Transit intestinal: Tactical mobility and the Parisian netherworld in Raymond Queneau's Zazie dans le métro

Abstract

This article draws on Michel de Certeau's notion of tactical resistance to examine the practices of reading and of using urban space in Raymond Queneau's Zazie dans le métro. Departing from formalist approaches that frame Queneau's Paris as a ‘construction verbale,’ I offer a historically situated analysis of the novel's representation of post-war Paris, demonstrating that the theme of semiotic instability, frequently explored in studies of the novel, reflects not only the author's preoccupations with language but also the social and cultural upheavals of its historical moment. The article first examines the Parisian metro's status as a uniquely legible site in the chaotic urban landscape of Zazie dans le métro in relation to the conflicting images of the metro as alternately a hellscape and a refuge in the post-war period. The article then shifts the usual critical focus on the eponymous Zazie's anarchic adventures on the city's surface to explore the transgressive détournements of subterranean urban space performed by a range of characters seeking to resist the dominant social order. The article closes with a discussion of underground Paris as a zone of ambiguity that eschews simple truths and rigid categories of identity.