A Violent Need for Distance

In both Ian McEwan’s The Children Act and The Disappearance Boy by Neil Bartlett (2014), violence is first deciphered in the body contact which calls for a necessary distance between characters but also subplots, so that both protagonists and literary works might be autonomous. Such salutary distanc...

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Main Author: Laurent Mellet
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" 2017-03-01
Series:Sillages Critiques
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4946
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author Laurent Mellet
author_facet Laurent Mellet
author_sort Laurent Mellet
collection DOAJ
description In both Ian McEwan’s The Children Act and The Disappearance Boy by Neil Bartlett (2014), violence is first deciphered in the body contact which calls for a necessary distance between characters but also subplots, so that both protagonists and literary works might be autonomous. Such salutary distance leads to an aesthetics of the rift without which the intimate connection remains threatened. Yet the distance from the event builds up a new rift soon to be violently invested as the ideal space for illusion and “misdirection”: should the rift be visible? how can violence be inflicted upon readers or spectators with a view to making them believe? Whether the distance be in focalisation or metafiction, the rift violently makes empathy irrelevant and establishes a new narrative rhythm that reshuffles fiction and posits narration no longer as the means but as the end of writing.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1272-3819
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language English
publishDate 2017-03-01
publisher Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"
record_format Article
series Sillages Critiques
spelling doaj-art-9191795aa5664de88a7835ae80761dc12025-01-30T13:46:54ZengCentre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"Sillages Critiques1272-38191969-63022017-03-012210.4000/sillagescritiques.4946A Violent Need for DistanceLaurent MelletIn both Ian McEwan’s The Children Act and The Disappearance Boy by Neil Bartlett (2014), violence is first deciphered in the body contact which calls for a necessary distance between characters but also subplots, so that both protagonists and literary works might be autonomous. Such salutary distance leads to an aesthetics of the rift without which the intimate connection remains threatened. Yet the distance from the event builds up a new rift soon to be violently invested as the ideal space for illusion and “misdirection”: should the rift be visible? how can violence be inflicted upon readers or spectators with a view to making them believe? Whether the distance be in focalisation or metafiction, the rift violently makes empathy irrelevant and establishes a new narrative rhythm that reshuffles fiction and posits narration no longer as the means but as the end of writing.https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4946illusiondistanceMcEwanBartlettsplittingJullien
spellingShingle Laurent Mellet
A Violent Need for Distance
Sillages Critiques
illusion
distance
McEwan
Bartlett
splitting
Jullien
title A Violent Need for Distance
title_full A Violent Need for Distance
title_fullStr A Violent Need for Distance
title_full_unstemmed A Violent Need for Distance
title_short A Violent Need for Distance
title_sort violent need for distance
topic illusion
distance
McEwan
Bartlett
splitting
Jullien
url https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4946
work_keys_str_mv AT laurentmellet aviolentneedfordistance
AT laurentmellet violentneedfordistance