Ressources numériques en sciences humaines et sociales OpenEdition Nos plateformes OpenEdition Books OpenEdition Journals Hypothèses Calenda Bibliothèques OpenEdition Freemium Suivez-nous

Call for papers, The ethics and poetics of genre literature, Montpellier

The ethics and poetics of genre literature
Université Paul Valéry- Montpellier 3, France  –  15-16 March 2013
Deadline for proposals: 15 September 2012

An international conference organized by EMMA (Etudes Montpelliéraines du Monde Anglophone) with the support of the Société de Stylistique Anglaise (SSA).

This interdisciplinary international conference, the second  section of the project ‘Ethics & Rhetoric’ within EMMA’s line of research ‘Ethics of Alterity’, will focus on language and ethics in literary genres that depict encounters with alterity.

The situations in which the subject is faced with different or alien beings will be studied namely in novels belonging to the genre of utopia/dystopia, science fiction, fantasy, etc., as the so-called ‘genre literature’ embodies a heuristic model that dramatises and exacerbates encounters with alterity, featuring exotic, subhuman or posthuman beings that defy human knowledge (in SF and fantasy especially). Genre literature has often been regarded as an entertaining or escapist field that does not lend itself to ethical and poetical reflections, limiting itself to a hollow and servile repetition of the genre codes.

Nevertheless, theoreticians of these genres that have not been sufficiently studied highlight their defamiliarizing power through which things can be ‘seen’. This process of defamiliarization is often associated with the stylistic, poetic and ethical force inherent in fiction, but in its attempt at meta-conceptualizing the relationship between language and reality, genre literature seems to problematize and enhance these phenomena by making them more easily perceivable. Thus not resting content with merely questioning the mechanism of estrangement, genre literature explores the confines of readability and the break-point between the readerly and the writerly.

In their desire to represent the Other in all its complexity, writers are indeed confronted with an ethical and poetical aporia: how to describe what escapes Humanity in Human language? In the eyes of its critics, Science Fiction (SF) seems to lean towards the side of the readerly. On the border between total defamiliarization and cognition (Darko Suvin speaks of ‘cognitive estrangement’), SF seems to embody a genre that cannot afford to lose its readers. That may be the reason why extra-terrestrial languages are often filtered by English — crushing down linguistic difference under the weight of a single language that everybody can understand — as in Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle in which the creole form of English is ironed out through translation. How to represent a world in which the classical pronominal references (she/he) are not relevant anymore since ontology no longer relies on binary distinctions (as in The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin)? Yet certain SF or dystopia writers do manage to stretch out language and readability in their description of an alien situation (Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker might be the best example here). But fantasy can perhaps be construed as the most subversive genre in that matter as it wallows in undecidability and interpretative wavering. In its attempt to reconcile the inexpressible, what is without a name, and the speakable or visible, according to Rosemary Jackson, fantasy delimits a zone of non-signification where the Other cannot be reduced to the self. Should we thus conclude that reaching the breaking point of intelligibility can guarantee the birth of the other in its radical alterity?

Todorov brought to light the difficulty of apprehending alterity in schemes other than the ones we are familiar with, questioning the possibility of mapping the other’s radical difference. The narratives about the Aztecs are among the first illustrations of this tendency to project pre-conceived expectations onto the other: ‘One would seek to transpose it into a familiar cognitive scheme in order to make it understandable and thereby at least partially acceptable’ (Tzvetan Todorov, Les Morales de l’histoire, Paris, Grasset, 1991, p. 41, our translation). Can reducing alterity to the categories of the same or resorting to the other as a foil to reinforce the self (the other being then everything the self is not) be said to be part of the more conservative trend in SF as opposed to more subversive trends of the genre (what Broderick calls allographers along Terry Dowling’s coinage ‘xenographies’) or of fantasy?

