French Literature Reviews - 2026

(Agrégation) Birth of the Modern Novel: Narrative, Morality, Philosophy
Novel and Narrative Prose

BIRTH OF THE MODERN NOVEL
Rabelais, Cervantes, Sterne
Narrative, Morality, Philosophy

Studies collected and introduced by Christian Michel

Publications of the Universities of Rouen and Le Havre
Collection: Comparative Literature Course
2007
Isbn: 978-2-87775-426-2
324 pages
13.00 €

Comparative literature topic on the syllabus for the modern literature agrégation, 2007-2008.

Avoiding the symmetrical temptations of retrospective anachronism and historical relativism, the agrégation studies collected in this volume demonstrate a commitment to reading the Tiers Livre (Rabelais), Don Quixote (Cervantes), and Tristram Shandy (Sterne) as closely as possible to their narrative and fictional singularities, as well as their novelistic universality. While they examine the problematic continuity linking them to the literary, philosophical, and moral works of their own time and of the past, they also endeavor to clarify the logic by which these narratives make sense for posterity as foundational moments of novelistic modernity.

Christian MICHEL
Introduction: Rabelais, Cervantes, Sterne… and Pierre Menard

Éric DAYRE
Poetic Births of the Novel

Jean-Claude LABORIE
The Wanderings of Narrative in the Tiers Livre, Don Quixote, and Tristram Shandy

Danielle PERROT-CORPET
Skeptical Narrative, Cynical Morality: Modernity Questioned in the Tiers Livre and Don Quixote

Bruno MENIEL
Scholarly Discourse and Novelistic Discourse in the Tiers Livre

Gérard MILHE POUTINGON
Panurge beside the point: digression and philautia in the Tiers Livre

Anne-Pascale POUEY-MOUNOU
Paradox and Novelty in the Tiers Livre

Nicolas CORREARD
Belief and Disbelief in Don Quixote: A (Pre-)Modern Perception of Fiction

Guiomar HAUTCOEUR
Love: An Outdated Novelistic Subject? The Case of Don Quixote

Sylvie KLEIMAN-LAFON
“A show about nothing”: Tristram Shandy and Modernity

Alison BOULANGER
From Sign to Meaning: Tristram Shandy, Reflection on a Capricious Connection

Christian MICHEL
Analectics of Digression in Tristram Shandy

Éric DAYRE
Novel and History: Afterword for a Theory of Novelistic Laughter

326 pages, 15 x 20.5 cm – ISBN: 978-2-87775-426-2 – 13 €

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This volume gathers critical essays dedicated to three foundational texts of narrative prose: Rabelais's Tiers Livre, Cervantes's Don Quixote, and Sterne's Tristram Shandy. Collected and introduced by Christian Michel, the studies examine the narrative and fictional singularities of these works alongside their broader novelistic universality. Contributors address the problematic continuity linking these texts to the literary, philosophical, and moral traditions of their own eras and the past, while exploring how their formal innovations shaped subsequent literary history.

Within the broader tradition of comparative literary studies, the volume engages with questions of narrative digression, skepticism, scholarly discourse, and the emergence of modern fictional modes. Essays by scholars such as Éric Dayre, Jean-Claude Laborie, and Bruno Meniel investigate the logical and rhetorical structures through which these narratives question contemporaneous morality and philosophy. Readers interested in the history of prose fiction and the comparative literature topic for the modern literature agrégation may find these scholarly perspectives particularly relevant to their studies.