International symposium "The power of laughter - the laughter of power: humor, discourse and politics", May 19-20, in Hybride

Jointly organized by the STUDITrans laboratory (Faculty of Letters, University of Craiova, Romania) the "Alexandru Piru" doctoral school, (University of Craiova), in partnership with the Plurality of Languages and Identities: Didactics, Acquisition, Mediations - PLIDAM laboratory (Inalco) and the Centre de recherche en linguistique appliquée - CeRLA (Université de Lyon 2).

Thursday May 19 and Friday May 20, 2022 - in hybrid mode: University of Craiova, Romania / and online

Practical information:
Schedules
Thursday May 19: 09:30 - 16:50
Friday May 20: 09:30 - 17:30

In-person
University of Craiova
Str. A. I. Cuza nr.13,
Craiova - Romania

Distance attendance
People wishing to attend the colloquium remotely are kindly requested to register.

The power of laughter - laughing at power: humor, discourse and politics

What attitude to adopt when faced with the absurd or the forbidden? A natural self-defense reflex, derision allows us to question the human condition and rehabilitate collective dignity. A lethal weapon against cynicism, silliness, doublespeak and censorship, humor unmasks arbitrariness, shatters idols and attacks taboos.

Certainly, such a theme naturally evokes the extraordinary wealth of politically resonant jokes that proliferated in the East from the Stalinist period until the fall of the USSR, producing a collective exorcism across Tirana and Moscow, from Berlin to Bucharest.

However, this colloquium will not be content with examining the urban folklore of Central and Eastern European countries, where the revenge of the popular spirit often circulated under cloaks, part of the culture of dissidence, the unspoken and coded messages, between revolt and resignation.

The ambition of this colloquium is to contribute to the debate on the relationship between power and derision, taking into account the broad spectrum of practices and mechanisms of domination and insubordination. It will bring together historians, anthropologists, sociologists, linguists, didacticians, translators, specialists in political science, the plastic arts and literature, working on a variety of corpuses and contexts.

This symposium is intended to be the first stage in a cycle of reflections on a research project promoting transdisciplinary exchanges and including geopolitical areas as diverse as possible.


Scientific coordinators of the symposium:
Cristiana Teodorescu, Professor, University of Craiova
Thomas Szende, Professor, PLIDAM, Inalco
Stéphane Valter, Professor, CeRLA, Lyon 2
Ardian Marashi, MCF, CREE, Inalco