چکیده:
La présente étude analyse les motifs et les enjeux de la toxicographie (écriture intoxiquée) dans Un roman français de Frédéric Beigbeder, écrivain cocaïnomane. L’étude s’ancre dans l’air du temps caractérisé par le consumérisme, l’hédonisme, l’individualisme et l’autobiographisme. Nous essayons de montrer comment Frédéric Beigbeder parvient à justifier son/l’addiction à la cocaïne dans la société occidentale postmoderne. Il élargit l’horizon de sa réflexion socio-philosophique en matière de drogues illicites, aux fins de faire l’apologie de l’hédonisme et des addictions toxiques, en général. Ainsi, à partir d’une approche à la fois textuelle et extratextuelle, l’article soutient l’idée selon laquelle Frédéric Beigbeder est un écrivain toxico-hédoniste libéral et Un roman français constitue une expression toxicographique apolégétique. De loin, ce roman est une illustration éloquente de ce que nous proposons d’appeler, à la suite de Philippe Lejeune, l’autotoxicobiographie, entendue comme l’écriture de soi d’un toxicomane, qui met en évidence le récit de ses addictions toxiques, le sens de sa personnalité et sa philosophie de la vie.
پژوهش حاضر به بررسی مضامین و چالشهای مخدر نگاری (نوشتار مخدر) در رمان یک رمان فرانسوی اثر فردریک بیگبدر، نویسنده معتاد به کوکايین میپردازد. این پژوهش در احوال امروزه که مشخصهاش مصرفگرایی ، هدونیسم (فلسفه لذتگرایی)، فردگرایی و خودزندگینامهنویسی است، ریشه دارد. در تلاش هستیم تا نشان دهیم چگونه فردریک بیگبدر موفق میشود اعتیاد به کوکايین (خود) را در جامعه غربی پسامدرن توجیه کند. او افق تاملات اجتماعی-فلسفی خود را در مورد مواد مخدر غیرقانونی گسترش میدهد تا به طور کلی هدونیسم و اعتیاد به مواد مخدر را بستاید. بنابراین، بر اساس رویکردی که هم متنی است و هم فرامتنی، مقاله این عقیده را که فردریک بیگبدر نویسندهای معتاد-هدونیست و ازادیخواه است و یک رمان فرانسوی بیانی مخدرنگار-توجیهگر را شکل میدهد. از دور، این رمان تجسمی واضح از ان چیزیست که ما پیشنهاد میکنیم ان را به تبعیت از فیلیپ لوژون، اتوتوکسیکوبیوگرافی (خود اعتیادنگاری) بنامیم، یعنی خودنگاری یک معتاد به مواد مخدر، که داستان اعتیاد خود، معنای شخصیت و فلسفه زندگیاش او را به نمایش میگذارد.
There is almost no border between the real and the imaginary in Beigbeder’s
books. Beigbeder transcribes his vicious nocturnal prowess (sex, alcohol, drugs, etc.) into his literary
productions. This is the logic behind Un roman francais, published by Grasset & Fasquelle editions in
2009. It is an autobiographical novel rooted in personal experience: the arrest and imprisonment of
Frederic Beigbeder on the night of January 28, 2008, for drug consumption on the sidewalk of avenue
Marceau in Paris. The cocaine addict decided to write about this sad but crucial episode of his life. He
operates, as in his previous works, what we coin toxicography, though this text deals with
autotoxicobiography. Toxicography refers to the writing of a more or less fictional/real story, which has
drug addiction as its matrix. To put it bluntly, this is an intoxicated writing (on the thematic view) whose
stake is apologetic and/or critical. Autotoxicobiography is a blend of two words: autobiography and drug
addiction. Literally, it can be understood as the personal or intimate writing of an addict’s life that sheds
light on his personality and his toxic addictions. In short, it is the autobiographical writing of an addict.
