Recherche multi-critères

Transgression in Shehan Karunatilaka’s The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (2020) par Apolline Dosse, publié le 17/06/2024

[Fiche] Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka’s novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida tells the story of a war photographer, gambler and closeted gay in Colombo during the 1980s civil war. One day, he wakes up in a bureaucratic afterlife while his body is sinking in the Beira Lake, and he is given seven moons to figure out how he died. The novel addresses the issue of transgression, whether it concerns Maali’s personal identity, his photographs which hold the subversive power to bring to light political violence, or the intersection of an unusual second-person narrative and dark humor.

“Somewhere between coloured and white”: ambivalence and loss of bearings in Caryl Phillips’ A View of the Empire at Sunset par Mathilde Branchereau, publié le 14/02/2024

[Fiche] In A View of the Empire at Sunset, Caryl Phillips proposes a fictionalised version of the life of novelist Jean Rhys – a Creole woman from Dominica expatriated in Europe – as a mirror image of the decline and dissolution of the British colonial Empire over the course of the 20th century. By depicting the protagonist’s struggle to find a sense of belonging, the novel highlights how colonial subjects may be confronted to a feeling of identity ambivalence and a loss of bearings.

A voice and a place of one’s own: women, knowledge and empowerment in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre par Christine Vandamme, publié le 17/12/2023

The article deals with women and knowledge in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847). The novel was quite revolutionary in its time for its strong assertion of female agency and self-empowerment and a keen perception of power dynamics inherent in the definition of gender and gender roles. However considering Jane Eyre through the sole prism of a novel of emancipation only dealing with women’s rights and aspirations would be reductive. Jane Eyre’s fiery narrative is a strong plea against all forms of intersectional oppression in Victorian times despite its own unconscious bias relative to ethnicity and the colonial question notably.

From page to screen: between betrayal and re-creation in the film adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun par Agathe Faucourt, publié le 27/04/2023

This article examines the film adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 2006 novel, Half of a Yellow Sun. Released in 2014, Biyi Bandele’s adaptation was often criticized for its alleged betrayal of the original text. The task of adapting a novel of more than four hundred pages in a film of less than two hours was particularly daunting. Yet, it remains to be seen whether the film deserved to be labelled as unfaithful. Rather than judging the worth of an adaptation based on its degree of loyalty to the source text, spectators could also regard the adaptation as a commentary and even possibly as an independent work of art. Relying on adaptation theory, this paper will consider whether Bandele’s infidelities allow for a potential re-reading of Adichie’s novel.

Literature, Sound and the Egyptian Uprising par Jumana Bayeh, publié le 12/01/2023

Egypt's Arab Spring was experienced as a mediated event in two notable ways. First, in the immediate successes of Tahrir Square, Facebook was heralded as a fundamental agent of the uprising and responsible for the fall of Mubarak. Second, the failure of the 'Spring' with the election of an Islamist and a counter-revolution that saw the rise of a military dictatorship, news reports sought to make sense of the country's rapidly flailing political fortunes. Missing from both these forms of mediation are the voices of the rioters, their coordinated spontaneity and their very acts of resistance. While numerous images of the protests were captured, individual stories and lives were drowned out by the raucous cacophony of the masses. Assuming an extended view of the media terrain that recorded the uprising, this seminar seeks to recover the lost voices of Egypt's Arab Spring. It focuses on two novels by Robert Omar Hamilton and Yasmin El Rashid to drill down into how intimate stories and individual voices provide an alternative method to inform our knowledge of crowd violence. It will illustrate how narrative discourses can contribute in critical and strategic ways to reclaiming what has been lost or unheard in the seeming media decadence that characterised the uprising.

"Ideas don't exist, except within emotions": Interview with Joshua Cohen par Joshua Cohen, Benjamin Ferguson, publié le 20/12/2019

Joshua Cohen is an American writer and literary critic, whose first collection of essays, ATTENTION: Dispatches from a Land of Distraction (2019) explores the notion of attention in today's society. In this interview, Joshua Cohen talks about writing for a global readership, being a novelist in the age of non-fiction, the effects of #MeToo on literary production and the invention of facts.

