French Literature Reviews - 2026

Benoît Melançon, l’Oreille tendue
Francophone and Oral Literatures

Melançon, Benoît, l’Oreille tendue, Montreal, Del Busso éditeur, 2016, 411 p. ISBN : 978-2-923792-99-6. ($27.95 CAD)

An essayist, professor, and publisher, Benoît Melançon is the author of several acclaimed books: les Yeux de Maurice Richard (2006); Écrire au pape et au Père Noël (2011); Langue de puck (2014); Le niveau baisse ! (2015). In 2012, he received the Government of Quebec's highest distinction for the quality and promotion of the French language, the Georges-Émile-Lapalme Award.

L’Oreille tendue brings together 300 texts originally published on his blog: http://oreilletendue.com/.

Benoît Melançon is well known within Quebec literary culture for his diverse output as an essayist, professor, and publisher, with notable prior works examining sports culture, social rituals, and linguistic commentary. The tradition of collecting and re-evaluating digital commentary in print format reflects broader shifts in contemporary essay writing, where the boundaries between ephemeral web-based writing and traditional publishing increasingly blur. L’Oreille tendue gathers three hundred texts originally published on the author's personal blog.

Readers interested in contemporary French-language essays, digital media culture, and public intellectual discourse in Quebec may find this collection a relevant extension of these themes.