This study approaches ‘discovery writing’ in relation to genre, investigating whether different genres of writing might be associated with different kinds of writing processes. Discovery writing can be thought of as writing to find out what you think, and represents a reversal of the more usual sense that ideas precede writing, or that planning should precede writing. Discovery writing has previously been approached in terms of writers’ orientations, such as whether writers are Planners or Discoverers. This study engages with these previous theories, but places an emphasis on genres of writing, and on textual features, such as how writers write fictional characters, or how writers generate arguments when writing essays. The two main types of writing investigated are fiction writing and academic writing. Particular genres include short stories, crime novels, academic articles, and student essays. 11 writers were interviewed, ranging from professional fiction authors to undergraduate students. Interviews were based on a recent piece of a writer’s own writing. Most of the writers came from a literary background, being either fiction writers or Literature students. Interviews were based on set questions, but also allowed writers to describe their writing largely in their own terms and to describe aspects of their writing that interested them. A key aspect of this approach was that of engaging writers in their own interests, from where interview questions could provide a basis for discussion. Fiction writing seemed characterized by emergent processes, where writers experienced real life events and channelled their experiences and feelings into stories. The writing of characters was often associated with discovery. A key finding for fiction writing was that even writers who planned heavily and identified themselves somewhat as Planners, also tended to discover more about their characters when writing. Academic writing was characterized by difficulty, where discovery was often described in relation to struggling to summarize arguments or with finding key words. A key conclusion from this study is that writers may be Planners or Discoverers by orientation, as previous theory has recognised. However, the things that writers plan and discover, such as plots and characters, also play an important role in their writing processes.

Le point de départ de cette thèse est une interrogation sur la littérature contemporaine, sur le rapport qu’elle entretient avec la tradition littéraire et sur la figure auctoriale qu’elle bâtit. Les oeuvres de Gonçalo M. Tavares (1970), Enrique Vila-Matas (1948) et Henri Raczymow (1948), placées à la croisée de la fiction et de l’essai, proposent un dialogue intense avec la théorie littéraire. Le travail de ces trois auteurs européens peut en effet être lu comme une réponse aux problèmes posés par la théorie, comme ceux soulevés par les notions de « mort de l’auteur » et d’épuisement de la littérature. La présente étude cherche à trouver de nouveaux outils pour lire ces textes contemporains, tout en observant, en même temps, leur corrélation avec les débats qui ont animé les études littéraires dans les années 1960 et 1970. Pour guider cette démarche, j’ai choisi le dernier cours de Roland Barthes au Collège de France, La Préparation du roman, entre 1978 et 1980. Barthes y réfléchit sur son désir d’entamer une écriture qui rompt avec ses travaux précédents, et réalise une recherche sur la façon dont l’écrivain fait une oeuvre. Il y ébauche certaines notions qui restent pourtant dans un état sommaire. Mon travail consiste à les interroger, les problématiser et à les dépasser, afin de les projeter sur l’oeuvre de trois auteurs en activité. L’étude des oeuvres de Tavares, Vila-Matas et Raczymow me permet d’esquisser une nouvelle figure auctoriale, plus active que celle du lecteur/scripteur, et qui ne ressent pas le besoin de choisir entre la maîtrise totale du texte et la « mort de l’auteur ». Cet auteur devient un auteur-squatteur, qui occupe sa place à force de filiation. Il construit son autorité en l’insérant dans un « lignage », en tant que continuateur de la littérature. / The starting point of this thesis is an examination of contemporary literature, specifically, the relationship it establishes with the literary tradition and the figure of the author that is constructed by its discourse. The works of Gonçalo M. Tavares (1970), Enrique Vila-Matas (1948) and Henri Raczymow (1948), situated at the crossroads between fiction and the essay, embody an intense dialogue with literary theory. The works of these three European authors can be understood as a response to the problems raised by theory, such as the idea of the “death of the author” and the exhaustion of literature. This study seeks to set out new perspectives for reading these contemporary texts while considering, at the same time, the way in which they correlate with the debates that animated literary studies in the 1960s and 1970s. In order to guide this approach, I chose Roland Barthes’ final course at the Collège de France, The Preparation of the Novel, which took place between 1978and 1980. Barthes reflects upon his desire to create a form of writing that breaks with his earlier work and proposes an investigation of how a writer creates a work. He puts forward some concepts, although leaving them underdeveloped. My research consists therefore in problematizing and elaborating these concepts through turning them into approaches for analyzing the works of three authors in action. The study of the works of Tavares, Vila-Matas and Raczymow allows for a vision of a new literary figure, more active than the lecteur/scripteur and who does not feel the need to choose between the total mastery of the text and the “death of the author”. This author becomes a squatter-author, who occupies his place through his affiliations. He constructs his authority by integrating himself into a lineage, as a continuator of literature.