Are we condemned to a certain ethno — or anthropo-centrism — an accusation that is launched against the socio-constructionists that contend that our beliefs, desires or intentions are mediated by shared social and normative conventions that have been learnt and internalized in the specific discourse community we belong to — or can the other be ‘known’ to a certain extent while preserving its radical difference? Do tropes have a heuristic power able to change our conception of the world and of others? Is there such a thing as ‘rhetorical ethics’ that could give us access to the other? If, according to Broderick, zeugma and syllepses are characteristic of the poetics of SF, what relationships do these tropes of fusion entertain between self and other? How effective are other figures of speech in their depiction of the Other? Can they be said to be a product of an all-powerful Reason reducing alterity to the same? In La Raison classificatoire, for example, Patrick Tort indeed recalls that the two major classifying systems of human thoughts rely on metaphor and metonymy. Or, on the other hand, can tropes be said to ensure a speculative and prospective exploration, producing ‘scandalous or non-sense effects’ (Rosolato) that are capable of upsetting the classifications through which we have been trained to perceive the world? Can stylistic problems like focalisation or reported speech — that are often a privileged way to access the other’s conceptual schemes — be seen as anthropocentric blows dealt to alterity? Can the other be sketched out through lexical and syntactic inventiveness without its portrait being entirely tamed or harnessed?

The focus on this conference will thus be on the linguistic and poetic means writers resort to in their description of others (rather than be merely thematic). The point is to bring under scrutiny how fiction succeeds (or fails) in its discursive mapping of otherness and what the dialogue it imagines with the other teaches us on language and the human self. What will be explored are the limits of language and the linguistic strategies that are displayed by genre literature to get around this predicament.

This interdisciplinary international conference wishes to attract both literary critics, linguists and stylisticians working on the literature of the English-speaking countries from the 19th to the 21st centuries.

The following themes could be addressed but they are in no way restrictive:

  • linguistic representation of alterity
  • tropological ethics
  • stylistics and genre
  • intelligibility and linguistic experimentation
  • the speakable / unspeakable
  • representation of cognitive structures through focalisation, reported speech, pronominal identification, etc.

Deadline for submission: September 15 2012
Notification of acceptance: November 30 2012

Proposals of around 300 words to be sent to both:

  • Maylis Rospide <maylis.rospide@univ-montp3.fr>
  • Sandrine Sorlin <sandrine.sorlin@univ-montp3.fr>

Language of the conference: English

Source : The European Society for the Study of English

Publication of Greening the Media by Toby Miller and Richard Maxwell

Richard Maxwell and Toby Miller, Greening the Media, Oxford University Press: Greening the Media, 256 pages.

ISBN13: 978-0-19-991467-8

ISBN10: 0-19-991467-2

You will never look at your cell phone, TV, or computer the same way after reading this book. Maxwell and Miller not only reveal the dirty secrets that hide inside our beloved electronics; they also take apart the myths that have pushed these gadgets to the centre of our lives. With an astounding array of economic, environmental and historical facts, Greening the Media debunks the idea that information and communication technologies (ITC) are clean and ecologically benign. In this compassionate and sharply argued book, the authors show how the physical reality of making, consuming, and discarding them is rife with toxic ingredients, poisonous working conditions, and hazardous waste. But all is not lost. As the title suggests, Maxwell and Miller dwell critically on these environmental problems in order to think creatively about ways to solve them. They enlist a range of potential allies in this effort to foster greener media – from green consumers to green citizens, with stops along the way to hear from exploited workers, celebrities, and assorted bureaucrats. Ultimately, Greening the Media rethinks the status of print and screen technologies, opening new lines of historical and social analysis of ICT, consumer electronics, and media production.

Table of contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

1. CONSUMERS

2. WORDS

3. SCREENS

4. WORKERS

5. BUREAUCRATS

6. CITIZENS

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Authors

  • Richard Maxwell is Professor and Chair of Media Studies at Queens College, City University of New York.
  • Toby Miller is Distinguished Professor of Media & Cultural Studies at the University of California, Riverside.

See some podcasts and presentation on the Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/greeningthemedia

Further information and purchase at : http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780195325201.do.

