Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium (NCFS 2015)
November 5-7, 2015, Princeton University

Contamination

How did fears of contamination and fantasies of purity mark the cultural productions and social practices of the long nineteenth century? If "dirt is matter out of place," as Mary Douglas has remarked, then what were the symbolic orders that governed the proper location and distribution of bodies, goods, values, and wastes in this period? In what way did such modern developments as the industrial revolution, nationalism, medical science, public health, and urbanization inflect older, more religious conceptions of pollution and purity? How did this new secular understanding in turn anticipate and shape our current thinking about ecological crisis, globalization, and social justice? We invite contributions that reflect on these issues; topics include but are not limited to:

Pollution Anxiety of Influence
Dirt, Sewers, Sanitation
Littérature industrielle
Illness, Cures, Remedies
Dystopia & Utopia
Epidemics (Cholera, Syphilis, Consumption) Ecological Literature
Germ Theory & Pasteur
Poison, Drugs, Toxins
Miasma, Odors, Perfume
Decay & Decadence
Hygiene & Morality
Abjection & Horror
Crowd Psychology & Suggestion
Genealogies & Pedigrees
Crime, Prostitution, Labor
Racial Discourses
Sin, Sacrilege, Redemption
Industrial Revolution
Purity & Perversion
City & Country
Nationalism, Borders, Terroir
Ugliness & the Grotesque
Scapegoats & Xenophobia
Blood, Body, Self
Entropy & Disorder
Eclecticism
Obscenity & Censorship
Corruption
Mésalliances Immigration
Medicine & Hospitals
Intellectual & Manual Labor
Art for Art's Sake
Print Culture & Circulation

SUBMISSIONS
Submissions for individual papers or sessions may be in French or English and should be in the form of an abstract (250-300 words) sent as an e-mail attachment in Word to the address below. For session proposals, please include a separate abstract for each paper. The deadline for all submissions is March 15, 2015. Please indicate your A/V requirements on your abstract.

E-MAIL: ncfs2015@gmail.com
ORGANIZER: Göran Blix (Princeton University)