Seemingly rooted in long-standing representations, the dualistic opposition of body and mind, already present in Plato's philosophy, has, by metonymy, fostered an a priori clear distinction between sport and literature. In his tenth satire, Juvenal mocked the presumed stupidity of athletes with a quip whose antiphrastic value posterity has not always recognized: Mens sana in corpore sano. Yet, while common sense often opposes sport and literature, there is no shortage of counterexamples demonstrating dialogue between the two realms: from the gold medal in literature awarded at the Olympics between 1912 and 1948 to footballer Luigi Meroni’s appreciation for Beat Generation authors; from Alfred Jarry’s love of cycling to Peter Esterházy’s Voyage au bout des seize mètres; and from Albert Camus’s affinity for football to Antoine Blondin’s articles in L’Équipe, the boxing narratives of Jake LaMotta (Raging Bull) and F.X. Toole (Sweat and Blood), and Paul Auster’s fascination with baseball. The links between sport and literature are, in fact, historically abundant. They have even led to the creation of institutions dedicated to their intersection within the literary world (such as the founding of the Association des écrivains sportifs in 1931 or, more recently, the establishment of the Prix Jean-Cormier for French-language sports literature), and critical approaches to sports writing are equally prolific (including works by Pierre Cherreton, Thomas Bauer, Julie Gaucher, the Numapresse team, and the Sport Literature Association).

However, the most contemporary body of sport literature, despite its substantial volume, has so far attracted little critical attention. Encouraged by the gradual erosion of the distinction between high culture and popular culture, a process that accelerated in the 1980s within the context of “cultural dissonances,” sport has firmly established itself in contemporary French-language fiction which explores a wide range of sports, from football (Football by Jean-Philippe Toussaint) to boxing (Fief by David Lopez), cycling (Jean de la Ciotat, la légende by Jean-Charles Massera), tennis (Je suis une aventure by Arno Bertina), swimming (Hongrie-Hollywood-Express by Éric Plamondon, the first volume of the 1984 trilogy tracing the career of Johnny Weissmuller), and even the 3000-meter steeplechase (En l’absence de classement final by Tristan Garcia). The generic and tonal variety of sports fiction is striking: it ranges from epic aestheticization to burlesque humor (as seen in the special issue of Inculte magazine on the 2006 World Cup), from what writers perceive as memorial and melancholic material to the exploration of contemporary tragedy (Plonger by Benard Chambaz). These fictions employ multiple registers, styles, and narrative devices to fictionalize worlds and characters that lend themselves to the effective renewal of narrative structures. Indeed, it seems that in both adversity and victory, sports trajectories often echo those of great literary heroes and are sometimes used, particularly in children's literature, for their instructive and inspirational qualities

From football fables (Rien de plus précieux que le repos by Yamina Benahmed Daho) to autobiographical sports dictionaries (Petite philosophie du ballon by Bernard Chambaz), and from athlete biofictions (Courir by Jean Échenoz which explores the life of Emile Zátopek) sport literature in the French and Francophone literary world today demonstrates a vitality that merits sustained critical attention. While these works sometimes aim to represent the success or failure of a single event (Éloge de l’esquive by Olivier Guez), they also explore sport as a vast arena of expression, whether it be to capture the voices and chants of supporters (Dans la foule by Laurent Mauvignier), the pep talk of a coach transformed into a meditation on love and on the world (Jouer juste by François Bégaudeau), the stereotypes of sports commentary (in the graphic novel Hors-jeu by Matthieu Chiara), or even the improbable poetic correspondence of a football fan with their favorite player (Surface de réparation by Olivier El-Khoury). The strong interest of contemporary writers in sport likely stems from the fact that it serves as an effective lens for examining contemporary society. As a metonymic tool for the writer, the sports arena offers a means to interrogate the ideological and economic mechanisms of neoliberalism, the apotheosis of the society of spectacle, the history of communism (La Petite Communiste qui ne souriait jamais by Lola Lafon) or slavery, gender inequalities (Poule D by Yamina Benahmed Daho or the collective work Femmes et sport edited by Maylis de Kerangal and Joyce Sorman), and even the mechanisms of male dominance and control (Je suis le courant la vase by Marie-Hélène Larochelle).

In this sense, sport represents, for writers, the quintessential space for new contemporary mythologies, following in the footsteps of Roland Barthes and his article « Le Tour de France comme une épopée ». It might even serve as a dynamic model or mirror for the art of writing—a practice that provides literature with a space to strengthen, refine, and sharpen its poetics, inviting each writer to craft their own self-portrait as does Haruki Murakami in What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, a work which explores how running informs his writing practice. Beyond analogical modes of structuring narratives (halves, rounds, etc.), sport offers authors a valuable playground for writing, as it is also an art of rhythm and movement. This is evidenced by events like the Littérature Supersport evenings organized in Brussels, where the intersection of poetry and sport involves a playful engagement with the notion of performance, as well as the « Sport et littérature » writing residency held by Lisette Lombé at the Paris Université Club. What specific values are associated with particular sports? How is the figure of a sports hero constructed? How can the chronology of sport serve the chronology of narrative? How can one tell the story of a body? How can one describe a gesture? What new mythologies are written on the field or in the stadium? What grammar of commentary can be imagined? These are some of the questions that this issue of Fixxion, dedicated to contemporary French and Francophone sport literature, seeks to explore.

Deadline: Juin 1, 2025. Proposals for contributions (approximately 300 words), covering French-language literatures, should be sent in French or English to fixxion21@gmail.com.

After notification of the acceptance of the abstract, the text of the final article (entered in the Word template and respecting the styles and instructions of the Editorial Protocol) must be sent to fixxion21@gmail.com before December 15, 2026 for evaluation.