Contemporary French fictions of suicide : a medical humanities approach
Abstract
This paper compares Catherine Cusset’s L’autre qu’on adorait (2016) and Régis Jauffret’s Lacrimosa (2008), as examples of 21st-century novels in which suicide is the central focus. Recent texts tend to move away from earlier portrayals of suicide as a philosophical or aesthetic gesture towards a deeper engagement with the causes and consequences of suicide. Placing these highly literary autofictions within a wider context of cultural interest in suicide extending to popular genres, I suggest that their formal complexity allows them to engage critically with stereotypes, and represent the unknowability of the suicidal mind. I also argue that literary representation of mental illness should be seen as part of a broader public discourse that influences social attitudes.
Citation
Jones , K 2021 , ' Contemporary French fictions of suicide : a medical humanities approach ' , Essays in French Literature and Culture , no. 58 , pp. 173-190 . < https://search.informit.org/doi/epdf/10.3316/informit.318170949641341 >
Publication
Essays in French Literature and Culture
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1835-7040Type
Journal article
Collections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.