Contemporary French and Francophone Futuristic Novels

1 Introduction.- Bibliography.-2 Reading the Enigmatic Worlds of Futuristic Novels.- Looking for Clues: The Investigations Entrusted to the Reader.-The Broader Scope of the Books of Nature and the World.-The Figure of the Last Man.- Bibliography.-3 Modalities and Fictional Storyworlds in Futuristic Novels.-Dissonant Minds of Fictional Storyworlds.- Dualities and Modal Structures of Fictional Storyworlds: Knowledge, Duty, and Ability.-Differences in Actions of Fictional Minds as Readers.-Bibliography.- 4 The Idea of the Book and Its Symbolism in Times of Change.-Metaphors of the Closed Symbolism of the Book.-Metaphors and Metalepses of the Open Symbolism of the Book.- Metamorphoses and Human Mutations: The Relationship to Insect Animalism.-Bibliography.-5 Regaining Humanity by Learning from Escapes and Detours.- The Metaphysical Manhunt.-Traces and Memories in Information and Knowledge Societies of the Future.-The Trial of Walking.- Bibliography.-6 Encounters with Bodies and Narratives: A Matrix of Contemporary Philosophical Quests.-The Value of Speech and Literature Under the Threat of Violence in Amélie Nothomb.- Writing and Walking the Wilderness as a Scribe in Alain Damasio.- Shifting Determinism with the Reminiscent Body of an Artificial Intelligence in Romain Lucazeau.-Bibliography.- 7 Conclusion.-Bibliography.

Emmanuel Buzay is Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA. His research interests include contemporary French and Francophone literature, [literatures of the imagination (science fiction, anticipatory novels, and fantasy), memory studies], and narrative and semiotic studies of film and video games. He has published in Contemporary French & Francophone Studies: SITES, Res Futurae, and Lectures croisées de l'oeuvre de Michel Houellebecq (2017), and he has articles forthcoming in Nouvelles Etudes francophones and the Australian Journal of French Studies.