This thesis examines the career of Jean Ricardou after 1982. The introduction indicates the obscurity in which he Ricardou’s reputation languishes currently. Chapter 1 sketches Ricardou’s career until 1982 and examines the denunciations of him by Alain Robbe-Grillet, Nathalie Sarraute and Claude Simon pronounced in that year, and how critics have subsequently portrayed him. Chapter 2 describes Ricardou’s involvement in writing workshops in France and the role he played in developing them and exercises to be used in such workshops, in particular the Bestiaire. Chapter 3 introduces the new discipline of textique which aims to provide a theoretical description of all phenomena associated with writing starting from the simplest mark. Chapter 4 suggests that textique, because of its militant materialism, might be susceptible to ultra-left tendencies. Chapters 5 and 6 examine textique as literary criticism, the former with reference to Une Maladie chronique, the latter to sonnets by Heredia and Mallarmé. Chapter 7 examines Ricardou’s later fiction, the concept of the “mixte” as developed in Le théâtre des métamorphoses and Hommage à Jean Paulhan and in these texts and La cathédrale de Sens, it explores the commonly held opinion that Ricardou’s work is “anti-referential”. The conclusion looks at factors that could influence the expansion of textique’s influence, its difficulty or reluctance to find an audience and its relation to those that Ricardou considers to be the great thinkers of the modern era, Mallarmé, Freud and Marx.

This study of Alain Robbe-Grillet’s first four published novels seeks to examine the manifestations of four different philosophical concepts in these works. Each novel will be taken as a primary example of Robbe-Grillet’s interrogation of either time, space, difference or repetition. The title of this work, ‘Philosophical Conceptions of Time, Space, Difference and Repetition in the Early Novels of Alain Robbe-Grillet’, as apparently uncomplicated as it is, is useful not only for directly implicating the topics to be examined, but also for what it does not directly allude to. By making reference neither to Robbe-Grillet’s involvement in the movement of the Nouveau Roman nor the theoretical ideas he developed, the title demonstrates one of the main approaches employed here; for Robbe-Grillet’s novels will be examined first and foremost for the textual qualities they exhibit, and will not be tested against the author’s statements, as is most often the case in studies of Robbe-Grillet. When examining these novels, we will thus neither support our study with quotations from Robbe-Grillet’s many interviews and public statements, nor concern ourselves with the apparent objectivity or subjectivity of the novels’ narrators, nor will we base our examinations of the philosophical concepts found in the novels on questions of subjectivity or objectivity. It will become clear throughout our work that Robbe-Grillet’s novels, particularly the early novels that are the focus of this work, have been very well researched and from many different perspectives, yet in spite of the proliferation of texts dealing with these novels certain standard readings have evolved that impinge on the advancement of our understanding of Robbe-Grillet’s complex works. We will argue that this is precisely because these readings actually negate the multiple interpretations that the novels demand and that these standardised readings therefore work as fixed central points around which almost all analyses of the novels revolve. It is thus the aim of this work to complicate these dominant readings by engaging with the ways in which the novels both offer and deny different interpretations, a strategy that ultimately results in the impossibility of a sole fixed reading. In choosing this approach to study the novels, we wish to concentrate solely on the non-representative aspects of these novels. That is to say, the novels will not be treated here, as they are by many critics, for the way they present themselves on the surface as merely concerned with an interrogation of narrative strategies, characterisation or with an application of Robbe-Grillet’s theoretical modus operandi. Rather we will argue that the texts simultaneously invite a deeper reflection on philosophical concepts. The possibility the novels offer to consider the four philosophical concepts that are the focus of this study will be remarked by the novels’ continual engagement with these ideas so as to suggest finally the opportunity of conceiving of these concepts in a literary discourse. Thus, the philosophical concepts which will be deployed in examining Robbe-Grillet’s novels aim to elucidate not strict equivalences between a given concept and its expression in the novel, but rather the ways in which the novels themselves can be seen to propose their own conceptions of these philosophical notions. Thus, each of these chapters will ostensibly deal with a particular philosophical notion, yet they can be seen to work towards a similar shared goal; for each section of this study will propose that it is impossible to isolate a single unifying thesis or central controlling identity through which the texts can be examined. Instead, we will suggest that the novels are governed by a logic of difference in itself, a philosophical notion which, as we will see throughout this work, operates outside of the notion of identity and which favours fluid, unstable and continuously evolving relationships of its constituent parts.

