1. - What made you decide on your field of study and research? Did you have an inspiring role model (parent, teacher, character from literature, cinema...)?
The choice of my current research field was made when I met a detective novelist, Carlos Salem, during a Crime Literature festival in Toulouse in 2010.
It was a real chance encounter because I did not know this particular author. During his public book presentation, I had the impression of an intellectual encounter with a figure whose vision of the world I shared and wanted to investigate in my own research.
At the time, I had already completed a doctoral thesis (2002). It was devoted to a very different field of research: fantasy literature. I had chosen that field with my supervisor. It was not a choice of the heart, but rather a very reasoned choice and a very precise research project.
In 2010, I felt freer to choose a more personal field of research, which would be more in line with my own intellectual concerns.
The author of crime literature I met then was born in Argentina and he had lived in Spain since the late 1980s. His writing is very particular and is what I would call « off the wall ». He masters the codes of detective fiction, but also uses elements borrowed from the fantastic and the absurd, with a very peculiar type of humour. This mixture in genres was what attracted me the most to his writing.
After that decisive encounter, I bought his novel and from then on, I felt entitled to work on the detective genre. Before that, this genre was more of a pleasure read, but I had never considered it as a legitimate research object.
2. - Why is your research topic important for science? for society?
The answer is fairly simple: Detective fiction, the field I have been working in for the past ten years now is a genre that is in direct contact with the real world. it is a type of literature that is often very critical of society, and sometimes even a form of social protest. In a very characteristic way, detective fiction is used by its authors as a very powerful instrument to express strong social criticism.
The detective genre can be divided into different sub-genres. It can also be a rather « light » form of literature, based on somewhat playful rules, as is the case in the mystery novel.
The literature I'm interested in is a rather "dark" kind of literature. It was born in the US in the 1930s and played a key role in terms of social criticism and it is truly grounded in real life.
More broadly, I think that literature is a medium that allows us to talk about our world.
3. - What is your most significant achievement in your career ?
On a personal level: in my career as a teacher and researcher, I would mention the “habilitation to supervise research” which I gained in 2018, in which I focussed on Carlos Salem on the detective novel genre. It was a very important step in my career.
A more collective success which I initiated in 2016 was the setting up at UPPA, of a series of recurrent scientific events on and about the detective genre, as well as a collaboration between the university and the detective literature festival "Un Aller-Retour dans le noir".
I am particularly proud to have set up this collaboration, which has now become a permanent partnership. Next September we are going to organise a joint event with writers coming to Pau as participants to the festival and contributors to the academic conference hosted by UPPA.
The collaboration has been going on for six years, and it's been a real success. What was new about the approach was to blend and mix two different kinds of audiences: the general public who go en masse to these detective fiction festivals and an audience of academics whose field of study is more marginal.
4. - What does UNITA mean to you? Why do you think this Alliance is important in your professional career?
UNITA has been a great opportunity!
A few years ago, I started working with a colleague from USMB (Chambéry), with whom I had already co-organised two conferences in 2019 and 2020. When the UNITA project really emerged, we were already used to working together, and were in the process of organising a conference entitled "Le polar dans la cité" (Detective Novels in the city). The conference brought together researchers from the University of Turin as well. As experts in Hispanic studies, we were already working with Spanish colleagues. In fact, I had done research on Spanish and Portuguese authors.
UNITA inspired us to pursue the idea of a research project on crime fiction in Romance languages. A collective reflection was set in motion with the colleagues already involved, in order to lead to a research project within UNITA, now called "ROM'POL".
We were thus able to consolidate a research network and attract new researchers to the project.
UNITA has enabled the organisation of a thematic school on crime fiction in Romance languages, which is itself based on the collaboration between the festival in Pau "Un aller/retour dans le noir".
This project is very close to our hearts and the 2nd edition of the summer school will take place from 27 to 30 September 2022.
We will present a training section, aimed at students, in which researchers from all the UNITA partner universities will draw up a panorama of crime fiction in Romance languages.
There will also be a research component, as a symposium will be organised and dedicated to the transnational and transmedia circulation of crime fiction in Romance languages.
The last day of the summer school will be a day of immersion in the festival, with students being invited to participate in meetings, book signings and all the programmed events.