Herve Guibert: Voices of the Self

This is a study of the complete texts of Herve Guibert (1955-1991), offering a thorough documentation of Guibert and his literary and other output. Since his writings challenge conventional generic classifications, this study has had to engage with an avant-garde oeuvre and construct its own categories for analysis. Guibert’s work is considered in the light of a trope of overlapping key concerns which permeate each of his texts: fiction/truth, self/other, novel/other literary forms, body/text, and betrayal/friendship. His writings are related internally to each other, providing a constant dialogue on the problematics of a literary enterprise of the self. The study is guided by Guibert’s relation to the novel, a major line of enquiry throughout, as well as his experimentation with voices in particular. One of Jean Boule’s main contentions is that Guibert arrives at the creation of a new literary genre, the roman faux , with the publication of his best known work: To the Friend who did not save my life . The text ends with a study of the whole artistic production of Guibert after he is diagnosed as HIV positive within the parameter of the voices of the self.