Call for Papers Richard Matheson (1st june 2012)

Call for Papers

Richard Matheson

Richard Matheson is a prolific writer who has shaped the horror genre through his contributions to literature, film, and television. His work spans genres of horror, science fiction, fantasy, and suspense, totaling more than 90 short stories and 28 full-length novels, including I Am Legend, A Stir of Echoes, What Dreams May Come, and The Incredible Shrinking Man. Seminal horror figures Stephen King and George A. Romero cite Matheson as a major influence, and his writing has inspired multiple film and graphic novel adaptations.

Despite his extensive body of work, Matheson remains largely outside the scope of academia, with little available scholarship of his work. We have been asked by a reputable academic press to compile an as-yet-untitled volume of critical articles about Richard Matheson. Completed articles should be 15-20 pages in length and may address any aspect of Matheson’s career, from his original writing to adaptations of his work.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:
• Discourses of superstition and science
• Alienation and isolation
• Disease and decay
• Power and privilege in class inequalities
• Deconstructing mythologies or defying generic expectations
• Shifting concepts of normalcy or aberrant behavior
• Sex and sexuality in gender and marriage roles

Please submit a 250-300 word abstract for publication consideration. The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2012.
Please address all inquiries and submissions to Cheyenne Mathews (cxm3593@ull.edu).

Editors:
Cheyenne Mathews, Department of English, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Dr. Janet V. Haedicke, Department of English, University of Louisiana at Monroe

Colloque: Culture populaire et/ou culture grand public ? De la subversion au marketing (23 mai)

Culture populaire et/ou culture grand public ?

De la subversion au marketing (XIXe-XXIe siècles)

Mercredi 23 mai 2012, Auditorium de la BU de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. (De 9h30 à 17h30.)

PRÉSENTATION

Quels seraient les enjeux d’une mise en parallèle entre culture populaire et culture grand public ? S’agit-il d’une distinction entre logique éducative et logique de marché, ou d’une confrontation entre authenticité d’un côté, et séduction du marché de l’autre? Les termes formulés appellent inévitablement celui de culture de masse dans son rapport à la modernité.

Constatant les confusions existantes entre culture populaire et grand public, les conflits sémantiques et idéologiques constitueront un axe d’analyse essentiel. On sera particulièrement attentifs aux luttes de définition et aux enjeux de labellisation. On le sait, le champ culturel est animé par un déplacement permanent des frontières au sein de « la culture », de redéfinition des hiérarchies. Certaines manifestations de résistances aux cultures dominantes sont parfois qualifiées de « populaires », en oppositions aux cultures officielles. Des labels comme « underground », « rock alternatif », et même « nanar » deviennent ainsi des outils de distinction. Mais les processus de reconnaissance, au sein desquels il faudra étudier l’action des entrepreneurs culturels, peuvent être –et sont- souvent interprétés comme des phénomènes de « récupération » et de routinisation. Au vu de ces reconversions, on peut être tenté de se demander si toute contre-culture est destinée à être absorbée par le système culturel dominant.

Née d’observations faites aux cours de nos travaux respectifs, cette journée d’études a pour objectif de développer de telles problématiques, tout en favorisant la rencontre entre de jeunes chercheurs venus d’horizons et de disciplines différentes.

PROGRAMME

9h : Accueil des participants et introduction de la journée.

9h30-11h : Lorsque les politiques publiques dressent des espaces de médiation, entre culture pour le peuple et grand public.

Présidence: Alexis Blanchet (IRCAV – Paris 3).

Thibault Le Hégarat (doctorant en histoire, CHCSC-UVSQ),

Le patrimoine matériel en France depuis l’après-guerre : de la difficulté de définir un objet support de représentations et de pratiques mouvantes.

Caroline Saugier (doctorante en arts du spectacle, MRSH- Université de Caen),

La culture large public comme produit des institutions culturelles de marché : le cas du festival d’Avignon ”In” contemporain.

Justine Delassus (doctorante en histoire, CHCSC-UVSQ),

Matérialiser l’art littéraire : des maisons d’écrivains aux parcs à thème, quelles identités culturelles ?.

11h30-13h : Le cinéma, ou le triomphe de la culture de masse ?

