Ithaque: a Swiss French Literary Journalism Laboratory

Vanoost, Marie [UCL]

Several new media entirely devoted to literary journalism have successfully been launched in France these last few years: XXI, Six mois, Feuilleton, Long cours, etc. Called “mooks,” a contraction of the words “magazine” and “book,” they offer readers long stylish narratives and present a very particular economic model: they come out only four times a year, contain no advertisement and cost between 15 and 20 euros. Ithaque is a quite similar, but more local, initiative in French-speaking Switzerland. Due to its small scale, its economic model is not as steady as the one of its French counterparts. Its success is more fragile. Nevertheless being a small-scale undertaking also gives the editorial team more freedom to experiment. Based on interviews with Guillaume Henchoz, Ithaque’s co-founder and chief editor, and on an analysis of the texts that he recommended as most representative of Ithaque’s editorial project, this paper considers Ithaque as a literary journalism laboratory. The paper explores how, referring to Hunter S. Thompson and gonzo journalism, Ithaque proposes new genres, such as “introspective reportage” and “gonzo encounter,” and how the writers experiment with the boundaries between journalism and literature, mainly with regard to subjectivity. As the chief editor puts it, Ithaque is a media that is somewhat “selfish:” the main guiding principle for writers is to have fun and enjoy writing.