Pratiques Du Collage Dans Le Roman Postmodern Français. Une Étude De Cas Dans « La Vie Mode D’emploi » De Georges Perec,

Abstract

This study aims to examine literary collage practises in Georges Perec's novel Life A User’s Manual within the context of postmodern literary and novel theories and intertextual relations. Postmodern literary theories categorize certain literary elements observed in literary works, particularly since the second half of the 20th century, according to their definitions and common characteristics. The term "collage", which originated in the plastic arts, particularly in painting, refers in its broadest sense, to the process of combining various heterogeneous elements on a surface. Fragmentation, discontinuity, rupture and heterogeneity, which are the defining qualities of postmodern text, enable an analogical relationship between these texts and the collage method in plastic arts. Postmodern texts are mostly formed by combining diverse heterogeneous elements, text and discourse pieces, similar to the collage approach in plastic arts. Accordingly, the term "collage" is one of the terms used by postmodern literary theory/theorists to define the postmodern text. With the fragmentation, discontinuity, rupture and heterogeneity that it generates in the text, intertextuality is one of the dominant elements which creates the collage image in the postmodern text. Postmodern writers, who are detached from the tenets of modern art such as breaking ties with the imitation principle and tradition or the idea of a genius creative writer creating an original and unique work with his or her own style, compose their works by combining fragments from the literary tradition and various texts. In this context, the postmodern text looks like a collage of fragments taken from previous works. The purpose of this study is to examine literary collage practises within the framework of Georges Perec's postmodern novel(s) Life A User's Manual, created by combining various intertextual and graphic elements based on the puzzle metaphor.