Intertextuality in Le Clézio’s Novels: Modal and Illocutionary Analysis ()
1. Introduction
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio is one of the famous French writers who have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Indeed, in 2008, the Nobel Academy awarded him this prestigious literary prize, calling him an explorer “of a humanity below and beyond the reigning civilization”. This is to say, half-heartedly, that this French author is interested in human questions in his works, retrospectively and prospectively, having the present as his compass or anchor point. These works therefore lend themselves to a comparative reading with regard to its human universality. The reader of the novelistic works of Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio can also quite easily notice their intertextual and/or intercultural colorings; this from his first works to his most recent. This article intends to examine this heterogeneous dimension of Leclezian novels by precisely choosing the literary intertexts. The title “Intertextuality in Le Clézio’s novels: modal and illocutionary analysis” fits into this perspective.
This subject thus titled raises some questions; the main one of which is the following: what illocutionary logics underlie the use of intertextual resources in Le Clézio’s novels? Seeking to clearly answer this main question leads us to ask ourselves the following specific questions: first, how is intertextuality expressed in Le Clézio? Second, what major illocutionary forces conceal these intertexts? Third, what semantic content do they present? The answers to these questions should make it possible to achieve the general objective of this study, namely to analyze, in a comparative and pragmatic perspective, the intertextual resources in Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio by drawing out the pragmatic implications.
The reasons which guided us towards the study of intertextuality are twofold. We considered in fact that intertextual analysis in Le Clézio makes it possible to understand the ideological positioning of the latter on the one hand, and the values which are dear to him, on the other hand. The aspects of intertextuality which are taken into account in this reflection particularly obey the explanation of this double ideological and axiological dimension.
The theoretical approaches that are used to do this reflection are comparativism and pragmatics. The first will allow us to understand how Le Clézio uses previous texts to conceive and shape his novel creations. In other words and according to Genette (1982) terminology, it is a question of seeing how the hypertext supports the hypotext. The second approach, which aims to be a mixture of implicit pragmatics (Kerbrat-Orecchioni, 2012; Fryčer, 1980, 1984) and speech acts (Austin, 1970; Searle, 1972; Barro, 2016, 2021; Maingueneau, 2001), makes it possible to specify practical motivations, the whys or the illocutionary goals underpinned by this enunciative heterogeneity (Authier-Revuz, 1984) in the novels studied. To do this, we have chosen six novel works spanning forty years of scriptural experience: from 1963, the date of publication of Le Procès-verbal, Le Clézio’s first fictional work, to 2003, the date of publication of the novel Révolutions. In addition to these two novels, there are Désert (1980), Onitsha (1991), Étoile errante (1992) and Poisson d’or (1997). We examine the illocutionary forces after identifying each modal expression of intertextuality. In other words, we do not really dissociate illocutionary analysis from intertextual analysis. This makes it possible to benefit from the low costs of processing the information provided by the context of use of intertexts (Sperber & Wilson, 1989).
2. Intertextual Quotations in Leclezian Novel Writing
The scenography of old literary works is quite visible in the literary enunciation of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Literature. This enunciative orientation is manifested through several modalities of intertextual summoning including quotations. In Étoile errante, a work whose plot evokes the suffering of an Israeli and a Palestinian woman caused by the Second World War and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the intertextual quotations are all borrowed from the same author, in this case, Hayyim Nahman Bialik and related to the same character: Esther, the young Jew. We keep two examples. The first quote, uttered by the old Jew Seligman, is this:
On my winding path
I have not known any gentleness.
My eternity is lost. (Le Clézio, 1992: p. 88)
The second intertextual quote which recalls the previous one in terms of informational content is made by the heroine Esther. A quote that she recorded in the notebook given to her by Nejma, her Palestinian girlfriend. Here is the quote:
Brother, brother,
Have mercy on the eyes above us,
Because we are tired, because we share your pain.
