Articles (Literature) by Alexis L . Chauchois
Panorama de Lilia Hassaine : la Transparence comme tragédie de l’injustice
Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, 2026
In her 2023 novel Panorama, Lilia Hassaine envisions a futuristic society governed by a radical p... more In her 2023 novel Panorama, Lilia Hassaine envisions a futuristic society governed by a radical principle of total transparency, supposedly designed to ensure absolute justice. However, beneath the illusion of harmony and security unfolds a contemporary tragedy of injustice, where permanent visibility becomes the driving force of a new, silent, systemic violence. This article examines the mechanisms of this dystopian order, in which justice, subjected to the collective gaze, becomes a spectacle, and the pursuit of truth gives way to the tyranny of opinion. Through an interdisciplinary approach that draws on ancient philosophy (Aristotle, Plato), sociology (Durkheim, Goffman), and contemporary critical theory (Girard, Han, Baudrillard), the study reveals the sacrificial logic underlying Panorama. Far from eradicating violence, Transparency displaces and amplifies it: it replaces judgment with emotion, investigation with vengeance, and truth with consensus. By rejecting opacity, it also suppresses catharsis, depriving society of any symbolic outlet for human tension. By analyzing the spectacularization of daily life, the disappearance of intimacy, and the figure of the scapegoat, this article shows that Transparency, while claiming to embody the ideal of justice, paradoxically becomes its negation. Hassaine’s dystopia offers a striking reflection on contemporary distortions of justice—where greater visibility breeds fragility.
French Forum,, 2025
Dans son ouvrage intitulé Scrabble, Michaël Ferrier revient sur son enfance au Tchad en 1979. Il ... more Dans son ouvrage intitulé Scrabble, Michaël Ferrier revient sur son enfance au Tchad en 1979. Il poursuit par là-même son travail sur la mémoire et son inscription dans le temps. L'écrivain utilise ici le jeu de Scrabble, une contrainte à la manière de Georges Perec, pour illustrer le mécanisme plus général permettant le surgissement des souvenirs. L'enfant parcourt les rues de N’Djaména toujours plus loin, de la même manière que les mots s'étendent sur le plateau du jeu. Ces mots de mémoire initient la mémoire des mots, libérant les souvenirs qui, mis en mots sur la page, finissent par écrire le livre.
Humanities, 2025
This paper argues that Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Georges Bataille use voyeurism as a transgressi... more This paper argues that Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Georges Bataille use voyeurism as a transgressive mechanism to confront death through the female body, a paradoxical site of life and decay. Though Céline's clinical, disenchanted gaze contrasts with Bataille's erotic, metaphysical quest, both employ the act of seeing to reveal death's presence within vitality. In Céline's works, voyeurism shifts from erotic curiosity to cold observation, framing the female body as a sterile emblem of mortality. In Bataille's, it becomes participatory, merging ecstasy with dissolution in a sacred yet destructive form. Drawing on Freud and Sodom motifs, this study shows how their gazes transform the female body into a lens for existential finitude, challenging life-death boundaries in 20th-century French literature.
Ferrier, le blanc pour redonner des couleurs à la mémoire
Contemporary French & Francophone Studies, Vol. 27, Issue 5, pp. 780-788, 2023
In Michaël Ferrier’s work, the color white primarily symbolizes absence and death. However, by wr... more In Michaël Ferrier’s work, the color white primarily symbolizes absence and death. However, by writing the blank, Ferrier chooses to reveal it and bring to light what has disappeared. The absence thus materialized can no longer be ignored. The writer uses white as a memory tool that allows him to rehabilitate those forgotten by History, those he calls ghosts. Ferrier uses the shades of white but also the colors that compose it to bring his ghosts back to life.
Michaël Ferrier, le romancier des ondes
Contemporary French & Francophone Studies Vol. 27, Issue 5, pp. 683-691, 2023
(In press)
Les ondes musicales de Michaël Ferrier
Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, 27:4, 607-615, 2023, 2023
The waves invade the work of Micha€el Ferrier. They propagate there in all their forms, whether s... more The waves invade the work of Micha€el Ferrier. They propagate there in all their forms, whether seismic, acoustic, electromagnetic (radioactivity), mech- anical (wave) or gravitational. The waves go so far as to settle at the very heart of the act of writing to establish themselves as a principle. So, Ferrier transcribes them like a seismograph would, with the avowed objective of leaving a trace of memory and fighting against oblivion. Because a seismo- gram requires the eye of the technician to be deciphered, the writer adapts his text and chooses a medium that is more immediately and sensibly access- ible. The music, itself propagating waves, will make the transcribed vibrations perceptible to the reader. This article reveals the means used by Ferrier to construct a musical text, and shows how this new composition of the text allows the writer to anchor it even more in the memories.
