In the collective imagination Louis-Sebastien Mercier’s name remains inextricably linked to his utopia The Year 2440 (‘L’an 2440’). Mercier was, however, much more than a novelist and deserves to be re-examined as such. The purpose of this workshop is to shed light on lesser known aspects of his work and legacy and to rediscover him as a versatile and forward-thinking public intellectual grappling with the key issues of his time whether literary, metaphorical, historiographical, political, material or even urban. Through his understanding of the power of writing, Mercier reflected on his own place in time and literary posterity. His gaze entailed a careful manipulation of the representations and metaphors of his time as well as his own meticulous self-fashioning. It was simultaneously inward as well as outward-looking. Crucially, Mercier was a ‘physionomiste’ who plumbed the materiality of his time and the depths of language equally. His reflections on language would culminate with his 1801 publication of his Néologie. He also remained until the end of his life a reform-minded urban thinker who was one of the first to engage with cultural practiced and conceptual spaces at the heart of the city.
Convenor: Audrey Borowski (Queens, Oxford)
Programme :
9.15: tea and coffee
9.20: welcome Audrey Borowski and Marie Thébaud-Sorger (MFO/CNRS)
I. Chair: Jean-Alexandre Perras (Jesus College, Oxford)
9.30-10.15: Jessica Goodman (St Catherine, Oxford) ‘‘Je revais que j’étais mort’: Projections of Posterity in L’An 2440 and other texts’
10.15-11:00: Jessica Stacey (Queens’ College, Oxford) ‘Mercier’s bras de fer: the writer as superhero’
11.00-11.15: tea and coffee break
11.15-12.00: Olivier Ritz (Université Paris-Diderot) ‘L’historiographe et le physionomiste: la fortune éditoriale du Nouveau Paris’
12.00-12.30: lunch
II. Chair: Caroline Warman (Jesus College, Oxford)
12.30-13.15: Jean-Claude Bonnet (Université Paris-Sorbonne) ‘Mercier néologue’
13.15-13.45: Marie Thebaud-Sorger (MFO/CNRS): ‘Materialites et histoire chez Louis-Sebastien Mercier’
13.45-14.45 Final discussion
