Sociological writers

Event organized by Sapienza Università di Roma, Fondazione Primoli and Villa Medici

Since the early 1980s, when French literature reclaimed the real, writers have been encroaching on the realm of the social sciences. Far from returning to the realist aesthetic of the 19th century, they are inventing new literary forms and testing new ways of writing. The exemplary work of Annie Ernaux, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature, is a vigorous testament to this. At the same time, sociologists are borrowing from literature modes of expression hitherto incongruous in their discipline: narrative, novel, theater, autobiography… The aim of this symposium is to study these new forms of writing about the social world, where writers and researchers come together, exchanging practices and methods, sharing poetic and aesthetic questions, in a demanding investigation of contemporary realities. Writers, sociologists and university specialists will compare their various approaches and the comments they generate.

International colloquium organized by the French Studies section of the Dipartimento di Studi Europei, Americani e Interculturali of Sapienza Università di Roma, in collaboration with the Fondazione Primoli, Villa Medici and Università di Trento, with the support of the Institut Universitaire de France and the Cassini program of the Institut Français Italie.

Practical information

Friday, November 15 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Villa Medici,  Michel Piccoli Cinema room
Free with registration and subject to availability
Language : French