Céline, le cinématographe de la catastrophe
Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, 24:3, 322-329, 2020
Céline, le cinématographe de la catastrophe, Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, 24:3, 3... more Céline, le cinématographe de la catastrophe, Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, 24:3, 322-329
In Feerie pour une autre fois II (also titled Normance), Celine recounts the chaos engendered by the Allied bombing of Paris in April 1944, which killed 1,800 people in seven days. The novel, published in 1954, was a commercial flop. Among the reasons could be a narration that almost completely disappeared, or a traditional chronology that literally imploded. The writing seems subject to delirium and presents a body in direct contact with the surrounding destructions. This article underlines the difficulty for the storyteller to render such a catastrophe. Since Celine notes that the newly-born cinema and its technique overthrew the novel, this work argues that for Celine, the novelistic writing has no choice but to evolve and beat cinema on its own ground. Celine presents himself first as the impressionist of writing. Then, adding the soundtrack to the light and movement, he finally becomes the true cinematographer of literature.
Le Jazz de Jean-Claude Charles
The French Review
Vol. 93, n°4, pp. 136-44, May 2020
L’enracinerrance : un pont entre la France et l’Amérique
Contemporary French & Francophone Studies : SITES, Vol 23, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 86-94, 2019
A Haitian writer who left his island at the age of twenty-one, Jean-Claude Charles was a particul... more A Haitian writer who left his island at the age of twenty-one, Jean-Claude Charles was a particular type of exile. As he explains in his concept of “rooting” that he himself created, he did not get established anywhere else, as did many Haitian refugees, he kept on moving. His wandering took him especially to France and the United States. Many thought that Charles then became uprooted. Yet we will show that it is precisely in his wandering that Charles managed to find new roots, to “take root.” Metaphorically and by writing, he established a bridge between the two continents.
Keywords: Enracinerrance, Jean-Claude Charles, identité, écriture, pont, racine
https://sites.uconn.edu/volume-23-issue-1/#
Les bouteilles à la mer de Makenzy Orcel
The French Review, 2019
The French Review, Vol 93.2, 2019
Le sang de la mort de Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Romances notes, pp. 415-27, Vol. 58, Number 3, 2018
Journal of Haitian Studies, Volume 24, Number 1, Spring 2018, pp. 136-145, 2018
A l'occasion du colloque "Blues Writing: Jean-Claude Charles", Florida State University, Institut... more A l'occasion du colloque "Blues Writing: Jean-Claude Charles", Florida State University, Institut Winthrop-King, March 22-24, 2018, Tallahasse, Florida
Book Chapters (Literature) by Alexis L . Chauchois
Michaël Ferrier - L’art de la fugue
Francospheres, 2026
French :
Dans son livre, Fukushima, récit d’un désastre, Michaël Ferrier raconte le
tremblement d... more French :
Dans son livre, Fukushima, récit d’un désastre, Michaël Ferrier raconte le
tremblement de terre qui secoua le Japon en 2011 et dont il fut le témoin. La
catastrophe prend possession du temps par l’intermédiaire des répliques. Le
phénomène est illustré au cœur du texte par l’écrivain qui multiplie les répéti-
tions. Pour lutter contre les effets d’une catastrophe qui impose sa chronologie, Ferrier se détache du style des annales et compose un récit basé sur la fugue musicale. A partir des répliques qui imitent le principe de répétition de la fugue, l’écrivain varie les thèmes comme autant de sujets et de contresujets. Il met également en place des polyphonies qui créent des contrepoints caractéristiques de la fugue. Le texte ainsi composé par Ferrier engendre un nouveau rythme, une nouvelle chronologie et s’inscrit comme une réponse porteuse d’espoir à la catastrophe.
English:
In his book, Fukushima, récit d’un désastre, Michaël Ferrier recounts the earthquake that rocked Japan in 2011, of which he was a witness. The catastrophe seizes control of time through aftershocks. This phenomenon is vividly illustrated within the text by the author, who employs repetitions. To resist the effects of a disaster that imposes its own chronology, Ferrier breaks away from the style of the annals and instead composes a narrative modelled on the musical fugue. Drawing on aftershocks that imitate the principle of repetition inherent in the fugue, he varies themes akin to subjects and countersubjects. He also creates polyphonies that generate contrapuntal effects characteristic of the fugue. The text thus composed by Ferrier generates a new rhythm, a new chronology, and stands as a response to the catastrophe that carries with it a promise of hope.
Jean-Claude Charles or Writing the poto-mitan – Jean-Claude Charles: A Reader’s Guide, in Martin Munro & Eliana Vãgãlãu (Ed.)
Liverpool University Press, 2021
Jean-Claude Charles’s writing does not leave the reader indifferent. From one novel to another, i... more Jean-Claude Charles’s writing does not leave the reader indifferent. From one novel to another, it is always particular, surprising, even confusing. With Bamboola Bamboche, published in 1984, it reaches its peak. The narrative follows one intoxicated night in the narrator’s life, from midnight to seven in the morning. As a journalist, he investigates the disappearance of an exiled Haitian writer who is probably dead. He also recounts his love for Gina, a young woman involved in planning a revolution. The whole plot seems to take place in a bar, the Bamboola Bamboche, on an unnamed Caribbean island, but the narrative...
