How Does a Crime Fiction Transgress the Boundaries of Popular Culture? The Detective Story Formula in Patrick Modiano’s Works

Abstract

Repetition, predictable narrative structures and clichés are the main criteria used to distinguish popular texts from artistic literature. Therefore, it is fascinating to consider the works of a Nobel Prize laureate which include endless repetitions of popular motifs and topics. Patrick Modiano’s novels retell the same detective story formula based on the clichés of mostly French literature. This paper attempts to answer the question: why Patrick Modiano so willingly uses the detective story formula. The article analyzes selected novels by Modiano (Missing Person, A Trace of Malice, Dora Bruder, So You Don’t Get Lost in the Neighborhood) in the context of the traditional elements and rules of crime fiction. These analyses point to three basic functions of crime fiction in the work of Modiano; the use of crime formula as a reflection of the mechanisms of memory, literature as a conventionalized form of communication, and repetition compulsion. The work of the Nobel Prize laureate demonstrates how crime fiction transcends the boundaries of popular literature. This, in turn, leads to the question whether traditional literary genres continue to be effective research tools.