THE REPRESENTATION OF FRAGMENTED LIFE IN CONTEMPORARY NOVELS

Abstract

The aim of this article is to critically reflect on the situation of the narrator and the conditions of possibility of narrative in the contemporary novel. This attempt will be based on the reading and dialogue with theorists such as Theodor Adorno (2003 and 1988), Jeanne Marie Gagnebin (1999) and Walter Benjamin (1985). Based on their theories, we will trace the path of the traditional narrator and his decline, which does not imply the end of any and all forms of narrative, but a profound transformation in its form, so that it can encompass an increasingly fragmented reality.
As a case study, we will focus on reading the novel Diário da queda by Michel Laub (2011) in order to reflect on how the contemporary novel deals with the fragmentation that affects not only the narrated content, but the very form of the narrative. Finally, we will try to demonstrate that it is possible, and Laub’s novel is an example of this, to narrate not only from the fragment, but also with a structure that manages to find webs of unity in the fragmentary.