Call for Papers: Worlding Francophone/graph. Literary and Artistic Modes of (Non)belonging

Call for Papers deadline: 26 March 2026

Conference date: 8-9 June 2026

Confirmed Keynote Speakers: 

Prof. Charles Forsdick, University of Cambridge

Prof. Natalie Edwards, University of Bristol 

8-9th June 2026, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Reflecting on reading world literature, Rebecca Walkowitz suggests that “instead of asking where or in what language a work of literature belongs, we need to ask how it belongs” (ACLA State of the Discipline Report 2015). This shift in perspective foregrounds questions of affiliation rather than origin, and of relational rather than prescriptive or deterministic modes of belonging. It also invites critical reflection on how interpretative practices themselves construct or contest belonging. While Walkowitz primarily focuses on global anglophone contexts, similar questions have also been raised within francophone scholarly arenas. In fact, advocates and critics of littérature-monde, as well as proponents of “French Global” and Transnational French Studies, have debated along such lines of enquiry for nearly two decades. How might a “world literature in French” function as a site of negotiations between the universal and the particular, the cosmopolitan and the vernacular? What leads us to read certain texts and images as part of a francophone cultural space? And how do such artworks participate in the (re)making of francophone worlds? 

Taking such questions as its point of departure, this conference explores modes of (non)belonging in contemporary and historical literary and artistic production, with particular emphasis on multilingual or multimodal practices in the francosphere. By focusing on “(non)belonging”, it seeks to highlight writers’ and artists’ different and sometimes aporetic attitudes to French linguistic and cultural articulations of identity, while also encouraging attention to creative practices that resist, complicate, or unsettle established models of linguistic, national, or cultural belonging.

The conference brings into dialogue two interconnected strands of ongoing critical enquiry in French and Francophone Studies: on the one hand, the French language-focused approach to literary and artistic works, their aesthetics, material forms, and political stakes; on the other, conceptual debates on world literature and related artistic works. Over the past decades, this intersection has been central to the emergence of transnational, multilingual, and planetary approaches that have reshaped the field. More recent discussions around the “worlding” of modern languages have emphasized the need for comparative perspectives that move across and between language areas, drawing attention to forms of cultural production that do not align neatly with the language-based categories continuing to structure academic disciplines and institutional constellations.

With the coinage “francophone/graph”, we aim to highlight the linguistic and creative tension between sound and image, reflecting the multilingual speaker’s multimodal relationship with languages and composite identities. Moreover, the conference seeks to conceptually expand on the “francograph” further: 1) in a spatial direction, i.e. the problematic geopolitical mapping of, or cartographic approaches to, the francophone; 2) in a visual direction, i.e. the representation, reimagining, and reconfiguration of francophone spaces and identities through fictional and artistic practices that engage with visual media (e.g. calligraphy, photography, graffiti, and graphic novels). In order to think this through, contributors may wish to draw on different ideas of “worlding” (Heidegger, Spivak, Derrida, Pheng Cheah, etc.): literature and art as worlds in themselves; the world-making power of literature and art; the unifying and opening process of temporalization through literature and art beyond cartography; or, conversely, European imperialist cultural construction of colonial geographies and imaginaries.

The above orientations are non-exhaustive, and we welcome papers that approach the topic from a variety of perspectives and materials, exploring modes of belonging and non-belonging in relation to francophone/graphic worlds.

Submissions

We warmly invite colleagues at any career stage to submit an abstract of no more than 250 words, along with a short bio, by 23rd March 2026. Abstracts may be submitted in English or French.

There is no conference registration fee; catering and the conference dinner will be provided free of charge. However, participants would be expected to cover their own travel and accommodation expenses. 

Submissions should be sent by email to all three conference organisers: [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]. 

Organisers 

Alice Duhan, University of Gothenburg 

Shuangyi Li, University of Bristol 

Cajsa Zerhouni, University of Gothenburg