In a comparative perspective on the very long distance, the conference invites specialists in the field of Alpine narrative, western, central and eastern, to discuss with their colleagues who work on the Pyrenees and the Himalayas, via the Corsica, the Apennines or the Balkans. The main aim is to draw up new reflections on the evolution of these narrative practices and to understand their changing, profoundly heterogeneous, but at the same time universal.

Argument

The Centre d'études francoprovençales René Willien is inscribed in a long tradition of collectors and researchers who have worked on the narrative heritage of Aosta Valley, without neglecting an opening on the wider Francoprovençal, even alpine domain. Among the founders of the Centre, Rose-Claire Schüle has devoted a considerable part of her work as an ethnologist to collecting and interpreting the traditional narratives of Valais and Aosta Valley: Les vouivres dans le ciel de Nendaz is her magnum opus, at the end of a lifetime spent on ethnographic investigations.

On the French side, Charles Joisten (1936-1981), ethnologist and folklorist, founder in 1973 of the journal Le Monde alpin et rhodanien, collected an immense treasure of tales and belief narratives, thus creating the richest alpine collection of narratives. More recently, this monumental work has been edited by his wife, Alice Joisten, and Nicolas Abry (Joisten, 2005-2010: 5 volumes), providing access to the identification of the narrative motifs (Thompson, 1966; ATU) that make up the complexity of beliefs in fantastic beings that inhabit the French Alps. In Aosta Valley, the creation of the AVAS (Association Valdôtaine des Archives Sonores) in the 1980s allowed the development of a rich documentary collection of oral memory, which is still waiting to be fully exploited (Christillin, 1992). The Centre d’Etudes Francoprovençales has been working on the oral heritage of the Aosta Valley since its foundation: a proof of this long-lasting interest was the organization, in 1995, of an annual conference on “Les êtres imaginaires dans les récits des Alpes”.

Years have gone by and other topics have catalyzed the Centre’s energies. Aware of the importance of the work done by its predecessors, to whom goes our appreciation and thanks, the Centre has agreed to open the Pandora’s vase of oral literature of the highlands. By tracking narrative motifs and fantastic beings across the Alps – and far beyond – the Centre intends to bring together specialists in the field, inviting them to propose a reflection on the future of narrative folklore. The persistence of certain elements reminds us of the vital force of the narrative and the power it exercises over the imaginaries of different human groups. Changes that can be observed over time in the course of several collection programs, the gradual disappearance of certain narrative elements as well as new additions reveal indeed the transformations inherent in these “migratory legends” (Christiansen, 1992 [1958]), most of which were born in connection with significant or even traumatic events. Finally, the most recent creations, when they can be documented, through the detailed observation of the progressive budding that makes the transition from the simple news item to the legendary narrative, bear witness of the fundamental role that this heritage plays in our daily life, including in our contemporary existences devoted to rationality and pragmatism. These reflections offer us an incomparable point of view on the mechanisms that govern the human imaginary. After sixty-five years of collecting, Rose-Claire Schüle admits: “The memories of my witnesses of the last decade that relate to the same fact do not always coincide, but this was already the case fifty years ago. The older witness does not have the same references or criteria as a younger narrator, their memories filter differently and variants result. [...] The context of the everyday life and that of the ancestors and its own value is rarely the exact transmission of a memory, but the crystallization of what the narrator believes he was and felt” (Schüle 2011: 10).

In a comparative perspective on the very long distance, the Centre invites specialists in the field of Alpine narrative, western, central and eastern, to discuss with their colleagues who work on the Pyrenees and the Himalayas, via the Corsica, the Apennines or the Balkans. The main aim is to draw up new reflections on the evolution of these narrative practices and to understand their changing, profoundly heterogeneous, but at the same time universal.

Programm

9h Welcome speech from Président du Centre d’Etudes Francoprovençales, Syndic de la Commune de Saint-Nicolas and Assesseur régional à la Culture

• 9h30 Christiane Dunoyer, Directrice du Centre d’Etudes Francoprovençales René Willien de Saint-Nicolas, Des Alpes à l’Himalaya : le devenir du folklore narratif. Une introduction aux travaux 
• 10h Stéphane Henriquet et N. Buisson, Université de Savoie Mont-Blanc, Littérature orale parlée et chantée : état des lieux d’un patrimoine ethnohistorique et ethno-linguistique en pays de Savoie 
• 10h30 Christian Abry, Rédacteur Le Monde Alpin et Rhodanien, Musée Dauphinois et Matteo Rivoira, Université de Turin, Pour une approche évolutionnaire et développementale sur les activations neurocognitives des matrices sources du « raconte ! »

11h Coffee break

• 11h30 Caterina Agus, Université de Turin, “Omnia possibilia sunt credentibus”
• 12h Lia Emilia Zola, Université de Turin, Tra le Alpi e la Siberia, il patrimonio leggendario ispirato ai cambiamenti climatici
• 12h30 Tony Fogacci et Vanina Lari, Université de Corse, A fola corsa, le récit mythique corse : de la transmission orale à la mise en écriture(s) de l’oralité : bilan et perspectives

Lunch Break

• 14h30 Fabio Armand, Université Catholique Lyon, Narrativiser l’expérience surnaturelle : la tangibilité neurale des imaginaires narratifs de l’Himalaya
• 15h Stefano Beggiora, Université Ca’ Foscari Venise, Himalaya fantastico: uno studio di folklore nativo sul tetto del mondo
• 15h30 Davide Torri, Université Roma I, Yeti, Nyalmo, Migo: Mountain and Forest Beings in Folklore, Religions and Newspapers of the Himalayas.

16h Coffee break

• 16h30 Gianfranco Spitilli, Université de Teramo, Tra Sibilla e Purgatorio. Il duplice viaggio oltremondano di Guerrin Meschino e le tradizioni orali appenniniche
• 17h Charles Videgain, Université de Pau, Le lucane Basajauna ‘Seigneur Sauvage’ en Pays basque et Kérambos en Thessalie

17h30 Final discussion