Couples et doubles. Tournier et les articulations du conte

Résumé

The narrative space of Le médianoche amoureux by Michel Tournier is organized around the relation of doubles and couples. In this short story collection the author asks himself about the nature and performance scope of the literary oral word. On the one hand, two different concepts of repetition are developed articulating the nouvelles and the short stories; the analysis of both explores the gradations and shades present in both kind of stories. On the other hand, a thesis which is object of reflection and verification is defended in the book: the presence and importance of the principle of repetition in art �the creation of doubles at different levels� takes part in the sphere of reality suggesting mimesis and favoring balance. Both fiction and metafiction join together as allies at the very heart of the book.