Ruth Amar

Lire Modiano, c'est être attentif au bruissement d'un texte lui s'écrit comme la mer se retire. En laissant derrière elle des débris de temps et d'histoire, ici la trace d'une étoile dont le jaune est encore visible, là l'empreinte d'un nom qui ne s'effacera jamais tout à fait. Lire Modiano, c'est être " attentionné ", savoir se tenir à l'écoute d'un écrivain lui parle une langue fragile, mélange de mots pesés et de silences choisis. Lire Modiano, c'est attendre : que l'auteur apparaisse enfin, dans les anfractuosités d'un roman sans fin.

Lectures de Modiano

This study is an analysis of elements that build the narrative strategies of Tahar Ben Jelloun's work. On formal and thematic levels, the narrative sequence and its interwoven strands, manifest a story in perpetual becoming, in constant dissolution and evolution. In fact, the story is an infinite quest. It is told and repeated in various manners, with no possibility to be exhausted. This continual quest of the story is nourished by a lack expressed by the needs of the post-colonial Maghrebian novel for compensating a world that was, but is not any more. However, this lack conditions the production of the story. The text nourishes itself from the lack it produces. We could say then that Ben Jelloun's novel is not the production of a story but the emphasized production becoming itself Story: it is not the story that is told but the story of its production. On the one hand, this study redefines Ben Jelloun's narrative strategies, on the other hand, it focuses on the importance of the perpetual becoming, in all the aspects. manifested in his work, reflecting the difficulties of its hybrid nature, the function of the symbolical writing, the construction of characters and their contribution to the fragility of the story, the revelation of generative forces of a form and its rupture. Although other novels are taken into account, the focus of this study is on central texts like L'ecrivain public, Moha le fou, Moha le sage, Harrouda, L'enfant de sable, La nuit sacree, La Reclusion solitaire, Les yeux baisses.

Les Strategies Narratives

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Through the ages, the pursuit of Happiness has been at the heart of the needs and desires each individual would seek to fulfill, while as a concept, Happiness has always resonated strongly in poetic as well as philosophical, sociological and psychological contexts. But what about Happiness today, in a world dominated by technology, driven by productivity and dictated by efficiency? Does Happiness still feature in contemporary fiction in any significant way? Or has it perhaps gone underground, adopting different guises? Would we still call that “duty of happiness” that Pascal Bruckner saw as “present at the second half of the twentieth century” a relevant force today? Or has it waned perceptibly? The articles brought together in this volume seek to work out answers to these and similar questions, creatively addressing the imminent risks but also eagerly following up the intriguing possibilities one encounters when interrogating Happiness in the contemporary novel. Originally based on an international conference organized at the University of Haifa, Israel, in May 2010, the volume is structured around the axes we found useful as a basis for the various approaches towards Happiness in Europe and the historical and social events that influenced the writing of Happiness as they defined the 20th century and have impacted on the 21st: the Holocaust, the Soviet dystopia, consumerism, postmodernism, “everyday life,” the various as yet unarticulated new modes of life they have given rise to, and so on. A new writing of happiness then? At the very least this volume targets the contemporary novel without wanting to solidify works, instead taking into account the fluctuations Happiness has been subjected to, and the diversity and especially the paradoxes it has created, while we have been keen to preserve a “precise” reading of the texts and have felt compelled to respect and preserve the particular features that make the writings of the authors we focus on stand out. Thème philosophique aussi bien que poétique, sociologique et psychologique, le bonheur s’édifie à la mesure de chacun. « N’est-il pas vrai que, nous autres hommes, nous désirons tous être heureux ? » (Platon). Or dans notre monde actuel dominé par la technique, la recherche à outrance du productif et de l’efficacité, qu’en est-il du bonheur ? Est-il encore présent aux écritures romanesques contemporaines ? Sous quelles formes se présenterait sa recherche ? Ce « devoir de bonheur propre à la deuxième moitié du XXe siècle » dont parle Pascal Bruckner, continue-t-il toujours à être d’actualité ? S’est-il renforcé ou, au contraire, s’est-il affaibli? Le projet d’un questionnement du bonheur dans le roman contemporain comportait de gros risques, mais il offrait en même temps des possibilités stimulantes. A la suite du colloque international organisé à l’université de Haïfa en mai 2010, les textes réunis dans ce livre, cherchent à élaborer des éléments de réponse à ces questions. Le volume offre un état des lieux du bonheur dans le roman depuis 1980 et présente une large diversité d’approches, de définitions, d’interrogations sur l’écriture du bonheur sur trois décennies. Le recueil s’articule autour d’axes qui ont servi de base aux différentes approches du bonheur en Europe et d’événements historiques et sociaux qui ont pu influencer l’écriture du bonheur aux différentes périodes du XXe et XXe siècles, telles que l’Holocauste, la dystopie en Russie, le postmodernisme et le consumérisme, le quotidien, les différents paradoxes du bonheur, les nouveaux modes de vie. Nouvelle écriture du bonheur? Du moins, ce volume vise-t-il le contemporain sans figer les œuvres, tout en tenant compte des fluctuations du sujet, de sa diversité, de ses paradoxes surtout, tout en conservant la lecture précise des textes et en respectant la particularité de l’écriture des auteurs traités.

L’écriture du bonheur dans le roman contemporain

Françoise Saquer-Sabin

This collection of essays offers a comparative perspective on different forms of representation of social hybridity in contemporary novels through various cultural and linguistic lenses. It explores the various subcategories of their interdependent relationships, including power and domination between hegemony and marginality. The book revolves around five axes: namely, writing strategies and reterritorialization; marginality and intermediary spaces; revisited urban spaces; when periphery becomes center; and the modality of confrontation and construction of identity. It focuses on the identification and classification of spaces in order to understand their function in relation to the thematic strategy of the novel. Its main objective is identifying the textual representation of the challenge of center and periphery, as well as these concepts’ role and significance in diegesis. Thus, new light is shed on the subject and on the contemporary novel as a whole.

Ruth Amar

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