La condition humaine au 21e siècle selon Gaëtan Brulotte

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the latest collection of short stories by Gaëtan Brulotte entitled La contagion du réel (2014) and seeks to highlight the specificity of Brulotte’s realistic aesthetic as well as his contribution to the continuing renewal of this literary genre. The originality of Brulotte’s works resides in his “vision de biais” or his slanted, oblique, and parabolic vision, founded on the free manipulation of realism. This vision takes into account the complexity of human beings’ rapport with the Real and is depicted in terms of construction and destruction, comic and tragic stories filled with love and violence, inspired by everyday situations and absurd ones which deal with both creation as well as death. The stories in La contagion du réel constitute in this way a brilliant exercise in the “manipulation” of realism. This analysis examines the multitude of approaches, both personal and oblique, used by Brulotte to tackle the question of the Real while taking into consideration the new forms and narrative techniques invented by the author.