This dissertation considers why fantasy has been so slow to be valued in literary circles, how those conditions are changing, and the implications of these changes for the broader topic of literary value. What makes literature worthy of study? It has become commonplace to observe, on the one hand, the increasing significance and ubiquity of cultural productions, and on the other hand, the waning significance of the humanities in higher education. Literary study, in particular, has seemed to be in danger of losing the basis for its justification. Over the last several decades, critique has become one of the most popular means of justifying the study of literature, as a practice of awakening resistance to ideological forces. And yet, literature has much more to offer besides critique, such as the affirmative values of communication, integration, and well-being. This dissertation seeks to enhance the relevance of literary study by outlining ongoing revisions to literary value through interpretations of contemporary fantasy. Previously, under modernism, literary value was defined as autonomy from the marketplace. However, following the rise of postmodernism, this ontological definition of literary value became questionable, legible only as a cultural construction. Critique functions as a means of preserving the movement towards, if not the content of, ideals of autonomy. The method of critique locates value in the insights of the critic or the author who demystifies, debunks, or otherwise criticizes social and cultural structures. To the extent that literary value has become identified with the aims of critique, these practices of negation offer an apparent certainty that glosses over the fact that constructions of value continue to require acts of faith from both readers and authors. Recent shifts in literary value point towards the inclusion of affirmative practices of construction, in addition to negative practices of deconstruction. Taking up these trends, this dissertation interprets how recent fantasies work to reconstruct the grounds for faith in literary value. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, especially, fantasists have begun to experiment with new ways of combining the values of critique with the values of affirmation. A postcritical approach to fantasy re-opens avenues in academic valuing for discussing the positive, embodied elements of literary value—particularly the value of escaping into a different world in order to understand, and to cope with, one’s own world better. As a form of genre fiction involving the mode of enchantment, fantasy has long been devalued along gendered lines, criticized for its supposed positioning of readers as passively manipulated. Part One, “Recovering Enchantment,” considers how fantasists have built on the growing recognition of the role of genre as a mode of communication; through enchanted reading, both authors and readers engage in relatively passive acts of absorption, which can be constructed to be more nourishing than other acts of consumption. Building on the substance of enchantment, Part Two, “Integrating the Values of Critique and Affirmation,” interprets how recent fantasies overcome the theoretical divergence that associates critique with literary autonomy and affirmation with popular manipulations, moving towards solutions for re-enchanting literary value. The methodology emphasizes the contributions of individual texts in the context of emerging and established uses of fantastic genres. Because reading fantasy involves an encoded act of faith, this literature is particularly suited for investigating new directions in literary value, and for producing literary artifacts that both recall and progress the inquiry into what it might mean to ‘believe in books.’

The dissertation presents and explores a mode of literary studies, which bypasses the question of literary value, and instead aims to assess how and where creative writing challenges hegemonic norms (that is, its political value). In so doing, it reflects on the practice of literary studies per se, and the mechanism(s) by which discourse can impact on subjecthood. The exploration entails the application of certain theoretical tools (concepts) in a reading of a literary work. The primary concepts employed are: performativity, subjectivity and gender. The dissertation seeks to read Muriel at Metropolitan (Tlali 1994) as a performative act, that is, a discursive event which re-enacts the practice of fictional writing and thereby extends (and possibly changes} the convention of crealive writing. If it is true that creative writing is performative, that it partake in the making of the individual, then it is important to study such writing in order to discover the consequences for the subject / English Studies / M.A. (English)

The dissertation presents and explores a mode of literary studies, which bypasses the question of literary value, and instead aims to assess how and where creative writing challenges hegemonic norms (that is, its political value). In so doing, it reflects on the practice of literary studies per se, and the mechanism(s) by which discourse can impact on subjecthood. The exploration entails the application of certain theoretical tools (concepts) in a reading of a literary work. The primary concepts employed are: performativity, subjectivity and gender. The dissertation seeks to read Muriel at Metropolitan (Tlali 1994) as a performative act, that is, a discursive event which re-enacts the practice of fictional writing and thereby extends (and possibly changes} the convention of crealive writing. If it is true that creative writing is performative, that it partake in the making of the individual, then it is important to study such writing in order to discover the consequences for the subject / English Studies / M.A. (English)

