The Sorbonne/Vanderbilt Baudelaire Conference will be held Dec. 9 and 10 in Paris and will explore the theme “Baudelaire: Translation, Criticism, Reception.”
Tracy Sharpley-Whiting, director of the W. T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies, director of African American and Diaspora studies and Distinguished Professor of French at Vanderbilt, is one of the main organizers of the conference and will welcome attendees. Yvonne Boyer, Vanderbilt librarian, will present a paper titled “The W.T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies: A Resource for Scholars.”
“After 150 years of translation and criticism, Charles Baudelaire’s work is no longer simply a classic in French literature, but a monument of world literature,” reads the conference’s call for papers. “The conference reflects on this international dimension by focusing on translations of his works and criticism traditions in Baudelaire’s studies.”
Conference papers will address the poet’s fortune in various parts of the world; the countless translations of his works; the relationships between Baudelaire’s art criticism and art history; questions of race, gender, sexuality and empire in Baudelaire’s studies; the role of Baudelairian journals (L’Année Baudelaire, the Bulletin Baudelairien, the Etudes Baudelairiennes) and research centers, especially the W. T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies; the great editing tradition of Baudelaire’s work; and the poet’s presence in education programs in France and in other countries.
Paris-Sorbonne University (Paris IV), where the conference will be held, is the main inheritor of the old Sorbonne and dates back to the 13th century. It was one of the first universities in the world and the biggest complex in France dedicated to literature, languages, civilizations, arts, humanities and social sciences. It is located on its original medieval foundations and now extends to the Latin Quarter and to other areas in Paris.
Contact: Yvonne Boyer, (615) 322-6284
yvonne.d.boyer@vanderbilt.edu