Une (en)quête du récit: Références au genre policier en tant que moyen d’un renouveau romanesque dans La Réticence de Jean-Philippe Toussaint
Searching for the Narrative Text: Narration and References to Detective Fiction in the Novel Reticence by Jean-Philippe Toussaint

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is to prove that the novel Reticence (1991) by Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Belgian writer, director and visual artist, is a parody of the detective novel’s sub-genres: the mystery novel and the suspens novel. These references to popular literature, however, are not aimed only at producing the comical catharsis effect. On the contrary, they constitute especially the way of the revival of Gérard Genette’s category of narrative discourse. The enigma, the suspens and the investigation, the predominant features of detective novels, shape the unique fictional universe, in which the author plays with his readers. Toussaint revives the novelistic genre on three levels: of the story, the narration and the narrative text. The mystery becomes the dominant element of the book, as well as a metaphor of the literary creation. In Reticence, Toussaint, as the omnipotent author, depicts his self-portrait to be able to discuss even better his own writing and the complex relations the book – the reader.

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