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Each year since 1989, France has celebrated Lire en fete, a literary festival initiated by then Minister of Culture Jack Lang. Like other national festivals created during the 1980s, such as La Fete de la musique and La Fete du cinema, Lire en fete provides entertainment, but also directly relates to government democratisation efforts. This article analyses the 2007 version of Lire en fete, focusing on primary documents such as the Dossier de presse and the official website, and suggests that the French government uses this festival to increase public engagement in French society and to encourage responsible citizenship, in part by fostering the development of a literate public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The manifesto Pour une literature-monde en français, published in Le Monde in 2007 and followed by an edited volume containing texts by over half of the manifesto's 44 signatories, appeared in a context of doubt concerning the place of French culture in the world. The manifesto's authors denounce the formalism of the contemporary French novel, claiming that it is cut off from the world. However, they salute the fact that the world has re-entered the francophone novel thanks to the vibrancy of writing in French from the Caribbean and Africa in particular, writing celebrated each year at the 'Étonnants voyageurs' literary festival that takes place around the world. Although the 'littérature-monde' gospel recalls Goethe's Weltliteratur and Glissant's vision of the 'Tout-monde', it is, as the prepositional clause 'en français' in the title of the Le Monde manifesto indicates, strangely attached to a persistent notion of 'francophonie', the official, institutionalised version of which it appears, however, to reject. It is, above all, based on an apparent inferiority complex with respect to the postcolonial anglophone novel. Publié en 2007, le manifeste Pour une littérature-monde en français , signé par 44 écrivains, s'inscrit dans un contexte de doute sur la place de la culture française dans le monde. Les auteurs dénoncent le formalisme stérile du roman français contemporain qui se complairait dans des recherches formelles coupées du réel. Mais 'le monde revient' grâce aux écrivains-voyageurs, migrants et nomades venus de la Caraïbe, d'Afrique ou d'Asie, que célèbre par exemple le Festival littéraire 'Étonnants voyageurs'. Les signataires du manifeste appellent la littérature française sclérosée à s'ouvrir sur le monde, à devenir une 'littérature-monde'. Malgré les allusions à la Weltliteratur de Goethe et au 'Tout-monde' d'Édouard Glissant, les signataires du manifeste restent paradoxalement fidèles à une écriture 'en français' tout en érigeant le roman anglophone en modèle, et tout particulièrement l'œuvre des auteurs issus de la décolonisation de l'Empire britannique. Le manifeste exalte la vitalité du récit et la richesse d'un monde coloré qui, selon eux, contraste singulièrement avec la grisaille du roman français hexagonal, que seul l'apport d'auteurs venus d'Outre-mer peut sauver. Cette vision sommaire et quelque peu exotisante du roman anglophone traduit un véritable complexe vis-à-vis des littératures de langue anglaise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of its representation of marginal and often violent milieux, the status of noir fiction has long been that of an 'inferior', less 'literary' genre. It could be argued that its frequent references to popular culture, and especially television and film, explain its appeal to a wide audience, one that does not necessarily read other genres. The intrigue and setting of the noir novel enables it to be perceived primarily as a ludic activity while often dealing with issues which are both political and ideological. Brigitte Aubert's work makes frequent references to film, TV and popular literature, and this article aims to examine the way these are used, how they play with notions of reality and fiction, how they can create an ironic distance which allows the writer both to create a sense of complicity with the reader and to criticise the society she presents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]