FOR OR AGAINST POLITICAL LITERATURE. A French Controversy

In January 2024, a small volume with a deliberately provocative title was published in France: "Contre la littérature politique" - against political literature. The title, which suggests yet another attack on "littérature engagée" or message-oriented literature, is remarkable not only because it features contributions by a number of French authors known for the critical power of their texts, their radicalism, and/or their commitment, but also because the book was published by one of the most left-wing publishers on the French literary scene, La fabrique éditions. It is not surprising, therefore, that the contributors do not target political literature as a whole, but a certain kind of political literature, a certain way in which texts that they consider innocuous are labelled political. They criticize the depoliticization of literature at a time when its political significance is being elevated and call for a rethinking of the relationship between literature and politics, renewing the tensions between these two components rather than taking their interrelationship for granted.