"Language is a movement between scattered forms": Interview with Amitava Kumar par Amitava Kumar, Natacha Lasorak, publié le 25/10/2019

Amitava Kumar is an Indian writer and journalist who teaches literature at Vassar College. In this interview, he talks about his collection of essays Away: The Indian Writer as an Expatriate (2004) and his novel Immigrant, Montana (2017), and focuses on the notion of "home", immigration, the caste system and the political situation in India.

Reconfigurations of space in Partition novels par Sandrine Soukaï, publié le 19/09/2019

This article examines two Indian novels Clear Light of Day (1980) by Anita Desai and The Shadow Lines (1988) by Amitav Ghosh along with Burnt Shadows (2009) by Anglo-Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie, books written about the Partition of India that accompanied independence in 1947. Partition led to violence on an enormous scale; the exact number of people who were killed has never been ascertained, and estimates vary between one and two million. Partition also caused massive displacements of population, estimated between 12 and 18 million. This paper examines the way in which space – national, familial and communal – was divided and then reshaped by and through Partition. After discussing the fractures, ruptures and uprooting brought about by this trauma, I will consider the way in which diasporic writers devise fictional maps of memory of the past that foster exchanges across geographical borders.

"The novel gives voice to individuals" : Entretien avec Jane Smiley par Jane Smiley, Jillian Bruns, publié le 09/10/2018

À l'occasion des Assises Internationales du Roman, Jane Smiley, lauréate du Prix Pulitzer 1992 pour son roman L'exploitation, a accepté de répondre aux questions de Jillian Bruns, lectrice à l'ENS de Lyon, pour la Clé des langues. Jane Smiley revient ici sur la genèse des trois romans qui constituent la trilogie The Last Hundred Years.

From traditional dystopias to teenage dystopias: Harry Potter as a bridge between two cultures par Eléonore Cartellier-Veuillen, publié le 25/04/2016

“From traditional dystopias to teenage dystopias: Harry Potter as a bridge between two cultures” seeks to explain the key role that the Harry Potter novels have played in the creation of the Young Adult dystopian genre which has flourished in recent years. It focuses on three aspects of dystopia (mind-control, death and resistance) to show how these themes taken from traditional dystopias are re-written to shape such contemporary works as Uglies, The Hunger Games and Divergent.

Adelle Waldman: L’identité troublée par Adelle Waldman, publié le 15/09/2015

In reporter and columnist Adelle Waldman’s first, highly touted novel, La Vie amoureuse de Nathaniel P., the author describes with subtlety and irony the meanderings of Nate Piven, a popular writer moving up in the elite literary circles of Brooklyn. He is also a young lover drunk with his success with women. In this astute novel of manners, Waldman brilliantly paints the portrait of a modern, imperfect and narcissistic male with a troubled love life.

Big Brother - A conversation with Lionel Shriver par Lionel Shriver, Clifford Armion, publié le 30/06/2015

The author of numerous novels, she won the Orange Prize for We Need to Talk About Kevin, adapted for the screen in 2011 by Lynne Ramsay. Her sarcastic flair is evident in Big Brother: Pandora, a highly successful businesswoman who hasn’t seen her brother—a seductive, boastful, jazz prodigy—in five years finds him obese, neglected, and compulsive. Lionel Shriver provides a keen analysis of our neurotic relationship with food and the alarming increase in obesity in our societies.

Seeing Between the Lines: Terence Davies’s The House of Mirth and the art of adaptation par Wendy Everett, publié le 02/03/2015

Examining Terence Davies’s adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, this article identifies ways in which the creative interpretation of the filmmaker may serve to open up new insights into both the original text and the language of cinema itself. It considers, in particular, aspects such as music, painting, and visual metaphor in its presentation of cinema as an essentially multilayered and complex medium which requires of the spectator an imaginative and creative engagement, just as the novel requires of the reader.

