We sometimes hear it said that literature isn't doing too well in France, that literary history, literary criticism and literary theory don't get the limelight as easily - in short, that "c'était mieux avant" (it was better before) is an old traditionalist refrain. On the first point, the mourners of the past suffer from myopia; the works selected by posterity are never numerous, in any era, and there are no fewer or more today than yesterday. Several recent major prizes and worldwide successes should give some measure to the diagnosis. As for the second point, our prophets of doom have doubtless not consulted the formidable output of the last decade. In order to illustrate some of the most promising directions in literature studies, selecting just one book from each of the last ten years was no easy task. The list below neither sums up the current state of literary research, nor is it a prize list. It may contain a certain arbitrariness, but it also seeks to mix approaches. Each author will be asked to offer a kind of afterword to his or her book, or to reflect briefly on his or her methods, results and disappointments. The aim is for each contribution to give rise to a stimulating debate.
Symposium