I did not find my light in the courts of freedom,
I haven’t received it from my father yet,
I bit it into my own flesh,
I carved it out of my own flesh. (Le Clézio, 1992: p. 295)
It should be remembered that Bialik is one of the most significant Hebrew poets of the generation of Jewish national renaissance which preceded the creation of the State of Israel. The characteristics of his work have earned him the title of national poet. His creativity and the power of his evocative vision allow him to be ranked among the great poets of all time. These quotes constitute both a complaint and a supplication for Esther. Complaint about his fate in the land of freedom, which is France; this France then home of anti-semitism. Also complaining about the difficulty of the journey to Israel. The supplication is particularly part of the perspective of brotherhood, undoubtedly a guarantee of peaceful cohabitation between Israelis and Palestinians. If we consider that the second quote is noted in the notebook intended for Nejma, the Palestinian woman, we will better understand the utopian vision of the Jewish Esther by using it.
From the point of view of illocutionary value, it appears that these intertextual quotations obey assertive and directive logics. An assertive logic because they correspond to an implicit description of the diegetic situation of the character Esther. A directive logic, because it is at the same time a prayer (“Brother/Have mercy…”) in order to ward off the sad fate to which the characters are subjected and to denounce the war. This novel by Le Clézio thus bears the traces of contemporary socio-political history. This is understandable to the extent that, since its origins, literary history has been a history which is inspired by social facts.
Besides Étoile errante, the intertextual quotations are also observed in Poisson d’or; work whose heroine Laïla recalls in many ways Lalla from the novel Désert. Invited to the home of a Haitian woman who shares the same black identity as her, Laïla will meet other people including an art critic. This will encourage him to showcase his reading skills. It is in this context that the heroine Laïla of the novel Poisson d’or will quote this extract from Césaire’s Cahier d’un retour au pays natal:
[…] I recited Aimé Césaire:
My dances are mine
my bad nigger dances
mine my dances
the shackles-breaking dance
jail-breaking dance
the dance it-is-beautiful-and-good-and-legitimate-to-be…
The critic looked at me without moving, then burst into applause. He shouted: Listen, listen to this young girl, she has something to tell you. (Le Clézio, 1997: pp. 146-147)
We must see in this quote a celebration of Negritude by Laïla or the expression of an assumed preference of her race, the black race. Added to this is this other quote relating to the same author. Indeed, the numerous readings will lead Laïla, with the encouragement of her friend Hakim, to present herself as a free candidate for the A4 series baccalaureate. His choice for the explanation of the text, although problematic, focused on Césaire:
And for this Lord with white teeth
Men with frail necks
receive and perceive fatal triangular calm
and my dances are mine
my bad nigger dances...
until:
Bind, bind me bitter brotherhood
then strangling me with your lasso of stars
soar, dove
[…] and the big black hole where I wanted to drown
Your other moon
This is where I want to fish now the tongue
[Maleficent
of the night in its motionless verrition! (Le Clézio, 1997: pp. 206-207)
As we can see, Césaire is appreciated by Laïla and one wonders what could explain such obstinacy. Is it youthful enthusiasm or a thoughtful decision that authorizes him to opt for this off-topic? Or is it a quest for inner revolution? What we can say empirically is that Laïla would have the same aspirations as Césaire. From this point of view, these intertextual quotations sound, at the illocutionary level, like an implicit directive act, showing the heroine’s desire to remain faithful to her roots and proud of her identity. And above all that she is ready to fight to free herself from the oppression of which she is a victim in the novel in question. We therefore see that Le Clézio is to a certain extent influenced by African literary history represented here by the negritude movement of which Césaire is the most fierce defender.
It is important to note, moreover, that in these novels, Le Clézio, a great reader and keen observer of the literary scene, does not escape the stylistic net of his predecessors. Because, man, being a social being, his productions, in this case literary, are housed in one way or another, voluntarily or not, in some previous stylistic net. As we will see, certain novels in the corpus pass, due to their enunciative structure, as pastiches of previous literary works.
3. Pastiche in Le Clézio’s Novels
Pastiche is the imitation of the style of an author, of a work, without concern for the content. As Piégay-Gros (1996) says, pastiche is not distorting a specific text, but imitating its style. The choice of subject is indifferent to the achievement of this imitation. If in music, it is easily recognizable through the identical tune used by different musicians to convey their messages; in literature, it is remarkable, in addition to the voice, through the expressions and syntax in particular.
