French Literature Reviews - 2026
A.-S. Donnarieix, Powers of the Shadow: The Supernatural in the Contemporary Novel
Novel and Narrative Prose
The doctoral thesis from which this work is derived was awarded the Elise Richter Prize and the Research Prize of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Regensburg.
The contemporary novel betrays a troubling fascination with the irrational. Readily abandoning the overly bright shores of reason, it often summons anachronistic magical figures (specters, shamans, witches) to probe the depths of a collective psyche whose fears and unthought elements resist the paths of understanding.
Yet this is not a matter of returning to ancient explanatory, magical, or religious frameworks: in the face of a "disenchanted" world (Weber), the supernatural infiltrates aesthetic devices that oscillate between the ambiguous temptation of reconstructing meaning and the nostalgic or disillusioned mourning of a transcendence whose loss these novels attest.
The first panoramic study dedicated to this phenomenon, this work offers a morphological and functional analysis of the supernatural in contemporary literature, exploring in particular the fictional worlds of Antoine Volodine, Sylvie Germain, Alain Fleischer, Marie NDiaye, and Christian Garcin.
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Table of Contents
Dedication Epigraph Introduction
Reenchanting the World?
Prolegomena: At the Sources of the Supernatural
Part One. Logics of the Irrational: Expanding Reality, Derealizing Discourse
Introduction to Part One Chapter 1. Blurring the Tracks Chapter 2. Techniques of Derealization Chapter 3. Troubled Perceptions and Narrative Strangeness Conclusion. The Contemporary Supernatural: A New Realism?
Part Two. History and Its Ghosts: Expressing Haunting, Seeking Meaning
Introduction to Part Two Chapter 4. Spectralities of History Chapter 5. Lyrical Temptations and Obstacles to Meaning Conclusion. Toward an Aesthetics of the Shroud? From Lazarus to Orpheus
Part Three. The Human Put to the Test: Destabilizing Bodies, Problematizing Voices
Introduction to Part Three Chapter 6. The Restless Body Chapter 7. Shamanic Voices and Paths of the Novel Conclusion. Prometheus Before the Abyss? On the Supernatural as Humanist Reticence and Fictional Impulse General Conclusion. Anachronisms of the Supernatural: Toward a Critical Reenchantment Bibliography Acknowledgments
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An article about this book can be read on laviedesidees.fr:
Building upon the foundational sociological concept of a disenchanted world famously articulated by Max Weber, this study examines how modern fiction negotiates the persistent human need for transcendence. Rather than embracing naive religiosity, contemporary authors deploy anachronistic figures like specters, witches, and shamans to interrogate a reality shaped by historical trauma and ideological crisis. The book situates itself within the broader tradition of narrative theory and cultural critique, analyzing the specific formal mechanisms through which prose fiction absorbs the irrational without abandoning its critical distance.
This panoramic inquiry will prove especially valuable for scholars of contemporary French literature, graduate students, and readers interested in the intersection of aesthetics, philosophy, and the paranormal. By closely reading the works of writers such as Antoine Volodine, Sylvie Germain, and Marie NDiaye, the author demonstrates how narrative form adapts to express profound ontological uncertainties. It serves as an essential resource for anyone seeking to understand the evolving functions of myth and magic in the twentieth- and twenty-first-century literary imagination.