Fergusson, Kirsty Louise; (1992) 'La recherche de l'absolu': An analysis of the absolute in the works of Michel Tournier. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Over the past decade, Michel Tournier's writing has received an increasing amount of critical attention from both the media and the academic establishment. However, in many cases, the standard and the approach of criticism have been less than satisfactory; the present study, it is hoped, will partially redress this situation. This thesis provides a thematic study of the works of Michel Tournier, from his earliest existing (unpublished) work, (a maitrise on Plato, submitted in 1946) to his most recent publication, Le Medianoche Amoureux (1989). The first chapter demonstrates that the impetus which informs all Tournier's writing is the 'recherche de I'absolu', a philosophical preoccupation with the nature and destiny of the absolute. Particular attention is paid to Tournier's earliest published work, 'L'Impersonnalisme' (1946) in which he sets out the framework of a personal philosophy of the absolute, not only because Tournier has subsequently referred to it as 'la base cachee sur laquelle j'edifie toutes mes petites histoires' (Le Vol du Vampire, p.299), but also because it has so far escaped critical attention. The following chapter proposes a method which enables the reader to engage with Tournier's self- commentaries in a manner which permits independent speculation; the Tournierien absolute is then examined in the light of its philosophical allegiances and idiosyncrasies. The search for, and disclosure of the absolute is of fundamental importance to all thematic and structural studies of Tournier's writing, given the range of motifs and themes which are thereby encompassed in his work. Part II examines the manifestations of the absolute in Tournier's writing, under the headings of landscape, language, laughter, art and myth, in which subsidiary themes, such as sexuality, inversion and the perspective of the child will also be examined. Part III contrasts the marriage of philosophy and literature discerned in Tournier's writing with that exhibited in three other texts: Rousseau's Emile, Valery's Monsieur Teste and Sartre's La Nausee.

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