Into the void: visions of la diagonale du vide , a brief survey

Abstract

Abstract

This paper takes readers on a tour of what French geographers call la diagonale du vide. A large band of territory running from the Meuse in the nation’s northeast, through the centre of France and its most forlorn departments like the Creuse and the Limousin, and down to the Landes on the southwest coast, the diagonale is marked by some of France’s most sparsely populated areas. Despite their marginalised status, these comparatively ‘invisible’ spaces have recently attracted the attention of writers, journalists, amateur ethnographers and visual artists keen on exploring what they might reveal about France today. The article surveys a diverse corpus that includes novels, travel narratives, photographic essays, plays and short films that make these forsaken places, and their inhabitants, visible in important and often unexpected new ways. Taken collectively, the works examined here invent an idea and imaginary of the ‘empty diagonal’ that considers the social, political and historical implications of decades of rural exodus, deindustrialisation and administrative neglect, suggesting that France’s ‘empty diagonal’ is more dynamic and complex than it may seem.