French Literature Reviews - 2026

Aline Le Berre, Altérité et monstruosité - Les Figures hors normes dans les contes d'E. T. A. Hoffmann
Comparative and World Literature

Monstrosity, otherness, and marginality are integral to the work of E. T. A. Hoffmann, the non-conformist German Romantic writer and master of the fantastic who exerted a profound influence abroad, particularly on Baudelaire in France and Poe in America. Through the lens of various unusual characters, this book analyzes the literary devices he employed to create a strange and grotesque world that challenges our perception of reality and speaks to major contemporary issues, such as human enhancement, the transgression of norms, and the acceptance of difference. It highlights the remarkable originality and clairvoyance of an author who constantly engaged in irony, self-deprecation, and multiperspectivity.

Aline Le Berre is a professor of Germanic language and literature at the University of Limoges, holding the agrégation in German, a doctorate, and an habilitation à diriger des recherches (HDR). Her research focuses on German Romantic literature, the fantastic tale, the marvelous, Sturm und Drang theater, Baroque poetry, and medievalism.

German Romantic literature frequently explored the boundaries of the rational, cultivating themes of the uncanny, the double, and the grotesque as a counterweight to Enlightenment order. Within this intellectual tradition, the fantastic became a privileged mode for questioning identity, perception, and social conventions. Aline Le Berre examines these dynamics in the works of E. T. A. Hoffmann, focusing on the marginal figures and literary devices that construct his strange fictional universes. The study discusses how Hoffmann employs irony and multiperspectivity to address the transgression of norms and the representation of difference, while Readers interested in German Romanticism, the fantastic tale, and the literary representation of marginality may find this study a relevant exploration of Hoffmann's ongoing cultural legacy.