Articulant littérature et sociologie, cette thèse étudie le processus de construction de la valeur littéraire à travers les pratiques de sélection des intermédiaires de la chaîne du livre, en l’occurrence des bibliothécaires de lecture publique en section adulte, quand ils constituent les collections ou les mettent en valeur. Elle s’appuie sur une enquête menée entre 2004 et 2010 dans le réseau des bibliothèques de la Ville de Paris à partir d’observations (séances de travail et réunions), d’entretiens approfondis avec des bibliothécaires, d’analyses quantitatives multiples menées à partir des catalogues et d’analyses textuelles. Une première partie analyse le cadre institutionnel de la lecture publique, ses professionnels et ses destinataires, en interrogeant les modèles de lecture promus et la réalité de la démocratisation culturelle. Une deuxième partie envisage les politiques d’acquisitions et les reconfigurations de la hiérarchie des genres qu’elles esquissent. Une dernière partie étudie trois dispositifs de mise en valeur qui, dans leur complémentarité, articulent réponse à la demande et politique d’offre. La thèse montre que les choix des bibliothécaires sont liés à la fois au rapport qu’ils entretiennent avec leur profession, à leur conception de la lecture publique et à leur position d’agents des politiques de la lecture et d’acteurs du champ littéraire : dans une double exigence de qualité et d’accessibilité au plus grand nombre, ils promeuvent des valeurs moyennes, devant procurer plaisir et savoir ; ce faisant, ils prennent part au processus d’auctorialisation dans ses différentes phases, de la découverte à la perpétuation. / Crossing literature and sociology, this dissertation studies the process of production of literary values through the work of books’ intermediaries, here librarians of public libraries, when they choose literary books to build collections or to point out a part of the collections. It is based on a survey conducted between 2004 and 2010 in Paris’ libraries network through observation (working sessions and meetings), interviews with librarians, quantitative analysis of parts of libraries catalog and textual analysis. The first part of the dissertation analyzes the institutional frame of public policies regarding readership development, examining the models of reading they promote and the reality of cultural democratization. The second part considers the policies of acquisition and the way they may reconfigure the scale of genres. The last part studies three promotion devices, that try to reconcile answer to demand and supply policies. The dissertation stresses the link between librarians’ choices, their relation to their profession, their conception of public reading and their position within literary field : having a double requirement for quality and accessibility, they promote middlebrow values, and books that have to provide both pleasure and knowledge. In doing so they take part to the process of “auctorialization”, pretending to discover authors and contributing to the perpetuation of their consecration.

The main topic of this document is singer Jaromir Nohavica. I would like to describe the evolution of his poetics. The primary goal is to establish, that the year of revolution - 1989 is the critical impulse to his production. Reader is briefly introduced to Jaromir Nohavica's life, but also acquaint with concepts like popular culture and kitsch. Basically I focuse on Jaromir Nohavica's song poetics interpretation. The specific examples show that Nohavica shift towards the mainstream of popular literature, in thematic level, in level of production and presentation himself in the way of rendering Jaromir Nohavica, compared to songwriters of his time, does not lose the audience, he can beraised according to the new conditions and new age.

