Could a literary text contain the instructions for its own reading? This PhD thesis attempts to answer this question through the analysis of four novels by the Dutch author Frans Kellendonk (1951-1990), i.e. Bouwval (1977), De nietsnut. Een vertelling (1979), Letter en geest. Een spookverhaal (1982) and Mystiek lichaam. Een geschiedenis (1986). It may therefore be possible to find, disseminated within the text, elements that determine the most suitable way to apprehend it. This leads to another question: is there an ‘ethical’ reading to which the text could invite its reader? This issue also substantiates why Frans Kellendonk’s works have been chosen: he has frequently been described as a ‘misread’ author. This PhD thesis is divided into two parts. The first part is dedicated to the power of representation as it is practised and perceived by some characters, primarily by the son. In each novel, the son has to represent his ghostly father through imitation and narration. Nevertheless, it appears that the depiction is deficient. Because of its linguistic nature, representation will never be able to portray the father entirely. He will never be more than an effect of the son’s enunciation. This textual approach demonstrates that an ‘atopic’ perception of the father could substitute for his representation. This perception would be open enough to recognise the otherness and the narcissistic dimension that always characterize focalisation. The father could function as an invitation to this ‘atopic perception’ when he lets himself be seen by his son. The second part of this thesis analyses the modes of appearance of atopy. The different approaches which will be successively used are: irony (Linda Hutcheon, Paul de Man, Sébastien Rongier…); tragedy (Paul Ricoeur, Jean-Marie Domenach…), grotesque (Mikhaïl Bakhtine, Dominique Iehl, Wolfgang Kayser, Jan Kott, Stéphanie Vanasten…) and a Derridian reading of the Lacanian notion of ‘entre-deux-morts’ (‘in between two deaths’). On the basis ...