In the city, the passer-by, in turn a stroller, a tourist and – more often than not – a worker in a hurry, is confronted with an overabundance of textual material: advertising signs, signage, but also the more informal repertoire of graffiti, activist inscriptions and urban frescoes. In an economic system that favours efficiency and speed, the existence of moments dedicated to reading and contemplation are becoming the privilege of a minority. Through an analysis of the practice of the Swiss author, historian and artist Karelle Ménine – who inscribes poetic texts in urban space – this thesis questions the politics of attention and the mechanisms of classist differentiation in the Bourdieusian sense, focusing on these contact points between literature and the city.