1. The project’s overarching aim is to build a transnational and multi-disciplinary network of researchers and stakeholders that investigates how social, political and cultural constraints have shaped literary production in France from 1980 to the present. To achieve this aim, the project sets itself the following ambitious short-medium term objectives:

  • To establish institutional and individual collaborations between the Institute of Modern Languages Research (IMLR), the School of Advanced Study (SAS) and research organisations such as the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Higher Education Institutions in UK (Cardiff, Lancaster, St Andrews), France (Paris Ouest, Bordeaux), other European countries (Belgium, Ireland, Switzerland), Canada and the USA. The University of London Institute in Paris (ULIP) will also collaborate on the project.
  • To assemble a cutting-edge interdisciplinary, international research team composed of leading experts with distinctive disciplinary expertise (in literature, sociology, book studies, translation) for three study days.
  • To involve new generations of researchers including Early-Career Researchers (ECRs) and Postgraduate Research Students (PGRs) in the network’s activities.
  • To involve professional bodies and stakeholders in the book trade (authors, publishers, distributors) and archiving bodies (libraries in France & UK).
  • To develop a rigorous methodology that bridges the gap between analysis of the social world in which literature is produced, and the analysis of texts (style & genre).
  • To promote UK-led research as being at the forefront of international research in contemporary French Studies.
  • To facilitate wide participation in, and dissemination of, discussion by means of open access resources (on institutional repositories, for instance), and tools such as a wiki, JISC-mail list, and social networking sites.

Each of these short/medium term objectives contributes to the overall aim of the project such that there is no strict order of priority.

2. The project has defined a set of ambitious strategic aims and objectives in terms of research production, and research promotion and facilitation.

  • To co-author a monograph, a proposal for which will be submitted by the end of the project. Interest has already been expressed by the director of the collection 'Les littéraires' at the Presses Universitaires de France.
  • To produce two edited volumes (to be published by the Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, Paris Ouest) and a special issue of a journal (Journal of Romance Studies), which will be in press or under contract by the end of the project.
  • To make working papers available on institutional repository sites, such as that belonging to the School of Advanced Study (SAS), known as SAS Space.
  • To make podcasts of talks delivered at research days available on institution website pages (IMLR and SAS websites).
  • To develop a robust follow-on application for a large European Research Council (ERC) funding grant.
  • To engage with new publics via a multi-modal public engagement and dissemination strategy, which includes creating events for the Being Human and Bloomsbury Festivals, the Salon du Livre, and writing articles in publications for professionals of the book trade (Livres Hebdo, Asfored).