On Both Sides of the Tracks: Social Mobility in Contemporary French Literature
On Both Sides of the Tracks: Social Mobility in Contemporary French Literature
Cite
Abstract
On Both Sides of the Tracks demonstrates that socially mobile writers and characters are the digest of our literary and political moment, and the meeting points of class, race, sexuality, gender, and kinship issues. These overtrained readers of literary and social signs also challenge interdisciplinarity and the sociology of literature. In response, this book offers a new perspective on class mobility as a literary, formal question. It foregrounds a poetics of emancipation meant to address pressing social issues: Is upward mobility a matter of birth or becoming? How long does one remain mobile? Do social climbers emancipate others in return? How is reading a tool of emancipation? Through the neologism of the “parvenant,” we see that one-way success stories of upward mobility have been replaced by multidirectional trajectories of departure, arrival, and return, to a point where the idiom of the “social ladder” has morphed into the metaphor of the train. Nineteenth-century types and tropes have returned in the twenty-first century, but with a major difference: no longer ventriloquized by bourgeois narrators, cross-class protagonists have leaped off the page to write their own stories. As a result, we now have to turn to nonfiction and autobiographies to read successful plots of upward mobility (Angot, Condé, Éribon, Ernaux, Harchi, Louis, Taïa). Conversely, contemporary novels depict social immobility and precarity (Deck, Despentes, Houellebecq, NDiaye). Across seven chapters, the book tracks the causes and explores the consequence of this new partition, which reinforces the rarity of social emancipation.
-
Front Matter
-
Introduction
The Parvenant
-
1
Rastignac Redux
-
2
The Muddy Parvenant, Then and Now
-
3
The Transient Body of the Transclass
-
4
Self-Maid? The Social Mobility of Literary and Cinematic Servants
-
5
A Foot in the Door: Passing on Social Mobility
-
6
Travel Class: From the Ladder to the Train
-
7
From Rastignac to Subutex: The Immobilization of the Fictional Character
- Conclusion A Demoted Canon
-
End Matter
Sign in
Personal account
- Sign in with email/username & password
- Get email alerts
- Save searches
- Purchase content
- Activate your purchase/trial code
- Add your ORCID iD
Purchase
Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.
Purchasing informationMonth: | Total Views: |
---|---|
May 2024 | 2 |
May 2024 | 2 |
May 2024 | 2 |
May 2024 | 2 |
May 2024 | 2 |
May 2024 | 2 |
May 2024 | 2 |
May 2024 | 2 |
May 2024 | 2 |
May 2024 | 2 |
May 2024 | 2 |
May 2024 | 2 |
May 2024 | 2 |
May 2024 | 2 |
May 2024 | 2 |
May 2024 | 2 |
August 2024 | 2 |
August 2024 | 2 |
August 2024 | 1 |
August 2024 | 2 |
August 2024 | 1 |
August 2024 | 1 |
August 2024 | 1 |
August 2024 | 2 |
August 2024 | 2 |
August 2024 | 2 |
August 2024 | 1 |
August 2024 | 2 |
August 2024 | 1 |
August 2024 | 1 |
October 2024 | 1 |
October 2024 | 1 |
October 2024 | 1 |
October 2024 | 2 |
October 2024 | 1 |
October 2024 | 3 |
November 2024 | 2 |
November 2024 | 1 |
December 2024 | 1 |
December 2024 | 1 |
January 2025 | 2 |
February 2025 | 1 |
February 2025 | 1 |
Get help with access
Institutional access
Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:
IP based access
Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.
Sign in through your institution
Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.
If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.
Sign in with a library card
Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.
Society Members
Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:
Sign in through society site
Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:
If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.
Sign in using a personal account
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.
Personal account
A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.
Viewing your signed in accounts
Click the account icon in the top right to:
Signed in but can't access content
Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.
Institutional account management
For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.