The Feuilleton

This chapter explores the pivotal role of the feuilleton in the modernisation of culture, examining how print technology and mass society transformed the logic of storytelling. It traces the origins of the serial novel, linking its 19th-century form to older narrative practices based on repetition and myth. The feuilleton emerges not merely as a literary genre, but as a means of communication that organised collective time and emotion through the ritual of serial reading. By blending chronicle and fiction, the serial novel became a shared public experience, mediating between individual imagination and social change. Within this system, the figure of the serial heroâ€Â" the avenger or the supermanâ€Â" embodies the new tensions of industrial modernity, expressing both alienation and the search for moral order. This study posits that the temporal and affective structures of the feuilleton anticipated those later developed by cinema, television, and digital media. It is more than just a popular diversion; it represents the birth of a modern imaginaryâ€Â" a space where narrative, technology, and society converge to shape the forms of perception that continue to define contemporary culture.