David Treuer: Forgotten World / Forgotten Words par David Treuer, publié le 18/09/2014

We speak confidently and playfully about the “death of the author” but not one wants to seriously consider the death of literature. But this is precisely what we risk when we treat literature as ethnography, or worse, as the last living remnants of what seem to be vanishing cultures. We don’t read novels, at any rate, to educate ourselves. Or if we do we shouldn’t. And if we do commit this soul error we don’t enjoy novels because of the information they contain. Rather, we enjoy them, we clutch novels to our very souls because they move us, surprise us, transport us, entertain us, shock us, and (ultimately) trick us into caring about people and places that don’t exist and never existed.

Kirsty Gunn: Sound and Writing par Kirsty Gunn, publié le 08/09/2014

That sound you hear, as though coming off the lonely Scottish hills, through the fine Highland air, passing across straths and glens, along rivers and to the sea... Is the sound of the piobaireachd, the classical music of the great Highland bagpipe, a music made for Gatherings, Salutes and Laments, a grand and grave and complicated music - Ceol Mor it is in Gaelic - The Big Music. The Big Music, too, is the title of my latest work of fiction - not a novel, but an elegy, as Virginia Woolf described all her work - a story that sounds as much as it says... An experience of words, of a story of people and a landscape, of a love story played across generations, that nevertheless sounds in the mind...

The Yellow Birds - A conversation with Kevin Powers par Kevin Powers, Clifford Armion, publié le 30/06/2014

Kevin Powers took part in the eighth edition of the Assises Internationales du Roman, organised by the Villa Gillet and Le Monde. He answered our questions on his first novel, The Yellow Birds.

The Last Hundred Days - A conversation with Patrick MacGuinness par Patrick MacGuinness, Clifford Armion, publié le 24/06/2014

Patrick MacGuinness took part in the eighth edition of the Assises Internationales du Roman, organised by the Villa Gillet and Le Monde. He answered our questions on his first novel, The Last Hundred Days.

Novel/Life (James Meek) par James Meek, publié le 13/06/2014

Chaque année, les invités des Assises Internationales du Roman rédigent la définition d'un mot de leur choix : il s'agit ici des mots "novel/life", définis par l'auteur anglais James Meek.

An interview with Jonathan Coe (Expo 58) par Jonathan Coe, Clifford Armion, publié le 18/02/2014

Jonathan Coe was born in Birmingham in 1961. His novels include The Rotters' Club, The Accidental Woman, A Touch of Love, The Dwarves of Death, What a Carve Up!, which won the 1995 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger and The Rain Before it Falls. His latest novel is Expo 58.

Rebelling as a female in the 18th and 19th century literature. From Pamela to Jane Eyre: a path to equality? par Marion Lopez-Burette, publié le 23/09/2013

This article intends to study and compare the way Pamela, Richardson's early heroine of the novel genre, and Charlotte Brontë's romantic Jane, rebel. What follows will underscore the path trodden by female fictional characters in terms of shaping the individual, from the Enlightenment period to the romantic era. The patterns of entrapment and self-willed seclusion the protagonists are involved in function as incentives for rebellion. The ideals they rebel for play the role of living forces in a way that is meaningful to comprehend how the essence of rebellion evolved with time. No matter how much the protagonists' respective procedure may differ, from moral conservatism to personal answering of moral questions through rites of passage, the two female heroines are equally conscious of their value as human beings. Their handling of their hardships and their allegiance to God, however, points to the qualitative and quantitative evolution of the notion of equality.

