There were two principal aims which inspired the writing of this thesis. The first was to fill a gap in English scholarship by presenting, in necessarily attenuated form, to English readers what scholars like Edouard Dolléans and Michel Ragon had provided for the French; namely, a description, in Part One, of the background to the proletarian involvement in literature and especially in novel writing which gathered rapid momentum during the quarter century before the First War. In so doing, this thesis attempts to analyse the connection between the proletarian novelists of the late nineteenth century, and middle class naturalist, realist, romantic and classical writers who had earlier made use of the j working class theme. It was the intention to demonstrate that, while offering new insights into the life of the indigent-masses, these writers often relied heavily for style and theme on those established by their predecessors. The comparison could only be made by treating in detail selected representatives of this new development in literature, and this was aided by examining the opinions of contemporary critics. The precise reasons for choosing the five authors who appear in the title and for subjecting them to greatly varying degrees of examination are given at the beginning of Part Two. In general, however, these five may be seen as the group which exhibited at once the greatest similarity to established literary conventions and also the most striking originality in the development of their subject. The second and predominant aim of this thesis was to present to an English readership the works of hitherto largely ignored novelists. Because of their obscurity, greater use of quotation and paraphrase was made than would have been necessary to discuss works of widely recognised authors. Part Two is a systematic evaluation of all the novels written by the five during the period 1890-1914. The limits of one thesis did not allow exhaustive treatment of any of the novelists and it is hoped that one of the results of this study will be to stimulate further research into them. To that end as extensive a bibliography as possible has been compiled and appears in two sections at the end of this work.

La seule mention d'un camp de concentration évoque instinctivement Auschwitz, Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, Büchenwald Ravensbrück... Ces noms restent gravés dans l'esprit contemporain. Par définition, toutefois, n'importe quel enclos qui emprisonne ou enferme des réfugiés, des prisonniers, ou même des étrangers hostiles, est un camp de concentration. Mais à cause des évènements historiques ce sont ces camps d'extermination qui nous reviennent à l'esprit. [...]

In this thesis, we examine theories of reading as they apply to three examples of the French New Novel. We begin with a detailed theoretical expose in which we compare and attempt to reconcile the reading models of Umberto Eco, Wolfgang Iser, Stanley Fish, Bertrand Gervais and Richard Saint-Gelais. The hybrid theory thus obtained is then tested on three works in order to underscore the modalities of reading that are particular to the New Novel, while insisting on these modalities' inherent variability. We focus on the reader's reconstructing of the narrative in L'Emploi du temps , on the impossibility of structuring the plot in La Maison de rendez-vous, and on the paradigmatic mode of reading La Bataille de Pharsale. In so doing, we hope to demonstrate how an analysis of the reading process allows for a heightened appreciation of the essential indeterminacy of the New Novel, of its fundamental otherness. We conclude with tentative remarks on the heuristic function of these texts.

In this thesis I seek to describe, analyse and characterise the contemporary literary movement La Nouvelle Fiction, a group that has received no critical attention to date. The movement is examined first in terms of its place in French literary history, taking as reference points both literary and theoretical trends: in particular, the nouveau roman and aspects of post-structuralism, with both of which the Nouvelle Fiction implicitly compares or contrasts itself. In Part I, I go on to analyse the theory of the fantastic and detective fiction, both genres that influence the Nouvelle Fiction, and provisional descriptions of the Nouvelle Fiction are thereby developed based on Umberto Eco's theory of the 'model reader'. I suggest that the Nouvelle Fiction demands a particularly active interpretative role of its reader, which is compared in the texts with moral competence in the world. Through analysis of key narrative strategies in Part II (circular narrative structures, unreliable narrative voices, parody, and mise en abyme), the movement is examined for its internal characteristics, and specific differences in practice are established between the Nouvelle Fiction and the nouveau roman. In Part III, aspects of reader-reception are examined, first, through the use of Barthes's anatomy of textual pleasure, second, through the relationship between fiction, the world and identity, and thirdly, through discussion of the extent engagement is possible in these ludic and interpretatively ambiguous texts. I argue that a picture thus emerges of a fiction that heralds a heightened role for the active reader of texts that represent a renewed relationship with reality and with the way narrative shapes it, after the reaction against representation that was an important characteristic of the modernist aesthetic.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Not available / text