“Tout est déjà passé”? Tragedy in La Vie tranquille

What is the narrative arc of La Vie tranquille? Several narrative devices (anticipatory discourse, intuitions that come true, the play on modes and tenses) work to disrupt the plot progression. The misleading element of the text is in its construction, which neutralizes the narrative tension and its tragic dimension. The configuration of narrative time marks a distance from Camus’ L’Étranger (The Stranger), while hinting at the perspective of later works.