Profane practices of literature: a case study in french society

Abstract

A short-story contest organized by France Loisir (a mail-order bookseller) for amateur writers, is just one example of the upsurge of new processes of literary consecration. This case study describes and analyses a literary offering for laymen, as well as the exibition and implementation of the right to discover and consecrate «new talent» that a firm outside the literary field has assumed. The article draws on a field survey to show that, for from being universal, the question of defining an author is always a stake in power struggles, related to the delimitation of those who are in a position to participate. Findings suggest that for the winners of this award, it is usually no more than an «simili consecration» that only exceptionally affords access to the literary field. Most of those who aspire to the status of author but lack the required resources (academic, cultural and/or social) are destined to obscurity. However, the expansion of the cultural policies allowed the constitution of an amateur space, at the borders of literary field, where the laymen can find the gratifications to which they aspire.