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Project

Factory literary heritage. Study collections of biographical essays illustrated in France (1944-2000).

This project seeks to provide both a historical study and a theoretical analysis of five collections of illustrated biographies of writers published in France between the post-war period and the present (1944-2013) – “Poètes d’aujourd’hui” (Seghers), “Écrivains de toujours” (Seuil), “Albums Pléiade” (Gallimard), “Les Géants” (Paris-Match) and “Les Contemporains” (Seuil). The project will focus on the functions of these collections in the context of the rise of paperback publishing and the construction of the literary canon in the last decades. The historical side of the project will study the history of the collections in terms of their relation to the larger French literary scene. These illustrated biographies represent a new literary format (small size), based on the interaction between multiple genres (biography, portrait, critical essay and anthology), along with a rich iconography. Accordingly, from a more theoretical perspective then, the project will analyse the way in which these works function in terms of genres and mediological and socio-literary constraints. The originality of the project is both historical and theoretical. It lies in the fact that it is the study f collections of works that have been neglected in the field of literary studies, despite having been widely diffused in the second half of the 20th century. At the same time, the project will apply a diversity of methodologies, including the history of the book and history of literature, discourse analysis, mediology, iconographic analysis and sociology. As such, this project will help deepen the theory on the author in literature as well as the study of genres, particularly in their interactions and in their relationship with the medium.

Date:1 Jan 2014 →  31 Dec 2017
Keywords:1944-2000, Factory literary heritage
Disciplines:Linguistics, Theory and methodology of linguistics, Other languages and literary studies