“WHAT IS INTERVENTIONIST CRITICISM?” IN CONVERSATION WITH PIERRE BAYARD

As part of vOilah! France Singapore Festival 2022 and the Singapore Writers Festival 2022, IFS welcomes a guest from France,

Pierre Bayard

Monday, 7 November, from 10 A.M. to 12 P.M.

in the 3000 amphitheatre.

The conference will be open to 11th-grade students only (première), and the theme discussed will be :

“What is interventionist criticism?”

Pierre Bayard is a professor of French literature at the University of Paris 8 and a psychoanalyst.

He is the author of many essays, among which his most famous book, “How to talk about books you haven’t read?” (Minuit, 2007), explores different ways of not reading books and recommends solutions to being able to talk about it.

It starts from the premise that readers can have an excellent understanding of particular literary works without reading them. Therefore, they can rid themselves of guilt for not reading the great classics. From his point of view, the key to gaining a general culture overview is to have a global perspective.

This interview will be led by Terminale (Grade 12) students as part of their EMC (Civic and Moral Education) class. It is an opportunity for Première students (Grade 11) to meet a writer and to understand the scope of literature, as well as to question the validity of literary works and acquire a critical mind.