Genre-and-Style Characteristics of Anna Gavalda’s Novella "Petites Pratiques Germanopratines" ("Peculiarities of Saint-Germain Boulevard")

Abstract

The present research featured short stories by Anna Gavalda, a contemporary French writer. The research objective was to define the genre and style of Petites Pratiques Germanopratines (Peculiarities of Saint-Germain Boulevard) published in Gavalada’s collection of novellas entitled Je Voudrais Que Quelqu’un M’attende Quelque Part (I wish somebody were waiting for me somewhere). The novella demonstrated features common to this type of narration: small volume; few characters; focus on their everyday private life and a singular event that changes it; dramatic nature of the plot development; peripeteia and a manifestly expressed culminating point resulting in a denouement that defeats the reader’s expectancy; prosaically neutral style of narration achieved by the use of neutral and literary-colloquial lexical units, etc. Alongside the typical features, the research revealed some specific characteristics that manifested themselves in the novella under analysis: first-person narrative; elements of psychology introduced into narration, e.g. inner monologues of the protagonist or her inner dialogue with a prospective interlocutor; limited time-and-space composition; cinematic type of dynamic narrative; motifs of road and accidental encounter; antithesis underlying the basic themes embedded in the plot structure; abundance of precedent and toponymic names and artistic details; diversity of linguistic means used to organize the narration and describe the inner world of the protagonist.

Keywords

• first-person narration
• psychology
• inner speech
• time-and-space composition
• dynamic
• cinematic narrative
• casual meeting
• dramatic nature of the novella
• peripeteia
• precedent name
• toponym
• artistic detail