French Theory & Contemporary Screen Studies

A two-day international conference organised by the Department of Film. The Keynote will be given by Prof Sarah Cooper (King's College London).

Please register here.

This two-day international conference will feature talks reflecting on diverse aspects of French film theory (be that its pre-war iterations, its post-war auteurist, semiotic and structuralist paradigms, or its various ‘high theoretical’ incarnations) as it pertains to 21st century Screen Studies, interrogating the contemporary tensions, uses and developments that characterise its failure to disappear. A keynote will be delivered by Prof. Sarah Cooper who has published broadly on French cinema, film theory and philosophy, and was PI of the recent AHRC project 'Global Circulations of Film Theory'.
 
In the context of contemporary Screen Studies – a field characterised by a multiplicity of disparate methods, theories, practices and research objects – it would appear that ‘French theory’ occupies a paradoxical place: on the one hand, ample cognizance of French film theory and French (post)structuralism is still viewed as a pre-requisite to the formation of film and media scholars, who may be expected to demonstrate their familiarity with, for example, the semiological writings of Christian Metz, the psychoanalytic theories of Jean-Louis Baudry, or the post-structuralist rhetoric of Julia Kristeva and Roland Barthes. On the other hand, French film theory is liable to be viewed as passé, a hangover from the ‘high theory’ battles of the 1970s and 1980s which has now been replaced by more timely theoretical discourses (i.e. ecocriticism, posthumanism, critical race theory) or more robust scholarly methods (i.e. quantitative analysis, archival research, media archaeology). Where in the 1970s Anglophone cinephiles and researchers cherry picked French language scholarship and film criticism to create a methodological basis for audiovisual research that could be used to necessitate the inclusion of film and television in tertiary education, by the 1990s the necessity of French film theory was being contested on two fronts by the ‘Post-theory’ movement and the rise of Cultural Studies (Andrew, “The ‘Three Ages’ of Cinema Studies” (2000), 346-7). In the 21st century, while the moniker ‘French theory’ may not carry the authority it once did, its presence in Film and Media Studies remains very much alive, as evidenced by the rise of the journal and annual conference Film-Philosophy, growing interest in the question of ‘technics’ (see van den Oever, 2009; Baer and van den Oever, 2024), and the ongoing ubiquity of auteurism in both traditional and videographic film criticism, for example. The conference aims to address these complexities.
  
This event is supported by the Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland postdoctoral project “Film and the Philosophy of Sense” (PI Corey Cribb; Grant number GOIPD/2024/232), Technological University Dublin’s Research Centre Creative Arts and Media (GradCAM), and the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute.
 
Conference Organisers: Corey Cribb (Technological University Dublin), Jennifer O’Meara (Dept. of Film, Trinity College Dublin), and Paula Quigley (Dept. of Film, Trinity College Dublin).
 
This event is run in accordance with Trinity’s Dignity and Respect policy, and its commitment to nurturing a respectful and inclusive research culture.
Please indicate if you have any access requirements, such as ISL/English interpreting, so that we can facilitate you in attending this event. Contact: Jennifer.OMeara@tcd.ie