Présidence: Évelyne Cohen (ENSSIB – Université de Lyon).

Myriam Juan (doctorante en histoire, CHS-Paris 1),

Vedettes populaires, stars grand public ? Éléments de réflexion sur les modèles français et hollywoodiens dans les années 1930.

Alexandra Schwetzoff (doctorante en études slaves, Paris 4),

Une nouvelle culture de masse cinématographique en Russie contemporaine, le russkij blockbuster.

Nathanel Amar (doctorant en sciences politiques, CERI–Sciences-Po), De l’avant-garde à la propagande : le parcours du cinéma chinois.

14h30-16h30 : La contre-culture, entre récupération et marketing.

Présidence: Anaïs Fléchet (CHCSC – UVSQ).

Marcos Giadas Conde (maître de conférences en sciences de l’information et de la communication, HAR – Paris-Ouest-Nanterre),

Le cas Manu Chao : entre culture légitime et hit-parade.

Annabelle Seoane (doctorante en sciences du langage, CEDITEC- Paris-Est-Créteil), Le positionnement du Guide du Routard : de ”l’auberge de jeunesse cracra” au ”petit hôtel de charme.

Marjorie Glas (doctorante en sciences sociales, EHESS-IRIS),

La transformation des modes de revendication du théâtre populaire des années 1950 à nos jours.

Emmanuelle Fantin (doctorante en sciences de l’information et de la communication, GRIPIC-CELSA),

L’instrumentalisation de la contre-culture par le discours publicitaire.

16h45-17h30 : Conclusion de la journée par Dimitri Vezyroglou (CERHEC – Paris I).

Organisateurs : Yann Hermans, Nicolas Lahaye, Géraldine Poels, Matthias Steinle.

Comité scientifique : Alexis Blanchet, Évelyne Cohen, Christian Delporte, Éric Fimbel, Anaïs Fléchet, Laurent Jullier, Jean-Yves Mollier, Jean-Marie Privat, Dimitri Vezyroglou, Jean-Claude Yon.

Entrée libre dans la limite des places disponibles.

Url de référence :
http://www.chcsc.uvsq.fr/
Adresse : UNIVERSITE DE VERSAILLES SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES 47, Boulevard Vauban – 78047 Guyancourt Cedex

Call for papers – Emerging Vectors of Narratology: Toward Consolidation or Diversification? Call for papers


ENN Conference 2013 – Emerging Vectors of Narratology: Toward Consolidation or Diversification? Call for papers

The 3rd Conference of the European Narratology Network

Organized by the Centre de recherches sur les arts et le langage (CRAL – CNRS/EHESS)

March 29 and 30, 2013

Pre-Conference Doctoral Seminar – March 27 and 28, 2013

Paris, France

Call for papers

Emerging Vectors of Narratology: Toward Consolidation or Diversification?

It can be observed that postclassical narratology, in its initial phase, expanded the scope of inquiry of its predecessor to become multiple, interdisciplinary, transgeneric, transmedial. More recently, it appears that narratology has entered a phase of consolidation, but with a continued trend toward diversification.

What does this consolidation consist of, and in what ways can narratology be said to diversify? Are narratologies, in the plural, evolving toward narratology, in the singular – possibly to become a discipline in the full sense of the term? Does diversification imply more double-entry narratologies, or does it, perhaps simultaneously, involve a look at the various scientific cultures underlying research programs in narrative theory, past and present, but also non-Western? As theoreticians address issues of cognition and context in narrative, in what ways should the role of poetics in narratology be rethought?

Ubiquitous, stories have encouraged narratologists to expand their purview beyond the literary corpus and take the “narrative turn,” embracing fields as diverse as psychology, sociology, ethnology, history, the law, corporate management, digital technology, and more. But whatever the universals common to all narratives, literary scholars, psychotherapists, sociologists, ethnologists, historians, jurists, advertising executives and AI experts view narrative in significantly different ways and as serving purposes that may be wholly at odds from one field to another. What, then, is the influence on narrative of genre – not necessarily in the sense of traditional literary scholarship, but possibly in that of “speech genres” (Bakhtin), those “relatively fixed forms” that bridge the gap between units of language or other signifying systems and discourse in its prolific manifestations? Then, too, is the question of narrative in non-verbal forms – the plastic arts and music – but also narrative in its pluri-medial forms.

