Now in its fifth consecutive year, this seminar aims both to examine literature as a relevant subject of study for history and other social sciences, and to recognise its unique role and intellectual power in the social sciences' efforts to decipher the world. It thus brings together a literary scholar and a specialist in another field.

The division of roles between literature and the various historical, sociological and anthropological disciplines, which for a century have considered themselves to be sciences, is now largely blurred: the points of convergence are as many opportunities for encroachment or contestation of generic boundaries... It should be remembered that history, like sociology and anthropology, is a narrative, and that a shared reflection on the most appropriate modes of writing for thinking about the complexity of reality can now be found among writers as well as researchers. We will also examine what has been referred to in recent years as ‘literary knowledge’ and the long-standing but recently revived idea that literature provides a better understanding of history and society than the disciplines of history and sociology. - a ‘competition’ that can itself be the subject of history, as part of a contemporary sharing of knowledge that began with the institutionalisation of disciplines in the 19th century, which we may no longer need to rely on. Finally, we will also explore the ‘powers’ of literature, in particular its forms of intervention or interference in current political debates, its inspiration for political theory and its capacity for revival when the view of it today is largely saturated by the teachings of the social sciences. This will be an opportunity to re-examine a number of current political controversies involving literature or drawing on it, in order to decipher the issues at stake in a more informed manner and put them into perspective over the long term.

Calendar 2025-2026

• 29/09/2025 (17h-19h) 
  Penser une histoire transnationale des intellectuels yiddishophones, 
  avec Agnieszka Wierzcholska (CHSP) et Arnaud Bikard (INALCO)
   
• 16/10/2025 (17h-19h) 
  Culture, littérature et politique dans la guerre en Ukraine : nationalisme, impérialisme, décolonisation
  avec Victoire Feuillebois (Université de Strasbourg) et Jules Sergueï Fediunin (Université d'Oslo)
   
• 03/11/2025 (17h-19h) 
  À la recherche des voix indigènes
  avec Vincent Debaene (Université de Genève) et Antoine Lilti (Collège de France)
   
• 26/01/2026 (17h-19h)
  Réécritures, traductions, adaptations : lire les classiques aujourd'hui
  avec Laure Murat (Université de Californie LA) et Tiphaine Samoyault (EHESS)
   
• 16/02/2026 (17h-19h)
  Peut-on écrire l'histoire des siens ? Histoire et historiographie de la Shoah
  avec Stéphane Gerson (NYU) et Annick Louis (EHESS)
   
• 23/03/2026 (17h-19h)
  Crises de la démocratie
  avec Paulin Ismard (Université d'Aix-Marseille) et Olivier Mannoni (traducteur)