Un roman francais, beyond the quest for identity, is both an indictment against state paternalism and a
plea or (self)justification of drug addiction in general, and cocaine addiction in particular. This article
therefore aims to show how Frederic Beigbeder manages to question the interdiction of cocaine
consumption in France in order to justify his cocaine addiction and drug addiction in general in today's
Western society. The article highlights Frederic Beigbeder’s indictment against state paternalism and
abuse of authority on the one hand, and his plea for toxic addictions on the other. The reflection is
conducted from the perspective of (civil)freedom problematized by the utilitarian philosopher John
Stuart Mill (2002) in his book De la liberte. Stuart Mill questions freedom from three aspects: freedom
of thought and discussion, individuality at stake in the search for well-being, and the limits of the
authority of society over the individual. Our work addresses the last two aspects of Stuart Mill’s
definition of Freedom.
Toxicography: A Literary Defense of Cocaine
Addiction in Un Roman Francais by Frederic
Beigbeder*
Armel Jovensel NGAMALEU**
112 | Recherches en Langue et Lit terature Francaises , Vol 14, Issue 25, Spring & Summer 2020
112
I. DISCUSSION
Hedonism seems to be inherent in artists, especially writers. According to Frederic Beigbeder, each
drug has entered the literature through famous addict authors. The latter were able to praise or criticize
their psychostimulating substance, the object of their addiction (cocaine, crack, heroin, cannabis,
marijuana, opium, morphine, laudanum, etc.). They, like Frederic Beigbeder, had the art of intoxicating
themselves (somatic intoxication) but also that of intoxicating their writing (literary intoxication or
toxicography). Beigbeder may have used or experimented with other drugs, but he may have specialized
in one of them, becoming loyal to cocaine and a cocaineographer because of his cocaine addiction. He
favors "coke", notably in Un roman francais, and in rhetorical terms, makes it an apology. He writes at
length about this toxic substance, which has become a source of inspiration and a leitmotif, assessed
with a satirical and polemical aim. Frederic Beigbeder therefore seems an informed advocate of all drug
addicts through the exploration of the self as good charity begins at home. He broadens the scope of his
advocacy when he defends social argument for all the other drug addicts’ victims of other forms of toxic
addiction.
It is clear that Beigbeder subscribes to the logic of social liberalization, practically at all levels and in
everything. He defends the freedom of each individual to dispose of his life, to give it meaning, to
destroy himself, if he wants to, without worrying about anyone and above all without being accountable
to anyone. He is an individual very "attached to his freedom", that borders on libertinism. He sees selfdestruction
via drug addiction as self-sacrifice. According to him, each individual must be free to seek
his pleasure through various practices, without having to undergo the influence and the moral or penal
sanction of a society underpinned by a paternalistic and pseudo-protective political system.
II. CONCLUSION
Frederic Beigbeder through Un roman francais allows us to discover not only his personal journey
but especially his world view and his existential philosophy. Besides the autobiographical dimension
(identity reconstruction), his work has a socio-philosophical, satirical and polemical undertone (defense
of a materialist and individualist vision of the world). Beigbeder is suing a Western society losing its
bearings and enthusiasm, in which the individual feels trapped, weakened and anxious. This feeling of
generalized social ill-being justifies contemporary hedonism, in particular via the quest for fleeting
pleasures, including toxic ones provided by psychostimulant products. Thus, the novelist deals with
his/the drug addiction through a discourse that is both apologetic (justification for consumption) and
critical (condemnation of pathological postmodern Western society). He practices literary intoxication,
which takes place with intoxicated writing. That is to say, a text in which the discourse on toxic
substances, in this case cocaine, is manifest and apologizing or critical. We qualify this scriptural
practice toxicography.
Ultimately, the article shows that Frederic Beigbeder is a liberal drug-hedonist writer and Un roman
francais is an apologetic toxicographic expression. From a distance, this novel is an eloquent illustration
of what we call, following Philippe Lejeune, the autotoxicobiography, understood as the writing of the
self of a drug addict. Beigbeder’s autotoxicobiography highlights the story of his toxic addictions, the
sense of his personality and his philosophy of life.