Yet other questions arise. If, as Barthes stressed nearly half a century ago, narrative is a universal anthropological phenomenon, to what extent is it constitutive of culture? Can similar lines of inquiry be pursued with regard to homo narrans, the storytelling animal?

Such are but a few of the questions open for debate at the 3rd Conference of the ENN, hosted by the Centre de recherches sur les arts et le langage at the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris on March 29 and 30, 2013.

More information (about the keynotes speakers, the workshops, the pre-conference doctoral seminar on the conference website.

Deadline for submission of proposed papers (200 words): October 15, 2012

Send submissions to the conference coordinators:  John Pier: j.pier@wanadoo.fr and Philippe Roussin: roussin@ehess.fr

Please write “ENN Conference: Submission” in the subject line.

Acceptances will be sent out on November 15, 2012

Registration for the Conference will open on November 15, 2012

Deadline for registration: January 10, 2013

Registration fee: 165 € – Students: 85 €

In order to take part in the conference, participants must be members of the ENN.

To register as a member, please consult the ENN website – “How to join the ENN

The official languages of the Conference are English and French1.

The Conference will take place at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris:  Fondation des États-Unis – 15, bd Jourdan and Fondation Biermans-Lapôtre – 9A, bd Jourdan 75014 Paris – RER station: Cité Universitaire

Conférence de Henry Jenkins, Transmédia 2.0 à la bibliothèque du Centre Georges Pompidou


Conférence de Henry Jenkins, Transmédia 2.0 à la bibliothèque du Centre Georges Pompidou

le 25 mai 2012
19h

Pionnier des études sur les fans, théoricien célébré de la culture de la convergence, Henry Jenkins a repensé l’écosystème médiatique à l’aune du tournant participatif, marqué par l’essor des productions transmédiatiques. Passée la phase utopiste, ces dernières s’inscrivent dans un paysage de plus en plus diversifié, traversé par une même culture en réseau. Henry Jenkins en dévoilera les multiples logiques, du mainstream aux productions indépendantes, en passant par les serious games. En coproduction avec la Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3 et avec le partenariat de Orange Transmedia Lab.
Le vendredi 25 mai, 19h, Grande salle, niveau -1
Entrée libre dans la limite des places disponibles

Renseignement : Romain Lacroix, 01 44 78 42 25, romain.lacroix@centrepompidou.fr
Pour recevoir les annonces de nos soirées : Claire Couffy, paroleaucentre@centrepompidou.fr

Plus d’information sur le site du Centre George Pompidou.

La conférence sera diffusée en direct sur  epresence.univ-paris3.fr

Location-Based Storytelling Symposium, June 18th

European Narratology Network (ENN)

Location-Based Storytelling

18 June 2012

In Association with the Narrative Research Group (NRG) and Centre for Excellence in Media Practice (CEMP), Bournemouth Media School

Venue:

The Executive Business Centre

Bournemouth University

89 Holdenhurst Road

BH8 8EB

This symposium responds to the recent upsurge in interest in harnessing mobile technologies and mapping tools for the purposes of storytelling.  Whether this involves extending our experience of existing storyworlds or creating innovative spaces for users to explore, such narratives can be potentially empowering, both in the sense of reconnecting with public places and community histories, and in terms of opening up familiar stories to new audiences and new interpretations.

For many people keen to explore the possible applications of locative media, a lack of technological know-how may be a barrier to participation.  The symposium will therefore include exhibitions based on existing projects, and a workshop in which attendees can gain direct experience of using relevant software.   We will explore the huge potential for utilising these kinds of resources in the classroom, and for developing web based artefacts drawing on the knowledge and experiences of communities of storytellers and readers of all ages.

