This is the central site for a long-term project to research, examine, and respond to the radical collective of writers, theorists, architects, and visual artists who operated in Paris between 1829 and 1835 under the names of the Jeunes France & the Bouzingo, and through them to build a critical understanding of French Romanticist subculture through the historical lens of a continuing politically vigilant Anglophone avant-garde.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

An Update at last

The "Resurrecting" project has continued to progress slowly but steadily since the last 'News' post almost three years ago--time and overwork being what they are, I have been able to make time either for research, translation, and editing OR for disseminating and and updating the website--I could not do both.

 In the interim, all of us concerned with the project have been led into deeper, more nuanced understandings of the Romanticist community and those with which it intersected and evolved into. More translations have been produced, the physical archive/research library greatly expanded, more essays written, more poetic responses composed. The project has also taken on numerous forms of dissemination and pedagogy including an exhibition, several chapbook publications on a dedicated sub-imprint of mOnocle-Lash Anti-Press, several lectures and interviews, intersections with two high school classes (on "200 Years of -Isms" and "Utopia/Dystopia"), and hacks and poetic responses to Bousingot work being distributed through the mail art network and associated online communities. 

In two weeks, there will be a presentation on the Revenants Archive followed by a lecture & reading of Bousingot verse for a group of avant-gardists from around the U.S. at the AfterMAF event in Roanoke, VA. Afterward, and interspersed with many other duties and undertakings, I hope to begin the long, arduous process of making the website reflect the state of current research and activity, and to make it generally more navigable. Developments will be slow and gradual, but will proceed apace.

The overhaul has at least begun: The design has been changed to hopefully make the site easier to read, though a bigger overhaul may wait on the horizon. The 'Translations' section has been considerably updated; both that and the 'Biographies' section are now organised simply as links to PDF files, rather than filling out unwieldy blog-post formats. The 'Physical Archive' section has now branched off to its own webpage with 166 catalogued items.

Yet to come: an updated Timeline (its current state is largely conjectural or based on tertiary sources which can now be superseded by more reliable evidence); a page documenting the publications, lectures, and other activities associated with the project; many translations and short bios relating to the broader Avant-Garde  Romanticist community; huge updates to the research resources now grouped in the sidebars; an expanded "Links" page; and a redesigned format, possibly involving a switch to another blogging platform.

Stay tuned for developments!