Patrick Modiano parolier (1967-1970) : A la recherche d’une voix

Résumé

Patrick Modiano, Nobel Prize for Literature 2014, has had an abundant activity as a songwriter between 1967 and 1970. Together with his friend from prep school. Hughes de Courson, they were writing songs for artists as prestigious as Françoise Hardy,Régine and Myriam Anissimov, famous for her biographies of Primo Levi and Romain Gary.

In this article, we explore the core themes of some of those songs, asking us to what extent they reflect literary themes and characters Modiano develops in his novels. We argue that his years of songwriting have allowed Modiano to find his voice as an author. With Modianp having found the sober elegance which is still marking his writing in Les Boulevards de ceinture, he stopped abrubtly writing songs, with one exception in 2018.