Publication details
Pour une famille « liquide » : le cas de Nikolski de Nicolas Dickner
| Title in English | A "Liquid" Familly: the Case of Nicolas Dickner's Nikolski |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Histoires francophones de familles. Le familier, l'inquiétant et le loufoque |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Mass media, audiovision |
| Keywords | Quebec literature; Nicolas Dickner; "roman de filiation"; liquid modernity; space and time memory |
| Attached files | |
| Description | The terms "liquid modernity" or "liquid life", coined by the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, may apply to Nicolas Dickner's novel Nikolski both in their literary and sociological senses. The metaphor of liquidity permeates the text through several recurring themes, which illustrate, in narrative form, the main sociological problems pointed out by Bauman, predominantly the social liquefaction which the characters try to face. The crucial question to be asked is the representability of such a liquefied literary universe. However Dickner adopted a different strategy in comparison with François Bon or Michel Houellebecq, probably a less radical one, more romantic and open, his novel calls for a thorough reflection, beyond the theme of filiation and family, on the relationship between memory, time and space, between freedom and necessity, a reflection that involves the question of the possibility of writing. |