From the analysis of contemporary French novels representative of
The writing of a self located as in weightlessness of social constraints, Anne Barrère and Danilo Martuccelli maintain that this romantic production deemed to be narcissistic tells us more about contemporary subjectivity and its perception of the social than would do more classic works of fiction. A thesis to be nuanced.
Anne Barrère and Danilo Martuccelli devote a big book to the novels of about twenty contemporary French writers. And not to any authors since, with the exception of Annie Ernaux perhaps, they chose the least sociological novels there are: no heroes and social characters, no precise and finely described environments, no social theses, not or few moral indignation … On the contrary, these intimate and meticulous novels seem socially located. They are the antipodes of the great romantic tradition which, from Balzac to Simenon, could be held for one of the sources of sociology, also to the antipodes of novels published in the north and south of America giving social life a weight and a density which sometimes make it a better sociology than that of sociologists. The whole bet of this book is to try to convince us that this romantic production a priori if “ narcissistic »We learn more about contemporary social subjectivity and its perception of the social than would do it more classic works of fiction and so manifestly” sociological ».
We will not find in this book a sociology of literature centered on the “ literary field », Neither on the social biographies of the authors, nor on the reception of works ; In short, nothing that could be “ determine This literature. Nor will we find the photo of the society given to us by these writers, and this for a simple reason: there is in these novels neither photos nor society. There are only subjectivities, only self -to self -relations including Anne Barrère and Danilo Martuccelli think that they are the main sociological interest of these novels which should renew sociological imagination, to tear sociologists from aging and agreed conceptions of social life.
The first characteristic of these novels, which all owe in this to “ new novel “Is the disappearance of the social figure, the disappearance of the meeting of an individual, a social role and a history, and of the tragic character of this meeting which was the breeding ground for romantic introspection in a social world which, in the last analysis, drew the strings. These novels also flatte the story and its deep social logics in favor of a superposition of perfectly contingent, chaotic, hazardous stories and events. These novels are not socially located or weakly: we erase social traces there, we hardly work, if not in the writing of the novel, it seems, the objects, the atmospheres, the atmospheres, the climates, the brief encounters, the desire more than love, replace the solid intrigue of traditional novels. Finally, these novels are devoid of stable interpretative frames ; Psychoanalysis and sociology are treated ironically there as agreed fables. So, the authors have an extreme concern for detail and the vagaries of banal life, they interpret their emotions and their thoughts, then interpret their interpretations of their emotions and their feelings without ever stabilizing this “ abyss »Of self. The authors and characters of the novels do not believe in the consistency of society, or in their own consistency, the two phenomena forming only one. In this sense, these novels are not Proustians because this literature without heroes is neither fooled by feelings, nor social game, she never ceases to “ deconstruct Without this deconstruction itself being a thesis. At best it is an experience.
The novel as a laboratory Déploys this interpretation on a series of themes: the replacement of roles with affects, situations by atmospheres, of society by objects. It is the triumph of little things, pleasures and misfortunes “ tiny », Without even the story structures the whole other than by the multiplication of angles and framing which borrow more from the world of cinema and television series than in the romantic framework. Analyzes of novels, from which many extracts are given, and interpretations of these analyzes intersect throughout this work conducted with method and mobilizing an impressive sociological and literary culture. Basically, these are these novels so little “ sociological Who would give us the keys to the imagination that sociologists need to understand the modern subjectivity carried away by the separation of the objectivity of things and the subjectivity of individuals. But where we could be tempted to describe a “ crisis », The evil of living affected and a little snobbish of a very small world, Anne Barrère and Danilo Martuccelli seek the contemporary figures of the individual, the work of the imaginary and the weight of nostalgia never being reconciled and adequate to oneself.
One of the forces of this book written with four hands comes from what one of the authors can be felt, let’s say Anne Barrère, wants to convince the other about the interest of this literature, and that the other, let’s say Danilo Martuccelli, only asks to find good reasons to be convinced. Also the book has the charm of a plea and a discussion between a lover of letters and a lover of sociological theory, between one who loves this literature and the other, who wonders why she deserves to be loved.
It remains to be seen whether the reader is convinced by the sociological interest of this literature. A priori, he only asks to be because we cannot hold as insignificant novels a priori so far from the reflexes of the profession of sociologist too often inviting to seek solid frameworks behind fictions in order to explain the imaginary by social frameworks: reflections, metaphors, reversals … Now, this literature, nor exemplary, “ typified “, Nor metaphorical, is that of dream life and the fluidity of the social. In a way, it confirms many theses on post-modernity, the “ liquid company Or the second modernity, if only by breaking with the established frames of characters, environments and stories. But if we do not have a particularly pronounced taste for this literature, it is not certain that the reading of Anne Barrère’s book and Danilo Martuccelli always convinces us of his sociological interest. First, this romantic style is only one style among others which, on the contrary, take the social with the body, until it sometimes reifies it. Let us think of the novels of Elroy, of Wolf de Roth which remain those of the characters and the epics, and who are neither less modern nor less cruel. Think of increasingly sociological detective novels, more and more political science fiction, the return of the historical novel … The books studied in The novel as a laboratory only occupy a radius of the contemporary library. It is true that the thesis of the book supposes that there is no longer a hegemonic style. Although the question seems deeply traditional, even “ cheesy “, We can also wonder if the novels mentioned are also” desocialized »Let that: we have the strange feeling that they are almost all written by teachers of letters, (their style» well -written “Often evidenced by it), in his forties, Parisians and a little” out of the world ».
But if there is a point on which the reader of The novel as a laboratory is convinced, it is that of dealing with an important book, a book that poses a real sociological question, and a book that renews sociological imagination and undoubtedly literary analysis. After The novel as a laboratorywe will no longer read the novels he talks about in the same way ; We will expect these novels to say something to sociologists, which, let’s face it, was far from acquired.