French Literature Reviews - 2026
Words and Muscles!
Other Literary Studies
Just published by Nota bene in Quebec:
HAMEL, Yan, Geneviève LAFRANCE, and Benoît MELANÇON (eds.), Des mots et des muscles ! Représentations des pratiques sportives, Quebec, Nota bene, 2005, 274 p. Ill.
ISBN: 2-89518-181-0.
Table of Contents
Caron, Pascal, "The Inversion of Dance and Sport: Nijinsky's Games", pp. 67-84.
David, Sylvain, "Children of the Ball: The Politics of Football in French Alternative Rock", pp. 47-65.
Diana, Jean-François, "Slow Motion in Sports Imagery: The Negation of the Off-Screen", pp. 103-114.
Dupuis, Gilles, "National Sports: From Myth to Epiphenomenon", pp. 85-101.
Faucher, Évangéline, "Albertine and the Budding Girls: Sport, Fashion, and Modernity at the Belle Époque", pp. 177-199.
Hamel, Yan, "Concentration Camp Sport: David Rousset, Georges Perec", pp. 231-250.
Hamel, Yan, Geneviève Lafrance, Benoît Melançon, and Pierre Popovic, "Introduction", pp. 5-10.
Melançon, Benoît, "Explaining Maurice Richard to Children", pp. 13-30.
Nareau, Michel, "Appropriating History and Shaking It Off: Don DeLillo's Underworld", pp. 139-160.
Popovic, Pierre, "Football Avatars of the Idea of the Stadium: Éric Cantona, Tim Parks", pp. 117-138.
Sandu, Corina, "Talking Horses and Talking Toiletries in France During the Second Empire", pp. 161-175.
Saouter, Anne, "Sporting Bodies and Gendered Bodies: Stereotypes and New Representations", pp. 31-45.
Vatan, Florence, "When Dad Took Tennis Lessons: Robert Musil and Sport", pp. 201-229.
Back Cover
How can a hockey player like Maurice Richard be explained to children? Why does a short story by Tim Parks help us better understand the kick delivered by footballer Éric Cantona to a spectator? How does a baseball come to embody the past half-century of American history? These are a few of the questions that Des mots et des muscles ! seeks to answer.
The specialists who contributed to this edited volume also explored horse racing, women's rugby, Formula One, the marathon, and tennis. They examined Pierre de Coubertin and Nijinsky, Roland Barthes and Hubert Aquin, Georges Perec and David Rousset, Robert Musil and rock bands (Molodoï, Zebda, Mano Negra), Kellogg's cereals and Kierkegaard, Playboy and Proust.
Despite the diversity of their subjects and approaches, they share a common idea: sports representations always have something to say about the society that gives birth to them. But what?
Featuring texts by Pascal Caron, Sylvain David, Jean-François Diana, Gilles Dupuis, Évangéline Faucher, Yan Hamel, Benoît Melançon, Michel Nareau, Pierre Popovic, Corina Sandu, Anne Saouter, and Florence Vatan.
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Source: Montreal College of Sociocriticism and Discourse Analysis
The study of sports within the humanities often intersects with cultural studies and sociology, focusing on how physical activities reflect broader societal values, power structures, and historical shifts. By analyzing the intersection of athletics and representation, researchers explore how the body is framed in media, literature, and public discourse. This volume, Des mots et des muscles ! Représentations des pratiques sportives, edited by Yan Hamel, Geneviève Lafrance, and Benoît Melançon, investigates subjects ranging from Maurice Richard to the works of authors such as Robert Musil, Georges Perec, and Don DeLillo.
The contributions gathered in this volume address diverse manifestations of sport, including the political dimensions of football, the evolution of sporting imagery, and the connection between athletic practice and gendered identity. The authors examine figures and phenomena including Nijinsky, horse racing, and stadium culture. Readers interested in the intersection of cultural history, media studies, and the sociology of the body may find these explorations of the relationship between athletic performance and social representation relevant to their own inquiries.