French Literature Reviews - 2026
B. Ferrier, Not Everything Is Literature! Literary Quality Put to the Test in Youth Novels
Other Literary Studies
Bertrand Ferrier
Tout n'est pas littérature ! La littérarité à l'épreuve des romans pour la jeunesse
Rennes : Presses universitaires de Rennes, coll. "Interférences", 2009, 452 p.
ISBN : 978-2-7535-0897-2
Price : 20 €
Publisher's Overview :
Drawing upon several thousand youth novels, this book addresses two key questions: under what conditions can a children's or young adult book be considered truly literary? And in what ways does the fact that a book is intended for young readers impact its literary merit? Approaching the subject from critical, economic, and sociological perspectives, the author examines these books across three main axes: production (what are these books?), writing (what vocabulary, syntax, and registers of language are employed?), and themes (how are consensual and controversial topics handled?).
Contents :
Preface by Marie-Aude Murail
What Is a Book for Young Readers?
- Defining children's and youth publishing
- Identifying a dominant phenomenon: multi-exploitation
- Examining the core element: six myths put to the test
What Is a Book for Young Readers?
- An accessible vocabulary, but not necessarily impoverished
- An intelligible syntax, but not systematically standardized
- Reconsidering "registers of language"
What Is a Book for Young Readers?
- Revisiting traditional themes: The examples of education and the family
- New or evolving themes: daring choices and boundaries, with examples from sexuality and death
Downloads :
Introduction (PDF file, 183 KB)
Table of Contents (PDF file, 178 KB)
Born in 1977, Bertrand Ferrier is an associate senior lecturer at the University of Maine, where he directs the professional Master 2 program in youth literature. A member of the Charter of Youth Authors, he has written and translated several hundred books for readers of various age groups.
The evaluation of children's and young adult literature involves examining the intersection of artistic merit, commercial production, and readership expectations. Scholars in the humanities have long explored how works aimed at younger audiences navigate the boundary between pedagogical utility and aesthetic ambition. By investigating how books are produced, written, and thematicized, researchers address the criteria that define literary value within specific publishing sectors.
Bertrand Ferrier examines youth novels by drawing upon a corpus of several thousand texts, analyzing production dynamics, vocabulary, syntax, language registers, and thematic choices such as education, family, sexuality, and death. Readers interested in the sociology of publishing and the study of youth literature may find the work relevant. The volume engages with questions regarding how books for young readers are defined and how their literary merit is shaped by intended audiences and economic contexts.