The ambiguities of literary heritagisation. Between landscape, art and ecology

Abstract

A ruling by the French Conseil d'Etat has just upheld the refusal to authorize the construction of a wind farm near the village of Illiers-Combray, on the grounds of the symbolic importance of the “literary landscape” created by Marcel Proust. Is the law putting itself at the service of literary heritage and landscape against the renewable energies advocated by ecology? The aim of this article is to examine the various interpretations that can be made of the recent Conseil d'État decision. I propose to shed light on some of the ambiguities surrounding the question of the patrimonialization of literary landscapes, according to the three dynamics revealed by this jurisprudential innovation: the ecological-patrimonial dynamic and its legal basis, the dynamic of linking territory and heritage, and the artistic-ecological dynamic.