Bibliotopia 2026 | Interview with Claire Touzard and Olivier Vonlanthen

Turmoil, Distress, and the Reaction against the Madness of the World
Moderated by Charlotte Dufour

Claire Touzard, a French author and journalist, has worked for France Inter, "Grazia", and "Libération", among others. In "Sans alcool" (Flammarion, 2021), she offers a feminist perspective on cultural representations of alcohol. Following her debut novel "Féminin" (Flammarion, 2022), the writer published "Folie et résistance" (Divergences, 2025), in which, drawing on her own experience of bipolar disorder, she analyses the political instrumentalisation of the concept of madness and its stigmatisation, questioning whether it is individuals or systems that are irrational. This gives rise to a transformation of psychological vulnerabilities into tools of resistance against unhealthy norms and an alternative, collective vision of care.

Olivier Vonlanthen is a Swiss poet and novelist, and also works as a teacher of French. His first collection of poetry, "Ossuaires" (Éditions Empreintes, 2022), an exploration of inner fragility, earned him the C. F. Ramuz Poetry Prize. Tracing in reverse the life of Marthe, a domestic worker from Fribourg, who was institutionalized after murdering her wealthy employer in Montpellier in 1968, the novel "Notre-Dame-des-Démolies" (La Veilleuse, 2025, Terra Nova Prize) reaches beyond the mental instability focused on by the media and the justice system – pointing to psychological suffering closely linked with poverty, religion, humiliation and class violence.

Fondation Jan Michalski, Sunday 31 May 2026