Schedule 2023

We all learn how to make our own tricolor cockades from ordinary items we find around the house, so we have the skill in case of a revolutionary emergency (and as a con souvenir). There will be a short presentation on the history and material culture of tricolor cockades; the remainder of the hour will be a social craft-along.

A presentation about queerness from the late 18th to mid 19th century, touching on the shifting understandings of sex and gender in this period, the shifting legal situation in France, the urban history of Paris and how policing cruising and sex work comes into that, the social mores of the gay bars of the era, the terminology used and what we know about the sex lives of queer people in this period.

The Patron-Minette sections of Les Misérables are often overlooked by researchers; however they can provide some fascinating glimpses into societal perceptions of crime and criminals in the nineteenth-century. Based within a wider context of dramatic crime fictions, such as “Penny Dreadfuls”, this presentation will examine how Hugo characterises the figures of the Patron-Minette, using theatrical language to describe the group as a ‘troupe’— drawing upon stereotypes and figures that would have been recognisable to the original readership of the novel but have become increasingly difficult for modern readers to comprehend. The presentation will not just focus on the four heads of the Patron-Minette, but will also touch upon some of the gang’s affiliates, including Brujon, Les-pieds-en-l’air, and Fauntleroy.

No matter what version of the story you’re reading/watching/listening to, there are a lot of biblical allusions, Catholic imagery/symbolism, and Catholic-adjacent morality present in the story of Les Misérables. In my panel, I will cover the way Les Mis portrays Catholicism, and, in turn, how Catholic teachings weave in and out of the storyline. Things that would be highlighted in my presentation include the life of the Bishop, Hugo’s commentary on religion in the brick, the candlesticks and their symbolism, the morality of the June Rebellion at the barricades, and more.

Although Cosette is an important, unifying character in the story of Les Misérables, she is always confusing. Yes, she has always been limited by her historial setting in the story and how her role is to be there as a facilitator for other characters’ narratives. She has been through a lot of changes in the musical, and I specifically want to look at the song “In My Life”: how directing decisions, editing of her lines, and even the different translations of hers songs affect her interaction with her father.

At times familiar, at times wildly unexpected, the diverse reactions to Les Misérables at the time of its publication not only shed light on aspects of the novel little considered by its readers today, they also reveal interesting details about press censorship during the Second Empire, competing ideas about the role of the Church in public life, the cut-throat world of literary rivalries, and debates over the sanctity of the French language and the purpose of art itself..

ShitpostingFromTheBarricade (writer), TheCandlesticksFromLesMis (filmmaker/screenwriter), and ThePiecesOfCait (artist) discuss the sources they look to when recreating characters and different qualities they use to inform their characterizations in their respective works.)

A panel and Q&A discussion between writers of Canon Era fanfic. Potential topics of discussion include research skills and tips, evoking the period though language / sensory details, and the difference between historical accuracy vs. historical authenticity.