Discussion on palimpsest
Edit articleAs part of the project "Le récit de voyage à l'ère numérique. Tentative d'épuisement de l'autoroute Nord-Sud (Gaspé et Miami) (Travel Literature in the Digital Era: Attempt at Exhausting the North-South Highway [Gaspé and Miami])", PhD candidates Margot Mellet and Emma Lacroix will discuss their research on palimpsest on March 8, 2021 at 1:30 p.m. (EST) here.
Historically referring to a manuscript whose surface has been scratched away to write a new text, leaving traces of the old one visible, palimpsest has moved from the particular framework of codicology (the study of manuscripts as objects) to become a term-image, a metaphor for a structure, be it literary, architectural, urban, or psychological. Malleable and powerful enough to indicate something else, the concept of palimpsest also has its own evolution within a single discipline such as literary studies. In order to capture a fraction of the richness that this image evokes, we wish to present our approaches to this notion as part of our doctoral research, between synthesis of its characteristics, and reformulation and actualization, or even resemantization of its theoretical aspects.
From one research to another, we will oppose the angles of study of this image-concept to notice the possible meeting points or gaps between our palimpsests.