Periodic Reporting for period 1 - QUART (Mirroring the Queer: Rewritings of the Albertine Episode)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2021-09-01 do 2023-08-31
The claim to greater visibility of marginalized individuals and communities in our times continues to collide with the constant return of reactionary politics. However, the emergence of creative works that propose viable alternatives to marginalization do not only offer exceptional aesthetic experiences but also carry political and ethical implications of great merit. Alternative ethico-political discourses that emerge from within literature and the arts may contribute to more nuanced understandings of human experience, give voice to marginalized individuals or communities and enable creative works to regain their cathartic, liberalizing, pleasurable or disquieting potential. Hence the importance of QUART, a multidisciplinary project that combines research in philosophy, psychoanalysis, critical theory, queer studies, narrative theory, intermediality, and a range of artworks of different genres and media. QUART studies a cluster of recent works inspired by the character Albertine from Marcel Proust’s novel À la recherche du temps perdu. The Proustian figure evokes a surprising intertextuality across different genres, art forms and media including a poetry pamphlet and a verse novel by Anne Carson, a play by Colin Duckworth, a musical by Richard Nelson and Ricky Ian Gordon, a graphic novel by Alison Bechdel, films by Chantal Akerman and Véronique Aubouy and novels by Jacqueline Rose, Angela Carter and Hélène Cixous. This cluster of works offers a case of a cross-textual character appearing in alternative fictional worlds. At the same time, it fills the gaps of the strategic Proustian underrepresentation of Albertine in two ways: it either adapts the story in different genres and media or imagines a different destiny, ontology, pre/post history of the character. It conceptualizes her as a form of resistance at the intersection of sex, gender, race and class based on the premise that Albertine as a queer figure assumes the ethical act of taking the risk of one’s desire. She transforms the trauma of exclusion into a viable alternative realm, where values are distributed otherwise than according to the hegemonic order. The chosen artworks constitute different efforts to singularize difference. Each one of them weaves a somehow concrete outfit for Albertine in order for her not to be effaced in a general category of otherness. Rather, her transferability and her various cultural migrations cast her as a figure of queer cosmopolitanism.
QUART was methodologically organized around a two-layered, yet simultaneous, approach, that translated into two main objectives:
o To reconceptualize queerness through the different literary and artistic manifestations of Albertine.
o To study the re-writings of the Albertine episode, focusing on the analysis of works belonging to different genres and media.
QUART was methodologically organized around a two-layered, yet simultaneous, approach, that translated into two main objectives:
o To reconceptualize queerness through the different literary and artistic manifestations of Albertine.
o To study the re-writings of the Albertine episode, focusing on the analysis of works belonging to different genres and media.
QUART was divided into six work packages. Work Package 1 (WP1) concerned project management, meetings and reporting. The fellow completed the CDP and the training needs analysis that included 1) the writing of her manuscript Mirroring the Queer: Rewritings of the Albertine Episode and the Habilitation process; 2) the completion of parallel projects comprising two collaborative books (Migrating Minds. Theories and Practices of Cultural Cosmopolitanism, ed. by D. Coste, C. Kkona, N. Pireddu (Routledge 2022); Women of Horror and Speculative Fiction in Their Own Words. Conversations with Authors and Editors and Publishers, ed. By S. Doubinsky, C. Kkona (Bloomsbury, February 2024) and the co-foundation of the open access, peer-reviewed scientific journal Migrating Minds: Journal of Cultural Cosmopolitanism; 3) the participation in a workshop for an ERC grant proposal and the conception of a project for another position. The WP2 covered the research part and was chronologically divided in such a way as to indicate the duration needed for the completion of each research task. The fellow completed the articles: “Albertine in Anne Carson’s queer journeys: from Stesichoros to Proust;” “Albertine or the unknowability of the Other: Carson’s reading of Proust.” WP3 focused on the book writing with the following chapters: (a) Read Albertine as a gesture of giving voice to the other; b) Theorize Albertine as a figure of intersectionality between sex, gender, race and class; c) Queer unexpected loss; d) Reinstate Albertine’s queer status vs transposition theory. The Fellow will submit the manuscript in 2024. WP4 was dedicated to training such as MA courses, Spanish courses and workshops related to the Fellows research and career development plan. For WP5, the fellow participated in six international conferences (two forthcoming), organized two special sessions and a one-day research meeting. Public engagement was managed under WP6.
A variety of dissemination and knowledge sharing actions were planned and successfully implemented, including:
One forthcoming research paper (submitted and accepted)
One forthcoming research paper (submitted)
A forthcoming monograph
A project website, active Facebook and Twitter presence
One public presentation
One day research meeting (proceedings to be published)
Four conference presentations and two forthcoming ones
One workshop
A variety of dissemination and knowledge sharing actions were planned and successfully implemented, including:
One forthcoming research paper (submitted and accepted)
One forthcoming research paper (submitted)
A forthcoming monograph
A project website, active Facebook and Twitter presence
One public presentation
One day research meeting (proceedings to be published)
Four conference presentations and two forthcoming ones
One workshop
With its interdisciplinary and intermedial approach, this MSCA has been a significant addition to the narratological study of crosstextual characters. The study of a changeable and transposable character led to the reconceptualization of queerness as a renewable entity at the intersection of gender, sex, race and class. As a figure of defiance, antihegemonic albeit not antisocial, Albertine, despite her multiple manifestations, remains an always surprising figure inspiring a new understanding of queerness that entails a reparative potential.
The MSCA fellowship contributed greatly to the Fellow’s career development and increased considerably her chances of gaining a tenured position in France and ERA. Her academic profile has been significantly enriched by the fellowship’s training opportunities and the fellow’s research achievements. Her monograph will indisputably be a valuable addition in her CV and her HDR will give her access to the annual job openings for Full Professorships in Comparative Literature in French Universities. The Fellow could work in a French-speaking environment, share with French colleagues, present her research to French specialists and the general public and become acquainted with French pedagogical cultures, something that was missing from her previous experience. Research activities, seminar and conference participations and publication considerably increased her network in France and elsewhere. In addition, the Fellow gained significant experience in the management and implementation of scientific projects as well as a greater easiness in her communication with the wider public. The Fellow’s recent and forthcoming publications, within the context of her MSCA fellowship, are the result of a solid scientific research in queer, feminist and antiracist studies, in questions of intersectionality and cosmopolitan studies as well as the constant study of the dialogical encounters between literature, the arts and theory.
The MSCA fellowship contributed greatly to the Fellow’s career development and increased considerably her chances of gaining a tenured position in France and ERA. Her academic profile has been significantly enriched by the fellowship’s training opportunities and the fellow’s research achievements. Her monograph will indisputably be a valuable addition in her CV and her HDR will give her access to the annual job openings for Full Professorships in Comparative Literature in French Universities. The Fellow could work in a French-speaking environment, share with French colleagues, present her research to French specialists and the general public and become acquainted with French pedagogical cultures, something that was missing from her previous experience. Research activities, seminar and conference participations and publication considerably increased her network in France and elsewhere. In addition, the Fellow gained significant experience in the management and implementation of scientific projects as well as a greater easiness in her communication with the wider public. The Fellow’s recent and forthcoming publications, within the context of her MSCA fellowship, are the result of a solid scientific research in queer, feminist and antiracist studies, in questions of intersectionality and cosmopolitan studies as well as the constant study of the dialogical encounters between literature, the arts and theory.