Academic Scientific JournalsWhen to open at the end is to start with a closure... Malevil by Robert Merle
Keywords:
Event, Advent, post-apocalyptic, Merle, MalevilAbstract
On the threshold of Malevil is the Event. But on the threshold only. Then the narrative focuses on post-events. We will stop on the threshold. Indeed, how to start a work which deals with the end of a time, when the end is just a beginning? Malevil opens with a closure and this "opening" contains the seeds of a break, the first symptom of which is linguistic : to put into words the unspeakable horror, to grasp it, and thus name it. The second symptom is temporal : the linearity is broken and that which held things together, the binding agent, has been shattered. Some measure of order must be reestablished from that chaos, the Event must become an Advent. The third symptom is a generic one : the narrative is told through the fictional form of a diary, a testimony, which turns writing into a unifying act.
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References
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