This paper examines Philip Glass's soundtrack for The Thin Blue Line, a "nonfiction film noir" directed by Errol Morris in 1988. The film, which focuses on the trial of Randall Adams, accused of murdering a police officer in Dallas in 1976, had a tangible impact on the real world, as it led to Adams's acquittal and the identification of the real murderer, David Harris. The film also plays with the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction, departing from the conventions of cin & eacute;ma v & eacute;rit & eacute; and the more observational types of documentaries in a number of ways. The soundtrack, composed by Philip Glass, who belongs to the minimal/repetitive music movement, is almost ubiquitous and seemingly runs counter to the film's purpose, which is to show the protagonist's innocence. Through musicological analysis, this paper demonstrates, on the contrary, that Glass's music helps to flesh out the film's abstract argument thanks, precisely, to its nonrepresentational, non-narrative, minimalist and repetitive nature, which makes it an essential element of the documentary voice.
This article analyzes the various principles that drive King Richard III's bloodthirsty ambitions, based on Guillaume Severac-Schmitz's adaptation of Clement Camar-Mercier's translation. The originality of this stage production lies in its emphasis on Richard III's physical deformities, which gradually worsen to give rise to a new Frankenstein who questions his narcissistic wound.
Toni Morrison's fourth novel, Tar Baby (1981), is a rewriting of the folktale by the same title brought to the Americas with the arrival of enslaved populations. If this story became famous in the United States with the work of Joel Chandler Harris, a white man, Morrison's novel reappropriates it, retelling the original tale of how a rabbit manages to manipulate its captor after falling into its trap. In Tar Baby, Morrison replaces the rabbit and the tar baby with Jadine and Fils, two African Americans who, throughout their love story on the imaginary Caribbean island of Isle des Chevaliers, go from trickster to tar baby and back again. These constant changes lead to ambivalence and instability, thus mimicking the multitude of oral versions in a way that at times confuses the reader, ensuring that the diegesis resists interpretation. Furthermore, Morrison creates a truly hybrid narrative, a text in which biblical and folkloric references work together to produce a representation of digenesis, a source of the "unhomely" in the novel.
This article examines the representation of gender norms in US slave narratives between 1825 and 1861, asking whether male narratives can reveal the experiences of enslaved women. Slave narratives, while valuable for understanding the slave experience, tend to reinforce Victorian gender norms. They present enslaved women as passive victims to elicit empathy and support from white readers, masking more authentic representations of enslaved women. By contrasting the narratives of Frederick Douglass, Henry Bibb, and William Wells Brown with those of Sojourner Truth and Harriet Jacobs, this article sheds light on an alternative gender perception under slavery. Textual analysis of these narratives shows how hegemonic gender norms are used as rhetorical tools in the abolitionist struggle, and how less normative female representations emerge despite these constraints.
The first half of the 20th century in the United States witnessed a burgeoning enthusiasm for documentary narratives, driven by a literary and political theorization that championed "literatures of the real." This article explores the narrativization of documentary inquiry in the 1930s fiction of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and Sanora Babb's Whose Names are Unknown, two pioneering works that foreshadow the "New Journalism" movement. The interplay between fact and fiction shapes these novels through features such as structural fragmentation, metadiscourse, a documentary ethos, justificatory frameworks, and narrative techniques reminiscent of the thesis novel. These elements invite a reexamination of the referential pact proposed by the texts and challenge conventional notions of fiction's transitivity.
This article offers a critical reflection on creative writing through practice-based research and more specifically through the art of investigation. My dissertation examines the migration of Jews from Galicia to New York at the turn of the 20th century, through the works of Anzia Yezierska, Henry Roth, and Philip Roth. Alongside this academic research, I am writing a novel that investigates my own family history within the same migratory wave. This dual approach allows for an exploration of the tensions between fiction and non-fiction and how it affects our relationship to reality. Through this self-reflexive practice, I develop a concept I call invescriture: a form of writing that emerges from investigation, situated at the crossroads of life writing, literary analysis, and documentary research. Rather than attempting to reconstruct a fixed truth, I embrace the instability of facts, the silences of the archive, and the imaginative act as a means of understanding. The first-person voice thus becomes a central methodological tool, both as subject and object of the inquiry. By outlining the features of invescriture, I propose an autofictional pact in which literature, as a performative force, engages with and reshapes reality. Embracing the hybrid form of my work also allows me to explore new comparative literary perspectives.
