My research explores how the contemporary French novel represents lives lived in the shadow of neoliberalism. 

Outside France’s globally-connected cities can be found a population which feels ignored, invisible and alienated. My thesis examines how the contemporary French novel brings into focus the lives of those who have been pushed to society’s edges in the socio-economic situation that has come to dominate the country since the turn of the 21^st Century. I explore fictional works by writers including Maylis de Kerangal, Olivier Adam, Céline Minard and Joy Sorman.

I draw on the thought of the philosopher and art historian Georges Didi-Huberman, as well as recent thinkers in the social sciences (Michel Foucault, Marc Augé, Christophe Guilluy, etc.) to explore the questions of aesthetic and democratic representation raised by this political invisibility, as well as to think about the possible resistance literature might offer in the face of such marginalization.