TWINSHIP AS THEME AND STRUCTURE IN THE FICTION OF MICHEL TOURNIER

Tournier's fiction contains an abundance of twins and dual images, and in his critical writings he often discusses gemellite as a concept. This study examines l'idee gemellaire, the conceptual framework within which Tournier creates his narratives. Tournier uses twins and recurrent images as structural devices that give his texts coherence and symmetry. A detailed analysis of Le Roi des Aulnes reveals how Tournier uses twin narrative story lines such that a familiar fable or myth provides a structural scaffolding for the novel that illuminates the foregrounded story. An analysis of La Goutte d'Or demonstrates how Tournier uses twin images as the cornerstone of this critique of Western society's obsession with images and its subsequent loss of spiritual values. Tournier's constant use of twins and dual oppositions indicates his fascination with a concept of unity that he tries to achieve structurally and thematically in each of his novels.