B. Melançon, Sevigne@Internet. Remarques sur le courrier électronique et la lettre, suivies d’une postface inédite (rééd.) - Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics

French Literature Reviews - 2026

B. Melançon, Sevigne@Internet. Remarques sur le courrier électronique et la lettre, suivies d’une postface inédite (rééd.)
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics

Benoît Melançon, Sevigne@Internet. Remarques sur le courrier électronique et la lettre suivies d’une postface inédite,

Montreal, Numeriklivres and Del Busso éditeur

2011 [1996], expanded digital reissue

  • EAN13: 9782923792057.
  • Price: €4.99

Available exclusively in digital format, DRM-free

Publisher's Overview

“Let it be clear: nostalgia does not guide my words. My days begin with checking my email. Part of the reflection you are about to read stems from exchanges conducted through this means of communication. I believe it is useful—for certain things.” (Benoît Melançon)

Despite the telegraph, telephone, and fax machine, people have never stopped writing letters, putting them in envelopes, entrusting them to the postal service, keeping and cherishing them. What is more: the letter cannot be replaced by email, because it possesses qualities that no other form of writing shares. With a computer, you can do all sorts of things; but you cannot send a letter.

For the author of Sevigne@Internet, the point was not to elevate one form at the expense of the other. In 1996, when his book was first published, he needed to understand the specific characteristics of the familiar letter and the email, interpreting the former through the advent of the latter. In 2011, in a new afterword, it was essential to ask whether things had fundamentally changed over the span of fifteen years. The answer is a firm: no.

Antoine Del Busso

Publisher

Benoît Melançon teaches at the University of Montreal. He has published several books on epistolary writing, notably Diderot épistolier. Contribution à une poétique de la lettre familière au xviiie siècle (1996) and Écrire au pape et au Père Noël. Cabinet de curiosités épistolaires (2011). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2008.

The volume examines epistolary communication by considering both traditional letters and electronic mail. The expanded digital reissue includes a postface reflecting on technological evolution over a span of fifteen years, considering whether foundational practices of writing and correspondence underwent significant transformation during that period.

Readers interested in media history and the evolution of epistolary communication may find this work relevant to their pursuits. Benoît Melançon teaches at the University of Montreal and has published several books on epistolary writing, notably Diderot épistolier and Écrire au pape et au Père Noël. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2008.