Impressions from the International Conference "Animals and Words" (Darmstadt, May 26-27, 2014)

http://mad.hypotheses.org/312Billet de carnet de recherche, Medieval Animal Data-network (Hypotheses.org) http://mad.hypotheses.org/312Animaliter is an international research network, which acronym means ‘Animal in literature’. Animaliter organizes regularly scientific conferences. The 2014 meeting took place in Germany in Darmstadt (Technische Universität) on May 26-27, 2014. The topics of the conference, entitled “Animals and Words”, included “Talking about animals” (naming, classifying, describing, qualifying), “Talking with animals” (disputations, dialogues) and “Talking Animals” (typology of voices and signification).This paper is a comment on several topics studied during this conference : Digital Humanities, cultural exchanges between the Orient and the Occident, Christian moralizations on animals. My major comments discuss a critical view on the relationship between words and real things, i.e. between Literature studies adn the zoological contect, material culture and everyday life.Le groupe de recherche international Animaliter (dont l'acronyme signifie animal dans la littérature) organise régulièrement des rencontres scientifiques sur l'histoire des animaux, en particulier dans la littérature médiévale. Le rencontre de Darmstadt de mai 2014 avait pour thème Les animaux et les mots (zoonymes, classifications, descriptions, qualifications). Le présent billet commente quelques points abordés pendant ce colloque, autour des Digital Humanities, des échanges Orient-Occident, des moralisations chrétiennes autour des animaux. Mes principales réflexions abordent un point de vue critique sur la question de la relation entre les mots et les choses "réelles", c'est-à-dire entre l'étude de la littérature et le contexte zoologique, matériel et quotidien