"Les midideux" : 6 short talks
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, FROM 12 TO 2 P.M.
"Midideux" are talks about love given by academics representing various disciplines: Martine Beugnet (visual studies), Fanny Cardin (literature and cinema), Jean-François Cottier (latin language and literature), Gabrielle Houbre (contemporary history), Pierre Kerner (life sciences) and Jonathan Weitzman (epigenetics).
MARTINE BEUGNET, THE LOVE OF CINEMA
What does it mean to love cinema today? At a time when film images are scattered on screens of all sizes and in all kinds of places? For Walter Benjamin, cinema was the art of crowds – the crowds of spectators in a room, facing their reflection on the screen ... An illustrated midideux conference will question the value of the shared experience of "watching together".
Martine Beugnet is a professor of Visual Studies at the English language studies department, Paris Diderot University, and a member of the UMR LARCA.
FANNY CARDIN, WHEN THE CINEMA SHOWS LOVE BEING CHALLENGED BY THE ORDINARY
What happens to love once it becomes a routine? Whilst the cinema is obsessed with its most spectacular aspects (love at first sight, passion, heartbreak), is it rare for love to be explored via the daily life of a couple – a more commonplace subject. From Pialat to Jarmusch, the talk will address several films, which make the iterative of love life more perceptible, both in its most ordinary manifestations and in its cruellest effects.
Fanny Cardin is a graduate of Lettres Modernes and a contractual doctoral student at Paris Diderot University. Since finishing her master’s degree, she has been working on the formal and political issues arising from the depiction of ordinary life in literature and cinema.
JEAN-FRANÇOIS COTTIER, FROM THE HOLY GRAIL TO AIDS: THE BLOOD TEST OF LOVE
Many religious and mystical texts explore the concept of blood. By studying their presence in the visual arts and contemporary performances, some reflections appear, and deserve to be deepened on a symbolic level, on this bodily fluid that can be perceived as beneficial or deadly, pure or impure. The relationship between blood and love will be questioned, both in its transcendent dimension and in its gendered and political significance.
Jean-François Cottier is a professor of Latin Languages and Literatures at Paris Diderot University. He is also an associate professor at the University of Montreal, specializing in religious and mystical literature and, for two years, has been running an interdisciplinary seminar that deals with the presence of blood in the Western imagination.
GABRIELLE HOUBRE, VALTESSE DE LA BIGNE, HER FRIENDS, HER LOVES, HER WILL...
How to approach the history of affects through a materialistic archive? The testament of the famous courtesan Valtesse de la Bigne (1848-1910), who divided her immense fortune amongst friends, is a captivating and transgressive example. It reveals how the one that inspired Zola’s Nana, disinherited her biological family in favor of elective friendships, and how she, an outspoken bisexual, blurred the boundaries between friendship, love and sexuality.
Gabrielle Houbre is a historian at the Paris Diderot University (Cerilac / GHES), specializing in social and cultural history of the 19th century, as well as in gender issues. Amongst her publications: La Discipline de l’amour. L’éducation sentimentale des filles et des garçons à l’âge du romantisme (1997) and Le Livre des courtisanes. Archives secrètes de la police des mœurs (2006). She recently co-directed Prostitutions. Des représentations aveuglantes (2015) and worked on the 19th century in Une histoire des sexualités published in 2018 (ed. PUF).
PIERRE KERNER, PARASITES: UNLOVED, YET VERY ENDEARING
Parasites are not pleasant. Sticky manipulators and thieves... reminding us of our worst romantic partners. And yet parasites do not lack the know-how in love, starting with their ingenuity in seducing (and infecting) their guests. Moreover, they are capable of incredible inventiveness when it comes to reproducing, and the parasite Kama-sutra should give you many surprises.
Pierre Kerner is a professor-researcher in Animal Biology, Development and Evolution at Paris Diderot University. Digital science popularizer, operating under the pseudonym Taupo on his blog Strange Stuff and Funky Things, as well as on Youtube, Podcast Science and in books, such as La Science à Contrepied (book collective Café des Sciences) and Moi, Parasite (ed. Belin).
JONATHAN WEITZMAN, LOVE AND CHROMOSOMES
Four hundred years ago, William Shakespeare wrote : "Love is blind, and lovers cannot see ..." (The Merchant of Venice, Act 2, Scene 6). What can new discoveries in genetics and epigenetics bring to the debate about the origins and consequences of love and the blindness of lovers?
Jonathan Weitzman is professor of Genetics at Paris Diderot University and a director of the Epigenetics and Cell Fate Unit. He is interested in genetic identity, epigenetics, and the impact of the environment on DNA. He co-directs the European Masters in Genetics and the G.E.N.E. With Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, he founded the Académie Vivante, a collaborative Arts & Science program. In 2017, he published his first book, 3 minutes pour comprendre les 50 découvertes fondamentales de la génétique, published by Le Courrier du Livre.
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