Call for Papers

BECKETT BRUNCH

December 11th 2026

Bordeaux

We have started. And restarted and restarted the start. We are lost. It is lost. We have to rethink what we’re doing here before it’s too late.

— On a commencé. Et recommencé, et recommencé le début. On est perdus. C’est perdu. Il faut reréfléchir à ce qu’on fait ici avant qu’il ne soit trop tard.

Nicola McCartney, “I can’t remember the…”, Not Beckett.

As part of the “After Beckett : Festival Beckett/Not Beckett” taking place in Bordeaux from 9-11^th December 2026, this new Beckett Brunch invites reflections, creative responses, and short papers on contemporary engagements with and rewritings of Samuel Beckett’s work, over thirty-five years after his death. This event will particularly engage with translation as a process of transmission, with new plays inspired by Beckett, and with questions of canon, heritage, and creation.

Dans le cadre du festival « After Beckett : Festival Beckett/Not Beckett » organisé à Bordeaux du 9 au 11 décembre 2026, ce nouveau Beckett Brunch propose de réfléchir aux réécritures contemporaines de l’œuvre de Samuel Beckett plus de trente-cinq ans après sa disparition. Une attention particulière sera portée à la traduction comme pratique de transmission, aux nouvelles dramaturgies inspirées de Beckett, ainsi qu’aux questions de canon, d’héritage et de création.

During the festival, KOIMETE will present their interpretation of Not Beckett, an ensemble of five new short plays in French. These plays, written by femme-identifying and non-binary playwrights of diversified Irish descent, offer innovative reappropriations of Beckett’s dramatic work. The playwrights both engage with the aesthetics, themes, and forms of Beckett’s work, and move away from them, allowing new, contemporary voices to emerge, speaking, to paraphrase Come and Go, both of “the old days,” and “of what comes after”.

A cette occasion, la compagnie KOIMETE présentera son interprétation de Not Beckett, ensemble de 5 pièces courtes inédites en français. Dans ce spectacle, les dramaturges d’origine irlandaise, qui s’identifient tous·tes comme femmes ou personnes non-binaires, proposent une réappropriation inventive du matériau théâtral beckettien. Tout en dialoguant avec l’esthétique, les thèmes ou les formes de l’œuvre de Beckett, iels s’en émancipent pour faire émerger de nouvelles voix qui entrent en résonance, pour paraphraser Va-et-vient, avec « le vieux temps » et « ce qui vint après ».

Following the spirit of the Beckett Brunch, created to bring together research and creation in a collaborative (and croissant-filled!) environment, we encourage proposals from academics, doctoral students, translators, practitioners, playwrights, playwrights, performers, and artists whose work engages with these questions of transmission, rewriting, and creation “after Beckett”. Presentations may take the form of a critical reflection, an account of an artistic creation or production, or a piece of creative research, and we welcome other original engagements with the themes of this festival.

Cet appel s’adresse aussi bien aux chercheur·euses qu’aux artistes. Fidèle à l’esprit de dialogue entre recherche et création qui anime le Beckett Brunch (et ses croissants et chocolatines !), nous accueillerons avec intérêt des propositions émanant d’universitaires, de doctorant·es, de traducteur·rices, de praticien·nes du théâtre, de dramaturges, de metteur·euses en scène, de performeur·euses et d’artistes dont le travail entre en résonance avec les questions de transmission, de réécriture et de création « après Beckett ». Les formats de présentation pourront ainsi privilégier aussi bien une réflexion critique qu’un retour d’expérience artistique ou une démarche de recherche-création.

Proposals for interventions of 10 minutes maximum, may consider

The transmission of Beckett’s work on stage
Rewritings, translations, and contemporary theatrical adaptations of Beckett’s texts
Beckett and new drama
Collaborative pedagogies and practices in relation to Beckett’s dramatic works

Les propositions pour des communications de format court – 10 minutes maximum – pourront aborder :

la transmission de l’œuvre de Beckett sur scène
les réécritures, traductions et adaptations théâtrales contemporaines des textes beckettiens
Beckett et les nouvelles dramaturgies
pédagogies et pratiques collaboratives autour du théâtre de Beckett

Proposals, of 200 words maximum, as well as a short biographical note (100 words maximum), should be sent to pascale.sardin@u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr and dunlaith.bird@univ-paris13.fr before September 6^th 2026.

