French Literature Reviews - 2026

The Strange Foreign Topos
Novel and Narrative Prose

The Strange Foreign Topos: Proceedings of the 16th SATOR Colloquium, papers collected and edited by Max Vernet, Presses de l'Université Laval, 2006.

Book awaiting review for Acta Fabula.

Publisher's presentation:

SATOR, that multinational organization for which, by vocation, nothing human is alien, chose for its 16th colloquium to explore the questions of the stranger and the strange. In keeping with tradition, the papers gathered in this proceedings volume are divided between those addressing thematic questions (namely, “How the novel between 1200 and 1800 perceives the stranger and conceives the strange”) and theoretical ones (here, “How the definition of SATOR's object of study, the narrative topos, cannot dispense with an inquiry into its links with repetition, familiarity, and the uncanny”). While the second part of the diptych confirms the foundational importance of the stranger's presence and the specter of the uncanny in the formation of the novel, the first (the opening two “Parts”) captures SATOR's theoretical reflection at the moment it realizes that its object of study both is and is not what it was thought to be, and that beneath a familiar appearance it is actually entirely novel, finally grasping the central role of repetition in the difference inherent in reading.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

REPETITION IN LITERATURE

Topos, Repetition, and Difference
Jean-Pierre Dubost

SATOR and Statistics
Etienne Brunet

Plagiarism and Repetition in Literature: A Critical Distinction
Marilyn Randall

A COMMONPLACE: THE NARRATIVE TOPOS

The Topos: A Familiar Strangeness
Madeleine Jeay

A King with Amusement: The Internal Stranger and Topical Hauntology
Eric Méchoulan

TOPICS OF THE STRANGE(R)

These Strange Foreign Women: The Amazons
Françoise Denis

Tristan: From the Monstrous Toward a Spirituality
Gabriela Tanase
“So Many Singularities”: The Strange in the Amadis de Gaule and Jacques Amyot's *Aethiopian History* (1548) and the Theorization of Fiction in the Sixteenth Century
Julia Horn

The Writing of the Strange Among 16th- and 17th-Century Mystics: The Example of Jean-Joseph Surin
Hélène Trépanier

Whimsical Communication in the 17th Century
Daniel Maher

The Encounter with the Black Figure in the Grand Siècle
Marie-Christine Pioffet

The Émigré in the Fictional and Theatrical Universe of Isabelle de Charrière
Marie-Hélène Chabut

The Love of the Stranger in Isabelle de Charrière's Fiction
Monique Moser-Verrey

The Irruption of the Strange in the Age of Enlightenment: On Jacques Cazotte's *The Devil in Love*
Marie-Anne Zouaghi-Keime

The Topics of the Orient, According to the *Persian Letters* and *Letters from a Peruvian Woman*
Catherine Gallouët

Max Vernet is Professor Emeritus at Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada. His research interests focus on 17th-century French literature, particularly Molière (*Molière côté jardin, côté cour*, Paris, Nizet, 1991) and Jean-Pierre Camus (*Jean-Pierre Camus: théorie de la contre-littérature*, Paris, Honoré Champion). Until 2006, he was the principal investigator of the TopoScan project (in collaboration with E. Fromet de Rosnay, G. Lessard, F. Rouget, S. Sinclair, and E. Zawisza) funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

The SATOR organization has dedicated its research to the systematic study of the narrative topos. By investigating how motifs and themes function within literature from the 13th to the 18th century, scholars associated with this group examine the mechanics of fiction. This volume, The Strange Foreign Topos: Proceedings of the 16th SATOR Colloquium, situates the topos within a framework of repetition and familiarity, linking structural elements of a narrative to the perception of the uncanny. Readers interested in the history of the novel may find these theoretical explorations relevant.

The papers gathered in this volume are divided between thematic questions regarding how the novel between 1200 and 1800 perceives the stranger and theoretical questions regarding the narrative topos and its links with repetition and familiarity. The contributors examine figures such as the Amazon, the émigré, and the orientalized character to explore how the presence of the foreign influences the development of fictional tropes. The volume also reflects on the methodological challenges inherent in defining the topos and the role of repetition in the difference inherent in reading.