Dear List,
Here is the call for papers for the 'Nabokov and France' conference that will take place in Paris next year. It will be the first conference organized by the French Nabokov Society, founded last year. For more information about the French Nabokov Society please visit our website:
http://www.vladimir-nabokov.org/
Best wishes,
Monica Manolescu
University of Strasbourg


CALL FOR PAPERS

VLADIMIR NABOKOV AND FRANCE

An International Conference organised by Chercheurs Enchantés, Société française Vladimir Nabokov
30th, 31st May and 1st June 2013

Université Paris IV-Sorbonne, Université de Strasbourg, B.P.I (Centre Pompidou) and Ecole Normale Supérieure

Who, nowadays, would think of calling Vladimir Nabokov « The Frenchman », in the wake of his literary forefather, the Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin ? Outlandish and excessive as this name might appear, Nabokov did entertain with the French language and culture an intense and fruitful relationship, which specialists of his work have tended to neglect. Scarcely considered by Anglo-American scholars and almost entirely absent from Russian scholarship, this multifaceted relationship has aroused the interest of a handful of French scholars, who have devoted some pioneering – but often little known – essays to its analysis. Forays into the topic prove that a mine lies in this area, one which invites valuable intersections between various fields (American, Slavonic, Comparative, French Studies) and approaches (linguists, narratologists, philologists, translators and artists). Since one of the aims of The Enchanted Researchers, or French Vladimir Nabokov Society i!
s to promote interdisciplinary junctions, our wish is to follow this exploration to its deepest extent, through our very first conference, due to take place in Paris from Thursday 30th May to Saturday 1st June 2013.

It must be noted that biographical matters – from Nabokov’s learning of the French language in Russia to his three years of exile in France – have already been largely examined and will not feature within the mining area of this international conference. After all, was it not Nabokov himself who declared to Bernard Pivot that the story of his life looked less « like a biography than like a bibliography » ? Our interest for this conference therefore revolves specifically around the interaction between his œuvre and the French landscape. Four main lines of study have been envisaged within this perspective.

One approach – perhaps the most obvious – consists in analyzing French intertexts in Nabokov’s work, more specifically the influence of French texts, either philosophical or literary, on his prose and poetry. One should keep in mind the fact that Nabokov preferred to “talk about modern books that he hated from the start” rather than about the books that had influenced him, so the various analyses may wish to explore the question of models and heritage, but also of counter-models and counter-influences.

Another perspective will consist in studying the ways in which Nabokov used the French language, with a focus both on the texts he wrote in French and on the role and meaning of this language in his Russian and American novels. Conference participants are encouraged to tackle narrative and stylistic issues as well as the influence of French on the construction of discourses, voices, points of view and syntax.

A third angle, cultural in nature, will deal with the representation of French people and French spaces in Nabokov’s novels. Nabokov’s French imaginary may lead one to ponder upon the presence of cultural clichés and stereotypes in his novels or, perhaps, on the novelty and originality of his cultural constructions of Frenchness.

Finally, another approach may bring to the fore Nabokov’s posterity in the French cultural landscape, by examining questions as diverse as translation and translation studies, the specificity of French critical discourse on Nabokov, French adaptations of his texts (drama, music, opera), but also his influence (more or less explicit) on the work of French writers, artists and composers.


The two keynote speakers of the conference will be Maurice Couturier (University of Nice) and Michael Wood (Princeton University).

Papers can be given in either English or French. Conference proposals of up to 300 words should be accompanied by a short biographical note and should be sent by September 1st 2012 to both Monica.manolescu@vladimir-nabokov.org and Yannicke.chupin@vladimir-nabokov.org.

Organization and scientific board:

Yannicke Chupin (Université de Franche-Comté), member of VALE (EA 4085),
Lara Delage-Toriel (Université de Strasbourg), member of SEARCH (EA 2325)
Agnès Derail-Imbert (Paris IV-Sorbonne et ENS-Ulm), member of VALE (EA 4085)
Agnès Edel-Roy (Paris 3 – Sorbonne nouvelle)
Monica Manolescu (Université de Strasbourg), member of SEARCH (EA 2325)
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