ICLA theory committee member Alexandre Gefen is the author of L’idée de littérature : de l’art pour l’art aux écritures d’intervention (The Idea of Literature: From Art for Art’s Sake to Writing as Intervention). Published with Èditions Corti, the book argues that literature is an idea rather than anything possessing an essence. The book presents the history of this idea, from the appearance of the word and the birth of the concept in the early nineteenth century to their surprising metamorphoses in our time.