Abstract
The way we think about characters, essential elements in literature, has changed a great deal : consider, for example, the attack on the hero, that " outdated notion ", according to Robbe-Grillet. A current assessment can be made in three stages. Firstly, on a conceptual level, our era is tending to take the character out of fiction and turn it into a psychology, likely to be embodied in practices such as cosplay.
Secondly, from an imaginary point of view. An international survey was carried out to understand the reception of fictional characters, revealing, of course, socio-cultural divides, but also and above all a trend towards the globalization of the imaginary (the main divide being generational).
Finally, a computer model was used to draw up a typology of the " demographic styles " of several 19th century authors, i.e. the way in which characters are organized within the work. It brought out elements of literary history, such as the divide between the women's novels of the turn of the century, strongly " hero-centric ", and the novels of Victor Hugo, who made an astonishing change : naming characters who had hitherto been anonymous.