Definitions of celebrity authorship and material textuality at the turn of the twenty-first century have predominantly emphasised the implicitly negative aspects of contemporary developments in the literary marketplace. Particularly prominent are arguments that the practice of authorship has become subject to homogenisation by the matrix of celebrity in which successful writers are now expected to function; and, further, that the changing nature of texts themselves and the ways in which they are marketed is eroding the implicitly superior position traditionally held by literature in the cultural marketplace. This thesis views such readings as pessimistic, and offers an alternative, seeking to formulate a new critical approach to literary value in the contemporary sphere which would appreciate notions of celebrity, populism, and digital mediation as integral and productive aspects of how literary value is formed today. Through in-depth focus on the cases of a number of unconventional contemporary American authors whose work demonstrates differing, innovative approaches to the process of authorship, this thesis exposes the ways in which contemporary, atypically ‘literary’ instances of writing can and do work within and develop beyond traditional conceptualisations of authorship and literary value. Bret Easton Ellis and Jay McInerney, largely critically considered prototypical ‘celebrity’ authors, are in the first chapter reconsidered as writers whose understanding of their position within the literary marketplace affords them a self-conscious, critical perspective on the notion of celebrity in their work and public personae. The productively self-conscious author-figure is reconsidered in the second chapter, which reads the individual and joint works of author Paul Auster and visual artist Sophie Calle as foregrounding the process of creative collaboration as uniquely illuminating and transformative within the contemporary literary sphere. The notion of dual authorship is revisited and reconceptualised in the third chapter, which considers JT LeRoy and the practice of hoax authorship, outlining how this process forces the reformulation of literary value, particularly in a contemporary setting in which authors are accountable for their work in newer, more visible ways. The final chapter expands these previously-introduced themes to consider bloggers-turned-authors, particularly Tucker Max and Julie Powell, and the impact of the merging of old and new textualities on both the orientation of the figure of the writer and the way in which value is attached to his texts by readers. Ultimately, the unconventional nature of these examples is shown to belie the universality of the representations of value they enact, contributing to a full and salient account of how literary value is determined at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

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L’ensemble des interventions réalisées par Paulhan dans l’après-guerre peut se lire à l’aune de ce programme : comment reconstruire une communauté littéraire menacée par les dissensions héritées de la guerre ainsi que par la politisation accrue des enjeux ? Comment redéfinir les valeurs qui permettent de la rassembler à un moment de renouvellement profond des acteurs et des institutions qui en constituaient les références, mais aussi des usages et des pratiques de lecture ? Ce sont ces questions que nous entendons examiner. Une large part de notre travail est consacrée à l’activité revuiste de Paulhan : en effet, Les Cahiers de la Pléiade, comme La N.R.F., sont conçus par celui-ci comme un moyen privilégié pour ressouder une communauté littéraire éclatée et pour tenter de reconfigurer les hiérarchies qui structurent le champ littéraire. Nous proposons d’abord un récit chronologique de la renaissance de La N.R.F. dès 1953, en nous appuyant sur un important ensemble d’archives inédites. Nous abordons ensuite la question de la place du roman dans la revue : quel paysage romanesque la revue donne-t-elle à voir ? Est-elle à même de promouvoir de jeunes romanciers et de dessiner des directions au sein du champ littéraire des années 1950 ? On s’intéresse enfin aux réflexions théoriques de Paulhan sur la valeur littéraire. Nous examinons la position de Paulhan face à trois phénomènes décisifs qui modifient en profondeur la définition de cette valeur : la renégociation des rapports entre littérature légitime et non légitime, avec l’exemple de la défense de la littérature érotique ; la relève générationnelle ; le constat d’une crise du jugement critique. / All the interventions made by Paulhan in the post-war period could be understood in the light of this programme: how do we rebuild a literary community which unity is threatened by the divisions inherited from the war and by an increased politicization of its challenges ? How do we redefine its binding values in a time when the actors and the institutions that used to constitute its main references, as well as our reading practices, are profoundly renewed ? Those are the issues which will be discussed here. An important part of our work is devoted to Paulhan’s activity as a reviewer : He indeed conceived Les Cahiers de la Pléiade, as well as La N.R.F as a privileged way to reunite a fragmented literary community and to try reconfiguring the hierarchies which structure the literary field. We will first offer a chronological narrative of the rebirth of the N.R.F from1953, on the basis of a large set of unpublished archives. We will then consider the status of the novel in the journal: Which perspective does it reveal on the situation of the novel ? Is it able to promote young novelists and to suggest directions within the literary field of the 1950’s ? At last, we will study Paulhan’s theoretical reflections on literary value. We examine his positions on three crucial phenomena that radically modify the definition of this value: the renegotiation of the relationship between legitimate and non-legitimate literature, with the example of his support of erotic literature ; the handing over to the next generation ; the acknowledgment of a crisis of critical judgment.

