The Risk at Work: Paradigms & Research Perspectives in Literature (Turin)
International Conference to Explore Risk in 20th and 21st Century Literature
Table of Contents
TURIN, Italy (April 30, 2025) – An international conference focusing on the concept of risk in French-language literature from the 20th and 21st centuries will be held Nov. 19-21, 2025, at the University of turin.
Organized by the Department of Studi Umanistici at the University of Turin, in collaboration with the University of Bergamo, the University of Naples Federico II, CSAM (centro studi Arti Della Modernità Torino), and several French universities including Bordeaux montaigne, Picardie Jules verne, University Grenoble-Alpes, and Sorbonne university, the conference aims to delve into the complexities of risk as portrayed in literary works.
The conference is part of the larger Research Project “Declination of Risk: for an archeology of the literary imagination of the 20th and 21st centuries” (PRIN 2022), funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research. This project seeks to understand how risk, often studied in the sciences, manifests as an intrinsic uncertainty within creative literary endeavors.
Exploring Literary Risk: Uncertainty and Prospect
Rather than viewing risk solely as a threat, the conference will explore its potential as a catalyst for reflection and experimentation. Organizers believe that examining the management of literary risk can offer new perspectives on our relationship with the future, fostering innovative approaches to thought, action, and global awareness.
Through discussions bridging literary texts and risk theories, the conference will analyze how risk is integrated into literary and artistic practices, challenging deterministic views of reality.
Conference Themes
The conference will address several key themes, including:
- representations of risk in European avant-garde and contemporary literary and artistic works.
- Meta-literary reflections on the aesthetic and ethical dimensions of risk in contemporary literature.
- Theoretical analyses of literary and artistic works that thematize risk.
- Literary explorations of “risk society,” as defined by sociologist Ulrich Beck.
- The request of theories from ideology, science, sociology, anthropology, and linguistics to understand risk in literature.
- The role of translation, literary prizes, and reception in shaping perceptions of risk in French and French-speaking contexts.
Call for Proposals
The organizing committee is accepting dialog proposals of approximately 250 words until June 15, 2025. submissions should be sent to conference address2025@gmail.com and include a brief bio-bibliographical profile. Accepted speakers will be notified by June 30, 2025.Presentations are limited to 20 minutes. The conference languages are English, Spanish, French, and Italian.
Publication Opportunity
Selected contributions to the conference will be published in the International Review with Reading Committee: Cosmo. Comparative Studies in Modernism (ISSN 2281-6658), slated for June 2027 publication. More details can be found at http://www.ojs.unito.it/index.php/COSMO.
Organizing Committees
The steering committee includes Carlotta Ariano, Franca Bruera, Chiara Elefante, Franca Franchi, Roberto Gilodi, Alessandro Grosso, Shannon Magri, Valeria Marino, Benoît Monginot, Francesca Pagani, Adelaide Pagano, Nunzia Palmieri, Francesca Quey, Giacomo Raccis, Valeria Sperti, and Lorenza Valsania.
The scientific committee comprises Margherita Amatulli, Alessandro Bertinetto, Elisa Bricco, franca Bruera, Alberto Cevolini, Maxime Decout, Andrea del Lungo, Laurent devances, anne Duprat, Chiara Elefante, Alesshaster ferraro, Azi, Nefano, northwest with France rabati, Municipanical Paglio, is the formolop of Bagholic, Lady ExpertSs.
selected Bibliography
The conference organizers provided a selected bibliography, including:
- Anders, G. (2006 [1981]), The nuclear threat, Paris, the snake with feathers.
- Anders, G.(2008), Hiroshima is everywhere, Paris, Seuil.
- Augé, M. (2012), Les Nouvelles Feurs, Paris, Payot.
- Bauman, Z. (2007), Modus Vivendi. Hell and utopia of the liquid world, Rome-Bari, Laterza.
- Bauman, Z. (2008), Liquid fear, Rome-Bari, Laterza.
- Beck,U. (1986), Risk Society, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp Verlag. [La società del rischio. Verso una seconda modernità (2008). Roma, Carocci.]
