MULTITEXTUALITY IN MICHEL BUSSI’S NOVEL BLACK WATER LILIES

Abstract

Michel Bussi is regarded as one of the most prominent figures in contemporary French literature. His novel Black Water Lilies has brought him major awards, including the Mediterranean Crime Fiction Prize (2011), the Michel Lebrun Prize (2011), and the Gustave Flaubert Prize (2011). This study examines the novel’s multitextuality across three dimensions: the detective narrative, the love narrative, and the artistic narrative. The findings demonstrate that Bussi skillfully employs multitextual strategies, weaving together multiple narrative layers to construct a coherent and complex artistic whole. Such a narrative design not only expands the reflective capacity of detective fiction but also renews its literary landscape, enabling the genre to transcend the boundaries of conventional entertainment and engage with broader cultural and existential issues. In doing so, Black Water Lilies illustrates Bussi’s creati