La Fiction d’affaires en France: de la fiction anti-affaires à l’anti-fiction d’affaires

Abstract

A business fiction is a type of fiction that stages institutions, mechanisms and/or characters related to the business and economic world. The subgenre was flourishing in the nineteenth century with for examples some works by Balzac and Zola that quickly became « classics ». It seems that the subgenre waned in the twentieth century. Therefore the idea studied by William Gallois in « Against Capitalism? French Theory and Economy » that the French intelligentsia is not very interested in economics seems to go beyond the post-war period. However, one can observe a resurgence of the « theme » since the mid-seventies. It developed mainly within the genre of the novel. The majority of these books are inscribed within the realist tradition of Balzac and Zola. However, for about 20 years, some writers tried to represent the business world in a more audacious way, poetically and politically. Hence, one can find texts like Leslie Kaplan (L’Exces, l’usine 1990), Lydie Salvayre (La Medaille 1994), Frederic Beigbeder (99 francs 1999), Francois Bon (Sortie d’usine 2001), and more. In my article, I focus on three of these works that I would call « experimental » in order to show that by being business anti-fictions rather than more traditional anti-business fictions, they can be more interestingly efficient to critize some abuses and failings of the global capitalism. These three works, very different from each other, are: Memoires de l’enclave de Jean-Paul Goux, Supplement aux mondes inhabites de Xabi Molia, et L’Argent, l’urgence de Louise Desbrusses.