Abstract EN:

Why has Jean Forton – a French novelist published by Gallimard from 1954 to 1966, hailed by the critics of the time and a one-time Goncourt Prize runner – fallen into near-oblivion ? To answer this question, we have examined the evolution of the way his works have been received from 1951 to this day, through both the national and regional press, with a view to clarifying the influence of events, critiques and literary context. By examining Forton’s varied editorial fortunes, we try to determine whether the fact of living in the provinces has an effect on the fame of an author. The last part of our dissertation deals with a number of hypotheses concerning the future reception of Jean Forton’s works. We take into account the recent and current upheavals within the world of publishing, the increasingly confined status accorded to French literature worldwide, as well as the changes in readers’ attitudes to literature.