New York, an autofictional empty space. Rereading Serge Doubrovsky's 'Fils' in the light of Peter Brook's work

Abstract

This article proposes to analyse Serge Doubrovsky's Fils through its relationship to space and through the staging of the latter: the city of New York is central to the construction of this work, both physically and in terms of its plot. The urban space, progressively constructed in the text, allows those who pass through it to access an opening towards creation and towards a renewed form of self-expression. These modes of representation of the city of New York correspond, both formally and thematically, to Peter Brook's definitions of an "empty space" as a privileged place for theatrical representation. The comparison of Doubrovskian autofiction and Book's theory will allow new analyses of this space and of autofiction itself to emerge.