Losing Control in/of the French & Francophone Text (Virtual) (Panel / Virtual)


Special Session
French and Francophone

Loic Bourdeau (University of Louisiana at Lafayette)
loic@****.com (Log-in to reveal)

Lucas Wood (Texas Tech University)
luca@****.com (Log-in to reveal)

Focusing on the French and Francophone world, this virtual (online) panel examines representations and performances of the struggle for order, mastery or control and of the forms and consequences of “losing it”—the involuntary failure, willing relinquishment, or active subversion of control or of that which controls us—in literature, cinema, and the visual arts. Questions of control and its loss may be addressed at the level of the individual subject’s mind, body, self- or public image, histories, etc., but also at the level of collective identities, ideologies, and discourses. They may also be broached in terms of textual form or performance, opening onto issues of generic and other principles of (in)coherence and (il)legibility, and even asking what the “madness” or the radical freedom of the text might look like and how it might relate to thematic engagements with various ways of asserting and losing control.
The conference theme, “City of God, City of Destruction,” conjures up images of the fundamental tension between order and disorder, the ideal and its decay, chaos and control. Focusing on the French and Francophone world, this virtual (online) panel examines representations and performances of the struggle for order, mastery or control and of the forms and consequences of “losing it”—the involuntary failure, willing relinquishment, or active subversion of control or of that which controls us—in literature, cinema, and the visual arts. Questions of control and its loss may be addressed at the level of the individual subject’s mind, body, self- or public image, histories, etc., but also at the level of collective identities, ideologies, and discourses. They may also be broached in terms of textual form or performance, opening onto issues of generic and other principles of (in)coherence and (il)legibility, and even asking what the “madness” or the radical freedom of the text might look like and how it might relate to thematic engagements with various ways of asserting and losing control. Paper proposals considering all time periods, Francophone regions, and media are welcome. This virtual panel is part of the preparatory work toward a possible edited volume, in which PAMLA panelists will be eligible to be included.