About the event
The conference brings together scholars working on the margins of contemporary French and Francophone literature, with a particular focus on taboo and transgression, censorship and visibility, alternative modernities, feminist and travelling literatures, in-between spaces, nostalgia, forgotten controversies, and the question of new canons.
It asks how writers engage with what is excluded, silenced, or considered improper, and how such forms of writing might challenge established literary categories and canons.
This event is organised by Madeleine Banatvala and Fabien Arribert-Narce, and is hosted by the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures. It consists of four panels and two keynote talks. You can find the full programme below.
Programme
9:30am - Opening remarks
9:45am to 10:45am - Panel 1: L’ineffable : censures, tabous et débordements dans les écrits littéraires. Chaired by Michèle Bacholle.
- Anas Boukhari – Dire ce qui “ne se fait pas” : la darija marocaine entre censure symbolique et reconfiguration du canon littéraire
- Karen Humphreys - “Ça ne se dit pas”: Writing the Unspeakable in Adèle Yon’s Mon vrai nom est Elisabet
10:45am to 11am - Morning break
11am to 12 noon - Panel 2: Transgressions, langue et identité dans l'autobiographie marginale. Chaired by Séverine Genieys-Kirk.
- Thomas Bétou – Autobiographie des marges, marges de l’autobiographie : autour de la transgression d’une pratique littéraire au milieu du XXe siècle
- Alexia Rivalet – Violette Leduc : voix marginalisée et agentivité paradoxale
12 noon to 12:45pm - Keynote 1: Marine Rouch - Literary Friendships among Francophone (Aspiring) Women Writers Under the Strain of (Neo-)Colonialism (1945–1975). Chaired by Katie Pleming.
12:45pm to 2pm - Lunch
2pm to 3pm - Panel 3: Marginalités, transgression et refus narratif : tabou, genre et écritures contemporaines. Chaired by Sarah Tribout-Joseph.
- Louise Kari-Méreau – Writing from the Edge (and Enjoying It): Margins, Cynicism, and Narrative Mischief in Despentes, Angot, and Laurens
- Adrienne Angelo – Writing After Feminicide: Nathacha Appanah’s La nuit au cœur and the Ethics of Narrative Refusal
3pm to 3:45pm - Keynote 2: Douglas Morrey – The literary outlaw in the age of cancel culture: How can we still read Gabriel Matzneff (and why should we)? Chaired by Fabien Arribert-Narce.
3:45pm to 4pm - Afternoon break
4pm to 5:30pm - Panel 4: Dire l'indicible : sexualités, prostitution et transgressions féministes. Chaired by Adrienne Angelo.
- Marine Berthiot – Magdalene Trauma in Quebec. A Case Study of Fille-Mère by Ingrid Falaise (2025)
- Hafid Abouelkacem – Dire sans scandale, les tabous ordinaires et la transgression silencieuse dans l’œuvre de Sonia Terrab
- Michèle Bacholle – Improper Chloé Delaume and Bebe Melkor-Kadior: Sex Work and Slut-Praising
5:30pm to 5:40pm - Closing remarks
How to attend
This event is free to attend, and open to all. No registration is required - simply come along!
Are you interested in studying European Languages and Cultures?
Our interdisciplinary environment brings together specialists in nine European languages, and the many cultures worldwide in which they're spoken, with experts in film, literature, theatre, translation and intermediality.
Working with colleagues elsewhere in LLC, and across the wider University, we are able to support research which crosses boundaries between disciplines and/or languages.
