Christophe Reffait

Christophe Reffait is a full Professor of French Literature at the University of Lille, affiliated with the Faculty of Arts and Department of French Language and Literature. A member of the CERCLL research laboratory since 2004, he currently leads the "Novel & Romanesque" research axis and co-directs the journal Romanesques alongside Aurélie Adler. Previously, he maintained a decade-long lectureship at Sciences Po Paris teaching economics and literature.

Reffait's distinctive educational background combines Literature studies at École Normale Supérieure de Fontenay (ENS Fontenay) with business training at ESSEC. This dual expertise underpins his interdisciplinary scholarship, enabling unique analyses of economic representations in 19th-century literature.

His primary research focuses on the intersection of 19th-century French literature and economics, examining how novelists like Zola, Verne, Flaubert, Balzac, and Stendhal incorporated political economy concepts. He has pioneered digital humanities approaches to novelistic description through projects like the online "novel library" and has made significant contributions to Verne studies, Flaubert scholarship, and analyses of the popular novel. His work bridges literary realism with economic history through innovative interdisciplinary frameworks.

Reffait's recent publications demonstrate consistent scholarly output across multiple venues including monographs, journal special issues, and book chapters. His 2020 book "The laws of economics according to 19th-century novelists" represents a major contribution to the field, while his 2022-2023 publications show continued engagement with cutting-edge research questions in economics and literature.

He actively supervises research through his leadership of the "Novel & Romanesque" axis at CERCLL and editorial direction of Romanesques journal. His current projects include digital humanities initiatives and collective research on literature-economics intersections, indicating robust ongoing scholarly activity without dependence on external grant mentions in available materials.