Organisatrice : Isabelle Bour

Présentation :

Version française :

On s’accorde à considérer que le roman moderne est né en Angleterre au début du XVIIIe siècle. Alors que, en ce début du XXIe siècle on parle beaucoup de « faits alternatifs » et de « post-vérité », ce colloque se propose d’examiner à nouveaux frais le lien entre « fait » et « fiction » dans l’Angleterre des Lumières, que ce soit dans la littérature, l’histoire, l’art ou le droit. Cela implique d’examiner la définition dialectique de ces notions, leur intrication, les ruses des auteurs qui ont eu recours à ces termes. Des spécialistes européens et américains tenteront de montrer toute la complexité de représentations et d’analyses dont les enjeux sont la constitution de nouvelles formes de discours.

English version :

It seems timely to look afresh at the relationship between fact and fiction, when such terms as « post-truth » and « storytelling » are frequently heard in the media and when genres called « docu-dramas » and « reality-shows » thrive.

Michael McKeon and, more recently, among others, Catherine Gallagher have maintained that fiction in eighteenth-century Britain was not a stable category but, rather, one with a history. Conceptions of fictionality shifted, correlatively altering notions of factuality. Writers of novels were aware that their texts created non-actual possible worlds, and self-consciously attended to the probability or improbability of their narratives. Historians resorted to counter-factuals in the mode of conjectural history. Methods for the study of nature, governed by rules of hypothesis or by new statistical techniques, raised questions about possible reliance on fictions. Similar challenges emerged in, for instance, the consideration of law, of crime, and of punishment.

This conference aims to build on earlier work and to advance discussion of less explored areas/aspects of the theme of fact and fiction, by furthering theoretical discussion (using narratological, cognitive, and other critical approaches) and by considering the fictionality of mainly, or supposedly, non-fictional forms such as periodical essays, works of history, legal documents, history paintings, as well as at novels. Theoretical and practical study of cross-influences will be welcome. 

Orateurs pléniers :

John Bender, Stanford University
William B. Warner, University of California Santa Barbara

Contact : Isabelle.Bour@Sorbonne-nouvelle.fr