Naissance et mort de l’auteur : les investigations d’Amélie Nothomb

Many of Nothomb’s books borrow from traditional features of crime fiction. In line with post-Nouveaux Romans, they do so whilst resorting to parody, in a bid to reflect on the levels of construction, in first-person narratives, of the identities of authors and narrators. This study considers the narrative possibilities opened by investigations and processes of unveiling, and the role to be played by the reader faced with the power of the written word, in the works of Nothomb, as seen in particular in Le Fait du prince and Hygiène de l’assassin