CfP: Pop Figures in Contemporary French, Caribbean, and African Fiction, Journal FLAMME, Deadline: 15.06.2025
Call for Papers
Pop Figures in Contemporary French, Caribbean, and African Fiction
Pop figures, or figures from popular culture, are representations, personalities, or icons that are widely recognized and influential in contemporary society, often transcending cultural and geographic boundaries. These figures primarily emerge from mass media such as television, cinema, music, social media, and other forms of popular entertainment. They are characterized by their ability to embody aspects of mainstream culture and to convey the values, aspirations, and concerns of the era. Recognized and influential, pop figures shape cultural trends and behaviors. They include artists, fictional characters, and brands that are omnipresent in the media. As reinvented cultural symbols, they maintain their relevance. Their interaction with the public and their critical role address issues such as social injustice and identity.
According to John Storey in his book Cultural Theory and Popular Culture (2018), popular culture is defined as "the cultural practices that emerge within modern mass society and are widely consumed by members of that society." As essential components of this culture, pop figures play a central role in mediating and representing both collective and individual experiences in the contemporary world. They transcend the media in which they appear, offering reflections on values and social dynamics while remaining deeply rooted in the fabric of popular culture.
The omnipresent presence of pop culture figures in contemporary novels—whether French, African, or Caribbean—reveals a complex dynamic where musical and transmedia mediation plays a key role. In an increasingly globalized and mediated world, popular culture is no longer just a backdrop for literary narratives; it becomes an essential part of storytelling, enriching stories with familiar references and recognizable icons. This integration reflects a symbiosis between high culture and popular culture, opening new paths for exploration by writers and literary critics.
This process is not new. For example, studies show how Thomas Pynchon and Orhan Pamuk incorporate popular culture into their novels to critique Western modernity and globalization (E. Duclos, 2024). Rather than using pop culture as mere scenery, they make it central to their storytelling, offering social critique. Analyses also distinguish between “popular” and “literary” novels during the Romantic era, highlighting the ambivalence in the perception of works by Féval, Dumas, and Sue (J.-C Vareille, 1989). Other studies highlight how Nathaniel Hawthorne reinvented popular culture to critique the moral simplifications of his time, creating subversive and meaningful narratives (S. Lorrain, 2010).
Literary works demonstrate that popular culture can be a powerful narrative vehicle, offering reflective perspectives on the (post)modern and even postcolonial world. Contemporary authors use popular culture not only as a setting but as a central narrative component, thereby reinventing pop icons and enriching their stories with layered meanings.
Analyzing the representation of pop figures in contemporary fiction shows that these works go beyond mere storytelling. They act as spaces where popular culture, literary reflection, and social concerns intersect. Popular music, in particular, is used as a powerful narrative tool to question the very nature of visibility or invisibility and the identity of the subject within the social world. Indeed, contemporary novels exploit popular music as a medium to reinvent iconic stories and figures. This reinvention allows not only for capturing the essence of the protagonists but also for contextualizing their influence within the social body.
Musical mediation thus becomes a tool to reimagine and redefine pop culture figures, transforming them into symbols of broader reflections on society and culture, and on the representation of personal and cultural identity. Pop culture becomes a mirror in which complex identities are refracted, often in tension with collective expectations and perceptions. Transmedia mediation is crucial in shaping and reinforcing the public image of pop artists. This includes not only how traditional media portray artists but also how these artists themselves use media to craft their own narratives and images. Transmedia storytelling makes it possible to deconstruct the layers of celebrity, exposing the tensions between public image and private reality.
The integration of pop figures into contemporary fiction represents much more than a mere reflection of popular culture. It constitutes a space where the boundaries between high culture and popular culture dissolve, allowing for the exploration of questions of subjectivity, relationships to the world, and celebrity. This issue seeks to examine how contemporary French, African, and Caribbean literature uses figures from popular music as a structuring element of storytelling and as a translation of contemporary social and cultural dynamics.
We are particularly interested in the following questions:
1. How do contemporary authors reinvent pop culture icons to enrich their narratives?
2. How do musical and transmedia mediation contribute to the representation of identity and visibility of pop figures in contemporary novels?
3. What is the role of pop culture figures in the social critique and literary reflection of African and Caribbean contexts?
4. How does contemporary African and Caribbean literature use popular music figures to explore social and cultural dynamics?
Authors may choose corpora from French, Caribbean, or African productions and may compare them if they wish. They may also include corpora from other cultural areas, provided that the French, Caribbean, or African corpus constitutes the basis of the study.
Contributions may be written in French, Spanish, or English and will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal FLAMME. Proposals (about one page) should be sent by June 15, 2025 to the project coordinator, Buata Malela (buata.malela[at]univ-mayotte[dot]fr). Authors will receive a response from the editorial board by June 30, 2025. Full articles must be submitted to the same email address by October 15, 2025.
Editorial Board
Cécile Bertin (Université de Limoges)
Odile Richard (Université de Limoges)
Vinciane Trancart (Université de Limoges)
Buata Malela (Université de Mayotte)
Christophe Premat (Université of Stockholm)
Selected Bibliography
"The Relationship between Poetry and Music". Journal of Aesthetic Education, vol. 10, no. 3/4, 1976, pp. 69-82. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3331835.
Byrne, David. How Music Works. New York: Penguin Books, 2012.
Coste, Marion. Sankofa Cry: mémoire musicale et improvisation littéraire dans les romans de l’Atlantique noir. Paris, Honoré Champion, 2023.
Duclos, Elise. "La culture populaire dans les romans de Thomas Pynchon et d’Orhan Pamuk." Société française de littérature générale et comparée. https://sflgc.org/acte/elise-duclos-la-culture-populaire-dans-les-romans-de-thomas-pynchon-et-dorhan-pamuk/.
Gillett, Charlie. The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll. New York: Da Capo Press, 1996.
Herndon, Marcia, and Norma McLeod, eds. Music as Culture. Norwood, PA: Norwood Editions, 1982.
Hyden, Steven. Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me: What Pop Music Rivalries Reveal About the Meaning of Life. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2016.
Kelly, Steven N. Teaching Music in American Society: A Social and Cultural Understanding of Music Education. 2nd ed., New York and London: Routledge, 2016.
Levitin, Daniel J. This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession. New York: Dutton, 2006.
Lorrain, Stéphanie. "Culture savante et culture populaire dans les romans de Nathaniel Hawthorne." Recherches anglaises et nord-américaines, vol. 43, 2010, pp. 169-180.
Malela, Buata B. La Pop musique urbaine francophone. Image de soi, sujet pop et mélancolie. Preface by Matthieu Letourneux, Paris, Éditions du Cerf, coll. « Cerf Patrimoines », 2020.
Reynolds, Simon. Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past. London: Faber & Faber, 2011.
Storey, John. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture. London: Routledge, 2018.
Vareille, Jean-Claude. "Culture populaire et roman populaire à l’époque romantique." L’Homme masqué, le justicier et le détective, Presses universitaires de Lyon, 1989, https://doi.org/10.4000/books.pul.1511.