This international, interdisciplinary, bilingual symposium is designed to consider solitude(s) and multitude(s) in tandem, as both historical constructs and present-day issues. Taking the global Francophone context as a point of departure, we aim to extend the treatment of solitudes/multitudes in time and space to include other cultures, languages, and periods. For more information, contact Anne Vila, acvila@wisc.edu.
Although sometimes set in opposition, the modern conditions of solitude and multitude have common origins in Enlightenment-era theorizing about human nature and the self in relation to society. The eighteenth century was marked by a deep tension between solitude and sociability, inwardness versus outward engagement. That tension found expression in multiple areas, from the novel and life-writing to the nascent fields of psychology, educational science, socio-political theory, and “mental” medicine. The conceptual couple formed by solitude/multitude would go on to underpin later developments like thinking about crowds and their “influence-ability,” the rival conceptions of the writer/thinker as public intellectual vs. solitary genius, perceptions of cities and certain other spaces as lonely and isolating, and the contemporary phenomenon of “group think” (along with the conditions that fuel it, like social media).
This symposium is designed to consider solitude(s) and multitude(s) in tandem, as both historical constructs and present-day issues. Taking the global Francophone context as a point of departure, we aim to extend the treatment of solitudes/multitudes in time and space to include other cultures, languages, and periods.
This event is possible thanks to financial support from the UW-Madison Anonymous Fund and to our co-sponsors: Center for Interdisciplinary French Studies, Center for Humanities, Center for Visual Culture, Center for European Studies, Department of English, Department of History, Department of Philosophy, Department of Political Science, Institute for Research in the Humanities, Middle Eastern Studies Program.
