La démesure : une esthétique de la mesure dans le tyran éternel de Patrick Grainville et la vie et demie de Sony Labou Tansi

Abstract

This study sets out to analyse the writing of excess. It is based on the hypothesis that current events are dominated by violence and war phenomena and other immoral practices such as corruption, poor governance and hate speech. All these illicit acts raise the exaggeration problem, leading society into chaos and disaster. After reading Patrick Granville’s and Sony Labou Tansi’s texts, which shed light on human barbarity, we entitled this work: “Excess: an aesthetics of measure in Patrick Grainville’s Le tyran éternel and Sony Labou Tansi’s La vie et demie”. This attempt to reveal the hidden face of the writing of excess is motivated by the following main question: How is excess described in the aforementioned novels? To answer this main question, we adopt postcolonial theory as our theoretical and methodological framework, from the perspective of Jacques Derrida’s deconstructivism. Since the analytical tools of this method make it possible to question the writing of excess in Patrick Grainville and Sony Labou Tansi. This research aims at deconstructing the various violent acts that deterrent the development of society in order to reveal the underlying ideas that derive from this writing. This work, structured in three parts, is made up of two chapters each. This work, which is structured in three parts, is made up of two chapters each. The first part focuses on identifying the elements from which excess starts and gets form. The second analyses the setting, time and characters. In the course of these analyses, the chronotope elements enable to demonstrating the aesthetics of excess through their infernal characters. Finally, the third part identifies the ideological issues at stake in the writing of excess. The outcomes of this final section are that the authors, through their texts, advocate a fragmented world. As a result, the exercise of excess reveals itself both as a means of maintaining control over power for policymakers and a strategy for the quest of freedom for citizens. This highlights that excess can be used as a means of getting away from immoral practices, for it offers possibilities of measurement and finds its rule and nobility in universal destruction by creating its own measure.