Le “Morand des midinettes”?

Abstract

This article deals with the notion of “middle-brow” literature and the historical shifts that characterize the reception of “middle-brow” works and authors. Its main example is Maurice Dekobra, world-famous in the interwar period, but mostly forgotten today. The comparison with Paul Morand, a writer of serious faction who was almost immediately canonized, will demonstrate that the frontiers between certain types of popular literature and certain types of high literature are sometimes difficult to draw and subject to many historical changes.

Keywords

• Dekobra
• La Madone des Sleepings
• Morand
• Ouvert la nuit
• middle-brow
• popular literature
• jazz age
• didactic function
• nationalism