Ce projet de recherche propose de déceler les manifestations formelles et narratives du « sentiment d'absurdité » camusien dans Suicide Club (2001) de Sono Shion et The Taste of Tea (2004) réalisé par Ishii Katsuhito. En vue de déterminer la part de responsabilité détenue par la crise économique japonaise des années 1990 dans le traitement absurde de ces œuvres, le caractère inconséquent de la violence représenté chez Sono et le traitement de la solitude chez Ishii sont analysés. Abordant tous deux le concept de rupture générationnelle, la présence d’absurde au sein de ces films illustre la réalité préoccupante de la « génération perdue » japonaise, de jeunes gens confrontés à l’absence d’offre d’emplois et à un isolement sociétal forcé. / This project aims to identify the formal and narrative manifestations of the Camusian “sense of absurdity” in Sono Shion’s Suicide Club (2001) and The Taste of Tea (2004) directed by Ishii Katsuhito. In order to determine the extent to which the Japanese economic crisis of the 1990s contributed to the absurd treatment in these works, the project analyzes the inconsistent nature of the violence represented in Sono’s film and the treatment of solitude in Ishii’s. Both films address the concept of generational rupture. In doing so, the presence of the absurd within these films illustrates the worrying reality experienced by young people faced with the absence of job offers and forced societal isolation, known as the Japanese "lost generation".

This essay examines how the concepts of memory and oblivion are manifested and expressed in two novels written by the french author and Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano. These novels are Chien de printemps (1993) and Dans le café de la jeunesse perdue (2007). For Modiano, the concepts of memory and oblivion are central to his literary production. The memory and oblivion are central to the creation and the maintaining of our human identity, our history. The memory is also a function of the language. Without a language, there will be no memory. Thus the formation of the language is important for the memory creation of the small child. The study will be based upon the theoretical work done by the french sociologist Maurice Halbwachs, followed by studies by the german egyptologist Jan Assmann and also by the german professor of literature Aleida Assmann. We will utilise the four-dimensional memory typology defined and developed by Jan and Aleida Assmann. It distinguishes the memory into four dimensions; the individual, collective, cultural and national memory. Our main goal is thus to examine and identify how the memory and the oblivion are handled, manifested and expressed in the two chosen novels.