Below is a call for papers for a panel Dominique Hétu is organizing at the 2027 APFUCC Annual Conference (May 26–29, 2027, PEI, Canada): "Une communauté de brûlé·es : feu, vulnérabilité et responsabilité dans les littératures francophones contemporaines".
From intimate wounds to collective uprisings, fire occupies a powerful and ambivalent place in contemporary French and Francophone literature, particularly in women's writing and feminist, queer, and Indigenous literary imaginaries. This panel invites us to consider fire not simply as a force of destruction, but as a literary, affective, and political figure through which writers explore anger, vulnerability, trauma, resistance, care, and transformation.
The organizer is especially interested in the provocative notion of a “community of the burned” (communauté de brûlé·es): Can shared experiences of violence and vulnerability generate new forms of solidarity, or might the desire for community obscure inequalities, conflicting experiences, and the uneven distribution of harm?
The organizer would particularly welcome contributions exploring women's writing, feminist and queer literary imaginaries, representations of rage and resistance, the politics of care, and the intersections of gender, colonialism, and ecological crisis. Proposals engaging with feminist, queer, Indigenous, decolonial, and ecocritical approaches across diverse Francophone contexts are encouraged.
You can find the full call for papers here:
https://www.fabula.org/actualites/137201/colloque-annuel-de-l-apfucc-26-au-29-mai-2027-universite-de.html
Please feel free to circulate the call among colleagues and graduate students who might be interested.
