Book reviews / Essays

• Homo narrans and the variables in his narratives

Danielle PASCAL-CASAS invites you to read her essay "L'homo narrans et les variables de ses récits" (Homo narrans and the variables of his narratives), in connection with the "Fiction et sciences sociales" conference on May 16 and 17, 2024.

It may be considered too ambitious, too encyclopedic or, paradoxically, deserving of further development.

It could be criticized for its multiple notes and references, far removed from the good graces of current editorial choices; the indication of the institutional status of the referenced, a biased proof of the relevance of the quoted remarks, some would think; the overly broad field of disciplines questioned, and therefore an epistemological position that could be contested.

For Danielle PASCAL-CASAS, however, the notes are an extension of the text, which the reader can use only if he or she wishes to delve deeper into the proposed line of thought and the related documents from a wide variety of sources. The text remains totally comprehensible if you want to do without it; the institutional status of the speakers is mentioned, as it's good to know where the remarks are being made from; her methodology consists of approaching a very wide range of texts, from different disciplines and multiple sources. Theoretically, we consider every text as a writing experience and as a plot of facts. It draws on the Ricoeurian concept of narrative, and adds to it a narratological approach linked to neurology. It's this latter point that she highlights in her paper "Le décentrement des récits", presented at the international colloquium on "Fiction et Sciences Sociales" organized by the SantESiH laboratory at Montpellier University on May 16 and 17, 2024.

The choice of texts will take us from the great collective narratives of imposed universalism, to multi-situated texts, a current trend in all fields of knowledge, from the "we" of enacted narratives, to the search for a "we" to be constructed according to variable "I's". The hybridity of contemporary narratives, the porosity between fiction, autofiction and non-fiction, opens up major horizons for reflection on current fields of knowledge, which Danielle PASCAL-CASAS questions.

Knowing that we are biologically beings of language, with which we construct narratives that modulate our world for better or for worse. The "we" is still the ultimate goal for the proponents of democracy, based on "I's" that are often weakened by manipulative algorithms and fearsomely effective puppeteers. Let the power of Scheherazade's tales remind us of the need to move towards more inclusive narratives. Words can build or destroy the world. They have all the power.

               Send your comments on the trial to: dpascalcasas@gmail.com

• Visible and invisible, the paradox of the fat body.

Rouvarel M. (2023). Visible et invisible, le paradoxe du corps gros. Book review: Grossophobie, sociologie d'une discrimination invisible, Solenne Carof (2021), Édition de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, (272 pages). Ethnologie française, 2023-1, pp 137-139.

• When travel becomes pathological... Mad travellers

Review of When travel becomes pathological... Mad travelers

Ian Hacking, Les fous voyageurs, Paris, Seuil, coll. "Les empêcheurs de penser en rond", 2002, 391 p. Nathalie Le Roux - TEOROS magazine

• Tourism, Health, Wellbeing and Protected Areas

Proceedings of Tourism, Health, Wellbeing and Protected Areas

Iride Azara, Elini Michopoulou, Federico Niccolini, B. Derrick Taff and Alan Clarke (eds.), Tourism, Health, Wellbeing and Protected Areas, Croydon, CABI, 2018, 225 pp.

Eric Perera - TEOROS magazine

• Anthropological insights from the East

Review of "Exoticism and intelligibility: Itineraries of the Orient".

François Pouillon, Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 2017, 258 pages

• What is ethnopragmatics for?

Review of "What is ethnopragmatics?"

PU de Bordeaux

Bernard Traimond