The event is free to attend, but places are limited so please register your interest by emailing Bronwen Thomas (bthomas@bournemouth.ac.uk<mailto:bthomas@bournemouth.ac.uk> )

Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Programme

10.45 : Welcome and Introductions.

11-12 : Professor Martin Rieser, De Montfort University — ‘The Mobile Audience and the Poetics of Space.’

12-1 : Buffet Lunch

1-2 : Tim Wright, Digital Writer/Consultant — ‘Kidmapper, BlakeWalk and TheHaunter: three instances of geolocated literature and social reading in the wild.’

2-3 : Dr Robert Clark, University of East Anglia — ‘What Mapping Writing Can Tell Us About the Novels of Defoe and Austen.’

3-3.15 : Tea, Coffee break

3.15-4.15 : Jerome Burg, Founder of Google Lit Trips — ‘Google Lit Trips: Where Place-Based Literature Study Meets

Google Earth’.

4.15-5.15 : Google Lit Trips Workshop (laptops preloaded with Google Earth required).

Close

Appel: Popenstock: show lapin.

Appel

Popenstock

Show lapin

« Dans le film Matrix, Neo doit suivre un lapin blanc s’il veut découvrir ce qu’est la matrice, soit l’interface langagière dans laquelle il se trouve. Sans nul doute, il y a là des traces du lapin d’Alice au pays des merveilles, celui-là même qui creuse le trou dans lequel Alice tombe avant de se retrouver dans le monde merveilleux de l’imaginaire. Par l’entremise de son terrier, le lapin est d’ailleurs un animal qui fait constamment le passage entre un monde intérieur et extérieur. »

— Francis Gauvin, groupe de recherche de l’Observatoire de l’imaginaire contemporain III, 2011-2012, Université du Québec à Montréal.

Le dossier Show lapin qui est lancé dans POP-EN-STOCK invite des textes consacrés à la figure du lapin dans la culture populaire contemporaine. Le dossier a pour objectif de décrire et d’analyser les manifestations du lapin comme élément marquant des domaines littéraire, médiatique et artistique. Il s’agira d’étudier les variantes esthétiques et conceptuelles du lapin. Vous pouvez nous envoyez vos courtes contributions pour ce dossier dès aujourd’hui.

Pour ouvrir ce dossier, le groupe de recherche de l’Observatoire de l’Imaginaire Contemporain (l’OIC) en association avec le laboratoire NT2, l’équipe de recherche Éric Lint, le centre de recherche Figura et la revue POP-EN-STOCK ont organisé un Show lapin, le 5 avril 2012, au laboratoire NT2 à l’Université du Québec à Montréal.  Les premiers résultats de recherche des représentations de la figure du lapin dans l’imaginaire collectif sont diffusés en texte et en vidéo dans la revue POP-EN-STOCK.

Les dossiers thématiques POP-EN-STOCK sont à soumission ouverte. Une fois un numéro thématique « lancé », il demeure ouvert, indéfiniment, à quiconque voudrait y soumettre une collaboration. Le(s) directeur(s) d’un dossier s’engage(nt) à évaluer et éditer les nouvelles propositions à leur dossier pour une durée de deux ans, sous la supervision des directeurs de la revue.

La longueur des articles est variable. POP-EN-STOCK accepte une limite inférieure équivalent à sept ou huit pages (3000 mots), afin de favoriser la publication rapide, mais peut aussi accepter des articles beaucoup plus longs selon l’offre (n’étant pas limitée par un

Fictions transfuges. La transfictionnalité et ses enjeux. Entretien avec Richard Saint-Gelais.

Sur le site Vox Poetica:

Fictions transfuges. La transfictionnalité et ses enjeux

Entretien avec Richard Saint-Gelais. Propos recueillis par Frank Wagner

Entretien publié le 20 avril 2012

Dans Fictions transfuges (Paris, Ed. du Seuil, novembre 2011, « Poétique ».), vous travaillez sur un objet, « la transfictionnalité et ses enjeux » qui, pour n’avoir « rien de marginal » (p. 532), n’en paraît pas moins original. Pourriez-vous, dans les grandes lignes, évoquer « l’archéologie » de vos travaux sur la notion de transfictionnalité, et plus précisément la genèse même du projet qui a abouti à l’écriture de cet ouvrage ?

