Nouveau roman
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The Nouveau Roman (French pronunciation:
Overview
Despite the assertions of nouveauté, this vision of the novel can be construed as developing from earlier writers' suggestions and practice. Joris-Karl Huysmans, ninety years before, had suggested how the novel might be depersonalised;[citation needed] more recently, Franz Kafka had shown that conventional methods of depicting character were not essential; James Joyce had done the same for plot; and absurdist writers had engaged with some of the themes that preoccupied writers of the nouveau roman.
A group of writers dubbed Nouveaux Romanciers, "new novelists", appeared in the mid-1950s:
The nouveau roman literary movement and the novels themselves were mainly theorized by Jean Ricardou,[5] who, in addition to his well-known theoretical works — Problèmes du Nouveau Roman (1967), Pour une théorie du Nouveau Roman (1971), Le Nouveau Roman (1973), Nouveaux problèmes du roman (1978) — also published several nouveaux romans himself: L’Observatoire de Cannes (1961), La Prise de Constantinople (1965, Feneon prize for literature in 1966), Les Lieux-dits, petit guide d’un voyage dans le livre (1969). Besides his own writing, he organized, directed and published the acts of several conferences on the nouveau roman, including the famous 1971 conference and debate at Cerisy, published in two volumes: Nouveau roman : hier, aujourd’hui,[1] indispensable for an understanding of the history of that important period of French literature. Just before his demise in 2016, he was working on a book of interviews with Amir Biglari,[2] in which he provides a complete, precise and objective account of the nouveau roman movement.
Authors in the style of the Nouveau Roman
- Samuel Beckett
- Alain Robbe-Grillet
- Nathalie Sarraute
- Claude Simon
- Michel Butor
- Jean Ricardou
- Marguerite Duras
- Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio(until the 1970s)
- Philippe Sollers
- Jean Cayrol
- Robert Pinget
Other writers associated with the style of Nouveau Roman are:
The Nouveau Roman and the Left Bank
The Nouveau Roman style also left its mark on the screen as writers
The Nouveau Roman in Quebec, Canada
The Nouveau Roman influenced French-language writers in Quebec such as Jacques Godbout and Gerard Bessette. The Canadian-born French writer Nancy Huston declared that she began writing in direct reaction to the stark style of the Nouveau Roman in Nord Perdu (1999). (See Joseph Pivato, nouveau roman)
See also
- French literature
- Francophone literature
- List of French language authors
- Antinovel
References
- ISBN 9780191783234.
- ^ Henriot, Émile (May 1957). "La Jalousie, d'Alain Robbe-Grillet Tropismes, de Nathalie Sarraute". Le Monde.
- ^ Robbe-Grillet, Alain (1965). "A Future for the Novel". For a New Novel: Essays on Fiction. New York, NY: Grove Press, Inc. pp. 21–24.
- ^ French literature - Toward the nouveau roman Encyclopedia Britannica
- ISBN 978-90-420-1591-3.
- ^ Clouzot, Claire, Le cinéma français depuis la nouvelle vague, Fernand Nathan/Alliance Française, 1972
Bibliography
- Baldick, Chris (2015). "Nouveau roman, le". The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (Online Version) (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191783234.
- Luscans, Bernard (2008). La représentation des objets dans le nouveau nouveau roman, Chapel Hill, Université de Caroline du Nord. [3]
- Pivato, Joseph. 'Nouveau Roman Canadien', Canadian Literature 58 (Autumn 1973) 51-60. [canlit.ca/article/nouveau-roman-canadien/]
- Pivato, Joseph. 'Nancy Huston Meets le Nouveau Roman, Athabasca University Canadian Writers Site. [canadian-writers.athabascau.ca/english/writers/nhuston/nouveau_roman.php.php]