The Challenges of Childhood in a Comic Light in Amélie Nothomb’s Métaphysique des tubes

Serious aspects of childhood are viewed under a comic lens in Amélie Nothomb’s autobiographical novel Métaphysique des tubes (2000). In this article, qualities of the child—playfulness, candor, curiosity—are examined with regard to three episodes: the Belgian white chocolate tasting, the father’s initiation into Noh theater, and two temporary disappearances. Elements of the comic spirit that are analyzed include the use of surprise, exaggeration, and incongruity. In Nothomb’s work, the condition of childhood, though portrayed as comically different from that of adults, is accepted and embraced as a stage that can produce its own insights.