Écriture et dissidence dans les fictions spéculatives de Pascal Quignard: sur l´exemple de Boutès

Abstract

In Boutès (2008) Pascal Quignard rescues the figure of this pre-Homeric neglected hero, hidden in one of the best known mythological legends, that of Jason and Argona , to which Apollonius of Rhodes only dedicates but a few lines. Contrary to Ulysses and Orpheus, Butes abandons the rowing and lets himself be carried away by the sirens’ chant. In Quignard´s opinion, he dissents from the exemplary model of the heroes that have founded our culture, and dissociates himself from the group that tries to enclose and domesticate the outcast. Based on Quignard´s reading of this myth, we propose an approach to his writing as a token of ethic and aesthetic dissidence, affecting different aspects: dissidence from prevailing models of socialization, dissidence from traditional literary forms and conventional genres, dissidence from meta-narratives and their linear vision of history, and finally, dissidence from modern conceptions of time and progress.