Désir de deuil et défaut du rite. La littérature contemporaine face à la mort d’un proche

Abstract

This paper concerns contemporary French novels that address bereavement after the loss of a child. The question is not only who the narrator or the main character of these stories mourn for, but also what they grieve for when they bury themselves in sadness. The answer provided by the novels under consideration is that characters not only grieve their loved ones but also lament the very loss of rites, which forces them into experiencing a sense of human fragility. A child has to die in order that his or her supposedly adult parents understand the volatility of life. While religious rites used to provide solace to the bereaved, they no longer do so in modern secular France. Religious rites tend to be judged as stuffy, formal and ill-suited to the contemporary emotions aroused by the unexpected death of a child. How will parents manage to cope with a hideous tragedy concealed by a deceitful consumerist society? The process of expressing the experience of bereavement is seen as an alternative and a far more efficient rite, not only because it does full justice to the personality of the deceased and the feelings of the bereaved but also because it emphasizes the “ritual creativity” of secular people.