Metafiction, Figures of Time and Language Interface in Guyana by Élise Turcotte Cover Image

« Métafiction, figures du temps et interface langagière dans Guyana d’Élise Turcotte »
Metafiction, Figures of Time and Language Interface in Guyana by Élise Turcotte

Author(s): Julien Defraeye
Subject(s): French Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej
Keywords: metafiction ; trauma ; historiographic novel ; polyphonic narrative

Summary/Abstract: In 2011 Élise Turcotte released Guyana, a historiographic metafiction in which the characters come to realize the sheer impossibility of accessing a collective imagination. The famous Jonestown massacre surges to the forefront of the writing through the murder of Kimi, a hairdresser from Montreal, and initiates a frantic quest for the understanding of self through another, in order to get past the ineffable characteristic of the past. This article will explore the metafictional aspect of Guyana and its polyphonic narration before revaluating the stakes of, and the way in which we perceive, tales of trauma.

  • Issue Year: 40/2016
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 154-165
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: French