« Je suis l’autre Léon » - fictionalisation de l’authenticité dans <I>La Quarantaine</I> de J.-M. G. Le Clézio

Abstract

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio's work takes the position of the odd one out in the canon of French contemporary literature. Abroad, it has attracted even less attention. However, this has changed since he received the Nobel Prize for literature in 2008. As a characteristic trait most of his novels contain biographic and autobiographic aspects which are intertwined with fictitious ones.

This article deals with the interrelation of fiction and reality in Le Clézio's novel La Quarantaine (1995) and analyses its effects on the reader. While the author asserts the truthfulness of the stories via intertextual references among other things – the most obvious one being the reference to the poet Rimbaud, he revises at the same time this said truthfulness via the untenable nature of the storyline. This emphasis on authenticity and fiction challenges the reader to surrender his or her indifference toward the polyphonic nature of the novel and invites him or her to participate in the processing of the story.