- BECK, U. (2000 [1994]), The risks of freedom. The individual in the era of globalization, Bologna, Il Mulino.
- BECK, U. (2008b), Living in World Risk Society, Torino, Giappichelli.
- BECK, U. (2008 [2007]), Condio Humana. The risk in the global age. Rome-Bari, Laterza.
- Benedetti, C. (2021), Literature will save us from extinction, Turin, Einaudi.
- BERTINETTO, A.; RUTA, M. (2021), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Improvisation in the Arts, London, Routledge.
- Bertinetto, a.; monginot, B. (2023),Declinations of risk aesthetics,in aesthetics.Studies and research, the Mulino, 3/2023.
- Bertrand, D. (2014), Think the risk of the classical age, Clermont-Ferrand, Presses Universitaires Blaise Pascal.
- BOSTROM, N.; ĆIRKOVIĆ M. M. (2008), global Catastrophic Risk, Oxford, Oxford University Press
- BECTERA, f.; Duprat, a.; Franchi f.;; Mcintosh-Varjabedia, F. (2023), Dereslinazons and the restroom: For an archeology of the literary imaginaries of the 20th and 20th centuries, in Cahiers of French literature, classics Garnier, n. 22.
- Bruera F.; Mancini L. (2024), Dossier Declinations of the Risk, in Il Castello di Elsinore, page editions, n. 89.
- BUELL, L. (2005), The Future of Environmental Criticism, Malden, Wiley–Blackwell.
- Citton, Y., Rasmi, J. (2020), Collapsonauts generations: navigate in collapse time, Paris, Seuil.
- DAVIS H., TURPIN E. (2015), Art in the Anthropocene, London, Open Humanities Press.
- DE CRISTOFARO, D.(2020),The Contemporary Post-Apocalyptic Novel. Critical Temporalities and the End Times, london: Blomsbury Academic.
- Di Martino, E. (2019 [1977]), The end of the world. Contribution to the analysis of cultural apocalypses,Turin: Einaudi.
- Donnarumma, R. (2014), Hypermodernity. Where the contemporary fiction, Bologna, the mill goes.
- DOUGLAS, M.; WILDAVSKY, A. (1982), Risk and Culture, Berkeley, University of california Press.
- Dupuy, J.-P. (2002), for an enlightened catastrophism, Paris, Seuil.
- Dupuy, J.-P. (2005), small metaphysics of tsunamis, Paris, Seuil.
- ENGÉLIBERT, J.-P.(2019), fabulous the end of the world. The critical power of the fictions of Apocalypse, Paris, Revelation, 2019.
- ENGÉLIBERT, J.-P. (2013), apocalypses without kingdom. Fiction policy of the end of the world (20th -XXI centuries), Paris, Classics Garnier.
- Crossed, f.; Glaudes, P. (under the direction of, 2019), scare: at the limits of the visible, Cinisello Balsamo, Editorial Silvana.
- Fressoz, J.-B. (2012), The joyful apocalypse. A history of technological risk, Paris, Seuil.
- FREEDGOOD, E. (2000), Victorian Writing about Risk, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
- GIDDENS, A. (1990), The Consequences of Modernity, Cambridge, Polity Press.
- Godard, O., Henry C., Lagadec P., Michel-kerjan E. (2002),Treaty of New Risks,Paris,Paris,Gallimard.
- HARAWAY, D. (2016), Staying with the Trouble, Durham, Duke University Press.
- HOYDIS, J. (2019), Risk and the English Novel, Berlin, De Gruyter.
- Kermisch,C. (2010), the concept of risk. From epistemology to ethics, Paris, Tec & Doc.
- Kermisch,C. (2010), The paradigms of risk perception, Paris, Tec & Doc.
- Latour, B. (2015), Faced with Gaïa. Eight conferences on the new climate regime, Paris, La Découverte.
- Le Breton, D. (2000), Passions of risk, Paris, Métailié.
