Wednesday 11th December, 5.00-7.00 pm
Room 152-153 (Cayley Room), University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2HW

Evil, Reborn: Remaking Disney Villains and the Gothic Intertext
Lorna Piatti-Farnell (Auckland University of Technology) 

In an age when the film industry has given us a prolific stream of remakes, sequels, prequels and other creative off-shoots, it is not surprising to see Disney jump enthusiastically on the retelling bandwagon. Disney has recently developed their own distinctive form of ‘re-make’: the live-action re-make. Within this, Disney villains have often taken central stage. Aesthetically, the roots of Disney’s villains can be traced through fairy tales, Gothic literature and horror. The twenty-first century, however, has added a layer of complication. Narratives of redemption are constantly associated with well-known villains, often changing or reshuffling both physical and perceived moral characteristics that were once seen to be untouchable. In the contemporary era, animated Disney villains cannot be considered as singular entities, but must be perceived as intertextual figures that are continuously remade and reborn across narrative and media spectrums.

Lorna Piatti-Farnell is Director of the Popular Culture Research Centre at AUT. Her many books include Consuming Gothic: Food and Horror in Film (Palgrave 2017) and The Vampire in Contemporary Popular Literature (Routledge 2014).

All welcome, but guests from outside Westminster should RSVP Frankie Hines: frankie.hines@my.westminster.ac.uk OR Baptiste Danel: baptiste.danel@my.westminster.ac.uk

Due to a major strike in France, including on the French railways, we are sorry to have to cancel tonight’s event with Fabien Jobard. We will try to reschedule this session of the seminar series “French Politics: A Neighbour’s History of the Present” next year. Apologies for any inconvenience. 

Wednesday 4 December 2019, 6.00 – 7.30 pm
The Boardroom, first floor, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2HW

Liberal, Authoritarian, or Police State? Defining the French State According to its Police
Fabien Jobard (CNRS / Centre for Sociological Research on Law and Penal Institutions)

Fabien Jobard specialises in matters concerning the police in France and Germany. He is a research director at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and at the Centre for Sociological Research on Law and Penal Institutions (CESDIP). He also is a visiting professor at Louvain Global College of Law. He recently published “Transformation of State’s Use of Force in Europe” in Desmond King & Patrick Le Galès (ed.), Reconfiguring European States in Crisis (Oxford University Press, 2017) and, with Daniel Schönpflug, Politische Gewalt im urbanen Raum (De Gruyter, 2019). Fabien Jobard is also the co-author, with Dave Waddington and Mike King, of the book Rioting in the UK and France (Willan, 2009).

Part of the series French Politics: A Neighbour’s ‘History of the Present’, co-organised by the IMCC in collaboration with our friends in the Centre for the Study of Democracy, and with the support of the French Embassy and the Political Studies Association.

Free to attend, but booking via eventbrite is essential.