International Conference

Consolation in contemporary British and postcolonial literatures

Website: http://consolation.vanessaguignery.com/

Organised by Vanessa GUIGNERY (ENS de Lyon), Héloïse LECOMTE (ENS de Lyon) and Diane GAGNERET (University of Lyon 1)

PDF version of the program here.

Thursday 6th April 2023

Maison internationale des langues et des cultures (milc), Amphitheâtre

35 RUE RAULIN,  69007 Lyon

09.00
Welcome and coffee/tea

09.15
Opening of the conference

PANEL 1: Mourning

Chair: Héloïse Lecomte (ENS de Lyon)

9.30
Jürgen Pieters (Ghent University): “‘the sacrifice of mourning’: Denise Riley’s ‘A Part Song’.”

10.00
Lacy Rumsey (ENS de Lyon): “Prosody as Consolation: Rhythmic vs. Cultural Work”

10.30
Kathrin Ritzka (Humboldt-University of Berlin): “Religious Residues and Consolation in the Works of Denise Riley and Julian Barnes”

11.00
Coffee break

PANEL 2: Ali Smith

Chair: Vanessa Guignery (ENS de Lyon)

11.30
Margaret Scanlan (Indiana University-South Bend): “A Private and Public Grief: Consolation in Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet”

12.00
Merritt Moseley (University of North Carolina, Asheville, N.C.): “Perverse Consolation in Ali Smith’s The Accidental”

12.45-14.00
Lunch Break (Buffet CROUS Descartes for speakers)

PANEL 3: Illness Narratives and the (Dis)Comforts of Bibliotherapy

Chair: Merritt Moseley (University of North Carolina, Asheville, N.C.)

14.15
Paweł Wojtas (University of Warsaw): “Illness Narrative as Bibliotherapy in J.M. Coetzee’s The Death of Jesus”

14.45
Diane Gagneret (University of Lyon 1): “‘a watering of her desert’: Depression and (Dis)Consolation in Jenny Diski’s Monkey’s Uncle”

15.15
Gerd Bayer (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg): “Apologies, Gratitude, Consolation: Jenny Diski’s Writing as Moral Reckoning”

15.45
Coffee Break

Chair: Vanessa Guignery (ENS de Lyon)

16.15
Keynote lecture: David James (University of Birmingham): “Whose Consolation? Medical Writing and the Caregiver’s Gain”

17.15
Break

17.30
Guest writer: Reading and Conversation with Salena Godden
Presented by Héloïse Lecomte (ENS de Lyon)

18.30
Book signing

Damn Fine Bookstore will be selling copies of Salena Godden’s books Pessimism is for Lightweights and Mrs Death Misses Death.

20.00
Dinner at Trattino, 58 rue Clément Marot, 69007 Lyon (for speakers)

Friday 7th April 2023

École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Amphitheâtre Descartes
15 Parvis René Descartes, 69007 Lyon

PANEL 4: Narrative, Memory, Transmission and (In)Consolation

Chair: Judith Misrahi-Barak (University Paul Valery Montpellier 3)

09.30
Teresa Gibert (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid): “Desolation and Consolation in Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin”

10.00
Gina Cesto (University of Paris Nanterre): “Consoling the Untold: Suturing Filial Wounds in Andrea Levy’s Fruit of the Lemon (1999)”

10.30
Cédric Courtois (University of Lille): “(In)consolation through Excavation in Yewande Omotoso’s An Unusual Grief (2022)”

11.00
Coffee Break

PANEL 5: Fictions as Forums for (Un)consolation

Chair: Cédric Courtois (University of Lille)

11.30
Judith Misrahi-Barak (University Paul Valery Montpellier 3): “Drifting as Consolation in Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost”

12.00
Jaine Chemmachery (Sorbonne Université): “Consolation in The Fortune Men (2021) by Nadifa Mohamed: Fiction as Consolatory Practice?”

12.45-14.00
Lunch Break (Buffet CROUS Descartes for speakers)

PANEL 6: Performing In/Consolation in Theatre

Chair: Diane Gagneret (University of Lyon 1)

14.15
Vicky Angelaki (Mid Sweden University): “Theatre, Community and Climate Consolation”

14.45
Marion Coste (ENS de Lyon): “Damage Has Been Done: Atoning for the Iraq War on the British Stage”

15.15-15.30
Break

PANEL 7: Counter-Narratives of Consolation

Chair: Jaine Chemmachery (Sorbonne Université)

15.30
Franck Miroux (Université Toulouse-Jean Jaurès): “Consoling the Inconsolable? Writing, Telling and Persistent Pain in Robert Arthur Alexie’s Porcupines and China Dolls”

16.00
Bryant Scott (Texas A&M University at Qatar): “The Solace of the Gutter: Distance and Bearing Witness to Violence in Postcolonial Graphic Literature”

17.00
End of the conference