Kate O'Riordan: Visions of Ireland - A writer's view par Kate O'Riordan, publié le 17/09/2013

A Londoner by adoption, Kate O’Riordan grew up in the small city of Bantry on the west coast of Ireland. With Le Garçon dans la lune, published in 2008 and Pierres de mémoire, in 2009, O’Riordan signed two new remarkable opuses in which she questions family relationships. A novelist and short-story writer, Kate O’Riordan also writes for the cinema and continues to confirm her legitimate place among Irish authors who count. She came to the Villa Gillet to take part in a discussion on 'Ireland by Irish writers'.

Keith Scribner: Representation and Psychology of Conflict par Keith Scribner, publié le 27/08/2013

In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech William Faulkner famously said that all real meaning in fiction comes from the human heart in conflict with itself. As a novelist I’m compelled by the internal conflicts inherent in the stories we tell ourselves in order to live and how those stories come to define us, how they allow us to justify our actions and possibly delude ourselves about who we are. Like any narrative, these stories help us shape otherwise disparate experiences into a comprehensible form. Over time we become so heavily invested in these narratives that when their veracity is challenged, the resulting conflict can be explosive.

Ragnarok - A conversation with A.S. Byatt par A.S. Byatt, Clifford Armion, publié le 03/06/2013

A.S. Byatt took part in the seventh edition of the Assises Internationales du Roman, organised by the Villa Gillet and Le Monde. She answered our questions on her latest novel, Ragnarok.

How Healing Are Books? par Pierre Zaoui, publié le 22/01/2013

The idea that novels, theater, or poetry often help us live, that they help us feel cleansed or feel stronger, more energized, more alive, or that they at least help us survive by giving us the boost we need to hang on a little longer, is not simply a constant topos of literature, be it western, eastern, or universal. It is an indisputable truth for those who make use of it, whether they write it, read it, comment on it, or transform it into a first-aid kid of maxim-prescriptions and citation-medicines to use as needed.

Kate Colquhoun on the blurred boundaries between fiction and non-fiction par Kate Colquhoun, publié le 11/09/2012

Truman Capote called his 1966 book In Cold Blood the first non-fiction novel. Since then, the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction have become increasingly blurred. Are these false definitions? At least we could say that novelists are able to articulate the internal worlds – the thoughts and feelings – of their characters while non-fiction relies entirely on evidence.

Helen Oyeyemi, White is for Witching par ENS Lyon La Clé des Langues, publié le 27/08/2012

Helen Olajumoke Oyeyemi (born 10 December 1984) is a British novelist. Oyeyemi wrote her first novel, The Icarus Girl, while still at school studying for her A levels at Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School. Whilst studying Social and Political Sciences at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, two of her plays, Juniper's Whitening and Victimese, were performed by fellow students to critical acclaim and subsequently published by Methuen.

La quête du moi au XVIIIème siècle en Angleterre : des philosophes empiristes aux romanciers par Marion Lopez, publié le 21/06/2012

Avec les philosophes empiristes britanniques du 18ème siècle, la conception d’une identité immuable est ébranlée. L’esprit se conçoit comme le miroir de sensations et de passions. Le moi monadique ne tient pas devant l’expérience. Désormais l'homme ne peut plus compter sur une identité fixe, marquée par un cadre cosmique, et s'effraie devant l'immensité des espaces infinis. Le 18ème siècle, promesse d’une plus grande liberté de l’individu, avec la possibilité d’évoluer, est aussi celui d’une perte de repère pour l’individu. En effet, les nouvelles révolutions scientifiques bousculent la vision traditionnelle de l’universel. L’individu prend confiance dans le pouvoir de sa raison comme un outil potentiel d’examen du monde qui l’entoure. L’autobiographie qui se développe au même moment est une réponse à cette inquiétude sur le sens à donner à sa vie. De l’autobiographie spirituelle, gage d’une bonne pratique religieuse, au roman, l’objectif de cet article est d’amorcer une réflexion sur l’identité.

