The text deals with the prose of two contemporary French authors. Their works interestingly address the socio-economic changes that France underwent during the twentieth century. For Jean Rouaud, this primarily concerns the first half of the twentieth century and its war traumas, as well as the transformation of France from a rural country into a modern industrial society. For François Bon, the main focus is on the transition from an industrial society to a post-industrial one. Methodologically, the text is approached through the postulates of the French postmodern philosopher Jean-François Lyotard and the observations of British sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, from whose work the concept of liquid modernity emerged. The fundamental issue presented in the text is thus the way contemporary literature reflects these paradigmatic changes typical of the second half of the twentieth century, traditionally referred to as postmodernity.
