Controversies and disputes were important modes of intellectual exchange in early modern societies. Pamphlet wars, controversies, confrontations and debates fashioned the discourses of knowledge and creation across many disciplines ( belles lettres , arts, sciences, technical know-how, religion…). This spirit of belligerence is echoed in the theatre and in performance arts, from Shakespeare’s battle of words and insults and Marivaux’s disputes to the aesthetic controversies over the plays of Corneille. We invite scholars and dramatic artists alike to study the notion of theatrical disputes, and more particularly the climactic scenes of conflict that structured and channelled dramatic creation. We hope to thus reflect more broadly on the relationship between conflict and dramaturgy in early modern French and British theatre.

This conference-festival is part of an ANR-AGON project on disputes (“ Early modern disputes: cases, quarrels, controversies, and creation ”) and a continuation of  conference-festivals, starting with “Recognition scenes in 16th-18th c. French and British theatre” at the IRCL in Montpellier. The papers will published in the new peer-reviewed online journal Arrêt sur Scènes / Scene  Focus, along with podcasts of the performances.

Both academic discussion and live performance are welcome. Presentations will be in the form of either 20-minute talks or live performances, including but not limited to theoretical or historical reflections; case studies; live performance of plays or scenes; contemporary adaptations of works that explore the theory of quarrel scenes. Performances of quarrels and representations that include dance and opera may be submitted, but other projects are also possible: research on performance, personal productions, readings, bilingual productions, reenactments of controversies, debates involving the audience…

Types of disputes

Conflict on stage takes many forms: agonistic soliloquies; feuds between individuals or groups of people; elaborate battles based on plural mechanisms.

In fiction, the causes of a quarrel tend to fall into only a few categories. Many plays and fairy tales are based on a conflict between parents and children, lovers, or friends. Beyond the personal conflicts, and often fed by them, are ideological and political antagonisms that may spread to the audience (such as in the case of public “battles” that followed certain plays).

How do these quarrels unfold, and get resolved? The linguistic, pragmatic and rhetorical study of the various modes of resolution deserve attention, whether they are verbal exchanges (insults, invectives, or slanders), attempts to convince or discredit, calls to an outside referee, acts to eliminate the enemy, consensus building, or the absence of resolution through denial, stifling, or misunderstanding. 

Contributors are invited to reflect on the non-restrictive list of themes below:

Forms of conflict on stage

Is there a theory of stage conflict? Are there specific codes for performing quarrels? Is it possible to conceptualize national specificities and/or evolutions from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment? Questions along this line include, but are certainly not limited to:

• Who are the agents of stage conflict? (through dialogue/agonistic monologue; friends; lovers; generational conflict…)

• What are the signs of stage quarrels? (insults and name-calling, violence and duels, outburst of passions…)

• How do the arguments unfold? What triggers them (conflicts of values/interest)? Are they resolved or do they escalate into violence? What are the ways of acting out, of denial, censorship and self-censorship, of misunderstanding…

Modes of stage conflict:

Scenes may be presented to show the dramatic implications of quarrels and their function within the plot and final resolution. Other areas of exploration may include:

• the theatricality of disputes, dialogue and dialogism in quarrels, acting techniques; emotional language; bodily performance.

• the space of quarrels — their staging and the space occupied within the plot.

• the circulation of quarrel scenes from one play to another, through parody, adaptation, rewriting and translation.

Reasons for stage quarrels:

Further analysis on the repercussions of disputes is welcome:

• What political and ideological antagonisms might affect the audience?

• How did stage conflict echo the social, political and scientific conflicts of the time? How did the fictional dramatisation of real conflicts affect the values behind them? Was stage conflict influenced by periods of great political tension in French and British early modern societies?

• What is the link between the aesthetic quarrels and their political and institutional implications? How were the theatre disputes represented in the theatre? How did these aesthetic and political quarrels affect the work and its reception?

Deadline for proposals: June, 30, 2013(technical details should be provided in September 2014).

Two-paragraph (or 200-word) (or one-page) Proposals should be sent to both Sophie Vasset sophie.vasset@univ-paris-diderot.fr and Jeanne-Marie Hostiou jeannehostiou@yahoo.fr.

Scientific Committee: Comité scientifique : Alain Viala (ANR Agon, Oxford University) ; Natalie Vienne-Guérin (IRCL, Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier) ; Laetitia Coussement (Université Paris-Diderot) ; Daniel Mesguich (CNSAD).