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<p>In V.S. Naipaul’s novel <em>A House for Mr. Biswas </em>furniture and possessions are consistently present and their path can be clearly traced, but they are rarely brought to the fore as the central image in the unfolding events of the novel. To borrow a metaphor from movies: the furniture is not the leading actor; the house is. The furniture has a supporting role in the story. This essay explores how the furniture and other possessions in <em>A House for Mr. Biswas </em>underline and illustrate various aspects and themes of the novel from the perspective of what the things in themselves project, what their role is and what they say about the character of Mr. Biswas and his life’s trajectory in the overall colonial context.</p>

In V.S. Naipaul’s novel A House for Mr. Biswas furniture and possessions are consistently present and their path can be clearly traced, but they are rarely brought to the fore as the central image in the unfolding events of the novel. To borrow a metaphor from movies: the furniture is not the leading actor; the house is. The furniture has a supporting role in the story. This essay explores how the furniture and other possessions in A House for Mr. Biswas underline and illustrate various aspects and themes of the novel from the perspective of what the things in themselves project, what their role is and what they say about the character of Mr. Biswas and his life’s trajectory in the overall colonial context.

Ce travail tente d’établir, à partir de la pensée et de la vision que développe Edouard Glissant dans ses essais, une nouvelle approche, ou du moins une approche différente de la littérature comparée. Cette approche a pour fondement les concepts clés tels que le chaos-monde, le tout-monde, la créolisation et l’opacité. La relation surgit de ce que Glissant nomme le chaos-monde, cette rencontre, ce choc de cultures toujours à l’oeuvre dans notre monde. Cette confrontation, ce contact avec l’autre ne peut que produire de la relation. Nous vivons depuis toujours, et aujourd’hui bien plus que jamais, dans un espace pluriel caractérisé par la participation-confrontation, selon des modes variés, hétérogènes, voire conflictuels, de multiples cultures; quand bien même nous n’aurions jamais vu ces autres peuples, le fait d’avoir connaissance de leur existence contraint toujours déjà et nécessairement à l’instauration d’une relation. Cette relation, qui, chez Glissant, est avant tout à l’oeuvre dans le monde des hommes, comporte tous les éléments d’une approche comparatiste en littérature : mettre en relation des ouvrages différents mais néanmoins équivalents, analyser un ouvrage en gardant à l’esprit la multiplicité d’oeuvres existantes, comparer tout en respectant les différences propres à chaque oeuvre, telle est, semble-t-il, la tâche du comparatiste. Il s’agit, à partir du chaos-monde perçu comme confrontation de tous les ouvrages de notre corpus, de révéler une relation au sens glissantien du terme. Les termes de déclinaisons, inclinations et déclins nous engagent dans la description des trajets de lectures en montrant autant les capacités que les limites de cette approche. / Building on the theory developed by Edouard Glissant in his essays, this work attempts to draw up a different approach for the analysis of compared literature. This method is based on the key concepts developed by Glissant. All relationships are the offsprings of what Glissant calls the chaos-world, which is this encounter, this clash of cultures constantly at work in our world. This confrontation with the other cannot but give rise to relationship. Since time immemorial, we’ve been living and today we, more than ever, live in a plural setting, the defining characteristic of which is the cooperation and confrontation of multiple cultures on varied, heterogeneous and even conflictual modes; even if we have not seen these people who are so different and come into direct contact with their cultures as such, the very fact that we know of their existence always compels us to start some kind of relationship. In the works of Glissant, this relationship, which is at work in the world of human beings, comprises all the required elements for a comparative approach in the field of literature. Indeed, it would seem that the task of the comparatist consists in bringing together different but comparable works, in analyzing a piece of work while having in mind the multiplicity of works existing at the same time, and in comparing everything whilst respecting the differences exclusive to each work. Starting from the chaos-world perceived as a confrontation between all the works of our corpus, the whole point for us is to lay bare a relationship the way Glissant understands it. The concepts of declension, inclination and decline commit us to a description of reading journeys during which we show the scope as well as the limitations of this approach.