Benjamin Dalton, "Catherine Malabou and Contemporary French Literature and Film: Witnessing Plasticity" (Edinburgh UP, 2026)

About this episode

The episode discusses Catherine Malabou's philosophy of plasticity in relation to contemporary French literature and film.

Our bodies and brains are radically transformable, mutable and plastic. From the neuroplasticity of the brain to the epigenetic malleability of our bodies and of all organic life, the work of the contemporary French philosopher Catherine Malabou invites us to consider our plasticity as both a creative resource and an ethical challenge. Catherine Malabou and Contemporary French Literature and Film: Witnessing Plasticity (Edinburgh UP, 2026) brings Malabou's philosophy into dialogue with contemporary literature and film. It reads conceptions of plasticity and neuroplasticity in Malabou through the mutant bodies of Leos Carax's films; the shape-shifting bodies of Marie Darrieussecq's novels and theatre; the terrifying, traumatic metamorphoses depicted in the fiction of Marie NDiaye; and the anarchic sexualities and identities celebrated in the cinema and writing of Alain Guiraudie. It argues that, in different ways, Malabou's philosophy and literary and filmic texts develop modes of bearing witness to plasticity which can supplement, challenge and extend scientific understandings of biological plasticity, constituting ethical and creative sites of exploration. Learn more about your…

People in this episode

Host: Marshall Poe

Topics covered

• plasticity
• neuroplasticity
• contemporary literature
• contemporary film
• ethical challenges
• creative resources

Keywords

• Catherine Malabou
• plasticity
• neuroplasticity
• Leos Carax
• Marie Darrieussecq
• Marie NDiaye
• Alain Guiraudie
• contemporary literature
• contemporary film

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Edinburgh UP

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