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

CFP Colloque international: « Le catch et… », mise en scène et passage des frontières

[Scroll down for English version]


Colloque international: « Le catch et… », mise en scène et passage des frontières
Université de Bordeaux 3, les 31 janvier et 1er février 2013.

Depuis les Mythologies, les études culturelles ont bien perçu que le
catch pouvait être plus qu’un choc frontal de deux masses musclées et
huileuses sous le regard d’une foule partiale. Bien qu’il ait reçu
l’attention de personnalités aussi diverses que Barthes (« Le monde où
l’on catch », 1957), Henry Jenkins (« Never Trust a Snake. WWF
Wrestling as Masculine Melodrama », 1997) ou Angela Carter (« Giants’
Playtime », 1976), et bien qu’il fasse l’objet d’une attention
universitaire soutenue aux Etats-Unis, le catch n’a pourtant pas fait
en France l’objet d’un travail qui en épuiserait les possibilités et
les significations, sans se limiter à la tétralogie masculinité,
popularité, excès et rituel.

Sport fiction, sport simulacre, le catch s’établit d’emblée sur une
frontière entre deux univers. Dans les Amériques, cette notion du
catch comme une interface outrancière articulant la rencontre de
plusieurs modalités spectaculaires, de plusieurs courants culturels et
de plusieurs identités ne saurait être exagérée. Ainsi, le catch
professionnel aux États-Unis suscite-t-il en retour un regain
d’intérêt pour son pendant mexicain, illustré par un film comme Nacho Libre (2006).
Réciproquement, le catch mexicain s’est fait une
spécialité de l’emprunt à la culture populaire américaine, rebaptisant
le catcheur El Santo « Superman », ou donnant plus récemment à une
équipe le surnom de « Justice League ». Ainsi encore, le catch
propose-t-il à ses acteurs des passerelles vers le cinéma (Dwayne
Johnson, « The Rock », vu par exemple dans Southland Tales (2006)) ou
même vers la politique (Linda McMahon, candidate pour le Sénat des
Etats-Unis, Jessie "The Body" Ventura, devenu gouverneur du
Minnesota). Le catch est aussi un sujet fertile de représentations :
que l’on pense à The Wrestler, de Daren Aronofsky (2008) , aux bandes
dessinées de Jaime Hernandez (Love and Rockets, 1982- ) ou encore aux
photographies de Dulce Pinzon (The Real Stories of Superheroes)
mettant en scène des travailleurs mexicains aux États-Unis habillés en
catcheur ou en super-héros. Ce colloque cherchera à identifier ce qui
rend le catch si propice au développement de ces transitions,
extensions et passage de frontières.

Il explorera pour cela d’une part le catch lui-même, son économie, sa
forme et sa réception, mais aussi et surtout les multiples interfaces
qu’il propose, dans une approche résolument pluridisciplinaire. « Le
catch et… » Le catch et la frontière mexicaine, le catch et le cinéma,
et le catch et les formes d’identités, le catch et l’art, le catch et
la télévision, le catch et les autres sport-spectacles, etc. D’autre
part, l’analyse de ce genre de discours, si particulier, que
constituent les mots du catch pourra être abordée de diverses façons
en linguistique tout autant qu’en stylistique. La plus évidente
correspond à la mise en récit qui accompagne cette mise en scène.
Quelle histoire nous est racontée ? Sur quels types de représentations
culturelles et sur quelles stratégies discursives récurrents
repose-t-elle ? L’étude des isotopies, au sein du lexique, tout autant
que celle des figures de style peut apporter un éclairage
supplémentaire sur les thèmes du colloque. Comment, par exemple,
fonctionne le processus d’identification ? Existe-t-il un codage, lato
sensu, du « discours du catch » qui accompagne chaque match, discours
qui répondrait alors, sans surprise ou presque (rôle du cliché, des
agencements forme-sens prototypiques), aux attentes d’un public ?

D’après le propos exposé plus haut et sans que cela soit exhaustif,
nous proposons de traiter les axes suivants :

- histoire culturelle et économique du catch dans les Amériques
- stratégies d’exportation et spécificité de la réception
française
- le catch comme récit transmédiatique (incluant toutes circulations
entre médias et problématiques de l’adaptation)
- esthétique spectaculaire et représentation du corps, etc.

Ces pistes ne sont pas limitatives et toutes les ouvertures permettant
d’éclairer notre problématique dans l’esprit pluridisciplinaire qui
est le nôtre seront les bienvenues.

Les propositions de communication en français ou en anglais, de 300
mots environ,sont à adresser à avant le 15 mai 2012 à:
nicolas.labarre@u-bordeaux3.fr ; david.diallo@u-bordeaux4.fr

******************

 International Conference
« Professional Wresting and… », foregrounding borders, crossing borders
University of Bordeaux 3, January 31st and February 1st 2013.

