Recent news
NEW BOOK:
LAW, LITERATURE AND LEGAL COUNTERFACTUALS : A Method of Contrastive Discourse Analysis Using the Example of Contemporary Literature
30/01/2026
Conference
Program of upcoming conferences organised by 'Young Researchers in Law and Literature' (University of Nauchâtel): I will speak about my latest publication in law and literature online on 20 April 2026.
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22/10/2025
Climate
Simon Bernard and Alexandre Dechelotte founded Plastic Odyssey to find ways to reduce the volume of plastic waste decomposing into microplastics and polluting the oceans worldwide. In their book Parcourir les océans pour sauver la terre (2023), they document their first three-year global expedition with a ship and crew of ten. The concept is innovative: on board is a special technical facility that shreds plastic waste and transforms it into a viscous mass by heating it to 450°C, which can then be poured into molds and processed into new usable objects, such as building materials, paving stones, profiles, and all kinds of other items. The strategic principle is: Show—Educate—Transform—Multiply. The documentary volume is supported by an interactive website that provides information, technical knowledge, and highlights individual success stories. The Déviations research program investigates anthropological and cultural causes and ways out of the 'plastic society'. Environmental discourse, technical discourse, and the description of individual cases are combined in the narrative of the volume and, supported and supplemented by digital media, result in a stimulating and vivid story that vividly highlights the urgency of finding solutions to eliminate plastic waste. You can visite the website of Plastic Odyssey here: https://plasticodyssey.org/en/
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26/09/2025
New Publication
I am pleased to announce the publication of my article, 'Artistic freedom and freedom of expression under threat in Italy: the "Antonio Scurati case"', in issue no. 9 of the Revue Droit & Littérature.
In the current European and international context of increasing threats to freedom of expression, I have written an article on the case of writer and scientist Antonio Scurati, which occurred in Italy in April 2024. During the annual commemoration of Italy's liberation from fascism, the Meloni government withdrew an invitation for Antonio Scurati to deliver a speech on the public television channel Rai 3. The text of the banned speech has since been circulated in many media outlets. Legally speaking, banning this speech appears to infringe Scurati's freedom of expression and opinion as a citizen, and to infringe his artistic freedom as a writer and man of letters. The analysis is based on Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), and Articles 9, 21 and 33 of the Italian Constitution, as well as Italian case law, to examine this issue. Show more
In the current European and international context of increasing threats to freedom of expression, I have written an article on the case of writer and scientist Antonio Scurati, which occurred in Italy in April 2024. During the annual commemoration of Italy's liberation from fascism, the Meloni government withdrew an invitation for Antonio Scurati to deliver a speech on the public television channel Rai 3. The text of the banned speech has since been circulated in many media outlets. Legally speaking, banning this speech appears to infringe Scurati's freedom of expression and opinion as a citizen, and to infringe his artistic freedom as a writer and man of letters. The analysis is based on Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), and Articles 9, 21 and 33 of the Italian Constitution, as well as Italian case law, to examine this issue. Show more
10/09/2025
New Publication
Following the recent celebration of Kafka in 2024, the theme of metamorphosis has regained relevance. This concept is often associated with Kafka's 1912 work The Metamorphosis, as well as with Ovid's Metamorphoses (c. 8 BC). While these two works limit transformation to the external, Zweig's Rausch der Verwandlung (The Intoxication of Transformation, 1982) focuses on the connection between external transformation and internal, identity-forming mutation. In the story, the poor, insecure postal assistant Christine Hoflehner briefly becomes the wealthy, self-confident Christiane von Boolen in a Swiss luxury hotel. Social recognition confirms the young woman's new self-image. However, the abrupt return to her former life proves extremely problematic because the brief experience of transformation has altered Christine's perception of reality, causing her to feel alienated from both the world of luxury she experienced and her previous life. The only thing left is an awareness of social injustice and the rigidity of the social structure: the metamorphosis as an experiment in social change has failed.
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04/09/2025
New publication
I am pleased to announce the pre-order of the anthology "An Interdisciplinary Approach to Climate Change: Perspectives from the Social Sciences and Humanities", edited by Andrea Catellani, Louise-Amélie Cougnon, Øyvind Gjerstad and Armelle Nugier, and published by Routledge. The book is a collection of papers from the highly interesting conference organised by the University of Louvain in May 2024, "Overcoming Obstacles to Climate Change Mitigation: A Cross-Cutting Approach by the Human and Social Sciences". You will find my own contribution, "Science and Literature in Alliance Against the Anthropocene: Andri Snær Magnason's On Time and Water and Aurélien Barrau's L'Hypothèse K." under chapter 5.
