This website is devoted to promoting the continued relevance of the work of Alain Viala, who died in June 2021 and was an important historian of French literature, particularly of the seventeenth century, and who was a major figure in the debates in France about teaching literature in schools. His books, notably Naissance de l’écrivain (1985), La stratégie du caméléon (1990) and the deux volumes on gallantry, La France galante (2008) et La galanterie: une mythologie française (2019), were the subject of much debate and left decisive marks on scholarship of the early modern period. Our aim is to discuss his conclusions and his methods, and to explore the new perspectives opened up by his work on the seventeenth century, literature, cultural practices and teaching.