Private Lives, Public Display. Women and Exposure in Contemporary French Culture

Lead Research Organisation: Oxford Brookes University

Abstract

This project examines new articulations of the public / private divide and the emphasis on intimacy in French culture as these phenomena relate to women. Focusing on the politics and poetics of new models of exposure it analyses selective autofication, film, photography and conceptual art, as well as internet and televised forms, drawing out the issues raised by female-authored works in which self-revelation /voyeurism are especially pronounced. The project considers women as objects of representation and as producers of intimate / voyeuristic works. It also examines the political implications for women of the consumption of intimacy as cultural product.
 
Description I have brought to light recent developments in women's experimental life-writing in French, notably concerning the articulation of intimate subject matter.
Exploitation Route Researchers with an interest in contemporary women's writing in French, with contemporary feminism and with life-writing have engaged with my findings.
Sectors Other
 
Description 'Space, Place and Landscape: Women and Environments in Contemporary French Culture' 
Organisation Durham University
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Planning for major international conference on women and space. This ran at the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies in London (26-28 October 2006) and was co-organised with Dr Marie-Claire Barnet (University of Durham). Filmmakers Agnes Varda and Valerie Mrejen and writer Marie Darrieussecq participated in a round table discussion at the event.
Collaborator Contribution As above
Impact 1) Edited double special issue of journal L'Esprit Createur entitled 'Watch this Space: Women's Conceptualisations of Space in Contemporary French Film and Visual Art' ISSN 0014-0767 2) Edited special issue of journal Dalhousie French Studies entitled 'Space, Place and Landscape in Contemporary French Women's Writing' ISSN 0711-8813
Start Year 2006
 
Description Autour de Marie NDiaye 
Organisation Birkbeck, University of London
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Co-organisation of the first ever conference on the French author Marie NDiaye (27-28 April 2007, Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, London)
Collaborator Contribution As above
Impact Publication of edited book - Marie NDiaye: l'etrangete a l'oeuvre (ISBN: 978-2-913761-40-7
Start Year 2006