The search for origins in “Villa Aurore” by Le Clézio: thematic and formal aspects

Abstract

The short story “Villa Aurore” reveals the mobility and duplicity that characterize Le Clézio’s work: at the same time that the title of the collection of which the short story is part – La Ronde et autres faits divers – announces the representation of reality from the fait divers, the presence of the myth gives the narrative a strong potential for poeticity, mainly found in the theme of childhood and return, in addition to the poetic resources that the author uses in composing his narratives. Thus, as well as the other texts of La Ronde et autres faits divers, the selected short story presents the force of a realistic narrative, tied to ordinary everyday life, from which a movement towards myth is determined, establishing a circular structure. The duplicated representation of time, character and space contributes to the determination of this structure and – along with the privilege given to the space of nature, to the past time and to the figure of the child – converges to the expression of the desire to recall the origins and to the attempt to recover the mythic time and the paradisiacal space of childhood.