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http://interferenceslitteraires.be
ISSN : 2031 - 2790
Interactions between Literature and Advertising
Myriam Boucharenc (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense),
Laurence Guellec (Université Paris Descartes & Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris III)
& David Martens (KU Leuven)
Interférences littéraires / Literaire interferenties, 18, February 2016
Advertising draws upon literary culture in many ways: it borrows quotations for its slogans,
enlists the services of aspiring and established writers and, more in generally, it uses many stylistic
and rhetorical practices from the literary toolbox to ensnare customers and consumers. Far from
being a new development, these practices can be traced back to the nineteenth century. Ever
since, literature has frequently traveled to the commercial domain: whether to disseminate itself, as
modernist authors believed, or to do compromise itself, as the defenders of Literature would claim.
In the past, literary criticism has rarely studies literature’s forays into advertising. Instead, the
relationship between literature and advertising has only been considered from the perspective of
literature, e.g. how modernist writers used advertising in their work. Cultural history and discourse
analysis, further, have only shown an anecdotical interest in the topic.
Recently, however, several European and American studies have shown that literature’s
circulation in the commercial circuit is as old as advertising itself and that many of the interactions
between the two realms need further research in order to be better understood.This issue for
Interférences littéraires/Literary Interferences is framed within the programme ANR LITTéPUB (Literary
advertising and advertising literature from 1830 to nowadays: http://www.agence-nationale-recherche.fr).
Its objective is to evaluate the scope as well as the topics of this “critical” moment, which puts
into question the relation of literary culture vis-à-vis commercial culture, today’s Brand culture.
This thematic issue will investigate the different aspects and problems at stake in the historical
interactions of literature and advertising, so as to enable a better comprehension of their respective
place within cultural practices. On the one hand, this will allow us to situate literature within global
culture, to describe its mediatisation, its institutional dimension, and its reception by the public.
On the other hand, it will further our understanding of publicity strategies as well as of the way
in which advertising recycles, colonizes or acculturates materials stemming from other domains, in
this case one that is more highly valorized in the hierarchy of cultural practices.
Axes of this thematic issue:
Intertextual and semiotic interactions: advertisement writing has widely borrowed
from the classics, it has drawn on a repertoire of literary techniques, played with frivolous and
parodical rewritings, just as literature has played with advertising intertexts. In both cases, the
question is: how can one reveal the source and make the discourse comprehensible for a public
that is not necessarily familiar with the model? What processes of disinhibition, of “ambiguity”, of
canonization, or, on the contrary, of cultural delegitimization are at work in the “literary” rhetoric
Interférences littéraires/Literaire interferenties 2015
of publicity. What purposes do they serve? For instance, to what extent does publicity, in using
literature, display a distance from commercial rhetoric and to what extent does literature display a
form of self-distancing in publicity?
Editorial and media interactions: using literary signs outside of the book, in the media or
by means of the fleeting supports of advertising has certain effects on the literary texts themselves.
Many examples show that the nature of texts that circulate from one support or medium to another
changes, passing by a new editorial protocol, in books, collections or literary reviews. How and at
what cost does literature move across the publicity space, through which adaptations of the media
environment and its supports? Are there any signs of resistance that might oppose the imposed
format, the instruments used by certain media, the decorative function of the publicity edition?
Diverse professional press organs, or actuality fora have served as an interface between the two
fields (Paris-Soir, Vendre, Arts et Métiers graphiques, the bilingual review Publimondial…). How does
the coexistence between literature and publicity operate within that kind of editorial environment?
Axiological and cultural interactions: What does the image of literature, of the writer
or of the author contribute to the image of the brand? Which kinds of authors, of discourses, of
literary movements are more likely to be used by the advertising industry? The objective here is to
analyze the way in which publicity includes its literary patrimony and to look into the consequences
of publicity’s recycling of literature. To what extent does this contribute to the canonization of the
authors? Conversely, what is the impact of the author’s implication in the world of publicity for his
authorial image? How does he control his image in these interactions (anonymous contributions
or signed ones)? Finally, what about the exportation and “translation” strategies that are inherent
in geographical circulation of publicity? To what extent does the internationalization of brands
contribute to the globalization of the cultural patrimony?
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We welcome contributions which propose to approach these concerns from an
interdisciplinary angle, combining literary history with the history of publicity, or the history of
culture and discourse analysis, as well as comparative approaches involving different national and/
or linguistic spaces. The articles may be written in English, Dutch, French, German, Spanish or
Italian and should be between 5000 and 8000 words (footnotes included).
Proposals are to be sent to Myriam Boucharenc ([email protected]) Laurence Guellec
([email protected]), David Martens ([email protected]) and Françoise
Galle (fgalle63gmail.com) before June 15, 2015. They should contain an abstract of approximately
300 words, in addition to a short biography that indicates the institution you are affiliated to as
well as your research interests. The selection of the proposals will be concluded on June 30. The
final versions of the articles are to be sent, by e-mail, before September 30, 2015. Two experts will
evaluate your articles. The issue is set to be published in February 2016.
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Interférences littéraires/Literaire interferenties 2015
Berthelot-Guiet Karine, Marti de Montety Caroline, Patrin-Leclère Valérie, La Fin de la
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Interférences littéraires/Literaire interferenties 2015
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Interférences littéraires/Literaire interferenties 2015
Interférences littéraires/Literaire interferenties 2015