What is generally referred to as the Nouveau Roman, or New Novel, made its appearance in France in the early 1950s. As the name implies, the New Novel claimed to be new, that is, to break away from what one must call, for lack of a better term, the traditional novel. The New Novel aroused considerable interest in France and abroad; literary critics, journalists, and the New Novelists themselves, were soon airing their views on the subject. Passionate and prolonged discussions ensued. It is this Debate which we propose to investigate. For this purpose, we shall limit ourselves to five authors: Alain Robbe-Crillet, Michel Butor, Nathalie Sarraute, Claude Simon, and Robert Pinget -, and to the years: 1954--1964. Our study is divided into three main sections. In Part I, we have indicated the reasons underlying the limitations imposed on the scope of the thesis, that is, why we confined ourselves to the examination of the role played in the Debate by only five specific authors, and why we chose to investigate only the years 1954--1964. In conjunction with a study of the aims of the New Novel as propounded by the New Novelists themselves, a survey is made of the writers, French and foreign, whom the New Novelists themselves claim as their precursors. For the study of the actual Debate, both a chronological and a thematic approach is adopted. In Part II, the chronological approach - imposed by the historical nature of the subject - will enable us to examine the immediate reactions of the press to the New Novels on their publication and to the authors of these novels. In Part III, the thematic approach will enable us to proceed to a critical evaluation of the principal arguments thrown up by the Debate. In view of the nature of the subject, our documentation for this thesis is derived primarily from a close examination of the literary periodicals and journals of the period. In addition, we have analysed both the theoretical writings by the New Novelists and interviews they have given to the press. We have also used original material in the shape of interviews given to us at a later date (February-March 1973) by the five New Novelists on whom we have based our study and by the two Critics who played a major role in the Debate on the New Novel: Roland Barthes and Maurice Nadeau.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:454511 |
| Date | January 1975 |
| Creators | Elaho, Raymond Osemwegie |
| Publisher | Royal Holloway, University of London |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://repository.royalholloway.ac.uk/items/6ca7ff9b-228c-4822-bdef-29616d706351/1/ |
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