Intertextual Bricolage: A New Dialogue

Intertextual Bricolage: a New Dialogue

In many of his books, David Foenkinos often alludes to Romain Gary in various ways, whether directly or not. His novel Entre les oreilles [Between the Ears] stands out as written almost in its entirety in relation to and in dialogue with Gary’s novel Pseudo [Hocus Bogus]. Gary’s intriguing work, written as a pastiche by means of which he felt free to tell the truth about a complicated situation implicating his career as a writer, was misunderstood when it was published. An irreverent, multi-layered text, replete with metaphors, aphorisms, and above all a massive dose of irony, this novel reverberates in numerous, diverse ways in Foenkinos’ novel. These pertain mainly to style but also to other, notable similarities. Considered together, both novels generate a new work of bricolage, an additional whole, which, as is the case of all works of bricolage, is typically playful, imperfect and greater than its parts.