieth Century Argentina »

Pause/Break

• 15:45-16:15 Anne Simonin MFO CNRS/MAE «The First Sade : the politics of war»
• 16:30-17:00 Mike Holland, St Hughs College, Oxford : «The street as literary space. Blanchot and politics in May 68»

2^nd November

• 9:30-10:00 Philippe Roussin, MFO CNRS/MAE : «Fiction and democracy»
• 10:15-10:45 Philippe Daros, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle  «La New Italian Epic (Wu Ming) : un espace public virtuel paradoxal» (A paradoxical virtual public space)

Pause/Break

• 11:15-11:45 Wang Chaohua, independent scholar : «Globalizing the Republic of Letters? – Controversies Surrounding Mo Yan’s Nobel Prize in Literature»
• 12:00-12:30 Emmanuel Bouju, Université Rennes II: «Ce sujet à éclipses qu'on dit démocratique : fiction collective et mémoire partagée» (This fleeting subject which is called democratic : collective fiction and collective memory)
• 14:30-15:00 Annick Louis, CRAL/ Université de Reims : «Public space as origin and ending. Rodolfo Walsh steps into non-fiction (Argentina 1956-1977)»
• 15:15-15:45 Peter D. McDonald, St Hughs College, Oxford: «Whose literature? Whose democracy? Which public space? The lessons of 1988»