Les propositions (200 mots maximum) accompagnées d’une courte notice biographique (100 mots maximum) sont à envoyer à pascale.sardin@u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr et dunlaith.bird@univ-paris13.fr avant le 6 septembre 2026.

CALL FOR PAPERS

12^th Samuel Beckett Society Conference

East- and Southward Ho / Cap à l’Est, Cap au Sud

Conference Date: June 9-11, 2027

Organized by Bordeaux Montaigne University, Sorbonne University

and Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi

at Université Bordeaux Montaigne, Pessac, France

Contact: pascale.sardin@u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr and karine.germoni@sorbonne.ae

Seven years after the aborted conference that was to be held at Bordeaux Montaigne University, we are happy to announce that the 12^th Conference of the Samuel Beckett Society will finally take place in Pessac, France from June 9 to 11, 2027, organized by Bordeaux Montaigne University in partnership with Sorbonne University and Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi on the topic “Samuel Beckett – East- and Southward Ho”.

While Samuel Beckett’s literary geography is traditionally mapped onto the landscapes of Ireland, his life was marked by recurrent trips to England, Germany, Italy, France, Tunisia or Morocco – destinations located to the east and south of his native Ireland. Concurrently, his work possesses a profound resonance with the idea of existential disorientation: if the “vanquished” woman in The Lost Ones is understood to represent “a north”, then this seemingly arbitrary objective may also underscore the absurdity of the hope that the “searchers” place in it. Moreover, the Beckettian themes of displacement, linguistic fragmentation, and existential meaninglessness have found fertile ground far beyond Europe.

This conference aims to reassess the work of Samuel Beckett by highlighting, on the one hand, his lasting influence on contemporary writing practices in the Global South, and on the other, the significance of the concepts of “going east” and “going south.” These concepts invite a critical rethinking of literary orientation – both geographically and epistemologically – by shifting attention away from traditional European centers toward alternative cultural, linguistic, and intellectual trajectories. “Going east” and “going south” thus point to forms of circulation, translation, and reinterpretation that challenge dominant literary hierarchies, foreground marginal voices, and create new comparative frameworks through which Beckett’s work may be understood in non-Western contexts.

We invite scholars and artists to explore the intersections of Beckettian aesthetics with the cultural, political, and philosophical realities of the Global South, moving beyond the Eurocentric canon to examine how Beckett’s texts are read, performed, adapted, and theorized. We hope to bring together researchers and performers from countries around the world –particularly from non-Western contexts – to generate new knowledge regarding the work of Samuel Beckett. We believe that by looking East and South, we do not merely apply Beckett to new contexts, but rather allow these contexts to reveal new dimensions of the work itself.

We welcome proposals that address the following areas:

Discourses on the work and the writer: How do these vary according to the Eastern and Southern cultures and contexts in which they arise? What literary, stylistic and thematic representations emerge from these?
Literary Topographies and Trajectories: How might Beckett’s seemingly abstract or indeterminate spaces be reinterpreted through Eastern and Southern perspectives? In what ways do his representations of space, movement, and disorientation invite new forms of geographical or spatial thinking?
Post-Colonial and Decolonial Readings: To what extent do Beckett studies continue to reproduce predominantly Western interpretive frameworks? How is Beckett’s work received, reinterpreted, or transformed in postcolonial contexts and across the Global South? Do such re-visions open up new forms of dialogue with Beckett’s work, and how might they be understood in relation to current debates on cultural appropriation?
Performance and Adaptation, Translation and Language:How have local directors, actors, and playwrights recontextualized the Beckett canon to reflect local histories? What are the challenges and innovations of translating Beckett into Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Swahili, Portuguese, and other languages?
Philosophical Resonances, and Political and Gendered Stakes: How do Beckett’s works echo or resonate with Eastern and Southern philosophies and epistemologies? To what extent are Beckett’s works interpreted politically and performed from a political perspective? How is the issue of gender(s) addressed through cultural and social values coming from the Global South?

Submission Guidelines

We invite abstracts of approximately 300 words for 15-minute papers in French or English. Please include:

Title of the paper
Abstract
Area/theme addressed
Brief biographical note (100 words) including institutional affiliation and current research interests
Preferred presentation format (in-person or virtual)