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theses

This dissertation studies representations – in contemporary French and Francophone literary fiction and feature films – of the developing condition associated with global markets and networking technology; a condition that the word “flexibility” aptly summarizes. My approach to this issue draws on the “rhizome” concept proposed by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari – that is, on the idea of a discursive space in which everything is connected and which therefore functions like a network. As the Deleuze and Guattari critique of categorization highlighted the non-linear and non-centrifugal nature of the structures governing the creation of meaning, it can also help us study new forms of representation, communication and signification which are by essence both polymorphic and in constant mutation. This state of affairs supposedly gives more room to creativity and innovation; it can be argued, nevertheless, that in the 21st century, capitalism itself behaves more and more like a rhizome, that is to say an ever-changing and polymorphic structure, which forces human beings to constantly adapt in order to fit into this world, thereby becoming more flexible. We have only begun to take stock of this ongoing process of enforced flexibility, and of the suffering that may result from it for the ever-adapting humanity that we have become. My dissertation calls this anguish or unease courtesy of Milan Kundera – “the unbearable flexibility of being.” This research aims at studying this anguish in French Contemporary Literature and Films in works of literature by Jean Echenoz, Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Michel Houellebecq, Marie Redonnet and Eric Chevillard and in films by directors such as Leos Carax, Laurent Cantet, Nicolas Klotz, Noémie Lvovsky, Jean-Marc Moutout and Cédric Klapisch.

ETD_7740

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Claire M. Ménard

doi:10.7282/T3GB26BM

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.