La Compagnie Sandrine Anglade a réalisé une mise en scène de La Tempête de William Shakespeare axée sur la magie des sons, en prenant soin d’inclure huit morceaux de musique baroque pour voix, accordéon et guitare. L’accent est mis à la fois sur l’action centrale et sur les actions qui se déroulent en périphérie, afin de respecter les conventions du théâtre élisabéthain. La superposition des destins des personnages fait écho à une stratification des influences artistiques qui font référence aux grands succès de la musique populaire britannique des années 80, et notamment aux figures emblématiques que sont Kate Bush et Annie Lennox.
This article examines the recent Frankfurt Opera production of Harrison Birtwistle’s Punch and Judy as a staging of violence and its symbolic transformations. Through a detailed analysis of the scenography, it argues that the production builds a network of visual and conceptual parallels linking bodily violence, ritual sacrifice, religion, and sexuality. Particular attention is given to the suspension of ordinary time, the fragmentation of scenic space, and the blurred boundary between human performers and puppetry. The staging reactivates the opera’s unsettling interplay of burlesque and brutality, revealing Punch and Judy as a work that raises questions about the theatrical and aesthetic approaches to violence and the vision of humanity that emerges in the work.
This article sets out to explore the different representations of border-crossing scenes in early 21st century American neo-Westerns. The US-Mexico border, defined by Anzald & uacute;a as a "Frontera" becomes a "borderscape" (dell'Agnese) which allows moviemakers to explore the legacy of the Frontier. In recent neo-Westerns about border crossings, we notice a logical continuity with the themes of the post-Westerns (Westerns that interrogate the value of a unique, historical and mythic West). But while post-Westerns debunk historiographic myths about the Frontier and the genre, neo-Westerns focus on the pragmatic consequences of the myth on the territories and the ways of life of their inhabitants (Campbell, French). Although Mexican-American diplomatic relationships have regularly been tense, Mexico's gradual economic dependency on the drug industry in the 1990s led to further scrutiny of border dynamics. After 9/11 and the renewal of the War on Drugs, the southern border became not only a delimitation with the figure of the Other, but also a transformative space that mirrors American anxieties about their own violence and imperialism (Fojas). Border crossing from both sides remains an important trope in recent neo-Westerns, but it has vastly different outcomes and purposes. What frame of reference does Hollywood employ when depicting Mexico in contemporary America? This article will focus on border-crossing scenes from the US to Mexico and/or representations of the border in Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000), All the Pretty Horses (Billy Bob Thornton, 2001), Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005), Three Burials (Tommy Lee Jones, 2005), No Country for Old Men (Ethan and Joel Coen, 2007), and Sicario (Denis Villeneuve, 2015).
The 29th SERCIA conference, which was held from September 3 to 5, 2025 at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, in collaboration with the AGE-C project, focused on representations of ageing in Anglophone and European cinemas. Over three days, researchers presented papers on how films and series depict age and the ageing process. In the context of demographic ageing in Western societies, these cultural representations play an important role in shaping how old age is perceived. The presentations covered a wide range of topics, including the representation of Alzheimer's disease, the figure of the ageing star, age-gap relationships, and digital de-ageing technologies. Other contributions explored the intersections of ageing with space, memory, sexuality, and crime, as well as portrayals of the ageing body in genres such as horror, science fiction, and crime films. Several analyses also focused on the depiction of dementia, the role of caregivers, and how documentary films can offer alternative visions of later life. Overall, the conference highlighted the ambivalent nature of ageing representations on screen: some perpetuate stereotypes and ageist discourses, while others provide more nuanced and sometimes positive perspectives on ageing. The exchanges and discussions over the three days emphasized how gender, social class, race, cultural contexts, and aesthetic choices influence the contemporary production of images of ageing in cinema, series, and new media.
