Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Youthful Writings
- 2 Photographic Writing
- 3 Towards the Novel
- 4 Image and Text
- 5 The ‘Novel’
- 6 ‘Autobiography’
- 7 Towards the Roman Faux
- 8 The Roman Faux
- 9 Thanatographical Writing
- 10 The Fictitious, the Fake or the Delirious
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Notes to Chapter One
- Notes to Chapter Two
- Notes to Chapter Three
- Notes to Chapter Four
- Notes to Chapter Five
- Notes to Chapter Six
- Notes to Chapter Seven
- Notes to Chapter Eight
- Notes to Chapter Nine
- Notes to Chapter Ten
- Notes to Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index of Names
- Index of Notes
10 - The Fictitious, the Fake or the Delirious
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Youthful Writings
- 2 Photographic Writing
- 3 Towards the Novel
- 4 Image and Text
- 5 The ‘Novel’
- 6 ‘Autobiography’
- 7 Towards the Roman Faux
- 8 The Roman Faux
- 9 Thanatographical Writing
- 10 The Fictitious, the Fake or the Delirious
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Notes to Chapter One
- Notes to Chapter Two
- Notes to Chapter Three
- Notes to Chapter Four
- Notes to Chapter Five
- Notes to Chapter Six
- Notes to Chapter Seven
- Notes to Chapter Eight
- Notes to Chapter Nine
- Notes to Chapter Ten
- Notes to Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index of Names
- Index of Notes
Summary
I discussed Cytomé galovirus in the last chapter despite the fact that it appeared after Guibert's death, since it formed part of the project of thanatographical writing. With the three books left for me to study, Guibert is in my view still committed to the project of the voices of the self, so their thematic will be that of the body and death also. Of note, too, is the fact that the three bear the label ‘roman’ (‘novel’), with a variant for Mon valet et moi. The only difference from the three other works published since À l'ami is that, as we shall see, Guibert tries to tear himself away from his illness and seek refuge in writing. But it is not ‘le divertissement’ (in the Pascalian sense of ‘spiritual nonchalance’) that Guibert is after: by means of subterfuge (the fictitious, the fake or the delirious), he will still manage to put his self down on paper and ‘écrire jusqu'au bout’ (‘write to the bitter end’).
MON VALET ET MOI
Published in September 1991, Mon valet et moi was the last book to appear in Guibert's lifetime. It bears the generic subtitle ‘roman cocasse’ (‘comical novel’). The strangeness is to be found in the story that is told: a master aged 80, an incontinent author of boulevard stage successes, describes his relationship with his manservant, a 20–year–old screen actor who has made only one film. Little more will be learnt about the manservant, except a few details about his childhood at the Mettray reform school (Val., pp. 42–43) which remind one of Jean Genet. The master, whose name is nowhere given, says ‘je’ (‘I’), and the servant, whose first name (‘Jim’) is revealed only at the end of the novel, does not speak, or only in the passages where his words are reported in direct speech. However, having concealed from him the fact that he was writing this story based on their relationship, the master will end up having to come clean and dictate the book to his servant (p. 86), who will thus fulfil the function of a scribe, writing his own story while not being the text's author.
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- Information
- Hervé GuibertVoices of the Self, pp. 235 - 264Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 1999