Reconstruction of myth in Guillaume Mousseau’s novel “Apartment in Paris”

Abstract

Guillaume Mousseau’s 2017 literary work, “Apartment in Paris”, presented in this study, belongs to the era of a new artistic paradigm – metamodernism. The key element of the novel, in terms of its plotforming function, is the myth of the Erl-king, the history of whose origin is explored in detail in this study. Furthermore, we examine the characteristics of a metamodernist work (which do not exclude the aesthetic principles of postmodernism) and demonstrate that, in reconstructing the ancient legend, the French writer relies on symbolic imagery, universal mythologemes, and archetypes, while simultaneously adhering to the concept of “new sincerity”, whose characteristics – neo-romanticism and the presence of affect – imply the complexity and depth of perception. We argue that Mousseau creates his own aesthetic and mythological system, within which he allows his characters to find identity and comprehend metaphysical meaning. Thus, the article analyzes the mythopoetics of Mousseau’s novel, which is distinctive yet remaining within the detective genre. The article concludes that “Apartment in Paris” exemplifies how flexible the new mythology is and how the author reinterprets it in a contemporary context.