- Lino,M. (2015), The postmodern apocalypse between literature and cinema, Florence, the letters.
- Luhmann,N. (1991), Sociology of Risk, Berlin, de Gruyter.
- MAFTEI, MM (2023), The postthumain’s accounts, Presses Universitaires du Septentrion.
- Mercier-Faivre A.-M., Thomas C. (2008), The invention of disaster in the 18th century, Geneva, Droz.
- Moroni, MF (2012), The catastrophe in Western thought. The philosophy of the irimadable. Milan: the knowledge.
- Nancy,J.-L. (2012), The equivalence of disasters, Paris, Galilée.
- Petitclerc, M. (2012), for a history of risk, Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes.
- Pievani, T. (2012), The end of the world, Bologna, Il mulino.
- Pradier, P. (2006), The concept of risk in economics, Paris, La Découverte.
- PUSKAR,J.R. (2012),Accident Society. Fiction, Collectivity, and the Production of Chance, Stanford University Press.
- Scaffai, N. (2017), Literature and ecology.Forms and themes of a narrative relationship, Rome, Carocci.
- Schoentjes, P. (2020), Literature and ecology. The wall of bees,Paris,Corti.
- SCHWERDTNER, K. (2018), The (beautiful) may write. Literary interviews, Paris, Note.
- Servigne, P., Stevens, R. (2015),how everything can coll
Here’s a breakdown of the international conference, addressing your questions with clarity and focus:
Q&A
Q: What is the primary focus of the international conference?
A: The international conference will explore the concept of risk as portrayed in French-language literature from the 20th and 21st centuries. It aims to delve into how risk manifests as an intrinsic uncertainty within creative literary endeavors.
Q: Where and when will the conference take place, and who is organizing it?
A: The conference will be held at the University of Turin in Italy from November 19-21, 2025. It is indeed organized by the Department of Studi umanistici at the University of Turin, in collaboration with other universities and research centers.
Q: What is the overarching research project that the conference is a part of?
A: The conference is part of the Research Project “Declination of Risk: for an archeology of the literary creativity of the 20th and 21st centuries” (PRIN 2022), funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research.
Q: What are some of the key themes that the conference will address?
A: The conference will address several key themes, including:
Representations of risk in European avant-garde and contemporary literary and artistic works.
Meta-literary reflections on the aesthetic and ethical dimensions of risk in contemporary literature.
Theoretical analyses of literary and artistic works that thematize risk.
literary explorations of “risk society,” as defined by sociologist Ulrich Beck.
The request of theories from ideology,science,sociology,anthropology,and linguistics to understand risk in literature.
The role of translation, literary prizes, and reception in shaping perceptions of risk in French and French-speaking contexts.
Q: What is the deadline for submitting proposals, and what facts should they include?
A: The deadline for submitting dialog proposals (approximately 250 words) is June 15, 2025. Submissions should be sent to conference address2025@gmail.com and include a brief bio-bibliographical profile.
Q: What publication chance is available for conference participants?
A: Selected contributions to the conference will be published in the International Review with Reading Committee: Cosmo. Comparative Studies in Modernism (ISSN 2281-6658), slated for June 2027 publication.
Q: What are the conference languages?
A: The conference languages are English, Spanish, French, and Italian.
Q: Can you provide a summary of the conference details in a table format?
A: Certainly! Here’s a summary table:
| Feature | Details |
| ————————- | ————————————————————————————————————————————– |
| Conference Title | International conference to Explore Risk in 20th and 21st Century Literature |
| Dates | November 19-21, 2025 |
| Location | University of Turin, Italy |
| Focus | Risk in French-language literature (20th & 21st centuries) |
| Organizers | Department of Studi Umanistici (University of Turin) and collaborators |
| Call for Proposals | Deadline: June 15, 2025; 250-word dialog proposals + bio-bibliographical profile; conference address2025@gmail.com |
| Presentation Time Limit | 20 minutes. |
| Conference Languages | English, Spanish, French, italian |
| publication | Selected contributions will be published in COSMO, June 2027. |