« Le désert progresse » : mirages postmodernes de l’Ouest américain dans les fictions françaises et québécoises

This dissertation examines the representation of the American desert in contemporary French and Québécois fiction, where it is often portrayed as an expanding, destabilizing force that overwhelms the narrative space. It investigates how Francophone authors engage with this landscape through a postmodern lens that reflects anxieties about American cultural and geopolitical dominance, while also exploring the desert as a space for narrative experimentation. The analysis engages with how the notion of desertification shifts from its colonial connotations – tied to France’s civilizing mission in the Sahara – to a broader metaphor for environmental collapse and civilizational decline. Drawing on narratological, comparative, and ecocritical methodologies, this study identifies recurring textual strategies, including narrative embedding, the aesthetics of the abyss, and the destabilization of linear temporality. It situates the desert as a narrative and geographic interstice, where Hollywood influence, colonial legacies, and European sensibilities intersect to form a network of aesthetic and ideological tensions. The findings reveal that Francophone fiction moves beyond a simple rivalry with U.S. cultural production, shifting from initial postmodern estrangement to a more autonomous reappropriation of the desert, especially in the Québécois context, where decolonial and ecological concerns reshape the desert imaginary.

Author dc:creator

• Bellec, Marie

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Met, Philippe

• European Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
• Arts and Humanities

Language dc:language.iso

en

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

https://repository.upenn.edu/handle/20.500.14332/61344

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.upenn.edu:20.500.14332/61344