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Document Details : Title: Tragedie of beproeving? Subtitle: Narratieve paradigma's in het denken over geluk in recente romans: de casus Gelukkige slaven van Tom Lanoye Author(s): OP DE BEEK, Esther Journal: Spiegel der Letteren Volume: 60 Issue: 3-4 Date: 2018 Pages: 219-243 DOI: 10.2143/SDL.60.3.3285823 Abstract : In this article, the circulation of narrative paradigms within the literary domain is explored starting from the critical reception to Tom Lanoye’s Gelukkige slaven (2013). Interpretations of the novel seem to be guided, perhaps even restricted by poetical assumptions about happiness and suffering in literature. Departing from a theoretical reflection on happiness as a social discourse, an alternative interpretation of the novel will be presented in the second half of the article, focusing on the differences between happiness in trial and tragedy narratives and on the way they interact in the novel. The analysis of circulating narratives provides at least an addition, perhaps even a counterbalance to the normativity that comes with the notion of happiness, and happiness research, in our time. |
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