Paris or the Beginning of Fiction in Jean-Philippe Toussaint’s Novels

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35699/2317-2096.2022.38340

Keywords:

Jean-Philippe Toussaint, narrator, Paris, displacement, loiterature, island

Abstract

Paris serves as the starting point in several novels by Jean-Philippe Toussaint. Toussaint’s characters eventually leave the city and return to it. These trips structure the notion of time and space in the fictional narrative. Characters, in particular the narrator-character, often seem at odd with the far-away countries they visit. Toussaint, who started publishing in the mid-1980s, plays on this back and forth between a Paris of everyday urban life and destinations such as Tokyo, Shanghai. It is in this displacement that the instability and the loss of power of the characters flourish. Playing with the representations of Paris bequeathed by the history and literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Toussaint thus places Paris as a point of reference in the narrative for the apparently aimless wandering of his characters as well as for complex and tormented love relationships.

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References

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Capa do volume 32, número 2, ano 2002 da Aletria: revista de estudos de literatura. Na capa encontra-se uma imagem de um canal fluvial de Paris, França. Na parte inferior esquerda encontra-se uma mulher caminhando sozinha.

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Published

2022-09-13

How to Cite

Motard-Noar, M. (2022). Paris or the Beginning of Fiction in Jean-Philippe Toussaint’s Novels. Aletria: Revista De Estudos De Literatura, 32(2), 144–162. https://doi.org/10.35699/2317-2096.2022.38340

Issue

Vol. 32 No. 2 (2022): O Mito Literário de Paris

Section

Dossier: The Literary Myth of Paris

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Copyright (c) 2022 Martine Motard-Noar (Autor)

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