Since Barthes’s Mythologies, cultural studies have acknowledged that
there may be more to professional wrestling than a clash of two oily
muscled masses in front of a partisan crowd. Yet, while it has caught
the attention of a wide range of writers and essayists, from Roland
Barthes, to Henry Jenkins to Angela Carter, and while it has been
extensively studied in North-American academic circles, professional
wrestling has been comparatively neglected in France. The subject is
still awaiting a study that would exhaust its meanings and
possibilities, including but not limited to the tetralogy of
masculinity, popularity, excess and ritual.

Professional wrestling finds itself on the border separating multiple
notional pairs: sport and fiction, sport and simulacrum, sport and
show business, etc. This role of pro wrestling as an interface fraught
with excess appears especially significant in the Americas, where it
finds itself at the juncture between several types of spectacles,
several cultural trends, several identities. Thus, the popularity of
Pro-wrestling in the US led to a renewed interest in its Mexican
counterpart, as illustrated by the movie Nacho Libre (2006).
Reciprocally, Mexican wrestling is known for its poaching among US
popular icons: El Santo becomes known as “Superman” and a wrestling
team calls itself “The Justice League”. Pro wrestling also works as a
gateway towards Hollywood (Dwayne Johnson became famous as “The Rock”,
was credited as such in his first movies, but now uses his own name),
towards politics (Jessie “The Body” Ventura became governor of
Minnesota, while Linda McMahon has been trying in recent years to
become a congresswoman). Pro wrestling has also been a fertile source
for other popular forms, from Daren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler (2008) to
Jaime Hernandez’s comic books (Love and Rockets, 1982- ) to Dulce
Pinzon’s photographs depicting Mexican workers in the United States,
disguised as wrestlers and super-heroes (The Real Stories of
Superheroes). This symposium will aim at identifying the reason for
pro wrestling’s proclivity toward transitions, extensions and crossing
of boundaries.

Contributions should therefore examine pro wrestling itself, its
economy, its form and reception, but they should emphasize
particularly the numerous interfaces that it creates, from a
vigorously interdisciplinary perspective. “Professional wrestling
and…” ; professional wrestling and the Mexican border, professional
wrestling and cinema, professional wrestling and cultural identity,
professional wrestling and television, professional wrestling and
other spectacular sports, etc. The specific discourse of professional
wrestling could also be analyzed from several angles, both
linguistically and stylistically. This has to do first and foremost
with the storytelling accompanying the fights. What type of narrative
do they offer? What cultural representations and what discursive
strategies do they use? A study of isotopies in the lexicon and the
figures of speech may also shed a light on the themes of this
conference. How, for instance, does the identification process
function? Is there such thing as a coding of the discourse of
professional wrestling, which would fulfill the audience’s
expectations, with little or no deviation?

We seek papers exploring these and other issues, and welcome
submissions from scholars in all disciplines. Possible topics include,
but are not limited to:

- The cultural and economic history of professional wrestling in the Americas
- Export strategies and French specificities
- Prowrestling as transmedia storytelling (including cases of adaptation)
- An aesthetic of the spectacular and the representation of the body.

300-word abstracts, in French or in English, should be sent to :
nicolas.labarre@u-bordeaux3.fr ; david.diallo@u-bordeaux4.fr

Submission deadline : May 15th 2012

Cfp: The Second World War, Popular Culture and Cultural Memory

Call For Papers
The Second World War, Popular Culture and Cultural Memory
University of Brighton, UK: 13-15 July 2011

Few historical events have resonated as fully in modern British popular culture as the Second World War. It has left a rich legacy in a range of media that continue to attract a wide audience: film, TV and radio, photography and the visual arts, journalism & propaganda, architecture, music and literature. The war’s institutionalised commemoration and remembrance fuels a museum and heritage industry whose work often benefits from the latest internet technology for maximum dissemination to educational institutions and the general public. In fact, the popular culture of the war is a cornerstone of its afterlife. The Second World War remains an easy point of reference for exhortations about public behaviour, from terrorist attacks (‘London can take it!’) to coping with credit crunch austerity (‘Makedo and mend’).

This interdisciplinary conference will examine popular culture of the Second World War on the home front and in British theatres of war abroad. Defining popular culture in its widest sense – as both a ‘way of life’ and as ‘cultural texts’ – the conference will explore both wartime popular culture and its post-war legacy. We invite established scholars, museum curators, media practitioners and postgraduate researchers from a wide range of disciplines to contribute to a lively debate about the role and meaning of popular culture both during the war and in the cultural memory of the Second World War in Britain and elsewhere.

