We invite proposals for the 6th Annual Conference of the European Beat Studies
Network that will take place at the Chicago University Center in Paris on 20, 21 and 22
September 2017.

In the late fifties and early sixties, several writers and artists associated with the Beat
movement made their home in Paris at the so-called Beat Hotel, 9 rue Gît-le-coeur.
Burroughs, Corso, Ginsberg and Gysin’s sojourn at the Beat Hotel has, of course, been
a key moment in the development of Beat culture as a transcultural movement. Paris
was an important port of entry: from the French capital the Beats travelled to Europe
and Asia. Paris has also been a crucial springboard to publish writing that was
controversial or banned in America, such as Naked Lunch (Olympia Press, 1959).

This year’s conference will honor and address the key role that the French capital and
Francophone cultures have played in the transculturalism of the Beats, by welcoming
submissions in both French and English and holding a plenary session on language
barriers and translation issues in Beat Studies. For this session, the organizers will act as
translators with the aim of opening a long-awaited dialogue between English and
French academic cultures. We are also planning to exhibit unpublished documents
establishing close connections between Beat authors and their French publishers.
We are open to all types of submissions, from papers and panels to roundtables and
performances. Submissions can focus on any aspect of Beat creativity, but priority will
be given to proposals in relation to under-studied Beat figures, Franco-American
collaborations and publications, or translation of Beat works:

- Authors or artists still neglected in Beat Studies (Antony Balch, Elise Cowen,
Gregory Corso, Diane Di Prima, Brion Gysin, Mohamed Hamri, Ted Joans, LeRoi
Jones, Michael McClure, Mohamed Mrabet, Harold Norse, Claude Pélieu,
Polyphonix, Ian Sommerville, Anne Waldman, etc.)

- Franco-American publishers (Jean Fanchette, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Maurice
Girodias) and/or publications (Evergreen Review, City Lights, Locus Solus, Paris
Review, Olympia Press, etc.)

- The Francophone intertext of Beat literature (Baudelaire, Breton, Genet, Artaud) or
the Beat intertext of Francophone literature (Julien Blaine, Nicole Brossard, Yves
Buin, Alain Jégou, Lucien Suel etc.)

- The Francophone reception of the Beats (by philosophers, sociologists, the media)

- Textual analysis of Kerouac’s sporadic use of French or of his recently published
French writings (Ma Vie est d’hommage, Boréal, 2016)

- Translation of Beat works: Arabic, Dutch, French (Mary Beach, Mohammed
Choukri, Bernard Frechtman, Pierre Joris, Eric Kahane, Jean-Jaques Lebel, Claude
Pélieu), Italian (Fernanda Pivano), Japanese, Turkish, etc.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers:

- Jean-Jacques Lebel (multidisciplinary artist, key intermediary between American
and French Beat artists from the sixties onwards, and curator of the exhibition Beat
Generation held at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 2016);

- Andrew Hussey (Cultural Historian, Biographer, and Director of the Center for
Postcolonial Studies at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study).

Deadline to send abstracts: 15 January 2017
Responses and confirmations will be given by: 1st March 2017
You don’t need an academic affiliation to attend or participate in the conference, only to
be a member of the EBSN (membership is free). For all enquiries, and to send abstracts
of 250 words with a short bio, please contact the conference administrators: for
proposals in English, Raven See (rsee11@elmira.edu), and for proposals in French,
Anna Aublet (anna.aublet@u-paris10.fr). Papers will be limited to 20 minutes.

Conference Fee (includes refreshments & lunch):
Full 3-day rate €80; 1-day rate €30
Student/Unwaged 3-day rate €40; 1-day rate €15
There will also be a final night dinner (cost and venue to be confirmed).

Accommodation:
Reasonably priced rooms at special rates will be block-booked at local hotels close to
the conference venue. Full details will be posted in May 2017.

Conference Organising Committee:
Véronique Lane, Peggy Pacini, and Frank Rynne.