Crisis of the ‘Event’, Guy Gunaratne’s In Our Mad and Furious City (2018)
This article argues that the notion of event, through its different facets and acceptations (Badiou, Deleuze and Derrida), is seminal to account for Gunaratne’s take on the city in In Our Mad and Furious City (2018). Whereas in fiction-writing the event is, as a rule, a necessary structuring device,...
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| Publicat a: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc, |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Anglais |
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Études britanniques contemporaines
2022
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| Accés en línia: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:ebc_12945 |
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openedition |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:ebc_12945 https://doi.org/10.4000/ebc.12945 urn:doi:10.4000/ebc.12945 en https://journals.openedition.org/ebc/12945 2022-11-29T01:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/fed0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Crisis of the ‘Event’, Guy Gunaratne’s In Our Mad and Furious City (2018) Études britanniques contemporaines Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2271-5444 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1168-4917 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc Letissier, Georges performance événement hantise crise de l’événement roman des cités poétique des intertitres grime poètes des rues l’un et le multiple roman choral performance event crisis of the event council estate novel poetics of intertitling grime street lyricists the one and the multiple ghosting multi-voiced novel This article argues that the notion of event, through its different facets and acceptations (Badiou, Deleuze and Derrida), is seminal to account for Gunaratne’s take on the city in In Our Mad and Furious City (2018). Whereas in fiction-writing the event is, as a rule, a necessary structuring device, serving different plotlines and thematic contents, it becomes here the text’s linchpin. Indeed, city life is predicated on the traumatic scene of Lee Rigby’s murder in 2013 which ripples through the novel. The best way to sustain this paroxysm is to delegate the narration to a range of characters who are caught up in their own tormented presents. Their successive, alternating oral deliveries are testament to a crisis of the event as the character narrators are involved in ‘limit situations’. The study is threefold, first it introduces perspectives on the notions of ‘event’ and ‘crisis of the event’, to argue that they constitute the fiction’s matrix, then it is shown that the novel’s structure is not driven by causality but reflects the randomness and unpredictability intrinsic to the event. This is demonstrated by investigating the maverick division of the book into sections headed by intertitles (Genette 271–292) defying immediate understanding. In the last part, the performative aspect of grime music is considered to highlight narrativity as event. Cet article avance l’idée que la notion d’événement, à travers ses différentes facettes et acceptions (Badiou, Deleuze et Derrida), est centrale pour rendre compte de la représentation de la ville dans Au rythme de notre colère (2018) de Guy Gunaratne. Alors que, de manière générale, l’événement est un élément structurant dans l’écriture de la fiction, comme vecteur d’intrigues et support de contenus thématiques, il devient ici la clef de voûte de l’ensemble du texte. En effet, la vie de la communauté urbaine est tout entière prédéterminée par la scène traumatique du meurtre de Lee Rigby, perpétré en 2013, qui traverse tout le roman. La meilleure façon de maintenir en permanence ce paroxysme consiste à déléguer la narration à des personnages confrontés à des « situations limites ». Leurs témoignages successifs alternent en écho à cet événement majeur. L’analyse se décompose en trois parties. D’abord est introduit un développement sur les notions d’événement et de crise de l’événement qui souligne à quel point celles-ci sont cruciales pour l’économie narrative. Il est notamment montré que la structure n’est pas tant déterminée par le principe de causalité que par l’imprévisible et la contingence qui caractérisent l’événement. Ceci est mis en lumière par un usage idiosyncratique des intertitres (Genette) dont la logique défie une compréhension immédiate. Enfin la troisième partie envisage l’aspect performatif de la musique grime pour exposer la narration comme événement. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
performance événement hantise crise de l’événement roman des cités poétique des intertitres grime poètes des rues l’un et le multiple roman choral performance event crisis of the event council estate novel poetics of intertitling grime street lyricists the one and the multiple ghosting multi-voiced novel |
| spellingShingle |
performance événement hantise crise de l’événement roman des cités poétique des intertitres grime poètes des rues l’un et le multiple roman choral performance event crisis of the event council estate novel poetics of intertitling grime street lyricists the one and the multiple ghosting multi-voiced novel Letissier, Georges Crisis of the ‘Event’, Guy Gunaratne’s In Our Mad and Furious City (2018) |
| description |
This article argues that the notion of event, through its different facets and acceptations (Badiou, Deleuze and Derrida), is seminal to account for Gunaratne’s take on the city in In Our Mad and Furious City (2018). Whereas in fiction-writing the event is, as a rule, a necessary structuring device, serving different plotlines and thematic contents, it becomes here the text’s linchpin. Indeed, city life is predicated on the traumatic scene of Lee Rigby’s murder in 2013 which ripples through the novel. The best way to sustain this paroxysm is to delegate the narration to a range of characters who are caught up in their own tormented presents. Their successive, alternating oral deliveries are testament to a crisis of the event as the character narrators are involved in ‘limit situations’. The study is threefold, first it introduces perspectives on the notions of ‘event’ and ‘crisis of the event’, to argue that they constitute the fiction’s matrix, then it is shown that the novel’s structure is not driven by causality but reflects the randomness and unpredictability intrinsic to the event. This is demonstrated by investigating the maverick division of the book into sections headed by intertitles (Genette 271–292) defying immediate understanding. In the last part, the performative aspect of grime music is considered to highlight narrativity as event. |
| author |
Letissier, Georges |
| author_facet |
Letissier, Georges |
| author_sort |
Letissier, Georges |
| title |
Crisis of the ‘Event’, Guy Gunaratne’s In Our Mad and Furious City (2018) |
| title_short |
Crisis of the ‘Event’, Guy Gunaratne’s In Our Mad and Furious City (2018) |
| title_full |
Crisis of the ‘Event’, Guy Gunaratne’s In Our Mad and Furious City (2018) |
| title_fullStr |
Crisis of the ‘Event’, Guy Gunaratne’s In Our Mad and Furious City (2018) |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Crisis of the ‘Event’, Guy Gunaratne’s In Our Mad and Furious City (2018) |
| title_sort |
crisis of the ‘event’, guy gunaratne’s in our mad and furious city (2018) |
| publisher |
Études britanniques contemporaines |
| publishDate |
2022 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ebc |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/ebc.12945 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/ebc/12945 |
| _version_ |
1877293006020673536 |