Helen Oyeyemi on haunted house novels par Helen Oyeyemi, publié le 18/06/2012

"You read of extreme cases of jamais vu in the newspapers. There was one recently involving a husband who, after eighteen years of happy stability with his wife, told her he had a surprise for her. He blindfolded her, then ‘hit her over the head with the blunt end of an axe, fracturing her skull in three places.’ She survived and tried to forgive him, even vouched for his good character in court. The husband-turned-attacker, unable to explain his moment of terminal hostility, deferred to psychiatrists who offered the opinion that it was his past that had caused it. "

Jonathan Dee on the place of the novel in a money-driven society par Jonathan Dee, publié le 13/06/2012

About money there is nothing new. Nor about social inequity. When I wrote The Privileges, I was careful to leave out as many time-specific details as possible, because I felt that to tie its characters, and the lives they led, to the circumstances of a particular moment in history was to excuse them, in a way, and thus to miss the point of their existence...

Nicholson Baker on his literary career and how he came to write about sex par Nicholson Baker, publié le 13/06/2012

I think the job of the novelist is to write about interesting things, including things that might not seem all that interesting at first glance--like, say, a lunch hour on an ordinary weekday – and to offer evidence that life is worth living. At least, that’s what I try to do – not always successfully. My first book was about a lunch hour – the second about sitting in a rocking chair holding a baby – the third about literary ambition. There was almost no sex in those three books. But I always wanted to be a pornographer – because after all sex is amazing and irrational and embarrassing and endlessly worth thinking about. My fourth book was called Vox, and it was about two strangers telling stories to each other on the phone. I decided to write it as one big sex scene, because if you’re going to do it, do it.

Helen Oyeyemi reading from White is for Witching - Assises Internationales du Roman 2012 par Helen Oyeyemi, Patricia Armion, publié le 08/06/2012

Helen Oyeyemi took part in the sixth edition of the Assises Internationales du Roman, organised by the Villa Gillet and Le Monde. She was kind enough to read an extract from White is for Witching, her stunning Neo-Gothic novel.

An interview with Helen Oyeyemi - Assises Internationales du Roman 2012 par Helen Oyeyemi, Patricia Armion, publié le 06/06/2012

Helen Oyeyemi took part in the sixth edition of the Assises Internationales du Roman, organised by the Villa Gillet and Le Monde. She answered our questions on White is for Witching, a stunning Neo-Gothic novel.

An interview with Douglas Kennedy - Assises Internationales du Roman 2012 par Douglas Kennedy, Clifford Armion, publié le 04/06/2012

In June 2012, Douglas Kennedy took part in the sixth edition of the Assises Internationales du Roman, organised by the Villa Gillet and Le Monde. He answered our questions on his latest novel, The Moment.

The Neurosciences and Literature: an “exquisite corpse” or a “meeting of the minds”? par Lionel Naccache, publié le 16/02/2012

In the context of the Walls and Bridges project in New York, a meeting has been organized for October between an American novelist - Siri Hustvedt - and a French neuroscientist on the topic of "fiction," both mental and literary. This will obviously be the time to ask ourselves: can we imagine a promising future for meetings between the neurosciences of cognition and the world of literary creation? Is this merely the random juxtaposition of two terms to which we are attached, or the genuine dialectical culmination of self-consciousness? An amusing, trendy quid pro quo, or a key moment in our knowledge of ourselves as tale tellers?

Conscious and Unconscious Narrative Literature, Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience par Siri Hustvedt, Lionel Naccache, publié le 20/01/2012

Nous passons une grande partie de notre vie à élaborer des fictions, à nous raconter des histoires et à en raconter aux autres. La narration est profondément enracinée dans l'esprit humain, à un niveau à la fois conscient et inconscient. Produire une narration est une façon de donner du sens à l'expérience factuelle. Mais les fictions créées par le cerveau humain et celles que les romanciers imaginent sont-elles de même nature ? L'écrivain américain Siri Hustvedt et le neurobiologiste français Lionel Naccache exprimeront leurs points de vue originaux, pénétrants et empathiques sur cette question. We all spend our time constructing fictions, telling stories to ourselves and to others. Narration is deeply rooted in the human mind, at a conscious and unconscious level. Producing a narrative is a way of giving meaning to factual experience. Are the fictions created by the human brain and those imagined by novelists of the same nature? American writer Siri Hustvedt and French neurobiologist Lionel Naccache express their original, incisive and empathetic views on these questions.

