Ambiences and contemporary literature: Climate representations, issues and challenges

Study day co-organized by Adina Balint (University of Winnipeg - Canada - Researcher in residence at Maison Suger) and Sara Buekens (University of Brussel - Belgium), in collaboration with Maison Suger and the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme.

How to define “ambiance” in literature? This study day brings together literary researchers from Belgium, Canada, France and the United States, in conversation with philosopher Bruce Bégout and writers Marc Graciano and David Rochefort, to explore the question of atmosphere in contemporary literature. 

While ambiances catalyze a variety of themes and narrative and poetic forms, we propose to reflect on the potential of this notion to renew literary writing today. The discussions will include a presentation of the collective work Les ambiances dans les littératures de langue française du XIX^e siècle à aujourd'hui (Presses de l'Université Laval, 2024), co-edited by Adina Balint and Sara Buekens, and two talks with the philosopher and guest writers.

2:15pm -  2:30pm Welcoming remarks

• Gwenaëlle Léonus-Lieppe, Director, Maison Suger
• David Rochefort, Vice-Chairman, Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris

2:30pm - 3:45pm Ambiences in literature and philosophy

• Discussion with philosopher and theorist Bruce Bégout and writer and researcher David Rochefort

3:45pm - 4:15pm Ambiances and literature

Presentation of the collective work Les ambiances dans les littératures de langue française du XIX^e siècle à aujourd'hui (Presses de l'Université Laval, 2024) by co-directors Adina Balint, University of Winnipeg, Canada and Sara Buekens, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.

4:45pm - 5:15pm Aube Leblond, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle

• “Reading atmospheres: towards a critical marvel?”

5:15pm - 5:45pm Claire Massy-Paoli, Princeton University, USA

• “Minimalisms from Saab to whale: the omnipresent music of Christian Gailly and John Cage”.

6pm - 7pm Ambiences in the work of Marc Graciano

• Rencontre-causerie with writer Marc Graciano and researcher Aline Lebel, Université de Poitiers

Bruce Bégout is a philosopher, theorist and professor at Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux 3. His publications include Le concept d'ambiance (Seuil, 2020), De la décence ordinaire (Allia, 2008) and La découverte du quotidien (Allia, 2005). His books are available on leslibraires.ca. His essay La pensée mersive. De l'ambiance à l'affinité will be published by Presses Universitaires de France on May 14, 2025.

Marc Graciano is a French-language writer. Since 2013, he has been building a body of work already regarded by many critics and authors as exceptional: Liberté dans la montagne, Une forêt profonde et bleue, Au pays de la fille électrique, Enfant-pluie, Le Sacret, Embrasse l'ours (titles published by José Corti), Le Soufi (Le Cadran ligné), Johanne, Graciano & Co, Shamane, Noirlac, Le Tombeau and Les Pairons (Le Tripode).

David Rochefort is a writer and researcher. He is Vice-Chairman of the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris. His novels include Ce pays secret (Gallimard, 2023), Nous qui restons vivants (Gallimard, 2019) and Le point de Schelling (Gallimard, 2017). His books are available on leslibraires.ca.

Adina Balint is a full professor at the University of Winnipeg, Canada. Her research focuses on twentieth- and twenty-first-century French literature, particularly its relationship to philosophy and theories of ordinary life, everyday life and the creative process. Her publications include: Le Processus de création dans l'œuvre de J.M.G. Le Clézio (Brill, 2016), Imaginaires et représentations littéraires de la mobilité (Peter Lang, 2020) and Les ambiances dans les littératures de langue française du XIX^e siècle à aujourd'hui (Presses de l'Université Laval, 2024, co-directed by Sara Buekens).

Sara Buekens is Assistant Professor of French Literature at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. Her research focuses on the representation of nature and ecological issues in Francophone African literature. Recent publications include Émergence d'une littérature environnementale (Droz, 2020), Animal et animalité (Classiques Garnier, 2022, co-directed by Julien Defraeye) and Les ambiances dans les littératures de langue française du XIX^e siècle à aujourd'hui (Presses de l'Université Laval, 2024, co-directed by Adina Balint). She is editor-in-chief of the Revue critique de fixxion française contemporaine.

Aline Lebel has a PhD in comparative literature and is an ATER at the University of Poitiers. Her research interests lie in the field of literature and ethics, which has developed over the past thirty years on both sides of the Atlantic, at the crossroads of literary analysis, the history of sensibilities and ethical philosophy. Her work questions the uses of moral shock in literary works, based on a reflection on the notion of the “intolerable”.

Aude Leblond is a lecturer at Sorbonne Nouvelle University and a member of UMR 7172 THALIM. She dedicated “Sur un monde en ruine”: esthétique du roman-fleuve to the aesthetics of monster works from the 1930s, from Romain Rolland to Martin du Gard. She directed the “ANR Chapitres” project from 2016 to 2020. She is interested in reading theory, the question of novel memories, and the methods of sociology, cognitive psychology and digital humanities applied to literature.

Claire Massy-Paoli is a PhD student in French literature at Princeton University (USA), having studied literature and philosophy at the Sorbonne and the École Normale Supérieure de la rue d'Ulm. Taking a theoretical approach, she is interested in contemporary literary issues and the links between literature and the performing arts (music and dance). Putting interdisciplinarity at the heart of her work, her research has focused in particular on the works of Marcel Proust and Christian Gailly, at the two poles of the 20th century. Alongside her research activities, she frequently publishes literary and music reviews (French correspondent for the Metropolitan Opera in New York).