Literature and National Identity: reflections on some recent cases in France

Description

The French Embassy has generously sponsored a cycle of lectures and workshops which bring to Cambridge leading scholars from France to interact and foster research collaborations with experts in Cambridge from across the Schools of Arts and Humanities and Humanities and Social Sciences. In this second year of collaboration, the cycle of talks and workshops will explore the complex theme of identity in 21st-century France and beyond.

The lectures, which will be given in English, are open to any member of the University.  

In this first lecture Professor Anne-Marie Thiesse (CNRS) will give a talk on Literature and National Identity: reflections on some recent cases in France. 

Her lecture will focus on the contemporary period, and will include general reflections on the links between individual and collective identity, discussing the roles of literature and writers in present-day debates on national identity. 

An interdisciplinary workshop based on Professor Thiesse's paper will be held the following morning, Friday 9th November, from 10:00 to 12:30. Led by Professor Robert Tombs, Dr Renaud Morieux,  and Dr Emile Chabal who are all with the Faculty of History at Cambridge, the discussion will explore the insights Professor Thiesse's paper brings to the idea of identity in general and national identity in particular as well as some of the methodological and conceptual issues it might highlight for researchers in various fields, including the human, social and political sciences, literature and history.

Both lecture and workshop  are free to attend but registration is required.  Please click on the link at the right hand side of the page to register online.

There will be a wine reception after the talk.

Anne-Marie Thiesse is a director of research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and is attached to the École Normale Supérieure, rue d’Ulm, Paris.  Her major works include Écrire la France, le mouvement littéraire régionaliste de la Belle Époque à la Libération, (Presses Universitaires de France, 1991), Faire les Français, quelle identité nationale? (Stock, 2010), and La Création des identités nationales. Europe, 18°-20° siècle (Le Seuil, 1999).  She continues to work on the subject of national and regional culture and identity, and especially on national literatures in Europe; on fiction and mass culture in contemporary Europe; and on European identity. 

Further events in this series. More information will be posted shortly.

31 January- 1 February 2013
The Political Configuration of Identities
Professor Denis-Constant Martin (University of Bordeaux):

 

28 February 2013
Professor François Burgat (CNRS, Institut Français du Proche Orient)

11 June 2013
Benjamin Stora (Paris 13) and Boualem Sansal