This form of intertextuality is also manifested in the novel title Révolutions, one of the novels in the corpus which best depicted Le Clézio’s literary career in terms of intertextuality. On the back cover of the said work, Le Clézio confirms this state of affairs in these terms: “It has always seemed to me, as Flannery O’Connor said, that a novelist must be inclined to write about the early years of his life where the principal was given to him’’. It must be said that the pastiche that was noted in this novelistic production by Le Clézio relates particularly to African works before and after independence. Indeed, the frequency of linguistic interference appears as a major style of african novels, in this case, that of Maran (1938) and Boni (1962) to name only these authors. In Batouala and Crépuscules des temps anciens, we clearly notice this recurring affixing of french names to those of the local language. How does this stylistic mark emerge in said novels? Let us first consider the novel Batouala:
“[…] at the height of the bush, […] the hoarse howl of the children of Bacouya, the dog-faced monkey.” (Maran, 1938: p. 9)
Further:
“Djouma, the sad little red dog, was dozing […]” (Maran, 1938: p. 23); “Doppelé, the scavenger […]” (Maran, 1938: p. 248).
In Crépuscule des temps anciens, we can note:
“[…] a white warrior guided by Frowa, the Peulhs” (Boni, 1962: p. 221); “All he had left was Lokoré, the carcass” (Boni, 1962: p. 240);
“Damp and shady sanctuary…, royal domain of predilection for MB’WOA SAMMA, the ELEPHANT, MB’WOA YERE, the lion, MB’WOA DARO, the Panther.” (Boni, 1962: p. 25).
Observation of certain passages from the novel Révolutions by Le Clézio shows that this aesthetic canon is also used there. The following examples taken from the short story story entitled Kilwa in which Kiambé, a slave of Mozambican origin, speaks, bear witness to this:
“My name is Kiambé, the one who was created […], I am Malaika the angel, Simba the lion, Fisi the hyena, Twiga the giraffe, I am Moto the fire […]. The master can kill anyone he wants with his whip. When he is tired of whipping, he extends his arm and his slave Mbwa the dog approaches, takes the whip and continues.” (Le Clézio, 2003: pp. 449-451)
Also such a stylistic mark can be seen in Onitsha and we can point out among others:
“Chuku, the sun” (Le Clézio, 1991: p. 89);
“They ate what we call Azu Igwe, the back of the sky” (Le Clézio, 1991: p. 89);
“Ndri dug up a koko root”. (Le Clézio, 1991: p. 90)
It appears, obviously, that this structure of apposition in Révolutions and Onitsha recalls the stylistic process in force in the novels of the aforementioned African authors. In doing so, Le Clézio gives “an exotic color”, in this case African, to his work. The context in which such pastiches are expressed is all the more appropriate as they come from african nationals, characters from this universe in Révolutions and Onitsha. This justifies, moreover, the following remarks by Dakouo (Dakouo, 2007: pp. 14-15) for whom “[…] there is no doubt that the mastery of this linguistic dialogue is one of the great aesthetic particularities of the African novel, even african speech and culture. This means that Le Clézio is in tune with his enunciation and his enunciators. In other words, it lends the right language to the right character.
From a socio-pragmatic point of view, these pastiches fulfill a double illocutionary function: assertive and directive. At the assertive level, the pastiche of novels or african speech by african characters in Le Clézio shows a scriptural realism consisting of adapting the language to the character and his social environment. At the directive level, it is a desire to respect the instructions of the signatories of world literature in french which is intended to be a denunciation of cultural imperialism in literature.
If it is true that quotations and pastiches are modes of intertextual convocations punctuating Leclezian literary enunciation, it is clear that the use of references is, by far, the most important.
