Le Locataire chimérique de Roland Topor: La haine de l’autre comme outrage à l’ipséité
The Tenant by Roland Topor: Hatred of the Other as a Threat against Ipseity

Summary/Abstract: The relationship with the others in The Tenant by Roland Toporis systematically represented as an unequal balance of power, felt as an anxiety-provoking experience that transforms the perceptionof the self. The dislocation of identity is accompanied by a progressive destruction of the individual psyche that reaches its climax in a fierce paroxysm of cruelty and violence. The problem of the other is thus closely related to the identity crisis caused by a deep sense of isolation and persecution. Unable to maintain a coherent perception of the self, lost in a fictitious world where he can be only a persecuted victim, a martyred and depersonalized scapegoat, the main character Trelkovsky sinks into paranoia and severe emotional distress. Ipseity in Roland Topor’s novel is constantly undermined by the presence of the others – pitiless torturers motivated by hostility, anger and hatred.

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