Empathy in French-Language Arts and Literature
International meetig
organized by the University of Luxembourg and the University of Szeged
at the University of Szeged (Hungary), from 24 to 26 November 2023
Although the notion of empathy emerged at the end of the 19th century and its philosophical roots go back to Antiquity, it has never had more resounding repercussions than today. Thus, in the light of the ecological crisis that is going through our time, political philosophy militates for the renewal of the relationship with the other in order to “repair the world”, to use the famous expression of Corine Pelluchon. [1], which did not fail to arouse literary echoes. Indeed, in his theoretical work on contemporary literature, Alexandre Gefen highlights the desire of writers to take care of the world. [2]an idea that is reminiscent of, among others, the title of Maylis de Kerangal, Mend the Living [3], as well as the rhetoric of Andrei Makine, whose work is crossed, in a prophetic vein, by the need to regenerate the living by transforming the reader’s relationship to the world, considered from a transcultural and transnational perspective. In his journalistic writings, however, the same author demonstrates selective empathy, according to which exposing the crimes of political leaders lacking empathy “will not solve anything”. [4], which raises questions about the cultural and political springs at work in our relationships, empathetic or not, with the other. On the other side of the Atlantic, Quebec author Juliana Léveillé-Trudel creates a work that aims to be “a gateway” [5] in the world of indigenous peoples, in order to promote not only reconciliation but also an awareness of their way of life and, above all, of their humanity, which an unjust and painful past could easily do without. In the same perspective, in her literary and artistic work, Audrée Wilhelmy sets herself the objective of “placing the reader in a position of forced empathy, in order to eventually transform his way of apprehending the world” by leading him to ” realize that [ce dernier] is more complicated than it seems, and that everyone’s actions are part of a very vast ecosystem of learning, socialization, beliefs, etc. » [6]. As far as he is concerned, the young French poet Simon-Gabriel Bonnot conceives the poetic domain as a privileged space which, when it “has not been emptied of all its sensitivity, at the cost of an alleged, and unattainable, objectivity ‘”, makes it possible to “bond carnally to what one reads; to open up to it, not only spiritually, but also biologically – biology and spirituality not being, moreover, fundamentally distant from each other, nor even […] presumably severable” [7].
For their part, the animal and ecological paradigms, which have seen the birth of work as fruitful as that of Pierre Schoentjes [8]Anne Simon [9] or Chiara Mengozzi [10]emphasize our relationship with the non-human, while the writers Jean Rouaud and Nathalie Skowronek created “Les Rencontres de Puyméras”, which “have the ambition to bring together writers, thinkers, witnesses and local actors around questions environmental » [11]. Additionally, cognitive literary studies and medical humanities are exploring the links between reading fiction and empathy. [12]proposing, among other things, new theoretical frameworks for the study of the rhetoric of empathy in fictional texts [13].
At the same time, the last three decades have seen the emergence of a change in our conceptualization of the other, whether human, animal or plant. The years 1990-2000 proclaimed “decade of the brain” in the United States, the discovery of mirror neurons in the early 1990s [14] (neurons with controversial functions since), as well as work in psychology and cognitive neuroscience on empathy and the theory of the mind, and the popularization of science carried out by researchers, psychotherapists and doctors such as Boris Cyrulnik or Christophe André, have generated an awareness of the role of empathy in our relationships with others. Indeed, as pointed out by Jacques Hochmann, several contemporary publications refer to the emergence of the “age” or the “civilization of empathy”, this word having entered everyday language in a sense that often suggests that empathy would be “good for everything” [15]. The definition of empathy is however problematic, the notion having been constantly rethought since it appeared in the field of human and social sciences.
Similarly, far from having been elucidated, the relationship between literary fiction and empathy remains topical and still raises many questions. We would therefore like to invite researchers who are interested in this subject to explore the link between empathy, the arts and literatures in the French language – whether it is “hexagonal” French literature, that of from other French-speaking countries and territories, or that produced by translingual writers. The objective of this symposium is to reflect on issues such as:
– the staging of empathy in the arts (cinema, painting, the performing arts, etc.)
