From tweets and Facebook updates to Snapchats and Instagram selfies, our generation is preoccupied with sharing, speaking out and showing off. When we update our social media timelines, or like and share updates of our friends and peers, we are creating narratives, telling stories or contributing to the storytelling efforts of others.
What are the implications of these acutely contemporary forms of narrative and the ways we use them? What are the relationships of these forms to more traditional storytelling forms such as the novel and the memoir? What are the literary, social and ethical ramifications of telling stories in the twenty-first century?
To discuss these questions, and others, AUP is delighted to be welcoming the critically acclaimed writer Édouard Louis to join a panel discussion. At the age of 23, Louis is fast becoming a respected member of the French intellectual community. His first novel, The End of Eddy (published in French in 2014 and to appear in English early in 2017) relates his experiences growing up in the north of France and explores gender, identity and class. His second novel, Histoire de la violence (2016), is equally inspired by personal experience and explores rape, violence and the latter’s role in society.
Louis will be joined by AUP professor Hannah Westley (Global Communications). Her current research considers the consequences of new media for the genre of autobiography and self-writing, with a particular interest in how online identities interact with traditional means of self-representation and how this affects the ways in which narrative and subjectivity are understood. Most recently, Professor Westley has been researching how the ‘selfie’ helps us think about narrative.
The event (which takes place in English) will be chaired by Russell Williams (Comparative Literature and English, AUP). His research focuses primarily on the contemporary French novel. He is also particularly interested in how we use social media and its relationship to more traditional literary forms.
This panel discussion is organised by the AUP department of Comparative Literature and English with the support of the Centre for Writers and Translators and the Global Communications department.
The event is open to all. Those looking to attend from outside the AUP community must register in advance by contacting rwilliams
aup.edu. Room C-104 is located in the AUP Combes building at 6, rue du Colonel Combes, 75007 Paris.
For further information, or to register, please contact Russell Williams at rwilliamsaup.edu.