Boris Akunin’s historical detective novels have sold more than eight million copies in Russia, and have been translated into nearly a dozen languages. Boris Akunin is the pen name of literary critic and translator Grigory Chkhartishvili. Born in 1956 in the republic of Georgia, he published his first detective stories in 1998. His first series of novels, beginning with Azazel’ and followed by Turetskii gambit, feature a dashing young police inspector, Erast Fandorin. Fandorin’s adventures take place in the Russian Empire of the late nineteenth century, and he regularly finds himself at the center of key historic events. The first book takes place over one summer, May to September 1876, as the intrepid Fandorin, on his first case, unveils an international organization of conspirators—Azazel’—bent on changing the course of world events. The second takes place two years later from July 1877 to March 1878 during Russia’s war with the Ottoman Empire. The young detective again clashes with Azazel’, as he unravels a Turkish agent’s intricate plan to weaken and destroy the Russian state. Both adventures have proven wildly popular and entertaining, while maintaining a certain literary value. The exploration of time and space in Russian literature was once a popular subject of discourse, but since the 1970s it has been somewhat ignored, rarely applied to contemporary works, and even less to works of popular culture. Akunin’s treatment of time and space, however, especially given the historical setting of his works, is unique. Azazel’, for example, maintains a lightning pace with a tight chronology and a rapidly changing series of locales. Turetskii gambit presents a more laconic pace, and, though set in the vast Caucasus region, seems more claustrophobic as it methodically works towards its conclusion. Both works employ a seemingly impersonal narrator, who, nonetheless, speaks in a distinctly 19th century tone, and both works cast their adventures within the framework of actual historical events and locations. This thesis analyzes core theories in literary time and space, applying them then to Akunin’s historical detective literature.

Boris Akunin’s historical detective novels have sold more than eight million copies in Russia, and have been translated into nearly a dozen languages. Boris Akunin is the pen name of literary critic and translator Grigory Chkhartishvili. Born in 1956 in the republic of Georgia, he published his first detective stories in 1998. His first series of novels, beginning with Azazel’ and followed by Turetskii gambit, feature a dashing young police inspector, Erast Fandorin. Fandorin’s adventures take place in the Russian Empire of the late nineteenth century, and he regularly finds himself at the center of key historic events. The first book takes place over one summer, May to September 1876, as the intrepid Fandorin, on his first case, unveils an international organization of conspirators—Azazel’—bent on changing the course of world events. The second takes place two years later from July 1877 to March 1878 during Russia’s war with the Ottoman Empire. The young detective again clashes with Azazel’, as he unravels a Turkish agent’s intricate plan to weaken and destroy the Russian state. Both adventures have proven wildly popular and entertaining, while maintaining a certain literary value. The exploration of time and space in Russian literature was once a popular subject of discourse, but since the 1970s it has been somewhat ignored, rarely applied to contemporary works, and even less to works of popular culture. Akunin’s treatment of time and space, however, especially given the historical setting of his works, is unique. Azazel’, for example, maintains a lightning pace with a tight chronology and a rapidly changing series of locales. Turetskii gambit presents a more laconic pace, and, though set in the vast Caucasus region, seems more claustrophobic as it methodically works towards its conclusion. Both works employ a seemingly impersonal narrator, who, nonetheless, speaks in a distinctly 19th century tone, and both works cast their adventures within the framework of actual historical events and locations. This thesis analyzes core theories in literary time and space, applying them then to Akunin’s historical detective literature.