This thesis which is based on a socio-poetic study tries to examine the space the subject occupies in the literary and cultural spheres through an exploration of some contemporary French and Tunisian novels, namely Anouar Attia’s Hayet ou La passion d’Elles, Jean Echenoz’s Un An, Azza Filali’s Monsieur L…, Jean-Philippe Toussaint’s La television, and Antoine Volodine’s Dondog. The starting point is the result of a post-formalist analysis of the critical discourses of literary and philosophical documents revealing a “spectral comeback” of the historical subject. A playful deficiency of the narrative voice is to be noticed in the French corpus and it is not due to a crisis within the characters. From a socio-critical perspective this deficiency is the outcome of a crisis within the institutions and not a removal of a political project from the modern era. In the Tunisian case, on the other hand, the crisis within the subject is an isolated case. The authority of the narrator is maintained but it is thwarted to represent a deviation and a desire, they are meant to pave the way for creating an experience. The discordant narrative is a manifestation of failure to read the world inside fiction. Yet, from a pragmatic perspective, the discordant narratives try to invite the reading text who is to participate in the reading of history. In both cultures, we find that there is this invitation of the literary discourse to try to trace the outline of an original political change.
