Places of emptiness in the novel The Man who sleeps by Georges Perec and its film adaptation

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.60056/CCL.2022..118-127

Keywords:

New Novel, New Wave, rhetorical places, emptiness, existential crisis

Abstract

This text examines George Perec's novel The Man Who Sleeps and its adaptation through a young man's existential crisis in search of the meaning of his existence. The disintegrated time and space introduce the reader to the labyrinth of wandering consciousness through the “rhetorical places”, the delight of emptiness, on the border between dream and reality. The work is close to the experiment of the literary movement “New Novel”, approaching in the film the “camera-pen” embodied in the New Wave of French cinema.

Author Biography

  • Rennie Yotova, Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski"

    Prof. Dr. Rennie Yotova is a lecturer in French literature at the Department of Romance Studies at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. Author of the following books (in French) Jeux de construction: poétique de la géométrie dans le Nouveau Roman, Paris, l’Harmattan, 2006; Ecrire le viol, Paris, Non Lieu, 2007; La Trilogie des jumeaux, In Folio, 2011, Trois pièces d'Agota Kristof (co-authored with Sara de Balsi), In Folio, 2016. Translator from French of fiction and philosophical essays (Gerard de Nerval, Albert Camus, Jacques Ellul, etc.). Author of numerous articles on contemporary French literature on topics of space, border, interlingualism, violence. Delegated Representative of the International Organization of La Francophonie for teaching French in the world. Knight of the French Order of Academic Palms (2012).

References

Perec, G. (2000). Spyashtiyat chovek. Pleven: Lege Artis, Translation from French – Diyana Marcheva.

Frédéric, Y. (2007). L’extase du vide de Un homme qui dort à Espèces d’espaces. – Savoirs et clinique, 1(8), 143-153.

Klein, P. (2015). Surmonter le sommeil, espérer contre toute attente. Un homme qui dort et l’exploration des « lieux » de l’indifférence. – Fabula-LhT, n° 15, « "Vertus passives" : une anthropologie à contretemps », dir. Matthieu Vernet et Alexandre de Vitry. URL: http://www.fabula.org/lht/15/klein.html, page consultée le 08 février 2022.

Reggiani, C. (2017). Un peintre de la vie moderne. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Introduction, IX-XXVII. Editions Gallimard.

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Published

2025-11-06

Issue

Vol. 8 (2022)

Section

II. TRANSFIGURATIONS OF LITERATURE INTO CINEMA

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How to Cite

Places of emptiness in the novel The Man who sleeps by Georges Perec and its film adaptation. (2025). Colloquia Comparativa Litterarum, 8, 118-127. https://doi.org/10.60056/CCL.2022..118-127