On Both Sides of the Tracks: Social Mobility in Contemporary French Literature

An analysis of social mobility in contemporary French literature that offers a new perspective on figures who move between social classes. Social climbers have often been the core characters of novels. Their position between traditional tiers in society makes them touchstones for any political and literary moment, including our own. Morgane Cadieu's study looks at a certain kind of social climber in contemporary French literature whom she calls the parvenant. Taken from the French term parvenu, which refers to one who is newly arrived, a parvenant is a character who shuttles between social groups. A parvenant may become part of a new social class but&nbsp; devises literary ways to come back, constantly undoing any fixed idea of social affiliation. Focusing on recent French novels and autobiographies, On Both Sides of the Tracks speaks powerfully to issues of emancipation and class. Cadieu offers a fresh critical look at tales of social mobility in the work of Annie Ernaux, Kaoutar Harchi, Michel Houellebecq, Édouard Louis, and Marie NDiaye, among others, shedding fascinating light on upward mobility today as a formal, literary problem.

Literature & Fiction

Cadieu, Morgane

History & Criticism

University of Chicago Press

This book explores the issues of chance, antichance, and the clinamen in the domains of writing, enumerating and walking, and in so doing creating an updated analysis of determinism, free will, creation and the desire to connect in works by Queneau, Perec, Beckett, Garreta, Calvino, Calle, Duras and Modiano.

Marcher Au Hasard: Clinamen et Creation Dans La Prose Du XXe Siecle (Etudes De Litterature Des XXe et XXIe Siecles, 82) (French Edition)

Classiques Garnier Multimedia

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Books by Cadieu, Morgane

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cadieu, Morgane. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

On Both Sides of the Tracks: Social Mobility in Contemporary French Literature

On Both Sides of the Tracks: Social Mobility in Contemporary French Literature

Marcher Au Hasard: Clinamen et Creation Dans La Prose Du XXe Siecle (Etudes De Litterature Des XXe et XXIe Siecles, 82) (French Edition)