On the Restorative Power of Literature in Alexandre Gefen’s Essay Réparer le monde. La littérature française face au XXI^e siècle [Repairing the World. French Literature Facing the 21st Century]

The aim of this paper is to discuss Alexandre Gefen’s essay published in 2017 in which the researcher presents the panorama of latest French prose in the perspective of responsibility for the world and fixing it. The author notes that Gefen also discusses texts from the two last decades of the 20th century, which shows that it was in that period that French writers started to take interest in the human identity and relationship with the world. One of the important genres analyzed by Gefen is autobiography, well-established in the French literary tradition. Another significant matter is the current transformation of literary practices, of the position of the writer and the reader, and of the publishing market, which Gefen also analyzes from the perspective of restoration and therapeutic literature that should care for the readers and heal them. Gefen’s essay is presented as a text encouraging its reader to reflect deeply on the condition of the contemporary world.

The aim of this paper is to discuss Alexandre Gefen’s essay published in 2017 in which the researcher presents the panorama of latest French prose in the perspective of responsibility for the world and fixing it. The author notes that Gefen also discusses texts from the two last decades of the 20th century, which shows that it was in that period that French writers started to take interest in the human identity and relationship with the world. One of the important genres analyzed by Gefen is autobiography, well-established in the French literary tradition. Another significant matter is the current transformation of literary practices, of the position of the writer and the reader, and of the publishing market, which Gefen also analyzes from the perspective of restoration and therapeutic literature that should care for the readers and heal them. Gefen’s essay is presented as a text encouraging its reader to reflect deeply on the condition of the contemporary world.