Fuite au Nord" study day

Organization: Guido Furci (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle), Marie Mossé (Université Paris Cité), Florence Schnebelen (Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France)

While the Western imaginary of travel to the North tends to privilege the motif of a race to the North (concrete and imperialistic quest for territories, routes, material and human resources; symbolic quest for heroic feats - often virile - individual or collective, for surpassing oneself as well as for national prestige), this study day proposes to analyze another aspect of representations of travel to the cold countries to the North, the flip side of the race to the North: the flight north.

Inviting us to reshape representations of the North inherited from a travel literature shaped by medieval Icelandic sagas and tales of Arctic exploration, the motif of fleeing north sketches out a new cartography of danger and hostility, shifting the lines of opposition between North and South and creating new imaginaries.

How do narrative literatures, both fictional and non-fictional, construct this motif of flight to the north? Do they tell the story of forced mobility, exile, banishment or a quest in reverse? What are their objectives and stakes? What are those who head north seeking? Refuge in a fantasized natural world? Another social model? We'll also be looking at the conditions - both material and psychological - under which the flight is organized, as well as its temporality: is it haphazard, in a blind journey towards the most extreme points? Is it meticulously prepared, with pre-defined stages? Finally, does the flight have a precise goal? Does it call for a return? Or is it akin to wandering?