Poetics of Narrative in Antoine Volodine’s Novels

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31861/pytlit2017.95.217

Keywords:

Antoine Volodine, narrative, narrative levels, narrative instance, metatext, polyphony, metalepsis, mise en abyme

Abstract

Antoine Volodine is reputed for inventing new forms in the French literature at the turn of XX–XXI centuries. Our study is dedicated to Volodine’s narrative structure, i.e. the stratification of narrative instances, the depersonalization of narrator and characters, the metanarrativization of story. Antoine Volodine creates a fictional world of uncertain characters floating between life and death and telling their stories in polyphonic voices. First, our study revealed the lack of demarcation between “I” and “we” and the blend of narrative levels created by ambivalent voices merging into a single “post-exotic horn”. Second, we discovered that metatextual comments and narrative figures of “mise en abyme” and metalepsis help to “alienate” the text and dramatize the relations between the author and readers. As a result, a specific “textual fiction” is being created to embody philosophical problems in Volodine’s meta-utopic novels. Finally, the research determined a set of poetical dominants typical for Volodine’s novels: the interference of homo- and heterodiegetic narrator instances, the uncertain nature of narrators and characters, the polyphonic character of voices as well as metatextual and transgressive structures. It was concluded that the revealed poetical dominants are not only a part of the literary game, but a specific way to represent the speech act. Antoine Volodine’s multilevel narrators share common mental pictures that show the experience of defeat, marginalization and imprisonment. The specific narrative structure helps the writer to create the effect of ambiguity and vagueness, adds a bit of doubt in the act of perception of his novels, updates the metaphysical perspective of the postmodern anti-utopia.

Author Biography

Victoriya Chub, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University

History of Foreign Literature and Classical Philology Department Department of Romance Philology and Translation V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University 4, Svobody Sq., 61022, Kharkiv, Ukraine

References

Bakhtin M. M. Problemy tvorchestva Dostoevskogo [Problems of Dostoevsky`s Poetics]. Kyiv, 1994, 509 p. (in Russian).

Volodine A. Na kromke real'nosti [On the Edge of Realty]. In: S monakhami-soldatami. Postekzotizm v desiati urokakh, urok odinnadtsatyi. Saint Petersburg, 2013, pp. 296–313. (in Russian).

Dmitrieva E. Frantsuzskii pisatel' s russkimi korniami : Antuan Volodin – pervyi opyt russkogo prochteniia [French Writer with Russian Roots : Antoine Volodine – the First Experience of Russian Reading]. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2006, no. 5 (81), pp. 421–431. Available at: http://magazines.russ.ru/nlo/2006/81/dm36.html (accessed 2 May 2017). (in Russian).

Genette G. Figury [Figures]. Moscow, 1998, 944 p. Available at: http://yanko.lib.ru/books/lit/jennet-figuru-1-2-1998-l.pdf (accessed 2 May 2017). (in Russian).

Zenkin S. Poetika transgressii [Poetics of Transgression]. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2006, no. 78, pp. 392–400. Available at: http://magazines.russ.ru/nlo/2006/78/ze30.html (accessed 2 May 2017). (in Russian).

Fokin S. L. Metalepsis, ili Novye prikliucheniia neulovimykh figur narratologii [Metalepsis or New Adventures of Elusive Figures of Narratology]. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta, 2006, no. 2, pp. 32–38. (in Russian).

Shervashidze V. Tendentsii i perspektivy razvitiia frantsuzskogo romana [Trends and Prospects in the Development of French novel]. Voprosy literatury, 2007, no. 2, pp. 72–102. Available at: http://magazines.russ.ru/voplit/2007/2/sh7.html (accessed 2 May 2017). (in Russian).

Shmid W. Narratologiia [Narratology]. Moscow, 2003, 312 p. (in Russian).

Blanckeman B. Le roman depuis la Révolution française. Paris, 2011, 256 p.

Cohn D., Gleich L. S. Metalepsis and Mise en Abyme. Narrative, 2012, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 105–114. https://doi.org/10.1353/nar.2012.0003

Gleize G. Dispositif romanesque et mise en livre post-exotique. In: Volodine, etc. Post-exotisme, poétique, politique. Paris, 2013, pp. 103–120.

Oléron A. L'ambiguïté des voix narratives dans le post-exotisme” d'Antoine Volodine. Rennes, 2012, 255 p.

Ruffel L. Volodine post-exotique. Nantes, 2007, 340 p.

Volodine A. Bardo or not Bardo. Paris, 2004, 238 p.

Volodine A. Des anges mineurs. Paris, 1999, 224 p.

Volodine A. Dondog. Paris, 2002, 366 p.

Volodine A. Ecrivains. Paris, 2010, 192 p.

Volodine A. Le post-exotisme en dix leçons, leçon onze. Paris, 1998, 112 p.

Volodine A. Vue sur l’ossuaire. Paris, 1998, 120 p.

Wagner F. Sur les voix narratives post-exotiques. In: Volodine, etc. Post-exotisme, poétique, politique. Paris, 2013, pp. 121–136.

Published

2017-11-21

How to Cite

Chub, V. “Poetics of Narrative in Antoine Volodine’s Novels”. Pitannâ lìteraturoznavstva, no. 95, Nov. 2017, pp. 217-33, doi:10.31861/pytlit2017.95.217.

Issue

Section

Narratology