Tweets avant la lettre? Félix Fénéon's Novels in three lines Tweets avant la lettre? Félix Fénéons Nouvelles en trois lignes

Abstract

Between Mai and November 1906, the French daily Le Matin published more than 1200 miscellaneous news, written by a certain Felix Feneon. Although at first glance almost exemplary for Le Matin ’s self-conception as a medium of most recent objective information from any corner of the globe, at a closer look Feneon’s threeliners unfold an astonishing poetic power. Their author’s active participation in the aesthetic avantgarde during the Parisian fin de siecle as well as in the anarchist movement of the early 1890s provides the breeding ground from which Feneon’s Nouvelles en trois lignes emerge as explosive mixture of artistry and political commitment that goes far beyond a nicely cast tweet to the reader.