This article explores the ways in which Sikh migrants in contemporary France develop place attachment in a context often marked by marginalization and perceived social exclusion. It focusses on theories of place-making, memory studies, and postcolonial spatial theory, and argues that migrant belonging is not only constructed through present-day practices but also through symbolic and historical ones, and more importantly through reclaiming places that have been forgotten. The paper brings a neglected colonial figure into this discussion: Maharajah Duleep Singh, the last sovereign ruler of Punjab, who spent his final years in exile in Paris and whose daughters from his second marriage were active in elite Parisian society. While their aristocratic status contrasts sharply with the working-class profiles of today's Sikh communities in France, this historical presence provides a meaningful anchor for contemporary migrants in a process of claiming symbolic continuity and spatial legitimacy in modern-day France. By reframing Duleep Singh's presence and legacy as a site of memory, this article contends that contemporary Sikh migrants can reclaim space not only through everyday practices and religious institutions but also by reactivating forgotten genealogies of belonging. Through this approach, place attachment emerges through both lived experience and historical memory. Archival sources will be drawn upon, and thus the article offers an interdisciplinary framework for understanding how migrants produce place even in conditions of exclusion. These materials suggest the need to recognise diasporic histories more fully within France's urban cultural memory. They provide new pedagogical and commemorative strategies that bridge historical erasure of the Sikh community with contemporary strategies of belonging. Cet article examine les mani & egrave;res dont les migrants sikhs dans la France contemporaine d & eacute;veloppent un attachement au lieu dans un contexte souvent marqu & eacute; par la marginalisation et une exclusion sociale per & ccedil;ue. Il s'appuie sur les th & eacute;ories de la fabrication du lieu (place-making), les & eacute;tudes de la m & eacute;moire et la th & eacute;orie spatiale postcoloniale, et soutient que le sentiment d'appartenance des migrants ne se construit pas uniquement & agrave; travers des pratiques contemporaines, mais aussi & agrave; travers des dimensions symboliques et historiques-et plus encore par la r & eacute;appropriation de lieux tomb & eacute;s dans l'oubli. L'article introduit dans cette r & eacute;flexion une figure coloniale n & eacute;glig & eacute;e : le Maharajah Duleep Singh, dernier souverain du Pendjab, qui passa ses derni & egrave;res ann & eacute;es en exil & agrave; Paris et dont les filles issues de son second mariage furent actives dans la haute soci & eacute;t & eacute; parisienne. Si leur statut aristocratique contraste fortement avec les profils majoritairement ouvriers des communaut & eacute;s sikhes actuelles en France, cette pr & eacute;sence historique constitue n & eacute;anmoins un point d'ancrage significatif pour les migrants contemporains, dans un processus de revendication de continuit & eacute; symbolique et de l & eacute;gitimit & eacute; spatiale dans la France d'aujourd'hui. En reconfigurant la pr & eacute;sence et l'h & eacute;ritage de Duleep Singh comme un lieu de m & eacute;moire, cet article soutient que les migrants sikhs contemporains peuvent se r & eacute;approprier l'espace non seulement par des pratiques quotidiennes et des institutions religieuses, mais aussi par la r & eacute;activation de g & eacute;n & eacute;alogies d'appartenance oubli & eacute;es. Dans cette perspective, l'attachement au lieu & eacute;merge & agrave; la fois de l'exp & eacute;rience v & eacute;cue et de la m & eacute;moire historique. L'& eacute;tude mobilise des sources archivistiques et propose ainsi un cadre interdisciplinaire pour comprendre comment les migrants produisent du lieu, y compris dans des conditions d'exclusion. Ces mat & eacute;riaux soulignent la n & eacute;cessit & eacute; de mieux reconna & icirc;tre les histoires diasporiques au sein de la m & eacute;moire culturelle urbaine fran & ccedil;aise. Ils offrent & eacute;galement de nouvelles strat & eacute;gies p & eacute;dagogiques et comm & eacute;moratives permettant de combler l'effacement historique de la communaut & eacute; sikhe tout en soutenant ses formes contemporaines d'appartenance.
This article offers a critical reflection on creative writing through practice-based research and more specifically through the art of investigation. My dissertation examines the migration of Jews from Galicia to New York at the turn of the 20th century, through the works of Anzia Yezierska, Henry Roth, and Philip Roth. Alongside this academic research, I am writing a novel that investigates my own family history within the same migratory wave. This dual approach allows for an exploration of the tensions between fiction and non-fiction and how it affects our relationship to reality. Through this self-reflexive practice, I develop a concept I call invescriture: a form of writing that emerges from investigation, situated at the crossroads of life writing, literary analysis, and documentary research. Rather than attempting to reconstruct a fixed truth, I embrace the instability of facts, the silences of the archive, and the imaginative act as a means of understanding. The first-person voice thus becomes a central methodological tool, both as subject and object of the inquiry. By outlining the features of invescriture, I propose an autofictional pact in which literature, as a performative force, engages with and reshapes reality. Embracing the hybrid form of my work also allows me to explore new comparative literary perspectives.
This article analyzes the various principles that drive King Richard III's bloodthirsty ambitions, based on Guillaume Séverac-Schmitz's adaptation of Clément Camar-Mercier's translation. The originality of this stage production lies in its emphasis on Richard III's physical deformities, which gradually worsen to give rise to a new Frankenstein who questions his narcissistic wound.