– the role and place of empathy in the literary echoes of the changes undergone in recent decades within discourses on our relationship to others (human, artificial, animal or plant);
– the object of empathy in literature: towards whom is it directed, by whom, how and why?
– empathy through the ages: diachronic and comparative readings;
– the narrative and stylistic techniques used for the literary, filmic or pictorial representation of empathy or the triggering of empathic responses in the reader;
– the links between the post-human, emotions and empathy in literature and in the arts;
– the relationship between empathy, reading, experientiality, identification and narrative transportation;
This list is not exhaustive and the scientific committee will accept innovative proposals and approaches that highlight one or more aspects of the relationship between empathy and the arts or French-language literature. A publication of the proceedings is planned.
Procedures for submitting a proposal: Communication proposals must not exceed 300 words and will be accompanied by a bio-bibliographic notice of approximately 150 words. They will be sent by email in Word format to gyimesi@lit.u-szeged.hu and sylvie.freyermuth@uni.lu before May 31, 2023.
Schedule :
– deadline for submitting the proposal: May 31, 2023;
– notification of acceptance: June 15, 2023;
– dates of the conference: from November 24 to 26, 2023.
Steering Committee :
Timea Gyimesi, Diana Mistreanu and Sylvie Freyermuth
Scientific Committee:
Anikó Ádám, Béatrice Bloch, Sylvie Freyermuth, Erika Fülöp, Alexandre Gefen, Timea Gyimesi, Marina Hertrampf, Simona Jișa, Judit Karácsonyi, Andrei Lazăr, Chiara Mengozzi, Diana Mistreanu, Géza Szász, Laurențiu Zoicaș
Registration fee: 60 euros; doctoral students are exempt from registration fees.
Mentioned works :
[1] Corine Pelluchon, Let’s fix the world. Humans, animals, natureParis, Payot & Shores, 2020.
[2] Alexandre Gefen, Fix the world. French literature facing the 21st centuryParis, José Corti, 2017.
[3] Maylis of Kerangal, mend the livingParis, Vertical Editions, 2014.
[4] Andreï Makine in “Interview with Andreï Makine”, comments collected by Alexandre Devecchio, Le Figaro, March 11, 2022, p. 18.
[5] The expression belongs to the writer, who used it during the meeting organized with her at the University of Szeged on May 13, 2021, on Zoom.
[6] Reflections shared with Timea Gyimesi in an exchange on the question of empathy in the arts and literature.
[7] Simon-Gabriel Bonnot, unpublished text on poetry and empathy.
[8] Peter Schoentjes, Literature and ecology. The wall of beesParis, José Corti, 2020.
[9] Anne Simon, A beast between the lines. zoopoetics essayParis, Wildproject, 2021.
[10] Chiara Mengozzi (ed.), Outside the Anthropological Machine. Crossing the Human-Animal Divide and Other Exit StrategiesRoutledge, New York-London, 2021.
[11] Jean Rouaud and Nathalie Skowronek, “Les Rencontres de Puyméras”, viewed online at September 17, 2022.
[12] Raymond A. Mar, Keith Oatley, Jacob Hirsh, Jennifer dela Paz and Jordan B. Peterson. “Bookworms versus Nerds: Exposure to Fiction versus Non-Fiction, Divergent Associations with Social Ability, and the Simulation of Fictional Social Worlds”, Journal of Research in Personality, flight. 40, 2006, p. 694-712; Rebecca Garden, “The Problem of Empathy: Medicine and the Humanities,” New Literary History, vol. 38, no. 3, “Biocultures”, p. 551-567, 2007.
[13] Suzanne Keen, “A Theory of Narrative Empathy,” Narrative, flight. 14, No. 3, 2006, p. 207-236; “Strategic Empathizing: Techniques of Bounded, Ambassadorial and Broadcast Narrative Empathy”, Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte, flight. 82, No. 3, 2008, p. 477-493, and Empathy and the Novel, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007.
[14] Giacomo Rizzolatti and Corrado Sinigaglia, mirror neuronsParis, Odile Jacob, [2006] 2011, trans. from Italian by Marilène Raiola.
[15] Jacques Hochmann, A story of empathy. Knowledge of others, concern for others, Paris, Odile Jacob, 2012, p. 11.