Diss. Univ. Trier, 2006.

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo apresentar as principais características da obra Nathalie Sarraute (1900-1999) aos leitores brasileiros por meio da análise de seu primeiro livro, Tropismes(1957/1996), publicado inicialmente em 1939. Para isso, recorreu-se às obras críticas e teóricas sobre o Nouveau Romane a uma análise de aspectos fundamentais deste primeiro livro. Concluiu-se que, embora relacionada às tendências do Nouveau Roman de inovação na forma e no conteúdo da narrativa, Nathalie Sarraute apresenta uma poéticabastante singular na tentativa de revelar os tropismos, movimentos interiores e complexos pouco perceptíveis, porém presentes no cotidiano. / This dissertation aims to present the main features of Nathalie Sarrautes work (1900-1999) to the brazilian public through the analysis of her first book, Tropismes(1957/1996) initially published in 1939. Therefore, we used the critical and theoretical works on the Nouveau Romanand an analysis of the main characteristics of this first book. It was concluded that, although related to the Nouveau Romantrend of innovation in form and content of the narrative, Nathalie Sarraute presents a rather unique poeticsin attempt to reveal the tropisms, complex andinner movements wich are barely noticeable, but present in everyday life.

Les critiques littéraires estiment qu’il existe une certaine relation entre Robbe-Grillet et Echenoz, entre le Nouveau Roman et les jeunes écrivains de chez Minuit. Mais jusqu’à nos jours, il n’existe pas encore de recherches systématiques sur leur filiation dans les aspects divergents et convergents, notamment sur les différences et les ressemblances dans le récit. Dans cette étude, en interprétant l’obscurité du miroir non seulement comme fragmentation en multiples reflets mais aussi comme inversion du vide, nous apercevons que chez les deux écrivains, le sujet unit vainement en lui le même et l’autre en raison d’une crise identitaire. À travers un ailleurs en antithèse de l’ici, les auteurs dressent une typologie spatiale dominée par le vide et l’ouverture. Concernant la structure narrative, il existe aussi des voies différentes de reflets du miroir au sein du texte et entre les textes. D’ailleurs, les deux écrivains produisent par eux-mêmes des images spéculaires, qui se superposent et s’excluent, lorsque nous les envisageons au reflet du discours critique, ou dans le miroir de leur groupe respectif. / The literary critics have found the relation between Robbe-Grillet and Echenoz and that between New Novel and young writers at Midnight. However, in terms of their filiation, there is no systematic research related to the convergent and divergent aspects so far, especially the differences and similarities in the narration. By interpreting the obscurity of the mirror as the fragmentation of multiple reflections and the inversion of the vacancy as well, this dissertation finds that the subject in their writings incorporates both the self and the other to itself in vain because of the identity crisis. Based on the antithesis between here and there, both authors provide a typology space dominated by vacancy and openness. Regarding the narrative structure, there are different ways to mirror reflections within a text and between the texts. Moreover, from the perspective of the critical discourses, or in the mirror of their respective groups, both writers form some overlapped and inter-excluded specular images.

