Littérature et contextes de vie : mode d'emploi
Conferences directed by Jérôme Mauche .
Though they widely differ in their approaches, methods, and instruments (of analysis as well as struggle), Jean-Charles Massera and Christian Morel still work with a similar material: the social uses of postindustrial languages and their intentional or unintentional diversions. On the occasion of this Poetry Platform, we will examine absurdity as a way to understand and elucidate the contemporary world; and rationalities used by real or figured individuals as they act and speak.
Biographies
Jean-Charles MASSERA
Jean-Charles Massera is a multimedia writer who works through the post-capitalistic language of legal, social, and political structures and flows – with a degree of humor to denounce its contradictions. He is the author of fictions: France guide de l’utilisateur (« France Instructions for Use, » P.O.L., 1998), A cauchemar is born (« A Nightmare Is Born, » Verticales, 2007), We Are l’Europe (Verticales, 2009); radio plays: La vie qui va avec (« The Life That Goes with It, » with Vincent Labaume, France Inter, 1997), Tunnel of Mondialisation (« Tunnel of Globalization, » France Culture, 2010); texts for the stage, including United emmerdements of New Order (« United Hassles of New Order ») preceded by United Problems of Coût de la Main-d’oeuvre(« United Problems of Labor Costs, » P.O.L., 2002). In 2011 several shows adapted from his texts will tour, some staged by Benoît Lambert. Moreover, Jean-Charles Massera has served as an exhibition curator and published essays on art and cinema: Amour, gloire et CAC 40 (« The Bold and the Beautiful and the Dow Jones, » P.O.L., 1999), La leçon de Stains (Pour une esthétique de la reconstitution), Pierre Huyghe The Third Memory, Centre Georges Pompidou, Renaissance Society (Chicago), 2000. He is currently directing videos and sound pieces, many of them associated with postings in public spaces, as recently with his exhibition « Kiss my mondialisation » at the I.A.C. in Villeurbanne. He has also authored two books on his journey in professional cycling, Jean de la Ciotat confirme (P.O.L., 2004) and Jean de la Ciotat, La légende (Verticales, 2007).
Christian MOREL
After a professional career as a senior executive in the departments of human resources of major industrial companies, Christian Morel now is a sociologist attached to the French national center for scientific research (C.N.R.S.). His research examines how negotiations, decision-making, and communication are structured. Starting from case studies that may be read as short narratives, he investigates topics related to interferences in the decision-making process and daily mass communication, which he analyzes on the basis of industrial literature and the graphic or linguistic signs it generates. He is the author of three noted essays translated in many languages: La Grève froide (« The Cold Strike, » Éditions de l’organisation, 1981), Les Décisions absurdes. Sociologie des erreurs radicales et persistantes (Gallimard, 2002), and L’Enfer de l’information ordinaire. Boutons, modes d’emploi, pictogrammes, graphisme, informations, vulgarisation (« The Hell that Is Ordinary Information. Buttons, Instructions for Use, Pictograms, Graphic Design, News Items, Popularization, » Gallimard, 2007).