Keynote Speakers:
Professor Jim Aulich (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK),
Professor Susan R. Grayzel (University of Mississippi, USA), Professor
Gill Plain (University of St Andrews, UK)

We welcome proposals for individual 20 minute papers as well as submissions for panels of three speakers and a Chair. Possible topics and panels may include but are not limited to:

* Popular culture in commemorative and museal practices
* Popular culture in/of combatant, Prisoner of War and internee life
* Posters, propaganda, broadcasting
* Entertainment in WW2
* WW2 in children’s literature and media
* Contemporary merchandising of WW2 culture and memorabilia
* Total war, war culture and popular culture
* The ‘people’s war’ in lived experience and in cultural texts
* Representations of national identity and ‘the enemy’
* Death, grief and bereavement in wartime and post-war popular culture
* Material culture of the war and its afterlife
* Representations of the British popular culture of the war abroad
* Fashion, Food and retro-merchandising
* Neo historical novels, war films, ‘militainment’
* Forgotten aspects of wartime popular culture

There may be bursaries for postgraduates and independent scholars.

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words to:
ww2conference@brighton.ac.uk
Deadline:  31 January 2011

Conference organisers: Dr Lucy Noakes (University of Brighton, UK), Dr
Juliette Pattinson (Strathclyde University, UK), Dr Petra Rau
(University of Portsmouth, UK)

Un carnet de recherches “hypothèses” de méthodologie de la “civilisation”

Bienvenue au carnet de recherche “Langues vivantes”, qui se définit comme “un espace de réflexion et de débat autour des pratiques de recherche en civilisation” animé par des doctorants. Les articles déjà en ligne et le programme de travail de leur séminaire sont très stimulants.

La séance du 5 janvier (« Comment ne pas mener un programme d’entretiens », « Historical Institutionalism » et recensions d’articles d’universitaires civilisationnistes: quelle méthode? quelle valeur ajoutée?) promet d’être fort intéressante.
JK

Cfp ISCH 2011 annual conference “History – memory – myth: Re-presenting the past”

The next annual ISCH-conference will take place in Oslo, Norway, in August 2011. Please note that the deadline for proposals (sessions and papers) is October 15.

Links to submission form is found at the conference web-site:
International Society for Cultural History annual conference “History – memory – myth: Re-presenting the past”

The conference theme “re-presenting the past” communicates with the international and interdisciplinary field of collective memory, which has grown considerably during the last decades. Studies of commemorations and festivals, monuments, exhibitions and museums, historical films and narratives are now numerous. Terms such as social memory, collective or collected memory, kulturelle Gedächtnis, lieux de mémoire, the presence of the past and the use of history all illustrate the scholarly interest in how the past – or images of it – is constructed, composed, negotiated and built up, but also demolished, dismantled and rejected. This constructional work has been investigated on the individual level, concerning personal memories and private history. Studies in this field have also focused on processes of nation building, the construction of ethnical or other group identities, and heritage care and preservation.
You are invited to propose sessions and invidividual papers for the conference; further thematic characterizations can be found in the CFP, and proposals for papers and sessions should be sent in by October 15th 2010 (webpage for submission of proposals will soon be available). Please note that to give a paper, you will have to be a member of ISCH.

All the best,
Anne Eriksen
Head of conference committee

Journée d’étude “Photographier la société: regards croisés France – Etats-Unis, 1860-1940” : Paris 7, 2 avril 2010

Groupe de recherches sur l’histoire des images en Amérique du nord (HIMAN)
Sous l’égide du Laboratoire de Recherches sur les Cultures Anglophones (LARCA EA 4214)

Journée d’études doctorales du 2 avril 2010

Institut Charles V — Université Paris Diderot

Salle A 50

Images et histoire : échanges transatlantiques 1

Photographier la société : regards croisés France – Etats-Unis, 1860-1940

MATIN
modérateur : François Brunet (U. Paris Diderot-Paris 7)

9h30 Accueil

9h45 Remarques d’introduction

10h Anne Lesme (U. Provence)
« Images d’enfants pauvres et naissance de la photographie sociale aux Etats-Unis
(Jacob Riis et Lewis Hine). »

11h Florence Moreau (U. Paris Diderot)
« Perspectives de la photographie mise en scène : le style Life »

APRES-MIDI
modérateur : Paul-Louis Roubert (U. Paris 8 – St. Denis)

14h Ken Garner (U. Michigan Ann Arbor)
« Aime Laussedat and the Technopolitics of the Image »

15h Catherine Clark (U. Southern California)
« ‘Le document par excellence’ : La photographie, Marcel Poëte, et la Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris »

16h Jacob Lewis (Northwestern U.)
« Charles Nègre and the Visual Economy of Early Photomechanical Reproduction (1855-1867) »

17h Clôture de la journée.

Des précis en français des communications délivrées en anglais seront disponibles.

Université Paris Diderot- Paris 7 – UFR d’Etudes anglophones
10 rue Charles V 75004 Paris – 01 57 27 58 20
métros : Bastille, Sully-Morland, Saint-Paul
contact : francois.brunet@univ-paris-diderot.fr