Interview de Richard Russo - Assises Internationales du Roman 2011 par Richard Russo , Clifford Armion , publié le 30/08/2011

Richard Russo won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize with his novel Empire Falls. In May 2011, he took part in the fifth edition of the Assises Internationales du Roman, organised by the Villa Gillet and Le Monde. He was kind enough to grant us an interview at the Hotel Carlton in Lyon.

Katherine Mansfield’s Short Stories: An Introduction par Emilie Walezak , publié le 28/06/2011

Katherine Mansfield wrote short stories exclusively and produced a large body of work though she died quite young from tuberculosis when she was 30. She is one the best representatives of modernist short story writing. Virginia Woolf herself admitted to Mansfield that she was jealous of her writing: "and then Morgan Foster said the Prelude and The Voyage Out were the best novels of their time, and I said damn Katherine! Why can't I be the only woman who knows how to write?"

The modern child and Romantic monstrosity in Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child par Camille François , publié le 17/05/2011

This study investigates the articulation between "child" and "monster" in Lessing's novella, linking the text to a tradition of contemporary fiction about the child in which the much beloved literary figure inherited from the Romantics has become a frightening other. We hope to understand the Fifth Child 's shifting boundaries between the monstrous and the ideal, the "real child" and childhood as a locus of adult desires, by tracing these dichotomies back to Romantic myths of childhood, or the distorted versions that have made it to our time.

Breaking Bounds in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things par Catherine Pesso-Miquel, publié le 13/05/2011

This article on Arundhati Roy's novel focuses more particularly on the idea of dividing lines, turned into parodied, ridiculous devices, and on their transgression. Analysing in particular the love scenes between the two lovers and the incest scene between the two twins, it attempts to define the differences rather than the similarities between such scenes, asking the question: is transgression necessarily linked with progression? The article will show that Roy, like other Indo-Anglian novelists such as Salman Rushdie, goes to war with the sacrosanct notion of purity, celebrating instead mixing, hybridizing, and the blurring of boundaries.

James Frey - Assises Internationales du Roman 2010 par James Frey, publié le 03/09/2010

James Frey was one of the guests of the Assises Internationales du Roman, organised by the Villa Gillet and Le Monde in Lyon. He introduced his novel Bright Shiny Morning and told the audience about his perception of Los Angeles and his conception of storytelling.

Marilynne Robinson - Assises Internationales du Roman 2010 par Marilynne Robinson , Kédem Ferré , publié le 14/06/2010

Marilynne Robinson was invited to the fourth edition of the Assises Internationales du Roman, organised by the Villa Gillet and Le Monde. She was interviewed for La Clé des langues and read an extract from Gilead, a novel which was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize.

A.S. Byatt - Assises Internationales du Roman 2010 par A.S. Byatt , Emilie Walezac , publié le 10/06/2010

In May 2010, Antonia Susan Byatt took part in the fourth edition of the Assises Internationales du Roman, organised by the Villa Gillet and Le Monde. She granted us an interview and was kind enough to read a passage form The Children's Book, her latest novel.

Anne Enright - Assises Internationales du Roman 2010 par Anne Enright , Clifford Armion , publié le 10/06/2010

Anne Enright came to Lyon in May 2010 to take part in the Assises Internationales du Roman, organised by the Villa Gillet and Le Monde. She was kind enough to answer our questions and to read an extract from her novel entitled The Gathering which won the 2007 Booker Prize.