4. Intertextual References in Le Clézio’s Novels
Unlike the quotation, the reference is according to Nathalie Piégay-Gros (1996) a form of explicit intertextuality even though it does not expose the text to which it refers. This mode, she believes, is used in particular when it comes to referring the reader to a text without literally summoning it. This problem of textual summons is perceptible in Onitsha. It is important to know that several authors and literary works shape the intertextuality in this Leclézian work, in particular, through the references made to them. The use of an author, very often, is only a pretext to access a work or thought of this author. The following passage evokes much more explicitly both the authors and the works which are the subject of the reading of Maou, the mother of the main character in the novel Onitsha. A bibliography that is both plural and diversified, which the narrator-observer takes inventory of, with complete transparency and objectivity. These are mainly references to English-speaking authors:
“For some time, Geoffroy no longer came to her office to write his notebooks […] To control her anxiety, she [Maou] pretended to be interested in books and newspapers […]. Novels, too, that she had started to read, Mr Johnson, Sanders of the River, by Joyce Cary, Plain tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling…” (Le Clézio, 1991: p. 110)
As long as Maou is a foreigner in Nigeria, reading works like Mister Johnson is completely understandable. Indeed, this novel by Cary evokes the life of a young Nigerian and therefore allows the character Maou to be educated about life in his new locality. This is a reference whose informative significance is decisive for Maou. The illocutionary value of this reference is directive to the extent that this novel gives orientations-instructions on Nigerian life to Maou. Furthermore, Étoile errante is not left out in this form of textual summons. The following references are extracted and are the work of the actor Seligman, whose speaker-narrator acts as spokesperson in these terms:
“[…] Mr. Seligman climbed onto the edge of the fountain. He seemed worried and moved, and yet his voice resonated clearly, as when he read the books to the children […] Then, in the same clear and strong voice with which he read to the children, Les animaux malades de la peste with the plague or extracts from Nana, he recited these verses which remained marked forever in Esther’s memory.” (Le Clézio, 1992: p. 88)
“Les animaux malades de la peste” and Nana are respectively a fable by La Fontaine and a novel by Zola. The first intertext is to be related to the question of injustice. We remember, in fact, that faced with the plague which decimated the animals in les Fables, the lion asked his colleagues to punish the greatest evildoer. This, in order to atone for the fault supposed to be at the origin of the evil and, in turn, exorcise it. After confession, justice, instead of punishing the king of the bush, whose capacity for nuisance when it comes to killing animals is known, bypassed him and fell on a poor herbivore: the donkey. La Fontaine, in this fable, shows how the lion, a large carnivore, can escape punishment while the simple herbivorous donkey is charged with an abominable crime: that of grazing on the grass of a monks’ meadow. The moral lesson of the story could not be more explicit: “Depending on whether you are powerful or miserable, /The court judgments will make you white or black” (De La Fontaine, 2019: p. 233). This reference applies well to Esther. Innocent, she must leave France, because she is considered an enemy to be defeated due to being Jewish.
Furthermore, Nana, the eponymous work, highlights the difficult life that young Nana faces. It is important to remember that Zola, this naturalist, had the ambition of making the novel an experimental object for which Les Rougon-Macquart series was the channel of expression. Nana, the ninth novel in this series, lays bare the sad reality of the prostitution of girls from poor families. This enunciative behavior thus allows Zola to signify that there is a cause and effect relationship or that there is no effect without a cause. A cause which is, in this case, social determinism. We see, in fact, that these two references, by their theme, focus on the character Esther whose situation is quite critical1. The illocutionary logic underpinned by these references is therefore assertive: correspondence of the intertext to the description of the diegetic state of the character Esther.
In addition to these literary elements which the statement of Étoile errante accommodates, there are still many other references to works or authors. The following reference occurs, in fact, when the heroine and her mother embark for Israel, with the intention of escaping the anti-semitism to which they are subject. Such a summons is also not unrelated to the heroine. It’s a comfort for her and she doesn’t hide it in any way:
“I took my dress […] and especially the books that I love, the books that my father sometimes read to us in the evening after dinner, Nicholas Nickleby, and The Adventures of Mr. Pickwick. These are my favorite books. When I want to cry or laugh or think of something else, I just need to take one of these…” (Le Clézio, 1992: p. 141)
This statement from the heroine in connection with the works read is all the more true as for Onimus, “There is a lot of humor in Le Clézio. It ranges from juvenile burlesque to sarcasm. This man spent a lot of time with English writers, particularly Dickens.” (Onimus, 1994: p. 177) The illocutionary value of this reference to Nicolas Nickleby, and Les aventures de M. Pickwick, is above all directive, because it is a means used to positively change the dramatic situation or the sadness of the heroine Esther through stories funny. After having underlined the presence of this intertextual dynamic in this work, we can ask ourselves the question of what is happening with Poisson d’or.
