Grand Conspiracy Fictions

Conspiracy figurations are neither specific to the present day, nor just the preserve of idiots. Their historical depth and heterogeneity are obvious when one considers the multiple aesthetic productions they have been linked to since the development of late modern media culture. From the early 19th century onwards, fictitious conspirators spread throughout Western European novels, then diversified to be integrated into other narrative forms, such as cinema and TV series, as well as in various geocultural areas.
Rather than associating conspiracist narratives with crises, which would unambiguously determine their content and stakes, this book considers the multiple worldviews that emanate from them, feeding a “grand narrative” that has been perpetuated over several centuries by multiplying its media, its compelling revelations, and its targets. Based on a comparative and interdisciplinary study of a hundred or so works of fiction narrating large-scale conspiracies in various European languages over more than two centuries, Grand Conspiracy Fictions takes a fresh look at a notorious social imaginary. Faced with the manifestations of unproven conspiracies that permeate our democracies, our cultural world and our daily lives, this book offers tools to nuance and better adjust our responses.