/Jean-Bark/ by Philippe Claudel or the Literary Tomb as Architecture of Creation

Abstract

We will study how the writer-filmmaker Philippe Claudel begins a three-stage process of mourning following the death of his publisher and friend, Jean-Marc Roberts. The first two periods of this process, the refuge from grief and the exaltation of memory will be reflected in the writing of Jean-Bark, a literary tribute but also a place of memory. In this way, Claudel was able to project himself three years later towards the third stage of his mourning by integrating this friendship into a second work, The tree of the Toraja. Roberts is transposed into Claudel's second creative universe as a film producer stricken by the same illness as the publisher. By fixing his Jean-Bark in eternity, he will be able to complete his mourning.