„Un champ de bataille on ne peut plus réel“ : zur Referentialität von Distanz und Nähe in 14 von Jean Echenoz

Abstract

This paper addresses the production of referentiality in historical fiction. It analyses Jean Echenoz’WorldWar I novel 14 (2012), by identifying textual patterns that generate effects of distance and proximity. These effects concern the metatextual dialogue the novel holds with conventional ways of representing this war, and they also relate to the actual historical past evoked by the novel. In this respect 14 performs a notable inversion. Historical fiction usually produces effects of distance in order to convey historical explanation and achieves historical concreteness by effects of proximity, whereas Echenoz endeavours to provide certain aspects of the war with explicative coherence, registering the material world with great concreteness. In many passages, on the other hand, his minimalist writing produces an ironic distance, which makes experiences of contingency aesthetically evident.