From the outset, it must be said that there are multiple intertextual references in this novel. The passage below is part of this dynamic. It occurs in particular after the main character leaves his guardian or “boss” Lalla Asma2. Indeed, once outside her court and taken in by Madame Jamila at the fondouk, Laïla’s behavior left something to be desired. She then decides to take him to Miss Rose, a French nun, for a kind of “remodeling”. If Laïla was unable to discipline herself like the other girls, she will at least have paid attention to Miss Rose’s bookish lessons:
“The main part of the education at the boarding house consisted of keeping the girls busy with sewing, ironing, and reading moral books […] As for me, there was no question of me embroidering no matter what. it was […] I was content to remain seated in my chair, listening to the lessons of Miss Rose who read in her hoarse voice The Grasshopper and the Ant […] I did not learn much from Miss Rose, but I learned to appreciate my freedom…” (Le Clézio, 1997: pp. 49-50)
As if the lesson given by the ant to the cicada was addressed to her3, Laila will go, of her own accord, to drink copiously in a library for three months, to ward off the fear of possible persecution from the of his executioners:
“I read books on geography, geology, and especially novels, Nana and Germinal by Zola, Madame Bovary and Trois Contes by Flaubert, Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, Une vie by Maupassant, L’Etranger and La Peste by Camus, The Le Dernier des Justes by Schwarzart, Le Devoir de violence by Yambo Ouologuem, L’Enfant de sable by Ben Jelloun, Pierrot mon ami by Queneau, Le Clan Morembert by Exbrayat,[…]. I also read translations, La Case de l’oncle Tom , […] I met Mr. Richoudi […] It was he who gave me directions, who told me what I had to read first, who told me about the great authors, about Voltaire, about Diderot […]” (Le Clézio, 1997: p. 72)
Looking at these references, we are struck by the selective criterion which governed their enumeration on the part of Laïla. These readings, in fact, are very evocative: they inform the protagonist of the work about various circumstances where young girls or women, like her, have been confronted with life difficulties. Nana, Madame Bovary, Trois Contes and Une Vie are typical cases of this perspective, of this vision of things. Failing to read works where the key characters are women in difficulty, everything suggests that Laïla favors the problem at issue in the works. Germinal, Les Misérables, Le Dernier des Justes, Le Devoir de violence, Pierrot mon ami, Uncle Tom’s cabin are in this scenario. All these works, in general, relate to the question of exploitation, suffering or even slavery, but also struggle. Considering the heroine’s particular situation, it is clear that from a cognitive point of view, her psychological state is strengthened after readings of this nature. This means that these multiple references and readings are certainly not embellishments in the statement in question. This is especially true because when we recommend something to someone, both illocutionary and perlocutionary aims inevitably come into play. The illocutionary aims underlying these intertextual references are assertive and directive. This involves presenting the heroine Laïla with works whose girls share the same social difficulties as her on the one hand (assertive aspect) and on the other hand, giving her advice on the conduct to take to better get by in life by avoiding the bad behavior of certain characters in intertextual references (directive aspect).
Moreover, in this library of refuge, Laïla did not fail to meet people who were kind and attentive towards her. This is the case of Mr. Richoudi who recommended the aforementioned classics of French literature to him. The latter will continue, moreover, this charitable work by favoring authors who have written a lot about the problem of identity: “[…] he recommended that I read La conscience de Zéno by Italo Svevo. After that he spoke to me differently. He read me the poetry of Schehadé and Adonis.” (Le Clézio, 1997: p. 78), says Laïla. In the first reference, that is to say La conscience de Zéno, the last and third novel by Italo Svevo, the main character Zeno bends under a complex evil: that of uncertainty, of irresolution. However, with the help of difficulties, he will create a philosophy that will allow him to clear his conscience in the face of the turpitudes of life. This philosophy is due to its understanding which makes life a potential source of poisons, some of which constitute the antidotes of others. To be protected from the effects of a poison, it is necessary to protect yourself with its antidote. This philosophy will undoubtedly have guided Laïla in her constant migrations and difficulties (directive illocutionary value). Adonis, third reference, is an emblematic figure of the question of identity. For him, in fact, identity purism is an aberration, only the interaction of civilizations is valid, hence the borrowing of the name Adonis from Greek, although Arabic, mythology. Schéhadé’s poetry is also illustrated through the transmission of serene and radiant images which forge the intuition of a possible paradise. We thus see that these intertextual manifestations contain illocutionary forces or that they are used for precise illocutionary goals.
