ONE-DAY CONFERENCE ON THEATRE AND PHOTOGRAPHY
Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier 3, France
December 8th, 2016
Marianne Drugeon, Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier 3
Christine Kiehl, Université Lumière-Lyon 2
Jean-Pierre Montier, Université Bretagne-Rennes 2
Laurence Petit, Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier 3
Call for papers
This project is part of a collaboration between the research center EMMA (Etudes Montpelliéraines du Monde Anglophone) at Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier 3, the research center CELLAM (Centre d’Etudes des Littératures et Langues Anciennes et Modernes) at Université Bretagne-Rennes 2, and the research programme in photoliterature phlit.org, directed by Jean-Pierre Montier, Professor of French Literature at Université européenne de Bretagne-Rennes 2. Also associated to this project are Christine Kiehl, Associate Professor in Contemporary British Drama in the English Department of Université Lumière-Lyon 2 and her research center PASSAGES XX-XXI.
This project examines the intermedial relations between theatre and photography (in the continuation of other past or current projects on theatre and dance, as well as theatre and cinema). We will focus on plays in which photography as a social, political, and aesthetic act or gesture, or the photographs which are the result of this act or gesture – be they actually displayed on the stage or merely evoked as part of the play – are used by playwrights and stage directors in their plays and stage settings or stagings. The emphasis will be on the connections between these two visual art forms, as well as on the rich and specific dialogue between the visible and the legible that they create.
One possible direction for research will be the use of photography as archive, that is to say trace or document. In this perspective, contributors may explore how theatre photographers metaphorically interpret again a staging and a setting which are, in themselves, an interpretation. Alternately, contributors may explore how photographs – beyond their archival function or usage – are also the means of, or the foundation for, visual or narrative recreation or transposition. In all cases, is the living dimension of the perfomance altered or dramatized anew by the photographic capture, and in what way? Another possible direction for research will be to examine how photography participates in the construction of the figure of the theatrical actor (and in this case, how different is this from a film actor, the figure of the writer, or that of “famous” people?), or to envisage how photography participates in their “training” (Stanislavski). Yet another possible direction will be to bring, or bring back, to light works or œuvres which are photographic in the literal sense of the term and which were created by stage-directors as a fringe “activity”. An alternative will be to interrogate the specificities of what is theatrical in the work of photographers recognized as such even though they may not necessarily specialize in theatre photography. Is there such a thing as a corpus of photographs linked to the theatrical act which has nothing to do with communication or promotion, but corresponds to a specific poetics? If so, does such a poetics oscillate between the performing arts and literature, and in what way ?
Please send a 250-word proposal, as well as a 100-word bio, to Marianne Drugeon (marianne.drugeon@univ-montp3.fr), Christine Kiehl (christine.kiehl@univ-lyon2.fr), Jean-Pierre Montier (jean-pierre.montier@uhb.fr), and Laurence Petit (laurence.petit@univ-montp3.fr) by October 15th, 2016.