La mise en éclats de l’héritage chez Lydie Salvayre
Few studies have examined the work of the French novelist Lydie Salvayre, whose first novel was published in 1990. It seems appropriate to look more seriously into her work, which shows a genuine demand of writing. One part of the work of Salvayre interests me more specifically: its relation to inheritance. I consider this relation in the themes, the writing and the form of her novels La Puissance des mouches (1995) and La Méthode Mila (2005). In each of these two novels, the narrator has a troubled relationship with both his family heritage and his cultural heritage, especially that of philosophy and classical satire. Torn between the everyday world (trivial) and the world of ideas (sublime), the character is looking for a way out: he wonders how to live. In La Puissance des mouches, the narrator is possessed with hatred for his father and confesses love for Pascal. In La Méthode Mila, he is torn between a senile mother at his charge and an obsession for Descartes. I will study how this breach is lived and how the text labors it. The way the author highlights the concept of legacy—it pastiche, shakes, bullies, away classics—leaves no amount of servile compliance. This way to inherit, to break with the evidence of continuity with the past, poses a fundamental question: how does one inherit today, and why?
French novel Contemporary literature Mémoire Memory Lydie Salvayre Lydie Salvayre Heritage Mémoire Memory