From Riches to Rags: Tournier and the World outside the Text: A Review Article

The crucial, theoretical question of who or what controls the production of meaning has dominated critical reception of the work of Michael Tournier, France's most illustrious living novelist. This review article shows how commentators such as Michael Worton, Jonathen Krell, and David Gascoigne have recently begun to explore the ideological content of the fiction in an attempt to elucidate a Tournier perspective on various aspects of contemporary society and cultural life. With reference to two 'travelling' stories from "Le Médianoche amoureux", in which material poverty is contrasted with cultural and spiritual wealth, it elaborates on and eventually takes issue with the prevailing view of Tournier as a political maverick and libertarian individualist..