Les jeunes mélancoliques is French and means nothing more nor less than ‘the young melancholics’. Partially inspired by dark romanticism, it is the vision of a new literary movement that reflects the human condition, and especially of the young generation, at the beginning of the 21st century.
The idea for a new literary movement was presented on sad autumn at the beginning of 2007 and quickly found interested writers. This website tries offer a platform to all the authors of the movement and give people an idea on who we are and what we are trying to achieve.

We are a group of avid writers aged between 17 and 21, originally all from Luxembourg but, due to studies, currently spread across Europe. Although referring to ourselves as melancholics, we do not compare ourselves to the emo subculture, caught - when writing - in the unoriginal and insignificant style of teenage angst. The melancholy also does not mean that we are depressed or write depressive texts (albeit they are a part of our writings), as melancholy is much more complex than this, for example (over)happiness is a part of melancholy. It rather means we are aware of and concerned with the social problems in a world that is, sadly, technologically far more advanced than morally.

We see the constant devaluation of creative writing (i.e. fiction, non-fiction and poetry) and the lack of a consistent movement at the beginning of this twenty-first century with great distress and endeavour to change this. Our common ground lies not so much in a similar style (although the styles of the different authors sometimes mirror each other) as in a similar theme: who are these human beings, struggling with life at the dawn of this new millennium? We do not claim to have (or ever be able to find) an answer to this question, but our works show fragments, or sometimes maybe describe the frameworks, of a society that seems lost and unhappy. We strive to give our readers a new perception of life, by offering them our perspective on it.

On this website you will find a selection of what we consider some of our best texts and poems, as well as some information about the authors and of course news on when and where we will do a reading.

We are currently still in the early stages of the movement and do not accept new members yet, however this will change in the very near future. If you’re interested, simply subscribe to our feed to get notified as soon as this happens.