Straits highlighted at the occasion of a study day at the University East-Paris Créteil

Published the 6 July 2017

On Saturday 10 June, the study day « Spaces, territories, movements in the Roman world » was organised by the CREER group (IMAGER laboratory) of the University East-Paris Créteil (UPEC).

The morning was dedicated to the Hispanic world. Borja Cano Vidal, PhD student at the University of Salamanca (“Postmodern withdrawn: reformulations of the Epicure garden in the contemporary Hispanic poetry”), Patricia Vedova, PhD student at the UPEC (“Urban imaginary in Ciudad de Invierno of Abdón Ubidia”) and Ricardo Torre, Doctor of the UPEC (“Latin America and multicultural identities: an unreachable myth or a well-hidden reality?”) gave a speech.

The Mediterranean world was at the heart of the afternoon exchanges, beginning with the communication of Pierpaolo Naccarella, Lecturer at the University East-Paris Créteil (“The former Italian colonies in Africa and the Italian communist party press (1947-1950)”). Stéphane Resche, Associate Professor at the UPEC, then presented the study “Dramaturgy of straits: write and play the mandatory route”. It is a communication linked with the project of constitution and publication of an anthology of dramaturgies of straits, already communicated in former articles on ESI website:

• The Strait of Messina: for a European cultural network of straits
• Strait of Messina - A book devoted to culture around the strait

The editorial project of anthology is guided by one intuition: attempt to prove, reveal, by the cultural prism, and mainly through contemporary dramaturgic creation, the specificity of straits’ territories – that is to say they would be an advanced laboratory of mutual understanding, a place where others, the ones across the strait, what is on the other side, is fully part of the landscape and identity of everyone. Wouldn’t these places of passage be the vectors of society, places where ones apparently just pass but where deeply ones learn more than everywhere to live together?

Researchers were able to exchange mainly about the following plays:

• Malastrada, (2007) of the Italian Tino Caspanello (Finalist of the Extracandoni Price in 2007, highlighted at the occasions of the Price Tuttoteatro.com – Dante Cappelletti in 2007 and Legambiente Price in 2008)
• Le mouton et la baleine (1999), of the Moroccan author Ahmed Ghazali (Price of the Lyon’s Days of Theater Writers in 1999, SACD Price of Francophone dramaturgy in 2001).
• Et les poissons partirent combattre les hommes (Y los peces salieron a combatir contra los hombres) (2003) of the Spanish author Angélica Liddell (read at the Odéon-Theater of Europe at the occasion of the month dedicated to the Traits d’Union event in 2008 and to the Summer Monsoon in 2007).
• Djangâl (2013) of the French writer Véronika Boutinova (play pre-selected by the Guérande Price in 2013, selected by the Reading Committee of Panta Theater in Caen and for the Godot Price in 2014, read in Dijon at the occasion of the « Backstage Mondays » of the theater company « Les Encombrants » in 2015 and Special mention of the jury of the Lyon’s Days of Theater Writers in 2016)
• À la périphérie (2009-2010) of the Turkish author Sedef Ecer (play written in the framework of the programme Writers in Residence in Île-de-France, which received the Price of theater writing of Guérande in 2011)
• Je veux un pays (I want a country) (2013) of the Greek playwright Andreas Flourakis (play selected by French, Italian and Portuguese committees of the Eurodram network in 2017).

The day was concluded by the reading of an extract of the play Une brève histoire de la Méditerranée by the comedian Clément Carabédian. It was followed by a dialogue with Léa Carton de Grammont (writer of the play Une briève histoire de la Méditerranée), Victor Thimonier (stage director and artistic director of the theater company Les Temps Blancs) and Clément Carabédian, moderated by Stéphane Resche and Caroline Zekri (lecturer at the UPEC). If the play, which received an award at the occasion of the Lyon’s Days of Theater Writers in 2016 and published by Lansman, does not specifically refer to a strait in particular, it relates with an epic and singular manner the western history of the Mediterranean space.

More information and learn about the next scientific events of CREER (in French)