The Department of French at New York University announces its annual =20
Graduate Conference, =93Un/Common Experience: The Dross and the Glory =20=

of Everyday Life=94.

February 16-17, 2007

=93How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.=94Annie =20=

Dillard, The Writing Life

  =93How are we to speak of these =91common things,=92 how to track them =
=20
down rather, flush them out, wrest them from the dross in which they =20
remain mired, how to give them a meaning, a tongue, to let them, =20
finally, speak of what is, of what we are?=94 Georges Perec, Species of =20=

Places and Other Pieces

The everyday is far from ordinary: within the banal lurks the =20
sublime, the familiar masks the strange. But does the quotidian =20
confine, define or liberate us?

Everyday life studies have taught us to find the extraordinary in the =20=

ordinary, to seek out the common denominator within the existing =20
systems of our society, thereby allowing us to decode the present =20
while also opening a window onto the past. The theory of everyday =20
life is not, however, applicable only in the domain of the modern =20
world. An analysis of everyday life can occur at all levels of =20
civilization and is not only linked to the existence of the modern =20
subject. How, then, across the ages, have individuals confronted the =20=

paradox of daily life in order to more fully understand their place =20
within a larger societal institution, whether that be family, =20
community, or country?

The aim of this conference is to explore the ways in which everyday =20
life has been experienced, mythologized and ignored from the Middle =20
Ages to the present day. How is this everydayness negotiated through =20=

writing and art? How are its effects rendered by literature, =20
history, sociology or anthropology? By what means, using what =20
language, to what end?

We invite graduate students of all disciplines to present 15-minute =20
papers addressing the theme of everyday life within the context of =20
French and Francophone literary and cultural studies. 200 word =20
abstracts should be submitted to nyufrenchconferenceATgmail.com by =20
December 15, 2006. Papers and abstracts may be in French or English.

Selected papers will be considered for publication.

Topics may include, but are not limited to the following:

The individual: biography, autobiography, memoir, personal journals, =20
epistolarity

Community: ethnography, travel, customs, leisure

Political culture: conflict, violence, resistance

Cycles: routine, ritual, revolution, evolution

Consumption: fashion, art, comestibles, fetish

Corporality: scatology, sexuality, illness

Language: linguistic innovation, onomastics, dialogue

Dream: utopia, mythology, distraction, ennui=

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Received on Sun Nov 12 2006 - 23:14:30 EST