LOOKING INTO PATRICK MODIANO’S NOVELS FROM “THEORY ABOUT THE DÉRIVE” OF GUY DEBORD

Abstract

Following the wanderers' footsteps in the novels of Patrick Modiano, I believe that he deserves to be considered not only as an artist of memory but also as a potential urban architect. In Modiano's prose, there is a unique Paris which tangles between reality and ambiguity, familiarity and mystery. Looking into Modiano’s works from psychogeographical theories, especially the theory of the dérive, it is apparent that the writer has restructured "the heart of France" into a labyrinth of separated and peculiar terrain that draws characters by its obscure attraction: Paris of neutral zones. And as, to Modiano, characters’ journeys to find the lost memories, also are long-lasting wander into the flow of time that seems like a fanciful parallel world with reality. Hence, the stroller's footsteps are not only drifting off the geographic lands but also on the flow of time and get lost into his labyrinth of illusions.