Over the past ten years the novels of Mathias Ãnard have enjoyed both widespread critical acclaim and commercial success. In 2015 Ãnard was awarded the Prix Goncourt, Franceâs most prestigious literary prize, for Compass, a work which explores the fraught and often fruitful relationship between Europe and the Orient through the musings of an Austrian musicologist. Yet in spite of these successes, and Mathias Ãnardâs penchant for filling his novels with historical fact, little has been written about his work in academic circles. This volume seeks to fill that gap and shed light on the narrative modalities that allow the author to transform erudition into narration. It also seeks to situate his work in the current literary context, which is being shaped ever more by historical narratives.
Markus Messling is Full Professor at the Universität des Saarlandes. Recent publications: Formations of the Semitic: Race, Religion, and Language in Modern European Scholarship (ed. with I. Dayeh, T. Hever, E.E.Johnston, 2017); Universalität nach dem Universalismus. Ãber frankophone Literaturen der Gegenwart (2019).
Lena Seauve is a Postdoc at the Humboldt Universität Berlin. She has published one monograph, edited several volumes and is the author of articles, including âDer begehrende Blick des Scharfschützen. Unzumutbare Perspektiven in Mathias Ãnards La Perfection du tirâ (2018).
Vanessa de Senarclens is a Lecturer at the Humboldt Universität Berlin. She is a specialist in eighteenth-century French literature, a subject on which she has published monographs, as well as many articles. She also worked on Chateaubriandâs travel literature which inspired Boussole.
The book is aimed at scholars and the curious reader who seeks a deeper understanding of the works of Mathias Ãnard as well as contemporary French literature in general.