Thresholds of meaning : passage, ritual and liminality in contemporary French narrative / Jean H. Duffy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Duffy, Jean H.

Series:

Contemporary French and francophone cultures ; 18.

Contemporary French and francophone cultures ; 18

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

French fiction--21st century--History and criticism.

French fiction.

French fiction--21st century--Themes, motives.

Themes, motives.

Physical Description:

x, 356 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Liverpool : Liverpool University Press, 2011.

Summary:

Thresholds of Meaning examines contemporary French narrative and explores two related issues: the centrality within recent French fiction and autofiction of the themes of passage, ritual and liminality; and the thematic continuity which links this work with its literary ancestors of the 1960s and 1970s. Through close analysis of novels and récits by Pierre Bergounioux, Francois Bon, Marie Darrieussecq, Hélène Lenoir, Laurent Mauvignier and Jean Rouaud, Duffy demonstrates the ways in which contemporary narrative, while capitalising on the formal lessons of the nouveau roman and drawing upon a shared repertoire of motifs and themes, engages with the complex processes by which meaning is produced in the referential world and, in particular, with the rituals and codes that social man brings into play in order to negotiate the various stages of the human life-cycle. By the application of concepts and models derived from ritual theory and from visual analysis, Thresholds of Meaning situates itself at the intersection of the developing field of literature and anthropology studies and research into word and image. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 At death's door: illness, ritual and liminality in Darrieussecq, Lenoir, and Mauvignier 29

2 Suicide and saving face in Bon, Mauvignier and Bergounioux 72

3 Commemoration, monument and identity in Bergounioux, Darrieussecq and Rouaud 131

4 Retouching the past: family photographs and documents in Rouaud, Bon and Lenoir 191.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [320]-347) and index.

ISBN:

1846316669

9781846316661

OCLC:

699723333