In the master's thesis Overcoming existential distress in the novels of three French authors, I was interested in what the protagonists in the novels 99 Francs, L’amour dure trois ans, Un roman français, Le Sens du combat, Les Particules Elementaires, Sérotonine and Un bon fils causes most existential distress and how they are trying to overcome this.
Through a substantive analysis of the novels, I found that their distress is related to abandoned interpersonal relationships, of which the greatest pride is due to the changed social reality characteristic of consumer society; this is essentially defined by the growing individualism, egoism, emancipation and sexual liberation of women, the loosening of moral norms, the abundance of choice, the seemingly limitless freedom, the craving for pleasure, and the misunderstanding of happiness.
All of these phenomena prevent the protagonists from resolving their distress, so most prefer to flee to alcohol, drugs, sexuality, emotional numbness, and depression instead. Some of them, however, represent an exception; partly in L’amour dure trois ans, Un roman français, and especially in the Un bon fils, the narrators overcome their existential distress - they forgive their "users" and resort to more "healthy" (traditional) relationships and addictions – reading and writing. The hardships they face do not frighten them, but allow them to become better people and artists, which is especially true of the protagonist in Bruckner’s novel. Similar to Les Particules Elementaires and Un roman français, the core of the distress of living is the narrator's relationship with his parents, but because the story takes place before the rise of mass consumerism, the narrator overcomes his distress much easier. These are already fundamentally different from those faced by the narrators of the other novels discussed.
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