The Pursuit of Happiness in the French Novel of the 20th-21st Centuries

Happiness, as much a poetic as a philosophical, sociological, and psychological concept, has been, through the ages, at the heart of the needs each individual seeks to fulfil. But today, in a world dominated by technology, driven by productivity and dictated by efficiency, what about Happiness？ Does it feature in works of fiction in any significant way？ May it not have adopted different guises？ ls that ＂duty of happiness＂ that Pascal Bruckner was talking about present in the French novel of the 20th-21th centuries？ And if it is, has its force strengthened or weakened？ This article will discuss the French Novels （of the 20th-21th centuries） that are devoted to or associated with Happiness in a direct or indirect manner. It will contextualize and analyze the transformation of Happiness, within the context of the historical and social events that influenced that period： the Holocaust, consumerism, postmodernism, structural social changes, the various as yet unarticulated new modes of life they created, and so on. To that end, this article will explore the discursive philosophical concept of happiness and its influence on the formation of the French novel. In so doing it will focus on the explicit discourse behind the motifs, the choices made in the process of writing, and the attitudes taken, considering the theme of happiness. Doing so, a significant discussion will be included regarding the paths of happiness, its agents, and the nature of the motifs and metaphors linked to the theme of happiness. The author will also address the dialectical role of the happiness theme in the constitution of an emerging literary discourse reflected in the French novel. By exploring the manifestation of the dogmas, ideas of the intellectual leaders of the 20th century （e.g., Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone De Beauvoir, Albert Camus） as well as the ones of the 21th century （e.g., Pascal Bruckner, Andr6 Comte-Sponville, Gilles Lipovetsky） new insights concerning the hybrid nature of the supposedly ＂authentic happiness＂ will be revealed. The author intend to inspect the theme of Happiness around four dialectical axes as a relevant ethical basis for delimiting the various fields of research： （1） Love, passion, and conjugality; （2） Ageing; （3） ＂The experience of everydayness＂; and （4） ＂The era of emptiness＂. Focusing on the narratives, the article takes into account their specificity in the four distinct fields, all connected to existential and ethical issues, Finally, this article will attempt to analyse the assumed role of literature as a conduit of cultural awareness.

Michel Houellebecq： The Era of Emptiness

Michel Houellebecq is perhaps the most successful, the most famous and controversial of all current novelists writing in French. He has become a global publishing phenomenon： His books have been translated worldwide, film adaptations of his novels have been produced, and the author is the subject of a million-euro publishing deals and successive media scandals in France. The novels depict surprising forms of imaginary resources, a radiating end of the world, a post-nuclear anxiety, and depressive characters. Houellebecq shocks us leaving us in a world where the feelings of love, tenderness and goodwill have disappeared. The purpose of Houellebecq＇s novels is to alert about the real problems of the human society in the twenty-first century. Indeed, in the books we can easily recognize the essential features of contemporary society and the fact that the individual assumes a dehumanization process in which one has to cope with his solitude in a world of emptiness. This socio-cultural dimension is indeed the background of Houellebecq＇s novels, novels in which the protagonists seem to be wedged in a mechanism from which it is difficult to escape： reification and dehumanization on the one hand, ＂robotization＂ of love on the other. This article focuses on the analysis of the texts revealing the poignant characteristics of＂L＇Ere du vide＂ （＂The Era of Emptiness＂） as described by Gilles Lipovetsky： Loneliness, the lack of love and its replacement by sexual relations.

Jemaa el-Fnaa Public Square： A Cultural and Literary Source in Ben Jelloun＇s The Sand Child and The Sacred Night

The purpose of this article is to analyze the significance of a special space, which has a particular meaning in Tahar Ben Jelloun＇s work： the public square of Jemaa el-Fnaa, Marrakesh＇s Medina Quarter. For Tahar Ben Jelloun, the well-known French Maghrebian writer, the process of writing begins with the emergence of creative evidence in speech. It is the matrix of his writing. Thus, an oral perspective is sketched out, a whole game of fleeting narratives told in the public square. This space is an ideal one that draws its elements from orality and contributes to the preservation of traditional knowledge and the implementation of common values participating in a collective memory. How does Ben Jelloun seize the voices that already exist in the real Public Square in order to engage them in his narrative？ A closer examination of the text enables us to unpick the process of Ben Jelloun＇s narrative strategies. In the public square, the picture that emerges is that two essential elements reveal the organization of the narrative： the cultural source and the literary source.