« Archéologie » en effet car, à m’interroger sur les débuts de ce projet qui m’aura occupé quelques années, je retrouve, justement, des débuts, superposés comme des strates dont les implications ne sont parfois apparues que longtemps après. Comme bien des bambins (et plusieurs adultes sans doute), j’ai été marqué par ce qui m’apparaît maintenant comme des phénomènes de « traversée » des frontières encadrant la fiction : une visite au salon de l’auto de la ville voisine où l’on exposait la voiture de Batman ; des jeux d’enfant basés sur des objets dans lesquels je vois, rétrospectivement, des artefacts transfictionnels, comme les modèles réduits des vaisseaux des Sentinelles de l’air. Ces matérialisations de ce qui ne se trouvait jusque-là que sur l’écran d’un téléviseur exerçaient une fascination que j’éprouve encore ; conceptualiser la chose, comme je m’y emploie aujourd’hui, a moins visé à dissiper cette fascination, à y substituer un discours théorique, qu’à la prolonger à travers ce dernier.

Lire la suite.

Lire un extrait de l’ouvrage dans l’Atelier de théorie littéraire de Fabula.

Campaigning for a Conan Doyle Museum and Centre for British and Irish Crime Writing

Mission Statement

To save Undershaw for the Nation by relaunching it as the Conan Doyle Museum and Centre for British and Irish Crime Writing, thus affirming its cultural value and Conan Doyle’s place in the literary heritage of Great Britain and Ireland, and beyond.

Dear Colleagues,

We now have only a little time left before the High Court hearing (23rd May) to rally support for saving Undershaw as a Conan Doyle Museum / Centre for British & Irish Crime Writing, establishing and furthering the cultural and social value of the house.

UNDERSHAW & CONAN DOYLE

Undershaw was built to Conan Doyle’s own designs in 1897, one of the very few writers’ houses with this input. During the ten years that he lived there he wrote many of his most popular stories including fourteen Sherlock Holmes adventures, and ten Brigadier Gerard tales. This has recently been documented by Alistair Duncan in his An Entirely New Country – Arthur Conan Doyle, Undershaw and the Resurrection of Sherlock Holmes (MX Publishing 2011). When Conan Doyle sold Undershaw in 1927 it became an hotel. This closed its doors in 2004 and the property was sold to a development company, Fosseway Ltd.

Now Undershaw may be turned into maisonettes, its gardens built over. Planning permission for this was granted by Waverley Borough Council, a decision which should be overturned at judicial review at the High Court in London on 23rd May 2012. But what better or more appropriate place could there be for a Conan Doyle Museum and Centre for British and Irish Crime Writing, thus affirming its cultural value and Conan Doyle’s place in the literary heritage of Great Britain and Ireland, and beyond, open and accessible to the public all year round (including school visits), with a library, conference facilities, crime writing courses and a writer in residence?

THE UNDERSHAW ALLIANCE

Many heritage houses have been lost, but many more have been saved: why should Undershaw not be one of them? To campaign for its conservation as a Conan Doyle Museum and Centre for British and Irish Crime Writing, two supporters’ groups have been set up, Academics for Undershaw and Crime Writers for Undershaw , the first as a body of authoritative opinion affirming the cultural value of Undershaw, the second honouring Conan Doyle’s place as an ancestor of to-day’s detective fiction. These two groups form the UNDERSHAW ALLIANCE, more than 500 strong, and working to enlist opinion formers and professionals.

The Undershaw Alliance believes that Undershaw can and must be saved for the nation, for the enjoyment of the nation: indeed, in the context of cultural tourism, of all the nations. Our task now is to appeal to a broader public and enlist greater international public support for this.

More information at  www.undershawalliance.com.

Best wishes,

David Charles Rose

Association internationale des chercheurs en « Littératures populaires et culture médiatique » / International Research Association in Popular Literature and Media Culture