Nelly Wolf's 'Le roman de la démocratie' Explores Novel-Democracy Link

In her essay 'Le roman de la démocratie,' Nelly Wolf examines the relationship between the novel and democracy, arguing for a structural homology between the two based on contractual socialization. The book, published by Presses universitaires de Vincennes, traces the historical alliance between novel and democracy in authors like Balzac and Stendhal, contemporaries of Tocqueville, and its subsequent erosion under totalitarianism. Wolf's work interrogates the poetic and political implications of this shift, offering a parallel history that illuminates the French literary tradition's ambivalence toward democracy, a sentiment Philippe Forest notes is particularly French and contrasts with post-1945 Germany, Italy, Japan, post-Franco Spain, and post-Cold War Eastern Europe.