While the Caribbean is a relatively well-known area of francophone studies, there are other oceanic regions as yet largely unexplored. This panel will focus on writing from the Pacific and the Indian Oceans (eg.Tahiti, New Caledonia, Maurice etc). Papers might explore for example, multi-culturalism or the clash of cultures, including oral versus print, issues relating to the economic imperative to write for an offshore readership, the implications of being pioneer writers in an emergent literature, questions of bi- or multi-lingualism.

Please send proposals to Jean Anderson at jean.anderson@vuw.ac.nz.

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Between the Home and the World: Private Times, Private Spaces

This panel will welcome papers which explore the modes of representation of intimacy.  How do women divide time and space, roles and practices, between the public and private spheres? What has happened to the private realm in a literature dominated by exploration, exhibition and exaltation of the self?

In their Histoire de la vie privée, Philippe Ariès and George Duby studied the progress of privacy which over the centuries affected a growing range of behavior and social strata, and was related to changes in the structure of the personality.  In the last three decades, however, it seems that the refuges of intimacy have become scarce.

Papers in this panel would discuss the presence of private time and space as mediated through (new) narrative and cinematic forms and (new) literary ideologies and practices.  Questions to be considered could include:

-         the iconography of reading, as the quintessence of private activity

-         solitude, secrecy and silence

-         the forms of reverie, the conditions of sleep and wakefulness, the experience of dreams and nightmares

-         intimate gestures in films and novels: grooming, looking at oneself in the mirror

-         intimate spaces, special places

-         opposition between intimacy and representation

Please send abstracts to Sonia Assa: SoniaAssa@msn.com

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Women Authors in the Middle Ages

In medieval France, the word "author" referred primarily to Latin auctores.  It was therefore considerably more difficult for vernacular writers to be considered "authors," and even more so for women writers.  However, women writers such as Marie de France and Christine de Pizan effectively established themselves as medieval authors. This session will explore the relationship between gender, authorship, and authority in the Middle Ages (we also welcome submissions about Early Modern women writers).

Please send abstracts to Cristian Bratu: Cristian_Bratu@baylor.edu

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"Between Revolutions : Woman's Changing Identity"

The revolutions of 1789, 1830 and 1848 shaped France's cultural, social and political identity while changing women's perception of themselves, their role in society, even their identity. How did women redefine their role during and after these conflicts? How did they position themselves between each revolution? How did their participation change from one revolution to another?

Please send abstracts to Rudy de Mattos: demattos@latech.edu

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Women’s Self-Perception: Between Truth and Invention

“In the middle” can be interpreted as “in–between:” two ages, two geographic locations, two literary genres, truth and falsehood.  Or, one may have stakes in two different cultures: by working in two different languages, living in two different countries, and the like.  For example, Senegalese author Mariama Bâ came to writing Une si longue lettre (1979) at the death of her husband; her subsequent isolation at home, according to Islam, gave her the opportunity and the designated time in which to evaluate her life’s passage from wife to widow in the form of a long letter to her best friend.  The epistolary genre allowed her to be factual, but artfully incomplete: one does not have to re-disclose the things that one’s best friend already knows.  Moreover, one’s memory is neither unbiased nor foolproof.  We might argue that even the most truthful letter contains omissions, exaggerations, and falsehoods. 

To what genres have women writers been drawn for self-disclosure? How have they modified their chosen genres to suit their purposes?  In what way has their self-perception been caught between truth and invention?  

Writers from the 17th century to the present will be considered. 

Please send your abstracts to Dr. Jane E. Evans: jeevans@utep.edu

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"Violette Leduc-Simone de Beauvoir: traits d'union"

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Sophie Calle, médiatrice des antipodes

The session welcomes papers on French writer and photographer Sophie Calle. Calle’s eclectic artistic projects not only defy classification, they are built around confusing and often blending frontiers between opposite notions or situations. The panel will explore the intermediality of Calle’s production as well as the way the artist creates a bridge between antithetic concepts, such as, self and others, “intime” and “extime”, creativity and constraints, absence and presence, blindness and voyeurism, public and private, etc.

Please send abstracts to Prof. Cécile Hanania:   hanania68@comcast.net

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Les conteuses: entre divers espaces

This session welcomes papers exploring and questioning the diverse spaces of the conteuses’ world from 17th century to the present, whether it is the conflict between marvelous and reality, oral and printing tradition, evil and good, innovation and pattern, past and present, masculinity and femininity, public and private spheres, humans and animals, etc. In particular, consider how the conteuses navigate between those notions, and how they position themselves in these spaces.

Please send abstracts to Bérénice V. Le Marchand: blemarch@sfsu.edu

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Please send abstracts to Elisabeth-Christine Muelsch: emuelsch@angelo.edu

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Women “In the Middle of Things”: The Poetics of the Present

This panel will address how a sense of “being in the middle of things” is evoked or established in particular sorts of narratives, and to what effects. What literary practices, devices and techniques draw attention to the processes and contingencies of an unfolding present in these narratives? Consider for example narratives of women’s endurance that focus on physiological processes, on sensations and emotions in the here-and-now.

Although such narratives can indicate a “presentist” perspective – one that seemingly excludes past and future – “being in the middle of things” may also relate to processes such as remembering and foretelling. Papers in this panel could discuss (women in-the-middle-of) processes as varied as remembering, enduring, gazing, wandering (flâner), working, performing, speaking, and reflecting – in, for example, interior monologues, trauma narratives, autobiographical fiction, epistolary novels and travel writing. 

Please send your abstract to Karin Schwerdtner: kschwerd@uwo.ca

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Entre deux feux: les femmes et la guerre

De la Guerre  de cent ans aux conflits violents des deux derniers siècles, les femmes de France et des pays francophones ont dû faire face aux ravages de la guerre, tout en continuant à survivre et faire survivre. Nous vous proposons, dans cette session, d'explorer la vie quotidienne des femmes de toute époque à travers leurs textes: mémoires, témoignages, pamphlets politiques, correspondance, oeuvres de fiction et oeuvres poétiques ... Thèmes à explorer: l'impact de la guerre sur la vie des femmes; leurs réactions et stratégies de survie; leurs initiatives d'opposition ou au contraire de participation, etc. Le titre de la session, "Entre deux feux", est une invitation à considérer la position paradoxale des femmes entre le "feu" du foyer et celui de la guerre et les feux croisés des guerres déclarées par les hommes.

Nous vous prions de nous faire parvenir le titre et le résumé de votre communication à :

Anna Norris  norrisa@msu.edu et Colette Trout ctrout@ursinus.edu

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