New Realisms or “Suspicious Consistency” in Today’s France

Abstract

In France, the turn of the 21st-century has given rise to a welter of considerations on the condition of literature. The present article aims to present the various sides of the debate about contemporary literature, showing what connects it to the 50s Nouveau Roman and to the following postmodern wave. It goes without saying that there is no question of going back to traditional realism while stressing, on all sides, the need for a new realism. Instances can be found in various quarters: from the supporters of a world literature in French (Littérature-monde) to new versions of life-writing, to genres’ hybridisation. The common ground is an attempt to represent the subject in the context of its own unstable identities and within the undetermined realm between fiction and reality.