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Article

The Pursuit of Happiness in the French Novel of the 20th-21st Centuries

Author(s)

DOI:10.17265/2160-6579/2015.06.004

Affiliation(s)

University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

ABSTRACT

Happiness, as much a poetic as a philosophical, sociological, and psychological concept, has been, through the ages,

at the heart of the needs each individual seeks to fulfil. But today, in a world dominated by technology, driven by

productivity and dictated by efficiency, what about Happiness? Does it feature in works of fiction in any significant

way? May it not have adopted different guises? Is that “duty of happiness” that Pascal Bruckner was talking about

present in the French novel of the 20th-21th centuries? And if it is, has its force strengthened or weakened? This

article will discuss the French Novels (of the 20th-21th centuries) that are devoted to or associated with Happiness

in a direct or indirect manner. It will contextualize and analyze the transformation of Happiness, within the context

of the historical and social events that influenced that period: the Holocaust, consumerism, postmodernism,

structural social changes, the various as yet unarticulated new modes of life they created, and so on. To that end,

this article will explore the discursive philosophical concept of happiness and its influence on the formation of the

French novel. In so doing it will focus on the explicit discourse behind the motifs, the choices made in the process

of writing, and the attitudes taken, considering the theme of happiness. Doing so, a significant discussion will be

included regarding the paths of happiness, its agents, and the nature of the motifs and metaphors linked to the theme

of happiness. The author will also address the dialectical role of the happiness theme in the constitution of an

emerging literary discourse reflected in the French novel. By exploring the manifestation of the dogmas, ideas of

the intellectual leaders of the 20th century (e.g., Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone De Beauvoir, Albert Camus) as well as

the ones of the 21th century (e.g., Pascal Bruckner, André Comte-Sponville, Gilles Lipovetsky) new insights

concerning the hybrid nature of the supposedly “authentic happiness” will be revealed. The author intend to inspect

the theme of Happiness around four dialectical axes as a relevant ethical basis for delimiting the various fields of

research: (1) Love, passion, and conjugality; (2) Ageing; (3) “The experience of everydayness”; and (4) “The era of

emptiness”. Focusing on the narratives, the article takes into account their specificity in the four distinct fields, all

connected to existential and ethical issues. Finally, this article will attempt to analyse the assumed role of literature

as a conduit of cultural awareness.

KEYWORDS

French novel, Happiness, love, conjugality, morality, ageing, everyday life, postmodernism, emptiness,
passion

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