This paper explores how Jean-François Laguionie’s 1985 Gwen, or the Book of the Sands contrasts Gwen’s nomadic people, rooted in their natural environment and in storytelling that bonds their members, on the one hand; and the robotic city dwellers, connected only to consumerism and waste, whose rootlessness resides in their lack of a tie to humanity or nature, on the other. In this post-apocalyptic tale about a world destroyed by consumer culture, the heroine undertakes a quest to save her friend from the “macou,” a monstrous machine that dumps consumer waste in the desert.
Part of 03-13 "Novel" Approaches to Interpreting Folklore in Literature, Thursday, November 02, 2:30 pm–4:30 pm