Colloquium "Les mythes au XXI^e siècle" (Myths in the 21^st Century)

Greek and Roman mythologies are an inexhaustible source of rewrites, adaptations and remediations of the founding myths of Western culture. However, many of these myths are based on the oppression of women, human groups, or members of the wider margins. Thinking about history after the (male) hero has claimed victory, from the viewpoint of the consequences and feelings of the victims, has become a necessity for understanding the implications of such myths.

In this presentation, I wish to confront feminist, videogame, and narrative studies with literary remediations (Neal Shusterman's Scythe series), about graphic novels (Melchior Ascaride's Eurydice déchaînée) and webtoons (Rachel Smyth's Lore Olympus), but also videogames (Supergiant Games' Hades). Beyond the thematic analysis (of the narrative itself), I wish to study how the graphic layout and the framework allow to iconize the victims and to offer them an empowerment consistent with the original myths.

After a brief presentation of the corpus, and the identification of their common points, I will present the importance of narrative time in the iconisations of each one and how narration and visibility allow a reversal of the power schemes. After discussing the pitfalls (thematic and narrative) of the protagonists' new position, I will conclude by demonstrating the continuity created with the original myths.

The theories of reading and gesture will also allow us to understand the possible immersion in these works of the extreme contemporary, and the impact of the latter in the overthrow of the proposed patriarchal order.