The religious meanings of a company. Dissolutions of Catholicism in the Éditions du Seuil (1935-1970)
Serry, Hervé
The religious meanings of a company. Dissolutions of Catholicism in the Éditions du Seuil (1935-1970) - 2025.
25
Éditions du Seuil established itself as a major publishing brand in France in the 1970s. Its development from the modest Catholic community of its origins to the flourishing company it became based in central Paris was not without incident. This article analyses the practices and discourses that contributed to this evolution based on the different viewpoints of the agents and mechanisms that have made up Le Seuil. Multiple perspectives are considered including professional, economic, technical, intellectual and private. The evolution of the company and its project are traced back to its Catholic roots, and a matrix framework is used to see how practices and discourse that the company adopted and chose not to adopt influenced the nature of its economic expansion at different points in time. Three interrelated timeframes are proposed. To begin, Le Seuil emerged as a result of a desire to reclaim Catholicism that had become the “raison d’être” of self-taught publishers. Subsequently, from the 1950s onwards, the company began to develop its alternative project and sought specific ways in which to implement it. Finally, it became necessary to adopt the new professional practices that were typical of a generalist publishing industry as structural changes emerged. The growing influence of economic pressures, in particular, continued to be absorbed into the firm’s original ideological project and adapted, on an ongoing basis, just as the company had previously succeeded in adapting to other changes.
The religious meanings of a company. Dissolutions of Catholicism in the Éditions du Seuil (1935-1970) - 2025.
25
Éditions du Seuil established itself as a major publishing brand in France in the 1970s. Its development from the modest Catholic community of its origins to the flourishing company it became based in central Paris was not without incident. This article analyses the practices and discourses that contributed to this evolution based on the different viewpoints of the agents and mechanisms that have made up Le Seuil. Multiple perspectives are considered including professional, economic, technical, intellectual and private. The evolution of the company and its project are traced back to its Catholic roots, and a matrix framework is used to see how practices and discourse that the company adopted and chose not to adopt influenced the nature of its economic expansion at different points in time. Three interrelated timeframes are proposed. To begin, Le Seuil emerged as a result of a desire to reclaim Catholicism that had become the “raison d’être” of self-taught publishers. Subsequently, from the 1950s onwards, the company began to develop its alternative project and sought specific ways in which to implement it. Finally, it became necessary to adopt the new professional practices that were typical of a generalist publishing industry as structural changes emerged. The growing influence of economic pressures, in particular, continued to be absorbed into the firm’s original ideological project and adapted, on an ongoing basis, just as the company had previously succeeded in adapting to other changes.
Réseaux sociaux