On November 24, the École normale supérieure de la rue d’Ulm attracted an unusual audience by devoting a seminar to the American singer, open to all and free.
By Marion Dupont
Thursday, November 24, the public installed on the red seats of the Dussan hall does not quite resemble the one who usually frequents the corridors of the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) on rue d’Ulm, in Paris. The majority of young adults present are not students of the institution – or even students: one is a lawyer, the other works in a media agency, another for a cosmetics company. If the profiles are very diverse, almost all and all consider themselves first as fans of the singer Beyoncé. This is also the reason for their presence this evening: the idea that the prestigious school can devote a seminar to their idol has stung their curiosity.
They are not the only ones: relayed by the general press as by influencers (like Marc Vivian Geromegnace, better known as Marcus by the subscribers of Léna situations), the announcement that the self -proclaimed queen of pop pop was going to be dubbed by the ENS made the buzz. The opening session of the student seminar, organized by Victor Kandelaft, Valentine Truchard and Joël Zouna, attracts three times more people than an ordinary seminar. “I can’t wait to hear what they have to say on the subject,” says Yelena before the start of the session, while a friend wonders if the fans will recognize themselves in the analyzes presented.
A BARTHESIAN mythology
Entitled “Beyoncé: Tops and reappropriations”, this opening session is an opportunity for the organizers and their first guest, the philosopher Richard Mèmeteau, to introduce several questions raised by the Queen B. phenomenon. Place immediately on the cultural and political levels, rather than artistic: can Beyoncé be considered as a barthesesian mythology of the XXI e century? What is pop culture, what distinguishes it from mainstream, and who is it for exactly? Why is it so difficult for the Drag-Queens of the program RuPaul’s Drag Race, however broken to the exercise, to parody the superstar? What does Beyoncé’s success in today’s world say? In an hour and a half, the presentation skillfully mixes the registers, successively using Bourdieu and Madonna, Tiktok videos and quotes from Susan Sontag, academic jargon and familiar language, aroused both laughs and concentrated looks in the room.
Many those who, after the public question session, congratulate and thank the speakers. Young organizers finally blow. Did they expect this crowd? “We knew that the subject was going to attract audiences outside the school. We saw the opportunity to recall that the École normale supérieure is open to all, which can be attended there for many seminars, and above all That knowledge has no limits, “explains Victor Kandelaft. The institution, the temple of learned culture, has indeed opened up to other fields – its students distinguished itself today by their ability to move from one to the other – but still struggles to attract and to recruit socially more diverse audiences. On the scale of this event, the objective seems to be achieved: several auditors assure that they will come to attend the following sessions, which will address the themes of Afrofeminism and cultural appropriation. For school, taking Beyoncé seriously may well have paid.
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