This study examines how the French bestselling detective novel Total Khéops (1995) by Jean-Claude Izzo relates to three literary sub-genres of detective fiction to which it mainly has been associated since it first was published: roman noir français (French roman noir), polar marseillais and Mediterranean noir. By assembling the most significant criterions of these sub-genres and analyzing their presence in Total Khéops, or its architextuality within the crime novel, this approach aims to reveal in what sub-genre this novel mainly should be categorized. The results of the study show that Total Khéops exhibits central features of all the three sub-genres, but as the findings overlap, and that several characteristic traits are possible to associate with more than one of these categories, it’s difficult to judge to which sub-genre this novel mainly belongs. However, the study indicates that the focus on the elements of place and local culture of the city of Marseille in Total Khéops sets a new standard in the way the polar marseillais was to develop to a proper sub-genre in the late 1990s: these features are to be considered as new in the domain of French crime fiction.

Contrairement à ses homologues occidentaux (le detective novel britannique, le roman de détection français, le roman noir anglo-américain, le giallo italien), le récit policier grec est une terra incognita pour la recherche universitaire.Cette thèse ambitionne de combler cette lacune en s’intéressant à un genre qui, plus que tout autre, a eu mauvais genre en Grèce. Les deux questions qui constituent le fil d’Ariane de notre réflexion tournent autour de l’hellénité du genre (existe-t-il un roman policier grec doté de caractéristiques intrinsèques ?) et de son évolution en diachronie (y a-t-il continuum ou rupture entre l’ancienne et la nouvelle production policière hellénique ?). Notre thèse est construite en trois temps. Notre première partie s’intéresse aux raisons de la naissance tardive du genre en Grèce et à son histoire sur six décennies, de 1953 à 2013. Notre deuxième partie se penche sur la poétique du nouveau roman policier grec (1995-2013) en prenant pour point de comparaison l’ancienne production policière hellénique (1953-1967), celle de Maris et de ses épigones : Chairopoulos, Kakouri, Marakis, Markakis, Papagéorgiou. Au cours de cette deuxième partie, il est surtout question de l’identité générique du nouveau « polar grec » (roman de détection, roman noir, thriller, « polar méditerranéen » ?), des personnages qu’il met en scène et de la thématique de la ville. Enfin, notre troisième partie ambitionne de montrer que le nouveau roman policier hellénique mène une investigation sur l’histoire, la société et l’identité grecques. Plus qu’à l’anatomie d’un crime, le lecteur assiste en effet, dans la nouvelle production policière hellénique, à l’anatomie d’un pays. / In opposition to Western crime fiction (British and French detective novels, American hard-boiled crime fictions, Italian giallo), Greek crime fiction is totally unknown in the field of academic research (both in Greece and France).This thesis aims to fill this gap by focusing on a literary genre which, more often than not, has been badly seen by the Greek literary establishment. The two questions which drew our attention revolved around the Hellenic dimension of the genre (is there something as such as Greek crime fiction?) and around the evolution of Greek crime fiction over time (is there a continuity or a major shift between former and recent Greek crime fiction?).Our thesis is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on the belated emergence of the genre in Greece and on the history of Greek crime fiction from 1953 to 2013. The second part analyses the poetics of recent crime fiction production in Greece (1995-2013), in comparison to the novels or short stories of Greek writers of the fifties and sixties (authors such as Yannis Maris, Christos Chairopoulos, Athina Kakouri, Andronikos Markakis, Takis Papageorgiou). In our second part, we also try to identify the genre in which Greek crime fiction expresses itself (detective story? Hard-boiled story? Thriller? Mediterranean Noir?). Finally, we analyse the main characters who appear in the plot and the theme of the city. The third part aims at showing that contemporary authors of Greek crime fiction lead an investigation on the history of Greece (and its society) and on Hellenic identity. In a nutshell, recent Greek crime fiction is more focused on the anatomy of a country than on the anatomy of a crime.