Round Tables > Cultural Studies/Civilization

VISUAL AND SCENIC ARTS: CULTURAL EPISTEMOLOGIES IN QUESTION

Thursday, September 23rd, 2:30pm-4:30pm

Fondation des États-Unis, salle polyvalente

Organization : Xavier Lemoine (LISAA – Université Gustave Eiffel), Emmanuel Vincenot (LISAA – Université Gustave Eiffel)

Speakers : Andrea Cabezas Vargas (3L.AM – Université d’Angers), Émeline Jouve (Université Jean-Jaurès), Joaquín Manzi (CRIMIC – Sorbonne Université), David Roche (Université Paul-Valéry)

Presentation : How can we best grasp the artistic objects that feed the cultural dimension of research into American civilizations? Cultural studies allow us to tackle what is usually considered as peripheral to societal questions by focusing on practices at the border between the social and the artistic through multiple manifestations based on representation. The representational dimension of cultural studies is what this round table especially wants to explore, through the prism of scene and screens. Indeed, many fields of study which mobilize these mediums have come to shake up the practices and theories of cultural studies to better highlight the complexity of research today. Thus, Performance Studies or more recently Game Studies have spread from the North to the South to question our limited understanding of scenic practices or relations to the screens, thanks to multidisciplinary analyses. Theater has frequently been overwhelmed by the highlighting of artistic interventions which blurred interpretative norms, decompartmentalizing shows and promoting knowledge circulation (Act Up performances, aesthetic of the bodies, production of performative effects, etc.). 

If research stays based on the principle of producing new ways of apprehending and of understanding the world, the round table will question in which way this « discovery » and these constructions work today. The effervescence of the works carried out in the Americas is noticeable and the necessity to cross the Anglophone, Spanish and Portu- guese-speakers’ perspectives must be asserted in a world that is certainly more open (or globalized) but also often distorted by simplifications leading to misunderstanding. The political closure in some countries, from Bolsonaro to Trump, is an undeniable sign of such misunderstanding, and highlights the challenge of multidisciplinary reflections and the urgency to maintain a critical future for cultural studies. The Americanists’ contribution and the cross-lighting of their methodologies take all their importance in their capacity to overcome the ambiguities and broaden the epistemological nuances of contemporary scientific discourses. The confrontation of practices and knowledge in different geographical areas could stimulate a better inclusion of the complexity of artistic creations and the growing imbrication of conditions of production. Thus, transmedial approaches (particularly between cinema, TV series and scene, for example in the cultural universe of the USA) illustrate to what extent the conceptualization of visual and scenic arts always must be reconfigured in the academic expertise. 

In this round table the participants will be able to discuss the theorical paradigms and the practical actions within representational fields in the Americanists’ contemporary research. Sharing experiences of different disciplines will be the occa- sion to confront issues and to highlight contact zones. For example, the Caribbean offers a rich interstitial space which nurtures multifocal views. What do artists’ experiences in Porto Rico mean, as they question the status of the island in a double postcolonial context determined by US domination in a Hispanic culture? More generally, in which way dialogues and silences nurture the scientific issues of cultural studies between North American and South American practices (for example through Diana Taylor’s « Hemispheric Institute »)? All these questions will be addressed thanks to the guests’ individual presentations on these topics and their field of expertise. The organizers of the round table will be moderators, introducing participants and leading a discussion with the public.

With the support of the LISAA EA4120