Cahiers ERTA (Jun 2024)

The labyrinth as a metadiscursive motif in Christian Grenier's literary creation

  • Nadège Langbour

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4467/23538953CE.24.008.19931
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2024, no. 1
pp. 9 – 26

Abstract

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The labyrinth motif appears regularly in Christian Grenier's novels. In diegesis, it is always linked to myth and the fates of Daedalus, Theseus and Ariadne. It is also a diegetic motif that structures the setting, organizes the characters' quest and generates suspense. But this motif is above all a metadiscursive metaphor that theorizes the author's writing. In particular, he evokes the meandering construction of police intrigues. It also represents the referential games developed by Christian Grenier: By mixing the words of other writers with his own, offers his readers the opportunity to enter a kind of intertextual labyrinth.