MUNRO, MARTIN, and ELIANA VĂGĂLĂU. Jean-Claude Charles: A Reader’s Guide. Liverpool University Press, 2022. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2hbr234. Accessed 30 Aug. 2022.
Aftereffects of May 1968 on Men and Women According to Michel Houellebecq - Does “la lutte continue”? The Global Afterlives of May '68, in William Cloonan, Barry Faulk, Martin Munro, and Christian Weber (Ed.)
Lexington Books, 2020
Conferences (Literature) by Alexis L . Chauchois
L’enfance : mode d’emploi de Michaël Ferrier
Michaël Ferrier, Transnational Novelist – International One-Day Colloquium, Keynes Library, Londo... more Michaël Ferrier, Transnational Novelist – International One-Day Colloquium, Keynes Library, London (G.B.), March 18, 2024
Scrabble de Michaël Ferrier : la frontière du livre
Independance, 20th and 21st Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium, 2024... more Independance, 20th and 21st Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium, 2024
Villanova University, Philadelphia, PA, Feb 22-24, 2024
Ferrier ou l’art de la réplique
Disassembling and Reassembling Cultures in the Desert, 20th and 21st Century French and Francopho... more Disassembling and Reassembling Cultures in the Desert, 20th and 21st Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium, 2023
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, April 13-15, 2023
Les ondes musicales de Michaël Ferrier
20th and 21st Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium, 2022
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, March 24-26, 2022
Michaël Ferrier, le romancier des ondes
Tokyo Stories: Writing the World with Michaël Ferrier, 2022
Winthrop-King Institute, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
March 20-22, 2022
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Articles (Literature) by Alexis L . Chauchois
In Feerie pour une autre fois II (also titled Normance), Celine recounts the chaos engendered by the Allied bombing of Paris in April 1944, which killed 1,800 people in seven days. The novel, published in 1954, was a commercial flop. Among the reasons could be a narration that almost completely disappeared, or a traditional chronology that literally imploded. The writing seems subject to delirium and presents a body in direct contact with the surrounding destructions. This article underlines the difficulty for the storyteller to render such a catastrophe. Since Celine notes that the newly-born cinema and its technique overthrew the novel, this work argues that for Celine, the novelistic writing has no choice but to evolve and beat cinema on its own ground. Celine presents himself first as the impressionist of writing. Then, adding the soundtrack to the light and movement, he finally becomes the true cinematographer of literature.
Keywords: Enracinerrance, Jean-Claude Charles, identité, écriture, pont, racine
https://sites.uconn.edu/volume-23-issue-1/#
Book Chapters (Literature) by Alexis L . Chauchois
Dans son livre, Fukushima, récit d’un désastre, Michaël Ferrier raconte le
tremblement de terre qui secoua le Japon en 2011 et dont il fut le témoin. La
catastrophe prend possession du temps par l’intermédiaire des répliques. Le
phénomène est illustré au cœur du texte par l’écrivain qui multiplie les répéti-
tions. Pour lutter contre les effets d’une catastrophe qui impose sa chronologie, Ferrier se détache du style des annales et compose un récit basé sur la fugue musicale. A partir des répliques qui imitent le principe de répétition de la fugue, l’écrivain varie les thèmes comme autant de sujets et de contresujets. Il met également en place des polyphonies qui créent des contrepoints caractéristiques de la fugue. Le texte ainsi composé par Ferrier engendre un nouveau rythme, une nouvelle chronologie et s’inscrit comme une réponse porteuse d’espoir à la catastrophe.
English:
In his book, Fukushima, récit d’un désastre, Michaël Ferrier recounts the earthquake that rocked Japan in 2011, of which he was a witness. The catastrophe seizes control of time through aftershocks. This phenomenon is vividly illustrated within the text by the author, who employs repetitions. To resist the effects of a disaster that imposes its own chronology, Ferrier breaks away from the style of the annals and instead composes a narrative modelled on the musical fugue. Drawing on aftershocks that imitate the principle of repetition inherent in the fugue, he varies themes akin to subjects and countersubjects. He also creates polyphonies that generate contrapuntal effects characteristic of the fugue. The text thus composed by Ferrier generates a new rhythm, a new chronology, and stands as a response to the catastrophe that carries with it a promise of hope.
MUNRO, MARTIN, and ELIANA VĂGĂLĂU. Jean-Claude Charles: A Reader’s Guide. Liverpool University Press, 2022. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2hbr234. Accessed 30 Aug. 2022.
Conferences (Literature) by Alexis L . Chauchois
Villanova University, Philadelphia, PA, Feb 22-24, 2024
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, April 13-15, 2023