Abstract: This article focuses on Cet absent-là by Camille Laurens and L’Usage de la photo by Annie Ernaux and Marc Marie, two exemplary contemporary romantic novels. The analysis of the new form of auto-fictional narrative which is created between text and image emphasises the extent to which, paradoxically, the use of photography, rather than recover the past and revive a living presence, actually serves to highlight, in a repetitive and obsessive way, the lack of the beloved.
