Critique virale et genre trafiqué dans Valérie par Valérie par La Rédaction

Abstract

Valérie par Valérie opens new critical paths which are fertile, though difficult to unpack. Published under the enigmatic and collective name La Rédaction, this book – whose main (or only) author seems to be Christophe Hanna – develops what we could call a viral critique, which seeks to occupy dominant ideologies to undermine them from within rather than oppose them with a new ideology. This article aims firstly to define Hanna's viral critique, based on his own theoretical works and Guy Debord's notion of spectacle as a social and economic mechanism. It then analyzes the specific form taken by that critique in Valérie par Valérie, where the author opposes the separation of literary and non-literary forms, as well as contemporary ultracapitalism and its political-economic ramifications. Finally, the ethical implications of this type of implicit critical exercise are explored through semioethics, in order to determine the efficiency of Hanna's project.