From book to e-book: A digital revolution in French cultural studies?

Abstract

The rise of the digital revolution does not only relate to science and business, but also to literature and the arts. Therefore it is a topic worth considering for French cultural studies. This article aims to show how profoundly e-technology has changed the way French readers interact with books and all forms of textual production – reading, consuming, learning, selecting, sharing, etc. – despite the institutional resistance of a so-called ‘French conservative’ approach towards books and culture. As a matter of fact, more and more artists and writers are using e-technology. We will demonstrate, via two case studies of livres d’artiste by Serge Bouchardon and Nicolas Frespech, how these e-books can be seen as perfect cultural studies ‘objects’, since they combine different media and exemplify some of the striking shifts in the French cultural field.