La catégorie de la réticence et un retour au récit dans l’écriture de Jean-Philippe Toussaint. Une introduction
The Category of Reticence and a Return to the Story in Jean-Philippe Toussaint’s Writing. An Introduction

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the function of reticence in Jean-Philippe Toussaint’s writing in the context of the return to the story in francophone literature, initiated in the 80s of the 20th c. Jean-Philippe Toussaint is a contemporary Belgian writer, photographer and film-maker. He has written twelve novels and short stories, as well as authored films and installations. Belonging to the generation of minimalist writers, Toussaint sets his use of reticence in the context of the tendency to return to Genette’s category of story (récit). Since the publication of his novel La Réticence (1991) reticence has become the key category of his écriture. In his books, it shapes the form, the narration and the plot, the construction of characters, temporality, and space. Thus, its function in Toussaint’s writing enables us to observe idiosyncratic aspects of his “infinitesimalist” texts which play with the canonical, realistic model of the novel.

• Details
• Contents