Reading Mary Wilkins Freeman Anew: Race and Queer Ecologies

Chères et chers collègues,

Le European Study Group of Nineteenth-Century American Literature se réunit cette année à Paris pour travailler sur l’écrivaine américaine Mary Wilkins Freeman (1852-1930) à l’Université Paris Cité, les 30 septembre et 1er octobre prochain.
Ce colloque international se penchera sur deux de ses textes les moins connus : sa pièce de théâtre, Giles Corey, A Yeoman (1893) et son recueil de nouvelles, Understudies (1901). Les deux journées s’organiseront autour de communications et de moments de discussion (programme ci-dessous). Nous aurons l’honneur de recevoir Samaine Lockwood, de George Mason University, pour sa conférence plénière sur Giles Corey : « Colonial Past, White Feminist Future: Mary Wilkins Freeman’s Giles Corey, Yeoman. »

Toutes les informations relatives à ce colloque sont disponibles sur le site : https://freemaninparis.weebly.com/

Toutes les interventions auront lieu en présentiel, mais si vous souhaitez assister à ce colloque à distance, un lien zoom sera disponible. Si vous souhaitez suivre ces échanges en distanciel, veuillez écrire à Emma Thiébaut et Lise Chenal (emmathiebaut ; lisedesiree.chenal).

Hannah Champion, Cécile Roudeau et Pauline Pilote.

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The European Study Group of Nineteenth-Century American Literature will hold its annual meeting “Freeman in Paris” at Université Paris Cité, from September 30 to October 1, 2022.
The study group convenes each year in a different European country to discuss (formally and informally) little known nineteenth-century texts with a view to expanding our perspective on 19th US literature. The study group finds its strength in its mix of European scholars from different backgrounds and at various stages in their careers. The format allows for various approaches, from academic papers, group discussions, and interventions from Master students across different universities (this year: Université Paris Cité, Université Bretagne Sud, and Université Bordeaux Montaigne).
This year the group will step into Mary Wilkins Freeman’s world of New England against the backdrop of Paris, a city she visited. The focus will be on race and queer ecologies and we will be reading two of Freeman’s lesser studied works: her play, Giles Corey, a Yeoman, and Understudies, a 1901 collection of stories.

Programme :

Friday, September 30 2022: 14.00-19.30

13.30: Welcome and coffee

14 – 14.15: Introduction: Hannah Champion (Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle), Pauline Pilote (Université de Bretagne-Sud), Cécile Roudeau (Université Paris Cité)

14.15 – 15.15: Keynote: J. Samaine Lockwood (George Mason University)
Colonial Past, White Feminist Future: Mary Wilkins Freeman’s Giles Corey, Yeoman.

15.15 – 15.45: Coffee Break

15.45 – 17.15 Panel One
Ralph Poole (Universität Salzburg) Mary Wilkins Freeman’s Understudies and the Queer Art of Failure
Emma Thiébaut (Université Paris Cité) About “The Cat”: Feline America and the Humanimal Temporality of Domestication
Ilka Saal (Universität Erfurt) “Miss Wilkins . . . cannot always be trusted:” The Queer Poetics of Giles Corey, Yeoman

17.15 – 17.30: Coffee Break

17.30 – 19.30: Group discussion of Giles Corey, Yeoman

19.45: Dinner (Le Débonnaire, 107 Rue du Chevaleret)

Saturday, October 1 2022: 9.30-13.20

8.30: Welcome and Coffee

9.00 – 9.45 Student Presentations
Nathalie Lavigne (Université Bordeaux Montaigne) Crown Symbolism in Understudies: The Path to Holiness
Alycia Garbay (Université Bordeaux Montaigne) Nature and marginal beings: between oppression and liberation
Venaïg Danhier (Université de Bretagne-Sud) Women’s rebellious passivity through the motif of the flower in “Peony,” “Arethusa,” and “Bouncing Bet.”

9.45 – 11.15 Panel Two
Stephanie Palmer (Nottingham Trent University) Freeman and Some European Contemporaries: A Way In
Jelena Šesnić (University of Zagreb) A Neo-Darwinist Reading of Freeman’s “The Monkey”
Stéphanie Durrans (Université Bordeaux Montaigne) “Mary Wilkins Freeman’s “House of Rumor”: Voices, Sounds, and Cries in Understudies

11.15 – 11.30 Coffee Break

11.30 – 13.00 Panel Three
Antonia Purk (Universität Erfurt) The Cat, the Monkey, and Societal Outsiders. Mary Wilkins Freeman’s Animal Stories.
Aušra Paulauskienė (LCC International University) From a Symbol to a Soulmate: Animals in “A New England Nun” and “The Parrot”
Verena Laschinger (Universität Erfurt) “mosquito against the solar system”: The (In-)Significance of Mary Wilkins Freeman’s Understudies

13.00 – 14.00: Lunch + Planning for 2023

14.00 – 17.00: Women Writers of the Left Bank Tour
(meeting point: 14.00 METRO C Bibliothèque François Mitterrand)

Pauline Pilote
Maîtresse de conférences en littérature anglophone
Associate Professor in British and American Literature
Directrice du Master MEEF – PLC Anglais
Directrice d’études L2 – L3 LLCER Anglais
Université Bretagne-Sud (Lorient)
UFR LLSHS – Laboratoire HCTI