La Tour de Doan Bui. Une architex-Tour perecquienne ?

Abstract

After the publication of Le Silence de mon père in 2016, Doan Bui released her first novel, La Tour ou un chien à Chinatown, in 2022. The novel portrays the lives of the inhabitants of a tower, the Tour Melbourne, located in Paris’s 13th arrondissement. It bears a strong resemblance to Georges Perec’s Life A User’s Manual, particularly in its narrative structure. The novel’s progression, which shifts from one apartment to another, mirrors the zigzagging motion employed in the building at 11 rue Simon-Crubellier, and the detailed descriptions of spaces clearly evoke Perec’s typological approach to spatial representation. In this article, we aim to highlight that the emphasis on spatiality in Doan Bui’s work stems from the interplay of three architectural elements drawn from Georges Perec: empty spaces, enclosed spaces, and antisocial spaces.

Keywords

• Perec (Georges)
• Bui (Doan)
• spaces
• emptiness
• fragmentation
• non-place