Intertextuality, intermediality and the (doubly) dialogic novel. The case of Echenoz and Laurrent

Abstract

Characteristic of broadly understood culture, dialogism often takes critical forms: the function of references to earlier literary practice is to highlight the originality of works created on its basis and to emphasise the distance separating them from the tradition. In the case of Minuit literature we can observe an opposite situation, which involves valorisation of cultural heritage and its creative employment to construct untypical, intertextual fiction. Relying on key theories of intertextuality and intermediality, this paper analyses the major forms of literary dialogue with the past in Le Méridien de Greenwich by Jean Echenoz and Les Atomiques by Éric Laurrent and its impact on the form of the novel and the reading process.