5. Tabular Summary of Intertexts and Underlying Illocutionary Values
This tabular summary presents intertextual resonances in terms of modal manifestations and illocutionary values. It also specifies the Leclézian novels concerned by this intertextuality. In this table, the assertive illocutionary acts of the intertexts implicitly describe the diegetic situations of the main fictional characters. As for the directive dimensions, they show that the intertexts are cognitive means used by the characters to resist the difficulties of life or to call for peace. These directive dimensions have obvious ideological and axiological charges, hence their use by Le Clézio’s novels characters. For example, quotes from Hayyim Nahman Bialik’s poems show that the character Esther is suffering, hence the call for peace and implicitly for an end to the anti-Semitism to which she is the subject.
Modal manifestations of intertextuality |
Illocutionary values |
Novels concerned |
Quotes from poems by Hayyim Nahman Bialik |
Assertive and directive |
Étoile errante |
Quote from poems by Aimé Césaire |
Assertive and directive |
Poisson d’or |
Pastiche des romans Batouala de René Maran ou Crépuscule des temps anciens de Nazi Boni |
Assertive and directive |
Révolutions et Onitsha |
References to Nana and Germinal of Zola, Les Fables of La Fontaine, Trois Contes and Madame Bovary of Flaubert, Mr Johnson, Sanders of the River of Joyce Cary, Plain tales from the Hills of Rudyard Kipling; Nicolas Nickleby and Les aventures de M. Pickwick, Les Misérables of Victor Hugo, Une vie of Maupassant, L’Etranger and La Peste of Camus, Le Dernier des Justes of Schwarzart, Le Devoir de violence of Yambo Ouologuem, L’Enfant de sable of Ben Jelloun, Pierrot mon ami of Queneau, Le Clan Morembert of Exbrayat; La Case de l’oncle Tom; the poetry of Schehadé and Adonis; La conscience of Zéno of Italo Svevo. |
Assertive and directive |
Poisson d’or |
6. Conclusion
The analysis that we have just carried out has shown that Le Clézio uses intertextual resources to construct his novelistic plot. These intertextual resources are both multiple and multiform. Three major methods of using these resources have been identified: these are quotation, reference, and pastiche. These written literary intertexts come from diverse origins. There are African, European and Asian literary figures, which testify to the great literary culture and universalism of the writer Le Clézio. Overall, these intertextual resonances are exploited by the characters for very specific purposes, most often linked to their aspiration to live happily and free in the hostile world that surrounds them. These intertextual elements therefore serve as a guiding vector, a guide to achieve their goals or realize their ambitions. This is why we can, without risk of being mistaken, affirm that the illocutionary content of intertextual resonances is generally directive or prescriptive. The moralizing intention is displayed there as well as the commitment to brave the pitfalls that stand on the path to freedom, emancipation and progress. The names of the writers linked to the identified intertextual resources are expressive of this moralizing and emancipatory logic. The author Le Clézio, while denouncing certain social defects thanks to the journey of the enunciating characters of the different intertexts, indicates the important role that books play in the transformation or even the positive transfiguration of the individual. Beyond intertextuality, other forms of enunciative heterogeneity are present in Le Clézio’s novels. This is the case, for example, of intermediality and interartiality. These aspects could be the subject of analysis in other frameworks of reflection in order to better explain the ideological positioning of Le Clézio.
NOTES
1Father murdered, mother without strength, persecution by Nazism.
2Remember that she was stolen and sold to Lalla Asma whose death pushed her to go to the fondouk.
3If the Cicada is devoid of sustenance, Laïla’s deprivation is just as serious because she is idle, lost, alienated. It is obvious that to obtain such value only will and struggle pay off compared to idleness.