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10/08/2025
New publication
My research develops a new interdisciplinary method called ‘legal counterfactual’ for analyzing law in literature. Building on the American law and literature movement it aims to strengthen this emerging field in Europe.
The method involves extracting legal discourse from literary texts and contrasting it with real-world law to improve communication between legal and literary scholars. After examining theoretical foundations (interdisciplinarity, discourse, hermeneutics), the approach identifies common ground between the disciplines: written text as shared basis and hermeneutics as analytical tool.
The method is tested on five contemporary works: La décision (Tuil), Sworn Virgin (Dones), Unorthodox (Feldman), Repenti (Chossat), and A Slap in the Face (Khider), demonstrating its practical application across different legal systems and literary traditions. Show more
The method involves extracting legal discourse from literary texts and contrasting it with real-world law to improve communication between legal and literary scholars. After examining theoretical foundations (interdisciplinarity, discourse, hermeneutics), the approach identifies common ground between the disciplines: written text as shared basis and hermeneutics as analytical tool.
The method is tested on five contemporary works: La décision (Tuil), Sworn Virgin (Dones), Unorthodox (Feldman), Repenti (Chossat), and A Slap in the Face (Khider), demonstrating its practical application across different legal systems and literary traditions. Show more
10/08/2025
Publication
This article analyzes Anna Seghers' Der Ausflug der toten Mädchen (The Excursion of the Dead Girls) from a discourse linguistic perspective, focusing on its complex temporal narrative structure.
The story uses analepsis (flashbacks) and prolepsis (foreshadowing) as the first-person narrator Netty recalls a school trip to the Rhine while simultaneously revealing the characters' future tragic fates. Written from Seghers' Mexican exile, the narrative blurs boundaries between the fictional narrator Netty Reiling and author Anna Seghers herself.
The analysis examines how Seghers employs Genette's concept of temporal anachrony to create multiple time layers within the story, enhanced by various forms of memory and reminiscence, and connected to the Vanitas tradition. The result is a temporally complex, presumably autobiographical narrative that interweaves past, present, and future through sophisticated narrative techniques. Show more
The story uses analepsis (flashbacks) and prolepsis (foreshadowing) as the first-person narrator Netty recalls a school trip to the Rhine while simultaneously revealing the characters' future tragic fates. Written from Seghers' Mexican exile, the narrative blurs boundaries between the fictional narrator Netty Reiling and author Anna Seghers herself.
The analysis examines how Seghers employs Genette's concept of temporal anachrony to create multiple time layers within the story, enhanced by various forms of memory and reminiscence, and connected to the Vanitas tradition. The result is a temporally complex, presumably autobiographical narrative that interweaves past, present, and future through sophisticated narrative techniques. Show more
06/04/2025
Climate
Saúl, a farmer and mountain guide in the Peruvian Andes, sees his life and that of his family and thousands of people in his village threatened by climate change, as the melting water from the nearby glacier will flood everything beyond. He has filed a lawsuit against the German energy company RWE, holding it responsible for its part in causing...
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26/02/2024
Climate
Diagnostique de la maladie de la terre au stade de l'effondrement: "Hypothèse K.: prolifération technométastastique du cancer numéricomachinique porté par un hôte-humain hébété et engourdi mais déjà symptomatique. Croissance tue-morale. Espoir ou désir d'une thérapie bégayante qui pense l'organicité au-delà de l'organe et la guérison par-delà...
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08/02/2023
Climate
Un livre tout aussi important pour comprendre l'urgence et la manière d'agir face au changement climatique est celui de l'astrophysicien français Aurelien Barrau. Il nous alerte sur la disparition à une vitesse dramatique des espèces vivantes sur terre et l'urgence de penser le monde non pas en termes de rentabilité économique, mais en termes de...
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08/02/2023
Climate
The climate issue is more urgent than ever, it is a matter of life or death and this statement is not an exaggeration. But the problem is worldwide, global and therefore so difficult to grasp and to understand terminologically. Terms like 'global warming', 2° celsius limit, datas of CO2 emissions mean little to most people.
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