Splendeur et décadence: la représentation de la société et de la ville dans Une liaison parisienne de Marie-Claire Blais

Abstract

In Une liaison parisienne (1975), Marie-Claire Blais sets the action in Paris, a city idealised by Mathieu Lelièvre, a young Quebecois who travels to France. His stay in the French capital allows the author to characterise the city and the characters living in it. Through the evocation of space this novel questions traditional stereotypes, France’s national identity, and it highlights the hypocrisy and the injustices that characterize the high-classes of Paris. In this study I shall observe how urban space becomes the reflection of the decadence of the social elite. On the other hand, the novel also portrays the existence of a different France, humble and friendly, which can be found, not in the city’s exquisite places, but in bars and cafes.