This October 14-16, the University of Chicago will host the 2024 Pierre Bayard Conference. This interdisciplinary, international conference will explore how the works of French scholar Pierre Bayard can inspire ways of “creative reading” as applied to numerous fields of study: literature, cinema, musicology, art history, theology, psychology, classics, and teaching, among others. Through approaches such as interventionist criticism, in which the reader/viewer intervenes in a work by changing its elements or plotline, or reimagines a text as having been written by a different author, the presentations will engage in playful and critically curious “readings” that shake us out of – and provide insight into – our scholarly conventions.
Pierre Bayard will be in attendance and will deliver an honorary guest lecture at the Franke Institute on Wednesday, October 16. PhD candidate Loriane Lafont-Grave and PhD recipient Jacqueline Victor are serving as event organizers.
