Difference reading : a Deleuzian analysis of contemporary French series fiction for adolescents

Abstract

This thesis reassesses the inherent repetition in series fiction that is considered as fundamental and yet negative, by looking at a corpus of contemporary French series for adolescents. Repetition is foregrounded through the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, which requires it to be thought for itself and not in relation to any original. Moving from notions of generality and resemblance that have dominated criticism of series fiction to date, this thesis shifts the focus from one of comparative difference to pure repetition. Deleuze's concept of becoming is used to explain the reader's creative involvement within a series and proposes the Deleuzian simulacrum as a metaphor for the form. Positing a need to move away from a traditional linear reading of series, this thesis suggests alternatives that reflect the nature of real reading experiences and move away from the need to experience series as a whole. The concept of the rhizome is used as a model for the connectivity within and external to series. A reassessment of closure and resolution is presented, and the paradoxical joint actions of disconnecting and reconnecting become an essential part of the rhizomic experience of series reading. Concepts of growth are reassessed by redefming time in relation to pure repetition, freeing growth from the necessity of chronology. Deleuze's concept of pure time, AiiJn, reveals how 'growth' may even occur in the most 'static' of series. The simulacrum coupled with Deleuze's concepts of minoritarian and majoritarian voices are used to show how adolescent series fiction, typically considered as a narcissistic fiction, is a doubly false literature pertaining to be something it never can be. This thesis postulates the presence of a virtual voice of series fiction, created within and through the reader in becoming. It is this unique and intense voice that may motivate young readers' enthusiasm for series fiction. 2

More information

Identifiers

Catalogue record

Export record

ASCII CitationAtomBibTeXData Cite XMLDublin CoreDublin CoreEP3 XMLEndNoteHTML CitationHTML CitationHTML ListJSONMETSMODSMPEG-21 DIDLOpenURL ContextObjectOpenURL ContextObject in SpanRDF+N-TriplesRDF+N3RDF+XMLRIOXX2 XMLReferReference ManagerSimple Metadata