Se servir de la fiction comme guide: l’exemple des « romans de carrière » chinois contemporains

Abstract

Abstract This paper focuses on « workplace novels », a literary genre which emerged in the 2000s in Mainland China, as well as on the various discourses surrounding these works by editors, publicists, and scholars. Even though some novels of this category have enjoyed a significant popular and commercial success, the attention they attract in the academic circles seems out of proportion when compared with the actual production of the genre. Moreover, the advertisement and academic discourses concerning these texts have proven to be highly congruent, even stereotyped, as they all describe workplace novels as the career guides of the young urban white-collar workers who are supposed to read them. This congruence is all the more surprising when considering that the information and advice that these novels are supposed to offer do not seem specific nor concrete enough to be applied in a real situation. This paper proposes to address this ambivalence, as well as its origins and implications.