Refonder les histoires V: Refounding utopias
In September 2024, Espace de la diversité is launching the 5th edition of the major series Refonder les histoires: Refonder les histoires 5: Refounding utopias.
In a global context of war and genocide, climate red alert and the intrusion of artificial intelligence, we might compare the current circumstances of life on earth to the literary genre of dystopia. What can literature do in the face of dystopia and the humanitarian crisis we are experiencing? Is the pen a tool for reinventing the world and finding a way out of the current crisis? Is this a romantic idea? Should literature be considered obsolete, or should we cling to it as a way out of dystopia?
While previous editions of the Refonder les histoires series have focused on events of the past (apartheid, the publication of the book Breaking the Racial Contract by philosopher Charles W. Mills in 1997, etc.), this edition looks to the future and the role of literature in imagining and founding a fairer, more harmonious and more sustainable future. It offers a space open to new narratives and literary genres: imaginaries, science fiction, utopia, afrofuturism, arabofuturism, etc.
Writers, mediators, cultural figures and social activists representing a diversity of backgrounds and experiences, from Quebec, Canada and other countries, will come together to discuss these primordial and urgent questions, to reinvent new narratives and a fairer, more sustainable future for humanity.
Program: a grand deployment of voices, ideas and imaginations, through meetings, discussions, workshops, talking circles, readings, music and poetry.
The aim: to combat racism, exclusion, war and the climate crisis through books and literature; to celebrate those writers who, through their imagination, disturb and reshape the order of things.
Les midis littéraires 2024 took place as part of Refonder les utopies. Many other activities will also take part throughout this literary event, such as talking circles, round tables, readings and more!
