Abstract

Abstract:

The coverage of l’affaire Strauss-Kahn is marked by references to Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s Les liaisons dangereuses (1782). In citing the novel’s protagonists, its plot of sexual intrigue, and its setting of ancien régime France, the press constructs a literary framework for its reporting on the Strauss-Kahn case. This framework, in turn, shapes the interpretation of l’affaire by drawing parallels between Laclos’s novel and the events surrounding DSK’s arrest. As the article shows, the media’s choice of Les liaisons dangereuses veils the unknown and the contradictions of l’affaire in a familiar and, ultimately, comforting tale of power and punishment.

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