Lise Wajeman

Lise Wajeman (1973, France) is Professor of Comparative Literature at the Université Paris Cité. She works on Renaissance literature and art, and has notably published L’Amour de l’art. Eroticism of artist and spectator in the 16th century (Droz, 2015). Since 2016, she has also been following contemporary literature as a critic: she has published numerous articles in Mediapart and is a regular contributor to the podcast L’Esprit critique.

Her residency project, entitled Seconde zone, is devoted to writing a eulogy of the commentator, the reader, the spectator, the word that comes after, in second place: the word that stands in the shadow of the work. The form of the text will be hybrid, combining first-person narrative, commentary on works of art and literary theory. The aim is to challenge the authority of the “I” who leads the narrative: traversed by the otherness of the works, he is a porous person. The aim is to turn this weakness into a claim, a “pride”, against those who claim to make sense alone – which is not without political considerations.