A New 'Feminist' Novel? Popular Narratives and the Pleasures of Reading

Keynote Speakers
Serena Todesco (Literary Translator and Independent Researcher in Italian Literature & Gender Studies): 'A Ferrantean Legacy? Contemporary Italian Women's Narratives, or How to Turn Literary Feminism into "Pleasure"'
Agnès Martin-Lugand (French novelist): Reading and Conversation from/on her work. 
Agnès Martin-Lugand is the author of ten successful novels which have been translated into thirty-four languages (https://agnesmartinlugand.fr/)

Organisers: Adalgisa Giorgio (Bath) and Sandra Daroczi (Bath)

This cross-cultural conference takes its cue from the recent popularity of a number of novels focusing on women by authors from around the world, for example, Elena Ferrante’s quartet L'amica geniale, Agnès Martin-Lugand's Les gens heureux lisent et boivent du café, Anna Gavalda’s Ensemble c’est tout, Tatiana de Rosnay’s Elle s’appelait Sarah, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments, Madeline Miller’s Circe, and Rosa Montero’s La carne. The popularity of these novels has been increased by their translations into many languages and their transfer to cinema and the small screen, pointing to their relevance to women’s lives around the globe and sensitizing audiences to old and new feminist issues. The aim of the conference is to explore the recent ‘return to the story’ and the tensions that follow, thus working towards a theorization of the pleasures of reading. The focus is both on the textual and authorial control of the reading process and the readerly power over the text. 

Download the Programme (pdf)

Abstracts and Bios (pdf)