Proche de l'indigestion intertextuelle : "Des Hottentotes" de Paul Di Filippo par Jérôme Dutel, publié le 09/10/2009

Prenant comme champ d’étude la novella trépidante "Hottentots", tirée de The Steampunk Trilogy (1995), de l’auteur américain Paul Di Filippo (1954-…), cette communication cherche à montrer comment l’auteur, en virtuose reconnu du pastiche et de la parodie littéraire mais aussi scientifique, démonte, à travers un récit brouillé et comme parfois étouffé par différents niveaux d’intertextualité, les mécanismes de création littéraire à l’œuvre dans la littérature fantastique et la science-fiction des XIXème et XXème siècles pour peut-être mieux révéler les idéologies qui pourraient avoir contribué à leur élaboration.

A reading of The Brooklyn Follies through the lens of autofiction par Marie Thévenon, publié le 02/10/2009

From his very first novel, The Invention of Solitude, to his very last, Man in the Dark, Paul Auster has always played with the mixture between autobiography and fiction. The Brooklyn Follies pertains to this tradition and it is through the lens of autofiction that this article proposes to explore this novel. The author starts by observing the similarities between Paul Auster and his characters and pays close attention to the intertextual dimension. She then analyses the metafictional aspects of the narration. Finally, she places this novel among Paul Auster's other works and wonders if there has been an evolution in his writing.

Fiche de lecture : Liver, Will Self par Jocelyn Dupont, publié le 24/09/2009

A review of Will Self's collection of novellas, Liver.

Moulding the Female Body in Victorian Fairy Tales and Sensation Novels - Introduction par Laurence Talairach-Vielmas, publié le 11/02/2009

L'introduction de l'ouvrage Moulding the Female Body in Victorian Fairy Tales and Sensation Novels est ici reproduite avec l'autorisation de la maison d'édition.

Fiche de lecture : Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer par Alice Bonzom, publié le 07/05/2008

The novel narrates the story of Oskar Schell, a precocious nine-year-old inventor, pacifist, percussionist, and Francophile, whose father died during the attacks of 9/11. A couple of years after his father’s death, he finds a mysterious key in an envelope with the name “Black” on it, in a vase in a closet. Sure that the key belonged to his father, he decides to visit everyone named “Black” in the five boroughs of New York to discover what it opens. Intertwined with Oskar’s quest are letters written by his grandparents, who went through the bombings of Dresden in the Second World War.

Fiche de lecture : On Beauty, Zadie Smith par Claire Poinsot, publié le 07/05/2008

The Belseys have always claimed to be liberal and atheist, but when their eldest son Jerome goes to work as an intern in England with his father Howard’s enemy the, ultra-conservative Christian Monty Kipps, there are bound to be a few mishaps. When Jerome finally returns home, the Kipps in turn move to Wellington, the town where the Belseys live. Working at the same university, Howard and Monty develop a rivalry, while their wives become friends. The novel hinges on the mirror effects and the interactions between the two families. Their relationship is a complex one which includes friendship, rivalry, lust and envy. Each family will have problems to solve, both personal and professional.

Fiche de lecture : Arthur and George, Julian Barnes par Thibaud Harrois, publié le 07/05/2008

The novel is based on an actual story, known as the "Great Wyrley Outrages". At the end of the 19th century, George Edalji, a solicitor from Great Wyrley, a village near Birmingham, was wrongly found guilty of slaying a number of farm animals. He was sentenced to seven years in jail. In 1906, Edalji was released but he was not pardoned. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the famous author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, was involved in the case. Indeed, he tried to prove the man's innocence and was at the source of what was considered as an English Dreyfus Case.

Fiche de lecture : The Body, Hanif Kureishi par Laura Menard, publié le 03/05/2008

The narrator of Hanif Kureishi’s novella is a British playwright in his mid-sixties called Adam who experiences the difficulty of living as an aging man. His struggle to maintain his self-esteem and joie de vivre prompts him to give a very cynical account of the old people’s situation in a society ruled by beauty, youth and desire. Adam’s gloomy life takes a favorable turn – or so he thinks … - when he meets Ralph, a handsome and young admirer of his, who secretly informs him he can look just as healthy and fit as he: he may be operated on to have his mind transferred from his old, decaying body to a New Body.

