Language in context seminar

Speaker: Jeanne Ferrier (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University)

Title: Fictional sociologists: speaking the visual language of fear to analyze society (or: How learning English encouraged me to become a horror movie geek)

Abstract: Learning a foreign language is never purely learning the grammar, syntax and vocabulary of that language: the words and grammatical rules are always put in context through lessons about the history and culture of the countries in which that language is spoken. That is how, as I learned and then chose to study English, I started to become more and more interested in the popular culture of English-speaking countries, most specifically mainstream cinema. Over the years, I have worked on a variety of research projects which often revolved around what we call « les genres de l’imaginaire » (fantasy, horror, science-fiction) – and in that process I have often felt like I was not « une vraie angliciste », or sometimes not even a true scholar. However, I have also learned to think of cinema and TV series as bringing together two forms of language: the dialogues and narration – mostly expressed in English in the case of the filmographies I observed –, and the visual language through which they showed (rather than telling) the stories that they developed. As my research led me to focus more and more on the American horror genre, I started to notice how the films belonging to that genre used their own visual language, not just in order to scare the audience but also to offer an almost sociological message, criticizing the cracks and strains in the society of the United States. What began as a simple observation (« Most slashers take place in the suburbs, don’t they? ») turned into a reflection about how horror talks about race, gender, religion, and class, without necessarily resorting to the English language

Speaker bio: Jeanne Ferrier is a soon-to-be-ex-PhD candidate. After studying at the École Normale Supérieure de Cachan (now ENS Paris-Saclay) and obtaining three Master's Degrees (in Anglophone Studies, in Higher Education, and in Literary Translation), she started working on a research thesis which focused on the representation of American residential suburbs in horror films, and which she recently decided to leave unfinished. Most of her research revolves around popular culture, more specifically how popular films and television shows choose to represent society and social issues. She currently teaches English at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, and spends most of her free time singing in a choir, and exploring the medieval-fantastic world of Eana through tabletop roleplaying.