"Anatole France source". A digital and critical edition of Anatole France's corpus – FRANSOURCE

The transition from glory to deafening disgrace characterises the reception of the oeuvre of Anatole France (1844-1924, Nobel Prize 1921). The stark contrast is rich in lessons on the evolution of not only literary taste but also of literary history, the history of ideas, of intellectuals and of mentalities.
This project aims give us all the tools needed to investigate this abrupt transition from an assumed literary hypermnesia (the celebration of the critical and even erudite writer) to an active, even violent amnesia.
To this end, it will rely on the creation of a new tool for the scientific community and the public: the first complete and critical edition of Anatole France's works (including his correspondence) in a digital corpus accessible and searchable online: "Anatole France source".
This project involves identifying and digitising unpublished manuscript sources but also and above all, Anatole France’s abundant articles and fiction writing that has been left largely unknown since appearing in various newspapers of his time. The work will be produced by the project leader in partnership with the digital publishers at the ITEM research centre ("Nietzsche source", "Renan source"). It will be annotated by specialists of the many authors covered by France’s abundant literary criticism, both within the CELLF and at the ITEM, in order to identify and historicise the literary axiology at work in these writings, whose influence on their time was considerable. The works will be accompanied by an academic review, on the model of Studia Nietzscheana, thanks to the tool "Contexta". This will centralise existing Francian academic work, which is already seeing a re-emergence, with the new discussions this very project will revive.
The complete and contextualized return of this great French writer after a century of purgatory will shine a light on this underserved historical moment and lead to a unique enrichment of literary history and to the history of ideas.