The subject of this work is an analysis of the novels by Éric Chevillard published between 1987 and 2012 by Minuit. Chevillard, one of the most unique voices in the current panorama of French literature, is considered heir to authors like Beckett and Michaux by critics who incessantly search for a collocation for his “unnerving” texts. He progressively elaborates an incongruous aesthetics, aimed at involving the reader in the construction of a deep-seated sense that continuously eludes every attempt to categorize it, hovering between playfulness, linguistic inventiveness and the exposure of plausible fictions. This contribution aims at accepting the challenge offered by the novels themselves, offering a label which expresses both their nuances and elusiveness, able to communicate the infinite facades of their ambiguous poetics through incongruity: the 'loufoque'.
This aesthetic category can also be related to principles of linguistic economy, in order to strengthen the analysis with a further purpose. On the one hand, the semiotic acceptation of 'loufoque' enables to see the unexpected rigour of the texts, whose propensity to poke fun at the reader represents one of the most serious aims, whose almost nonsensical effects presume a logical criteria for writing. On the other hand, the reference to the 'loufoque' itself allows to underline the intertextual dimension of such intriguing fictions and collocates them in the steps of a specific literary tradition.
