Publisher's Synopsis
Born in Kobe in 1967, Amélie Nothomb is a phenomenon of French publishing, if not a phenomenon of society itself, because the novels she writes are so successful. Every September, Nothomb publishes with unflappable regularity a novel a year. Although she is described as eccentric, cultivating her strangeness, she gathers a wide audience. Whether she fascinates or irritates, Amélie Nothomb's personality does not leave anyone indifferent. By taking as its object of study the works published from Hygiène de l'assassin (1992) to Cosmétique de l'ennemi (2001), this thesis develops a reflection on the specificities of the Nothombian universe in a work whose narrative material oscillates on the uncertain threshold between the fictional and autobiographical registers. To read a book by Nothomb is to immerse oneself body and soul in a violent and cruel environment, a reign of transmutation where ideal beauty constantly rubs shoulders with absolute ugliness. What does this abundance of figures, both fascinatingly beautiful and repulsive, monstrous and evil, indicate?