Le monde de la tour et de la ville de Babel représente dans sa lecture moderne l’univers monolithique de ceux qui parlent la même langue. L’altérité n’y a pas sa place. Quand le monde ordonné bascule dans la confusion et la folie, les babéliens se dispersent et les différences s’installent. La prise en compte par le « chercheur de tropismes » des liens entre même et autre, l’évaluation de la juste distance entre intégration au sein d’une communauté et solitude informe la dynamique de la création sarrautienne. L’hypersensible, figure de l’autre, expérimente toutes les formes de rejet et toutes les tentatives d’assimilation. La régression vers le monde indéterminé des origines où les rumeurs du monde ne l’atteignent pas, permettent au « chercheur de tropismes » de se faire pleinement créateur. La figure du créateur se décline dans les figures symétriques de l’enfant, du fou et du pauvre. L’humilité seule permet au créateur de percevoir la matière ténue de la création. La recherche explore les différentes modalités qui permettent la saisie de la multiplicité à travers notamment les différentes métamorphoses du monde qui bascule dans l’irréel et à travers les manifestations de la folie. L’œuvre explore la question essentielle de la résistance à l’oppression portée par les discours d’autorité. Cette recherche permet ainsi également de resituer la création sarrautienne dans un discours qui prend en compte, même de manière indirecte par le biais de l’imaginaire, la vie et les problèmes de la cité réelle. / In its modern reading, the world of the tower and city of Babel represents the monolithic world of those who speak the same language. The Otherness has no place within its boundaries. When the order of the world is thrown into confusion and madness, the babelians disperse and differences arise. The way the 'researcher of tropisms' takes into account the links between self and other, and considers the right distance between integration within a community and loneliness, helps to shape the sarrautian dynamics of creation. The hypersensitive character represents the other. He experiments all the forms of rejection and all the attempts at assimilation. Regression to the undetermined world of origins, the place where the whispers of the world are not heard, allows the 'researcher of tropisms' to be fully creative. The figure of the creator is symmetrical to the figure of the child, the madman and the poorman. Only humility allows the creator to collect the tenuous material of creation. The study explores the various ways that enable to capture the multiplicity especially through the various metamorphoses of the world when it falls into unreality and into madness. The work explores the fundamental question of resistance to oppression carried by the authoritative discourse. This research also allows to resituate the sarrautian creation in a speech that takes into account the life and problems of the real city, even indirectly through the imaginary.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

No description available.

