Beyond the déjà-vu : Intermedial tranpositions of the film noir motif of the automobile in contemporary Anglo-American and French novel.

This article examines the intermedial transposition of the automobile motif from the film noir genre into four Anglo-American novels influenced by cinema: Jean Echenoz's *Cherokee* (1983), Tanguy Viel's *L'Absolue Perfection du Crime* (2001), Martin Amis's *London Fields* (1989), and Robert Coover's *Noir* (2010). It argues that the automobile, as a "semantic/syntactic" criterion defining film noir (per Rick Altman), serves as a key narrative and symbolic element that contributes to the contemporary novel's "renarrativisation"—a critical and playful return to storytelling after decades of formalist experimentation. Each novel reinterprets the car and associated genre scenes like chases or abductions in distinct ways, ranging from ironic subversion and melancholic climax to intermedial rewriting and stylistic critique, thereby renewing novelistic conventions while engaging reflexively with cinematic stereotypes. The automobile thus functions not only as a plot device but also as a signifier of cinematic influence and a means for authors to explore and challenge traditional narrative forms within contemporary literature.