1990s alt music slang and socioeconomic precarity in Despentes’ "Vernon Subutex" series

In a time of widespread cynicism and disillusionment with the political and economic status quo in France, how can literature give a voice to those discontents while inspiring hope? My contribution will explore Virginie Despentes’ use of slang from 1990s French alternative music subcultures in her narrative depictions of contemporary economic precarity and social alienation in the Vernon Subutex series (2015-17). I will discuss how Despentes uses French slang to establish a distance between economically marginalized characters and more affluent Parisians, highlighting how the former draw on vocabulary from Anglophone indie rock and hip-hop subcultures as an expression of a shared experience of precarity in contemporary France. I will address how Despentes’ use of slang aligns with her ambition to write for ‘the unwanted’, and her affinity for French protest movements such as the Nuit debout (depicted in the Subutex series), which aimed to unite a diverse French working class, with distinct experiences of economic and social alienation, into a cohesive social movement. I will also address how Despentes’ work sits within French discourse over the ‘créolisation’ of the French language, in light of influences from the global francophonie and beyond on metropolitan French culture. My analysis of Despentes’ Vernon Subutex will demonstrate how the contemporary French novel can give a voice to those socially and economically alienated from the political status quo in France, while inspiring hope in alternative sociopolitical formations.