Le Nouveau Roman est passé à la postérité comme l’un des exemples majeurs d’un moment intransitif de la littérature française. En déstabilisant le traitement de la narration et de l’intrigue, du cadre spatio-temporel, des personnages et des voix, le Nouveau Roman conteste la mimèsis référentielle réaliste pour se tourner vers les aspects formels de la création romanesque. Néanmoins, cela n’est pas un geste gratuit : la déconstruction formaliste, les nouveaux romanciers la revendiquent au nom d’un « nouveau réalisme ». Le Nouveau Roman se veut l’avènement d’une « ère du soupçon » sur les conventions esthétiques et les représentations diffusées par celles-ci. De plus, ce parti pris ne peut se comprendre en dehors d’un contexte historique marqué à la fois par les traumatismes de la Seconde Guerre mondiale et les impératifs de modernisation économique qui de 1946 à 1975 transforment profondément la société française. Loin d’anéantir la référentialité, le Nouveau Roman témoigne d’un conflit avec elle, si bien que sa déconstruction du roman est une reconstruction produisant de nouvelles — parfois pas si nouvelles que cela ? — formes, représentations, manières d’affirmer l’existence de l’homme et de la société. Aussi le Nouveau Roman contribue-t-il à l’imaginaire social de son époque. En proposant une lecture des romans de Michel Butor et d’Alain Robbe-Grillet, cette thèse se penchera sur la tentative néo-romanesque de réinventer et la littérature et le monde. Trois axes d’analyse guident ce travail : le premier porte sur la représentation de l’univers fictionnel parallèlement à une discussion sur le problème de la mimèsis ; le second, sur la poétique des personnages et son rapport à la question de l’identité personnelle ; le troisième, sur le statut de la socialité dans les œuvres, à travers les questions de l’identité collective, de la mémoire et des usages sociaux de la langue. / The nouveau roman passed to posterity as one of the main examples of an intransitive moment of french literature. By destabilizing the narration and the plot, the spatio-temporal framework, the characters and the voices, the Nouveau Roman disputes the realistic referential mimesis and turns itself to formal aspects of novelistic creation. However, this is not a vain gesture: the so-called nouveaux romanciers claim a formalist deconstruction in the name of a “new realism”. The nouveau roman proposes the advent of an “age of suspicion” about the esthetical conventions and the representations disseminated by them. In addition to this, with the purpose of understanding this position, one must take into account its historical context, marked by the traumas of World War II as well as the requirements of the economic modernization, which deeply modifies French society from 1946 to 1975. Far from having annihilated the referentiality, the nouveau roman is in conflict with it, so that its deconstruction of the novel is a reconstruction, creating new–sometimes not so new?–forms, representations, ways to affirm the existence of man and society. Thus, the nouveau roman contributes to the social imaginary of its time. Through a reading of the Michel Butor’s and Alain Robbe-Grillet’s novels, this thesis will focus on this attempt by the nouveau roman to reinvent the literature and the world. Three axes will guide this work: the first concerns the representation of the fictional universe along with a discussion on the mimesis problem; the second, the poetics of characters and its relation to the question of personal identity; the third, the status of sociality in the novels, addressing the questions of the collective identity, the memory and the social uses of language. / O novo romance passou à posteridade como um dos exemplos emblemáticos de um momento intransitivo da literatura francesa. Ao desestabilizar o tratamento da narração e da intriga, do recorte espaço-temporal, das personagens e das vozes, o novo romance contesta a mímesis referencial realista e se volta aos aspectos formais da criação romanesca. Entretanto, não se trata de um gesto gratuito: os novos romancistas reivindicam a desconstrução formalista em nome de um “novo realismo”. O novo romance propõe o advento de uma “era da suspeita” diante das convenções estéticas bem como das representações por elas difundidas. Ademais, tal atitude não pode ser compreendida fora de um contexto histórico marcado ao mesmo tempo pelos traumas da Segunda Guerra Mundial e pelos imperativos de modernização econômica que de 1946 a 1975 transformam profundamente a sociedade francesa. Longe de aniquilar a referencialidade, o novo romance está em conflito com ela, de tal modo que sua desconstrução do romance é uma reconstrução, com a produção de novas — às vezes não tão novas assim? — formas, representações, maneiras de afirmar a existência do homem e da sociedade. Assim, o novo romance contribui com o imaginário social de sua época. Através de uma leitura dos romances de Michel Butor e de Alain Robbe- Grillet, esta tese pretende debruçar-se sobre a tentativa neo-romanesca de reinventar a literatura e o mundo. Três eixos de análise guiam este trabalho: o primeiro trata da representação do universo ficcional paralelamente a uma discussão acerca do problema da mímesis; o segundo, da poética das personagens e de sua relação com a questão da identidade pessoal; o terceiro, do estatuto da socialidade nas obras, abordando as questões da identidade coletiva, da memória e dos usos sociais da língua.

By conceptualizing repetition with the Swedish avantgarde aesthetics of the 1960s as a point of departure, this thesis argues that the repetition phenomena in the mature works of Per Olov Enquist (1934–2020) are indebted to the period. Hereby it brings together two major trends in the Enquist research that previously have been separate. In accordance with the main tendency of the period, the Enquistian repetitions reuse concrete constituents and are of technical and combinatory nature. According to the taxonomy introduced in the thesis, they are mainly internarrative, i.e., they transcend the limits of the individual stories. Thus, in Enquist, the superficial, anti-mimetic as well as anti-hermeneutical qualities pertaining to the period are a consequence of the specifically internarrative character of the repetitions, whereas the individual stories remain mimetically coherent. Furthermore, the thesis investigates a metapoetic discourse in the mature works; in part, it demonstrates a continuity between this discourse and the non-metapoetic notion of repetition in Enquist’s novels of the ‘60s. Altogether, the thesis proposes a way of historically situating the Enquist oeuvre as a whole; supposedly, it will contribute to further studies with similar aims.