California Dreamin’ : Trois variations sur le lieu

Abstract

The representation of California in French literature has become increasingly prevalent in the past twenty years. The American West Coast, and particularly the metropolis of Los Angeles, do not conform to an established portrait of the United States centered on New York, Chicago, and the South. This article presents three literary interpretations of California by French authors and puts them in conversation with common preconceptions on the state: its superficiality, its disconnection, its glamor. Laure Murat (Ceci n’est pas une ville, 2016), Jean Rolin (Le Ravissement de Britney Spears, 2011), and Maylis de Kerangal (Naissance d’un pont, 2010) approach Californian spaces and communities through contrasting proximity to their referential truth and for three different narrative aims: Murat composes a meditative autobiography, Rolin an (absurd) spy thriller, and Kerangal a globalized Western. All three confront the “non-spaces” and “blank zones” that define or threaten their narrative environments, looming deserts reputedly hostile to meaning, beauty, and lived experiences. Each author gives particular care to the spatial systems borne of a culture that values diversity, fame, money, and the car.