Bourdieu’s Inheritors. The Return of Class Issues in Contemporary French Literature

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Gregor Schuhen
• Subject Area: European and American Literary and Cultural Studies
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 449669912

The planned project aims to shed light on current socio-political problems and their narratives in contemporary French literature. The corpus of texts (published 2003 until today) will be examined relying on both literary-sociological and narratological methods. The project will have a double focus: In a first step, it will explore the currently observed ‘Bourdieu boom’ in the humanities and the accompanying return of class issues against the backdrop of present crisis phenomena. These include globalisation and deindustrialisation, formation of elites and precarisation, processes of social division and challenges of migration. In a second step, the intensive reception of Bourdieu in contemporary French literature will be examined more closely. Three groups of texts will be distinguished: a) auto-sociobiographies with direct reference to Bourdieu (e. g. by Annie Ernaux, Didier Eribon and Édouard Louis), b) novels that deal in particular with the structural changes in post-industrial peripheral regions of France (e. g. by Pierre Jourde, Nicolas Mathieu and Aurélie Filippetti) and c) social novels that embed Bourdieu's studies on social distinction of bourgeois elites in contemporary narratives (e. g. by Michel Houellebecq, Virginie Despentes and Leïla Slimani). For all three groups, both the socio-critical discourses and the respective distinct narrative modes will be analysed, i. e. the project addresses both the “what” and the “how” of narration. Finally, as a supplement to the text analyses, Bourdieu’s public self-staging as a committed intellectual will be examined more closely against the background of his identity as a 'class refugee'. His ideal of the interventionist "intellectuel collectif" is particularly resonant in the left-wing circles of today’s Parisian literary scene and leads not only to a return of classical "littérature engagée", but also to public, sometimes ambivalent solidarity with various protest movements. In addition to the main text corpus, the paratexts produced by the authors under investigation in the form of public statements and social media activities play an important role. The aim of the project is a systematic and representative overall presentation of the current literary field in France with reference to Bourdieu’s work and influence, which will take the form of a project monograph. Further project activities include an interdisciplinary conference to examine Bourdieu’s significance in literary studies and a literary blog providing information on current issues and debates in the French literary scene.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants