De la littérature comme économie du plaisir

Abstract

First examined from the point of view of economics, Literature is part of the bookindustry, the words “production” and “consumption” defining the relationship between the authors (assisted by publishers, printers, booksellers…), and the readers, whose pleasure is the final cause of the trade. But if we limit our outlook to the book in itself, it is still legitimate, considering for instance the “economy” of a narrative or of a poem, to speak of the management of the pleasure of reading, which runs from incitation to orgasm, as in a psychoanalysis of fire. It remains to ask if the sexual model may be pertinently applied to the type of gratification derived from reading. Should not we, instead, resort to the concept of sublimation to better understand reading as it is praised by Society in its valorization of socially useful activities?