Marie Darrieussecq et le roman de formation au féminin : La Mer à l'envers

Abstract

The hypothesis formulated in this article is that one can read Marie Darrieussecq’s La Mer à l’envers (2019) as a Bildungsroman in which the novelist plays with the topoi of the genre. Two paths are sketched out in this text, which could make the subject of a Bildungsroman: that of Younès, a young Nigerian who faces a series of adventures to reach England, and that of Rose, the protagonist, who proves decisive in the realisation of Younès’ dream. While she had very few ambitions at the beginning, Rose evolves in her relationship with her family, in her work, but above all she becomes aware of the role that everyone can have on a global level. Darrieussecq’s originality lies in drawing these two trajectories, one of which could be very typical and the other decidedly atypical (as a mature woman, with a job and a family, Rose has nothing of the traditional character of the Bildungsroman), and in finally giving a priority to the formative journey of a “mère à l’envers”, finally freed from the intimate framework that has long been destined for women.

Keywords

• Darrieussecq (Marie)
• Bildungsroman
• migration
• picaresque novel
• commitment