Le roman au prisme du western : « Ghost Town » de Robert Coover

Abstract

« Ghost Town» by Robert Coover (1998) is at the crossroads of literature and genre cinema. In this literary western, the semiotical exchange has a doubly subversive effect: the conventions of the western are derided and the normal rules of novel-writing are broken in the same iconoclastic feat. The characters of « Ghost Town » get short shrift in this hijacking of western stereotypes where the confusion of cinematic and novelistic scenes blur the temporal and visual cues of the setting; the classic scenes of the western undergo a parodic and ironic treatment. As well as underscoring the senselessness of a ruined world, the recycling of normal codes has a playful effect: the semiotic switching enables a renewal of the contemporary novel.