D’un roman plus que le nom: Édouard Louis’s Histoire de la violence, a reflexive, gay novel

Abstract

ABSTRACT Histoire de la violence, Édouard Louis’s second novel, remains a subject of controversy. An account of the author’s 2012 rape and its aftermath, its 2016 publication came mere days prior to the arrest of a suspect. Critics were swift to condemn Louis’s claim that his novel contains not one line of fiction, supposedly biasing due process. Some went as far as to call Histoire de la violence a novel in name only. This article argues that at stake are divergent understandings of literary genre. To this end, it positions Louis’s novel against two generic categories, that of the reflexive novel and the gay novel, elaborated from the works of Bourdieu and Foucault respectively. As a reflexive novel, Histoire de la violence’s engagement with narrative voicing and sociological intertext trigger a re-evaluation of the relationship between an author and his eponymous protagonist. As a gay novel, it demonstrates a pragmatic concern for the representation and erasure of sexual practice, structured by Édouard’s sexual and class shame. Foucault’s thoughts on parrêsia and sexuality underpin this account, which in turn troubles standard readings of his opinions on gay literature, and more broadly, scholarly dispositions to genre in the contemporary French context.