Modern survival stories are re-examining the Robinson Crusoe myth by exploring new temporalities, particularly through female figures. Unlike Defoe’s hero, who was obsessed with measuring time, these new female castaways break free from Chronos to embrace Kairos, a time of creativity and transformation. From The Wall by Marlen Haushofer to Into the Forest by Jean Hegland, these narratives feature heroines who, faced with the collapse of a world, reinvent their relationship with time and nature. During this workshop, a discussion with Isabelle Autissier about Soudain, seuls will provide an opportunity to explore these stories and their potential for rethinking the future.
Annabel Audureau holds a PhD in Comparative Literature and teaches in the Literature Department at La Rochelle University. She is also a researcher in popular literature and culture. Her thesis, Fantômas: A Modern Myth at the Crossroads of the Arts (Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2010), examined the trajectory of this 20th-century popular culture character as both a modern myth and a myth of modernity across literature, painting, and cinema.
Currently deputy director of the La Rochelle research unit PoLiCÉMIES—a team bringing together researchers in languages, French and foreign literature, political science, and media to analyze cultural transitions within the LUDI (Sustainable Intelligent Urban Littoral) context—she now focuses more specifically on the links between popular culture and the environment, for instance through the study of female-led Robinsonades.