Enjeux culturels du discours littéraire de Pascal Quignard

Pascal Quignard is a contemporary French writer occupying a prominent position in the literature of the second half of the XXth centrury and the beginning of the XXIth century. The quality of his work has been acknowledged by the numerous literary prizes he has obtained so far (Prix des Critiques in 1980 for Carus, Grand Prix de l’Académie Française in 2000 for Terrasse à Rome, Prix Goncourt in 2002 for Ombres errantes). This shows the validity of P. Quignard’s writing as an object of investigation and critical evaluation while remaining a subject of investigation. In this paper we aim at highlighting the cultural models the writer draws on while delineating the field of his creation and his literary works: the anchorite, the knight errant and the mythical figure of Medusa. These models fonction both at the content and the form level, being closely connected to the communication function of the language