Writing on the Loose: Reading Florian Illies's Generation golf, Maurice G. Dantec's Périphériques, Joschka Fischer's Mein langer Lauf zu mir selbst, and Frédéric Beigbeder's Windows on the world as examples of creative nonfiction

Abstract

This thesis brings together four diverse contemporary works, Generation Golf (2000) by Florian Illies, Périphériques (2003) by Maurice G. Dantec, Mein langer Lauf zu mir selbst (1999) by Joschka Fischer, and Windows on the World (2003) by Frédéric Beigbeder; and in so doing it demonstrates that these two German and two French authors combine belletrist endeavours with critical socio-political arguments in a way that corresponds to the literary form which Anglo-American writers refer to as 'creative nonfiction'. In particular, it shows that the authors recognisably share the desire to pull together critical social commentary in nonfiction form with the moral and aesthetic enterprise of the modern novelist. Current scholarship appreciates hybrid forms such as literary journalism, autofiction, nonfiction novels because they raise important formal, ethical and ontological questions. However, while they evaluate the relationship between fact and fiction in contemporary French and German writing of this kind, most scholars separate questions regarding the social merits of a text from its literary ones. This thesis adopts the creative nonfiction approach because it recognises that hybrid forms assume sharp, socio-literary positions. It defines creative nonfiction in the form of seven dynamics, which identify the distinct literary techniques that the authors use as a means to reject the constraints of weary intellectual conventions. Looking at these texts through the pluralist lens of creative nonfiction reveals that they make useful contributions to our understanding of the relationship between nonfiction and culture. Through their factual accuracy, these texts become acute documents of history and, through their literary versatility, they surpass the imaginative constraints of fact - hence this study carries the title 'Writing on the Loose'. Hybrid forms remind us that truth is an elusive concept and creative nonfiction invites us to consider this elusiveness as a valuable resource which allows us to re-imagine ourselves and our social communities.