In a world that can feel threatened by destruction, we often turn to fiction, sometimes to escape reality and other times to consider how we might respond should such destruction occur. Contemporary French and Francophone novels, particularly those of the genre littératures de l’imaginaire—which groups together science fiction, fantasy, and other related genres—, offer a variety of examples of ways in which characters rebuild their communities, societies, or worlds following destruction. This panel explores examples of rebuilding practices, ranging from the diplomatic to the communal, the magical to the linguistic, by examining works whose fictional concerns often mirror those of our own world. Putting these contemporary works in dialogue for the first time, this panel provides an opportunity to explore how these science-fiction(-adjacent) novels depict optimistic possibilities in dystopian situations, a useful addition to the growing scholarly field of French and Francophone academic studies of littératures de l’imaginaire.

In the first paper, “Diplomacy and Peacebuilding: An Analysis of Le Premier Jour de la paix by Elisa Beiram”, Emmanuel Buzay analyzes a fictional rebuilding of a futuristic world through diplomatic and peacebuilding efforts. After a first science fiction novel Reveur zero (Dreamer zero (2020)) that explored a world affected by an unusual epidemic of dreams that have the capacity to materialize in reality all over the world, in her second science fiction novel, Le Premier jour de paix (The First Day of Peace (2023)), Elisa Beiram imagines a world devasted by wars, famine, and climate disasters set in 2098. In this second world, diplomacy plays a crucial role in this radically optimistic narrative that renews the genre of utopia and portrays characters like America, a diplomat, and Esfir, an emissary of peace, who long to mediate and resolve conflicts at various levels. This paper will examine how these characters understand the root cause of violence in human history and how their peaceful worldview ends up fostering collaboration in a fractured world.

The second paper, co-presented by Stefania Sini and Carlo Caccia, entitled “‘Un moment passa, de pur bonheur musical’.Rebuilding Community in Antoine Volodine’s Terminus Radieux”, presents a different approach to rebuilding, this time through the use of communal practices. In Antoine Volodine’s Terminus Radieux (2014), the protagonists traverse the ruins of the Second Soviet Union, a retrofuturistic and dystopian world within which Volodine interrogates the possibilities of reconstructing a genuine sense of community by refunctionalizing utopian éthos. In the section “Éloges des camps”, a group of characters journeying through a desolate, dreamlike landscape by train rekindle a sense of purpose through communal practices: democratic decision-making, collective music-making, and shared storytelling. This paper proposes a close reading of “Éloges des camps”, focusing on shifts in narrative voice and focalization, temporality, metadiegetic structures, character and space descriptions, the ekphrasis of musical moments, and intertextual and transcultural references. By analyzing these elements, the study aims to illuminate how Volodine’s narrative techniques not only depict the reconstruction of community, but also invite readers to reflect on the enduring relevance of collective resistance and solidarity in the face of potential societal collapse.

In the third paper, “Remaking Meaning: Political and Literary Subversions in Laure Gauthier’s mélusine reloaded”, Elisabeth Buzay will examine another, more individual approach to rebuilding. In mélusine reloaded (2024), Laure Gauthier’s totalitarian and dystopic textual universe is destroyed, limited, and controlled in many ways. The arrival of mélusine, the serpent-fairy of mythical and medieval origins, in this alternate reality of our own world, introduces new ways of constructing meaning, of interacting, and of functioning—the steps to build a new world. But mélusine’s work is not just political, it is also literary, as the novel explores language and writing, as well as what it means when narrative functions of dystopian works meet those of fairy tales and myths. This paper will explore these different levels of subversion and how their introduction and development provide another means of rebuilding a society that has been destroyed.

In addition to addressing a variety of rebuilding practices across different works, this panel will provide a platform for a diversity of voices to exchange their ideas on this topic, as it invites scholars with different experiences and at different professional points in their careers—a former academic working for the French Embassy, an associate professor, a visiting assistant professor, and a doctoral candidate—and of different backgrounds—French, American, and Italian—to share their perspectives and interpretations, before inviting the audience to join them in a question-and-answer discussion for the final 15 minutes of the session.