Abstract:
The present study focuses on metamorphosis as a trope in one French and one English novel, both of the twentieth century. (Trope is defined in this thesis as a figure rather than a motif or theme.) Both of these novel novels, The Interrogation by J. M. G. Le Clézio and The Magus by John Fowles, present the reader with protean characters and explore the identity crisis and anxious selfhood of modern individuals who withdraw from the society in which they live. This thesis is a comparative analysis of how the two novelists explore this theme using metamorphosis as a trope.