Tijana Miletic

European Literary Immigration

into the French Language

Readings of Gary, Kristof, Kundera and Semprun

Table of contents

  • INTRODUCTION
  • CHAPTER 1 : LANGUAGE
    1. Introduction
    2. Typology of bilinguals
    3. Bilinguals and monolinguals
    4. The mother tongue
    5. Choice of language, choice of French
    6. Betrayal, pain and loss
    7. The transition period
    8. Successful substitution
    9. Identity
    10. Hierarchisation
    11. Todorov's experience
    12. The perception of French
    13. The nomadic impulse and the myths of home, nostalgia and the mother tongue
    14. Typology of migrants and foreigners
    15. The family romance
    16. Self-translation
    17. Style in a new language
    18. The reputation of languages
    19. Conclusion
  • CHAPTER 2 : EUROPA
    1. Introduction
    2. European political identity
    3. Cosmopolitanism
    4. The myth
    5. La Montagne blanche
      • Europe as an intersection of cultural references
      • Collective memory and hierarchy
      • The French topos of Europe
      • Kafka, Kundera and Central European cultural references
    6. La princesse de légende (La Danse de Gengis Cohn)
      • Beauty and betrayal in European art
      • Cultural naturalisation
      • The myth of Lily and Florian
      • The aristocratic ideal of humanity
      • Europe or Europa as inspiration to art
    7. Europa
      • Malwina and Erika
      • The image of the eighteenth century
      • Europe as a topos of the privileged classes
      • Europe as the creation of the European
      • Heritage and Art as the refuge of Europeans
      • The purposeful, non-cultural Europe
      • Beauty and female representation
      • Liberty and libertinism
    8. Multiculturalism and multilingualism
    9. Cultural heritage and the novel
    10. Conclusion
  • CHAPTER 3 : LIBERTINISM AND UTOPIA
    1. Introduction
    2. L'Algarabie
      • Political Utopia
      • The picaresque
      • Etymology
      • The ideal reader and narrator
      • Friendship
      • Libertine writing and language
      • Libertinage
    3. La Montagne blanche
    4. La Lenteur
      • Literary libertinism
      • Happiness and maturity
      • Female libertines
      • An art of memory
      • A private Utopia
      • Literary heritage
    5. Conclusion
  • CHAPTER 4 : DOUBLING AND INCEST
    1. Introduction
    2. The Trilogy
    3. Le Grand Cahier
      • Fusional twinhood
      • Rational linguistic exercises
      • Parental death
    4. La Preuve
      • Individuation
      • Yasmine's incest
      • Victor's incest
      • A delusion of twinhood
      • The inner reader
      • Exclusion of the mother figure and the female principle
      • The homosexual aspect of brotherhood
      • Writing as a survival technique
      • The brother's reappearance
    5. Le Troisième Mensonge
      • Claus' childhood: a new version of events
      • Claus' negotiations of identity
      • The meeting of the twins and the revelation of "la chose"
      • Nomadic versus sedentary
      • The importance of writing
      • Motherhood and Klaus' near-incest
      • Symmetrical twinhood
      • Important dates
      • The immigrant's identity
      • Mirroring despair
    6. Hier
    7. L'Algarabie
    8. La Montagne blanche
      • Actual incest
      • Imaginary incest
      • Juan Larrea
    9. Conclusion
  • CONCLUSION
  • Appendix 1 - Plot summaries
    • Romain Gary: La Danse de Gengis Cohn (1967)
    • Romain Gary: Europa (1972)
    • Jorge Semprun: L'Algarabie (1981)
    • Jorge Semprun : La Montagne blanche (1986)
    • Agota Kristof: 1. Le Grand Cahier (1986)
    • Agota Kristof: 2. La Preuve (1988)
    • Agota Kristof: 3. Le Troisième Mensonge (1991)
    • Agota Kristof: Hier (1995)
    • Milan Kundera: La Lenteur (1995)
  • Appendix 2 - Biographical outlines
  • Appendix 3 - Diagram of relationships in La Montagne blanche
  • Bibliography
  • Index
  • Table of contents