French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. Nouss, Le déportement. Petit traité du seuil et du traduire
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics

Alexis Nouss, Le déportement. Petit traité du seuil et du traduire

Hermann Editions

Published on 08/25/2021

Coll. "Le Bel Aujourd'hui"

126 pp. – €24.00 – ISBN: 9791037008909

Mobility and, correlatively, communication are the two principles that appear to govern contemporary behavioral patterns in Western societies, as the coronavirus crisis has demonstrated by negative example. Yet these principles stem from an ideological stance. Why should incessant movement and communication be held up as models to follow? This book aims to outline an alternative path for conduct and thought, drawing upon a symbolic site—the threshold—and a linguistic practice—translation. Both suggest passage, but a passage where the moment of mediation is essential, where the boundaries between inside and outside, near and far, past and present are blurred, inviting the subject to embrace a sense of responsibility toward the other, the vulnerable, or the migrant.

From Italian painting to detective fiction, from philosophy to cinema, from psychoanalysis to theology, and from poetry to anthropology, this essay traverses various fields to gather examples illustrating an ethics of truth in which knowledge never erases the unknown.

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Alexis Nouss is Professor of General and Comparative Literature at Aix-Marseille University and holds the "Exile and Migrations" chair at the Collège d'études mondiales (FMSH, Paris). He recently published Droit d'exil preceded by Covidexil (Éditions MIX., 2021).

In Le déportement, Alexis Nouss situates his reflection at the intersection of translation studies, philosophy, and ethics, echoing an intellectual tradition that views translation as an ethical encounter with alterity. By focusing on the threshold and translation not merely as technical terms but as existential states, the author challenges the modern imperative of frictionless communication. This conceptual framework redefines translation as a space of hospitality and hesitation, where the subject confronts the limits of understanding and embraces a profound responsibility toward the foreign, the migrant, and the marginalized.

This work will be highly valuable to scholars and students of comparative literature, translation theory, and migration studies. It addresses crucial contemporary questions: how can we resist the alienating demands of constant mobility, and how can linguistic mediation foster empathy in an increasingly divided world? By drawing connections across diverse fields—from classical painting to detective novels—Nouss provides a multidisciplinary approach to the ethics of exile. Readers interested in how language shapes our social and political duties toward others will find this short treatise both timely and deeply thought-provoking.