The Victorian Sensation Novel par Sophie Lemercier-Goddard, David Amigoni, publié le 02/05/2008

The sensation novel developed in Britain in the 1860s with Wilkie Collins as its most famous representative and has been increasingly presented as a sub-genre revealing the cultural anxiety of the Victorian period. Its complex narrative which relies on a tangle of mysteries and secrets introduces the character of the detective while heavily resorting to the Gothic machinery with the figure of the persecuted maiden and that of the villain.

Across the ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’: Jean Rhys’s Revision of Charlotte Brontë’s Eurocentric Gothic par Sylvie Maurel, publié le 20/03/2008

In this article, Sylvie Maurel analyses the Gothic destabilizing machinery at work in Jean Rhys’s "Wide Sargasso Sea". The first Gothic element the author looks at is the demonic agency that haunts the novel. Colonial history lingers in Rhys’s world and accounts for some of the strange and unexpected phenomena that occur on the island. Actually, the narrative is under the double influence of a past set in an actual history of slavery and a future already written in the story of "Jane Eyre". Rhys’s characters have an uncanny prescience of what lies ahead and a sense that they cannot evade repetition. The motif of witchcraft is another element that links "WSS" to the Gothic. The motif goes beyond a picturesque reference to the West Indian context and functions as a metaphor of the relationship between language and power. Christophine’s witchcraft and Rochester’s Eurocentric discourse are two similar attempts at transforming the world through language. The power of language is also reflected in the way the novel constantly brings together multiple voices and conflicting views which seem to hide a secret rather than reveal a final truth. Rochester can only feel the presence of such a secret and risks delirium as he tries to get a grip on something that constantly eludes him.

La naissance du roman en Angleterre au XVIIIe siècle par Anne Dromart, publié le 14/02/2008

Après la grande époque de la poésie, la prose revient au goût du jour vers la fin du XVIIe siècle en Angleterre pour progressivement s'épanouir en une forme nouvelle au cours du XVIIIe siècle. Les "novels" qui apparaissent sous les plumes de Defoe, Richardson, Fielding et Sterne se démarquent des "romances" qui les avaient précédées et se caractérisent par une attention portée à la vraisemblance des faits narrés.

Les "Newgate Novels" : esthétique d'un genre populaire par Hubert Malfray , publié le 26/10/2007

Dans cet article, Hubert Malfray nous présente un genre mineur et éphémère regroupant une vingtaine d'oeuvres de fiction des années 1830-1847 relatant, de façon plus ou moins romancée, la vie de criminels. Comment, à une époque marquée par la rigueur morale, ces romans ont-ils pu représenter la criminalité et devenir des best-sellers ?

Norme et criminalité à l'aube de l'ère victorienne par Hubert Malfray , publié le 25/10/2007

Plus qu'une notion purement judiciaire, la criminalité est au début de l'ère victorienne, avant tout appréhendée selon des valeurs morales et le criminel est celui qui ne se conforme pas à la conduite dictée par la société. Cette article propose une introduction au contexte social et pénal dans lequel s'insèrent les "Newgate Novels".

La Création : à propos de stratégies narratives dans Frankenstein par Georges Zaragoza, publié le 19/04/2007

Né au XVIIe siècle, le genre romanesque s'est lontemps vu reprochées sa fausseté et sa stérilité. Georges Zaragoza se penche ici sur les stratégies narratives mises en place dans "Frankenstein" pour prouver à la fois l'authenticité et l'utilité du roman. L'article qui suit est une version d'un cours de Georges Zaragoza adapté par Kevin Pinault pour La clé des langues. Les numéros de pages des citations de Frankenstein renvoient à l'édition Penguin Classics, 1992.