The war of words and the festival of books

The plurality of European languages does not prevent a certain uniformity in the use of words - of certain key words in politics. The analyses in the critique of class politics in the recent book La Guerre des mots (The War of Words) could be made in other countries too, with minimal differences. This sad monotony, which relies in the first place on the preservation of a social monotony thanks to which the less numerous can dominate the more numerous, stands in stark contrast to international literature festivals. There, on the other hand, the plurality of languages and the creative diversity in the use of the words that belong to them are subject to the celebration from which the festival takes its name : a feast. Translation, now well established as an academic field, is of great importance, especially in multilingual Europe.