Beginning with the premise that all literary texts are rhetorical in nature, this thesis explores the impact of the persuasive function in Romain Gary's Le grand vestiaire from the perspective of his poetics, defined in Pour Sganarelle. The analysis of typical narrative, descriptive and dialogal techniques used by the author brings to the fore at once the textual sites in which Gary's central precept, the univocity of meaning, is upheld, and the presence of ambiguities that undermine it. Likewise, the analysis of the novel's socio-historical context highlights its ideological dimensions, which is both inherent to the work and responsible for certain indeterminacies that foreclose the possibility of a unique meaning. Finally, it is shown that the rhetorical figures in Gary's text, which are designed, by their overwhelming presence, to forcefully reconfirm the univocity of meaning, also generate a series of equivocations. This thesis demonstrates that while Le grand vestiaire is indeed based on literary techniques that ensure its effectiveness, the novel is at odds with Gary's poetics and ultimately represents its functional ineffectiveness.

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