French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. Louis, Sans objet. Pour une épistémologie de la discipline littéraire
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics

Sans objet

Pour une épistémologie de la discipline littéraire

Annick Louis

Hermann éd., coll. Savoir Lettres, 2021

Published on 09/08/2021

ISBN: 9791037008978 — 210 p. — €24.00

How is knowledge produced within the literary discipline? What kind of knowledge is it? How does it interact with the output of other fields? This volume explores the conditions of possibility for an epistemology of literary studies. While numerous disciplines across the humanities and social sciences have developed this type of reflection, literary theorists have largely remained focused on issues internal to their own field of study.

Yet for at least a decade, the evolution of literature as an object of study, the radical shifts in its societal status, and rumblings like the fragmentation and proliferation of critical approaches have put the discipline's logic to the test, even unsettling its foundational principles and institutional frameworks.

By addressing some of the core challenges of literature from an epistemological perspective, this book aims to better grasp its present condition and map out its future position within the constellation of academic disciplines.

Read the introduction to the book on Fabula…

Annick Louis is a professor at the University of Franche-Comté and a member of the teaching faculty at EHESS-Paris, affiliated with the Centre for Research on the Arts and Language. After specializing in literary theory and comparative literature (Hispanic-American and European, 19th–21st centuries), her work has shifted toward an epistemic approach to literary studies, developing an analytical method that bridges them with the humanities and social sciences.

View the book on the publisher's website…

*

Table of Contents

Introduction…

I. The Status of the Literary Discipline

a. What should we name our field of research?

b. The literary object and the object of literature

c. The epistemic dimension of literary studies

d. Epistemology and literary theory

II. Logics of the Object

a. Object and discipline

b. At the crossroads of our choices

c. Comparative perspectives

d. Horizons of objects

III. Description, Normativity, and Value

a. Reading, norm, and description

b. Value, the object of literature, and the literary object

c. On the role of value in the intellectual community

d. Object, community, and territory

e. Values and relativism

IV. Literary Text, Literary Discipline, and the Humanities and Social Sciences

a. Disciplinary intersections and scholarly productivity

b. The notion of inquiry revisited

c. Disciplinary horizons: where is interdisciplinarity taking us?

V. The Means of Discourse (On the Scientific Status of the Literary Discipline)

a. The status of the paradigm

b. The incorporation of data

c. The investigator: the mode of enunciation

d. What register does the literary discipline position itself in? Register, proof, argumentation

e. Scientific emotions and imagination

Appendix: Chronicle of a "Crisis"

a. Anatomy of a present

b. Beyond the notion of crisis

c. The social sciences in the land of literary scholars

Written by Annick Louis, a specialist in literary theory and comparative literature at the University of Franche-Comté and EHESS-Paris, the book addresses fundamental questions regarding how knowledge is produced within the study of literature. Unlike many humanities fields that regularly reflect on their own methodological foundations, literary studies have often remained absorbed in internal debates. This volume bridges that gap by connecting literary analysis with the broader human and social sciences, investigating the conditions necessary for a robust disciplinary epistemology in contemporary academia.

The book will be particularly useful for researchers, graduate students, and scholars of literature and intellectual history who wish to navigate the shifting paradigms of their field. By exploring central themes such as the definition of the literary object, the role of value judgments, and the challenges of interdisciplinarity, the work helps readers comprehend the current institutional landscape of the humanities. It offers essential conceptual tools to evaluate how literary research interacts with other academic disciplines and addresses ongoing transformations in society.