International Transdiciplinary Colloquium
BEING 20 : THE AGE OF POSSIBILITY AND AN IMPOSSIBLE AGE?
UVSQ
December 5th and 6th, 2012
Call for Proposals
Deadline for proposals : December 5th and 6th, 2012 Problematic :
There is one point on which popular wisdom and culture both agree: from Berthe Sylva to Amel Bent, through Boris Vian, Léo Ferré and Charles Aznavour, 20 is the age to be. From the 19th century onwards, a large number of works featured heroes who were twenty years old, whereas others tried to imagine what Corneille, Molière or Victor Hugo were like at the age of twenty. And the more
“legitimate” of our cultural productions confirm this idea: both Ronsard and Sully Prudhomme, two incarnations of the « Prince of Poets”, asked themselves what it was to be young – and especially what it was to be 20 – and they were followed in this vein by other poets. In 1850, Alexandre Dumas published La Vie à vingt ans – five years after his previous work, Vingt ans après. In Aden Arabie and in La Conspiration, Paul Nizan returned to the time when he was a « hateful 20 year-old ». And in 1972, René Vautier shot his film Avoir vingt ans dans les Aurès.
20 years old, a mythical age, an age when everything seems possible : a turning-point at which you are wavering on the threshold between carefree childhood (which there is nothing to say about), adolescence (which is so alarming that it is better not to talk about it), and adulthood : the age of rueful compromise.
20 years is also an anniversary to celebrate, a time to look back over reigns, institutions,
journals, with retrospectives and reviews. Here, we may remember the article “Vingt ans après” by Lucien Febvre, introducing the first issue of the journal Les Annales in 1949, or the two special issues of the journal Le Débat, produced for its twentieth anniversary. It is a time to go back to events and commemorate them : thus, it was 20 years after Napoleon’s death that his ashes were brought back to France. And it was in 1965 that May 8th was decreed a public holiday in France, to commemorate the victory over Nazi Germany.
However, when you think about it, nobody is ever really 20. Of course, it’s one of the steps on the “age pyramid”, but not a more important one than any other age. It is the age of conscription, of course, but an age on paper, an idealised age, the reality of which is variable. It’s a mathematical milestone which carries no particular significance, situated somewhere between the 18 years of the baccalauréat and the driving licence, and the age of 21 - which was, for many years, the age of adulthood and the right to vote. It meant nothing, for example, to the young women in France who wore “Saint Catherine’s bonnets” to show that they were still single at 25. It isn’t a jubilee (25 years), nor does it refer to any economic timespan, either prospective or retrospective, as these cycles tend to be counted in 4-year, 5-year, 10-year or 30-year periods. And as for wedding anniversaries: well, who celebrates their “Porcelain Wedding” ?
Moreover, when you look closely, very few fictional heroes, whether in literature or in films (they are often the same ones), are exactly 20 years old. When Lamartine wrote Raphaël, pages de la vingtième année, his hero was 24. Félix de Vandenesse is “over 20” when Balzac has him meet Madame de Mortsauf. Cécile in Bonjour Tristesse is 17, like James Dean in Rebel without a Cause ; Frédéric Moreau embarked on his Sentimental Education when he was 18 ; the heroes of Le Blé en herbe and Le Diable au corps were 16. So, Bildungsroman heroes have been 20 for some time, whereas adolescent literary heroes are 20 before their time. Nizan is no exception : his heroes are aged between 20 and 24.
« Being 20 » would therefore appear to be a mythical age, a social construction. A convenient but arbitrary vantage point from which to look back over « youth ». Young heroes are 20 ; shooting- stars and prodigies are 20 (Radiguet, Rimbaud, Sagan).
To celebrate the 20 years of existence of the CHCSC, we propose to examine, in this colloquium, this myth and its representations, in a multi-disciplinary approach.
Here are a few possible lines of inquiry :
When did the age of 20 become established as a mythical age ? How has this mythology evolved over the years and in diffierent cultural areas?
What literary, pictural, cinematographic and televisual works reflect this fascination for the age of 20 ?
How is this “mythology of being 20” used in the publishing world, either from the point of view of creation (literary prodigies) or that of reception (books aimed at an audience of “young adults”) ?
What use has been made of it in politics? What reviews and commemorations have celebrated the
“20 years” of something ?
Are there any areas in which this fascination for the age of 20 is not operational ? Organising comittee :
Corinne François-Denève, MCF, 19th-20th French Literature, CHCSC-UVSQ.
Jean-Charles Geslot, PRAG, Modern French History, CHCSC-UVSQ.
Scientific comittee:
Ludivine Bantigny, MCF, Université de Rouen (Modern French History).
Philippe Chardin, PR, Université de Tours (Comparative Literature).
Corinne François-Denève, MCF, UVSQ (French Literature).
Jean-Charles Geslot, PRAG, UVSQ (Modern French History).
Françoise Hache-Bissette, MCF HDR, Université Paris Descartes (Information & Communication Studies).
Jean-Yves Mollier, PR, UVSQ (Modern French History).
Elizabeth Rallo-Ditche, PR, Université de Provence (Comparative Literature).
Jean-Claude Yon, MCF HDR, UVSQ (Modern French History).
The proposals :
Deadline for proposals : September 7th 2012.
Proposals (title + 300 words summary) to be sent to:
corinne.francois-deneve@uvsq.fr and jean-charles.geslot@uvsq.fr
The organising committee will examine all the proposals and inform of its decisions before September 15th.
