Imaginaire de la fin du livre : figures du livre et pratiques illittéraires

In a cultural context characterized by the perceived demise of the book, many new figures of the book and the text have appeared. These “figures” are books but are also, more precisely, texts that are no longer given as something to be read, but rather to be looked at. Texts that have become, at least in part, illegible, where the access to signs and meaning is hampered, one way or another. These texts have been erased, altered or made opaque by an excessive amount of notes or signs, or by an overly complex page layout. The consequence of such transformations is that the iconic aspect overcomes the linguistic aspect. Three examples are here considered: Tom Phillip’s A Humument. A treated Victorian Novel; Jochen Gerner’s TNT en Amerique and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Tree of Codes.  In all three cases, the work of appropriation and transfiguration does not lead to the model of the book being entirely relinquished; the format is preserved, in spite of everything.