Ni signifiant ni absurde : à la recherche du sens du monde dans La Route des Flandres de Claude Simon
Neither Meaningful nor Absurd: in Search of the Meaning of the World in Claude Simon’s La Route des Flandres

Summary/Abstract: At the crossroads of philosophy, religion and literature arises the question of meaning. The feeling of absurdity of the world and the loss of the meaning of life, accompanied by a desperate attempt to (re)create it, are typical for people stigmatized by borderline experiences of collective traumas, such as war. As a combatant of the Second World War and a great admirer of Marcel Proust, Claude Simon undertakes a tireless search for lost meaning, which emerges discreetly behind the pessimism with which he describes the absurdity of the world. A close reading of his most famous novel, La Route des Flandres (1960), reveals to us some subtle indications about this quest for meaning, which becomes also a quest for identity.

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