Chapter 8. Fact, fiction and French flights of fancy
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Michael Stubbs
Abstract
This chapter discusses a satirical novel: La septième fonction du langage by Laurent Binet, published in 2015. The book is a thriller with a deliberately absurd plot about a search for a lost manuscript which holds the secret of ultimate rhetorical power: the ability to convince anyone to do anything. Although the characters in the novel include some “real people”, such as two former Presidents of France, Stubbs argues that Binet’s characters in general embody an extreme mix of factual and fictional characteristics, and the merciless satire expressed in their mixed ontological status has left many ordinary readers and professional critics uncertain how to evaluate the novel. Stubbs employs various models of analysis, including John Searle’s observations on the logical status of fictional discourse, and contends that, while useful, this approach does not explain in full how readers distinguish fact from fiction, nor indeed how far writers can appropriately go with outrageous caricatures of living persons. In sum, the chapter shows how the novel provides textual problems which have not been solved by either literary scholars or language philosophers.
Abstract
This chapter discusses a satirical novel: La septième fonction du langage by Laurent Binet, published in 2015. The book is a thriller with a deliberately absurd plot about a search for a lost manuscript which holds the secret of ultimate rhetorical power: the ability to convince anyone to do anything. Although the characters in the novel include some “real people”, such as two former Presidents of France, Stubbs argues that Binet’s characters in general embody an extreme mix of factual and fictional characteristics, and the merciless satire expressed in their mixed ontological status has left many ordinary readers and professional critics uncertain how to evaluate the novel. Stubbs employs various models of analysis, including John Searle’s observations on the logical status of fictional discourse, and contends that, while useful, this approach does not explain in full how readers distinguish fact from fiction, nor indeed how far writers can appropriately go with outrageous caricatures of living persons. In sum, the chapter shows how the novel provides textual problems which have not been solved by either literary scholars or language philosophers.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Introduction 1
- An indicative list of publications by Walter Nash 9
- Chapter 1. “Warmth of thought” in Walter Nash’s prose and verse 11
- Chapter 2. Chrysanthemums for Bill 37
- Chapter 3. The doubling of design in Walter Nash’s Rhetoric 57
- Chapter 4. Riddling: The dominant rhetorical device in W. H. Auden’s “The Wanderer” 77
- Chapter 5. “My Shakespeare, rise” 85
- Chapter 6. Discourse presentation and point of view in “Cheating at Canasta” by William Trevor 101
- Chapter 7. Doing and teaching 113
- Chapter 8. Fact, fiction and French flights of fancy 127
- Chapter 9. Common Language 149
- Chapter 10. “Americans don’t do Irony” 171
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POEM
- Defunct Address 193
- Name index 195
- Subject index 199
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Introduction 1
- An indicative list of publications by Walter Nash 9
- Chapter 1. “Warmth of thought” in Walter Nash’s prose and verse 11
- Chapter 2. Chrysanthemums for Bill 37
- Chapter 3. The doubling of design in Walter Nash’s Rhetoric 57
- Chapter 4. Riddling: The dominant rhetorical device in W. H. Auden’s “The Wanderer” 77
- Chapter 5. “My Shakespeare, rise” 85
- Chapter 6. Discourse presentation and point of view in “Cheating at Canasta” by William Trevor 101
- Chapter 7. Doing and teaching 113
- Chapter 8. Fact, fiction and French flights of fancy 127
- Chapter 9. Common Language 149
- Chapter 10. “Americans don’t do Irony” 171
-
POEM
- Defunct Address 193
- Name index 195
- Subject index 199
