L’agent littéraire et l’histoire culturelle transatlantique : poursuite d’un dialogue interrompu

Abstract

When literary agents are viewed in terms of their transatlantic mediation between the United States and France, it becomes clear that they remain neglected figures not only in book history but also in cultural history more generally, in both national and transnational narratives. This essay proposes to contribute to the emerging historiography on agents and co-agents. It further suggests ways of articulating a historical perspective with economic and sociological approaches, drawing on the notions of sociabilite, lieux and milieux (places and milieus) as envisaged by French historians Michel Trebitsch and Christophe Prochasson, and engaging in the perspective of intellectual history, in which Anne Ollivier-Mellios’s work was grounded.