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40-583: Alain Robbe-Grillet , an influential theorist as well as writer of the Nouveau Roman, published a series of essays on the nature and future of the novel which were later collected in Pour un Nouveau Roman . Rejecting many of the established features of the novel to date, Robbe-Grillet regarded many earlier novelists as old-fashioned in their focus on plot, action, narrative, ideas, and character. Instead, he put forward

80-446: A cubist painting. Yet his work is ultimately characterized by its ability to mean many things to many different people. Robbe-Grillet wrote his first novel A Regicide ( Un Régicide ) in 1949, but it was rejected by Gallimard, a major French publishing house, and only later published with minor corrections by his lifelong publisher Les Éditions de Minuit in 1978. His second novel, The Erasers ( Les Gommes ), superficially resembles

120-670: A collection of previously published theoretical writings concerning the novel. From 1966 to 1968, he was a member of the High Committee for the Defense and Expansion of French ( Haut comité pour la défense et l'expansion de la langue française ). In addition, Robbe-Grillet also led the Centre for Sociology of Literature ( Centre de sociologie de la littérature ) at the Université Libre de Bruxelles from 1980 to 1988. From 1971 to 1995, Robbe-Grillet

160-847: A complete, precise and objective account of the nouveau roman movement. Other writers associated with the style of Nouveau Roman are: The Nouveau Roman style also left its mark on the screen as writers Marguerite Duras and Alain Robbe-Grillet became involved with the Left Bank film movement (often labelled as part of the French New Wave ). Their collaboration with director Alain Resnais resulted in critical successes such as Hiroshima mon amour (1958) and Last Year at Marienbad (1961). They would later go on to direct their own films. Influenced by these films French courses in North America during

200-462: A creator of fiction was not restricted to the writing of novels. For him, creating fiction in the form of films was of equal importance. His film career began when Alain Resnais chose to collaborate with him on his 1961 film Last Year at Marienbad . The film was nominated for the 1963 Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay and won the Golden Lion when it came out in 1961. In the credits it

240-466: A detective novel, but it contains within it a deeper structure based on the tale of Oedipus . The detective is seeking the assassin in a murder that has not yet occurred, only to discover that it is his destiny to become that assassin. His next and most acclaimed novel is The Voyeur ( Le Voyeur ), first published in French in 1955 and translated into English in 1958 by Richard Howard . The Voyeur relates

280-474: A machinist. The initial few months were seen by Robbe-Grillet as something of a holiday. In between the very rudimentary training he was given to operate the machinery, he had free time to go to the theatre and the opera. In 1945, he completed his diploma at the National Institute of Agronomy . Later, his work as an agronomist took him to Martinique , French Guiana , Guadeloupe, and Morocco . In 1960, he

320-483: A theory of the novel as focused on objects: the ideal nouveau roman would be an individual version and vision of things, subordinating plot and character to the details of the world rather than enlisting the world in their service. A group of writers dubbed Nouveaux Romanciers , "new novelists", appeared in the mid-1950s: Alain Robbe-Grillet , Claude Simon , Nathalie Sarraute , Michel Butor and Robert Pinget . The style had different approaches but generally rejected

360-403: A thesis on swear words under the supervision of Roland Barthes . She was the second wife of Bulgarian-French historian and philosopher Tzvetan Todorov , with whom she had two children, daughter Léa and son Sacha; she and Todorov divorced in 2014. Huston now shares her life with Swiss painter Guy Oberson. Because French was a language acquired at school and university, Huston found that

400-910: The Académie française on 25 March 2004, succeeding Maurice Rheims at seat No. 32. Claude Simon , the 1985 Nobel laureate in Literature , is often identified with the nouveau roman movement. The nouveau roman literary movement and the novels themselves were mainly theorized by Jean Ricardou , 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

440-517: The 1960s and 1970s often included works by Nouveau Roman authors such as Alain Robbe-Grillet's La Jalousie (1957), Michel Butor's La Modification (1957), Nathalie Sarraute's Le Planetarium (1957) and Marguerite Duras' Moderato Cantabile (1958). 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

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480-512: The Académie's famous green tails ( habit vert ) and sabre, which he considered outdated. His writing style has been described as "realist" or " phenomenological " (in the Husserlian sense) or "a theory of pure surface". Methodical, geometric, and often repetitive descriptions of objects replace (though often reveal) the psychology and interiority of the character. The reader must slowly piece together

520-720: The University of Ottawa. In 2012, she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal . That same year, she won the Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction Award for her novel, Infrared . Canadian poet and critic Frank Davey in "Big, Bad and Little Known: The Anglophone-Canadian Nancy Huston" (2004), is critical of Huston's English writing style. In response to this, Joseph Pivato in "Nancy Huston Meets le Nouveau Roman" (2016), contends that Huston

560-399: 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 death in 2016, he was working on a book of interviews with Amir Biglari, [2] in which he provides

600-441: The combination of her eventual command of the language and her distance from it as a non- native speaker helped her to find her literary voice. Since 1980, Huston has published over 45 books of fiction and non-fiction, including theatre and children's books. Some of her publications are self-translations of previously published works. Essentially she writes in French and subsequently self-translates into English but Plainsong (1993)

640-449: The course of the novel the main character looks through his blinds repeatedly in different scenes, the 'jalousie' he looks out to the world that mutates ever so slightly each time. In 1984 he published what he described as an intentionally traditional autobiography, entitled Le Miroir qui revient , translated into English as Ghosts in the Mirror by Jo Levy (1988). Robbe-Grillet's career as

680-600: The most critical acclaim. Her first novel, Les variations Goldberg (1981), was awarded the Prix Contrepoint and was shortlisted for the Prix Femina . She translated this novel into English as The Goldberg Variations (1996). Her next major award came in 1993 when she was received the Canadian Governor General's Award for Fiction in French for Cantique des Plaines (1993). This was initially contested as it

720-410: The novel was constructed along the lines of an absent third-person narrator. In Robbe-Grillet's account of the novel the absent narrator, a jealous husband, silently observes the interactions of his wife (referred to only as "A...") and a neighbour, Franck. The silent narrator who never names himself (his presence is merely implied, e.g. by the number of place settings at the dinner table or deck chairs on

760-628: The screenplay. Her works have been translated into many languages from Chinese to Russian. In 2005, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada , In 2006, she received the Prix Femina for the novel Lignes de faille and which, as Fault Lines , has been published by Atlantic Books and was shortlisted for the 2008 Orange Prize . In 2007, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Liège . In 2010, she received an honorary doctorate from

800-720: The stark style of the Nouveau Roman in Nord Perdu (1999). (See Joseph Pivato, nouveau roman) Alain Robbe-Grillet Alain Robbe-Grillet ( French: [alɛ̃ ʁɔb ɡʁijɛ] ; 18 August 1922 – 18 February 2008) was a French writer and filmmaker. He was one of the figures most associated with the Nouveau Roman ( lit.   ' new novel ' ) trend of the 1960s, along with Nathalie Sarraute , Michel Butor and Claude Simon . Robbe-Grillet

840-420: The story and the emotional experience of jealousy, for example, in the repetition of descriptions, the attention to odd details, and the breaks in repetitions, a method that resembles the experience of psychoanalysis in which the deeper unconscious meanings are contained in the flow and disruptions of free associations. Timelines and plots are fractured, and the resulting novel resembles the literary equivalent of

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880-416: The story of Mathias, a traveling watch salesman who returns to the island of his youth with a desperate objective. As with many of his novels, The Voyeur revolves around an apparent murder: throughout the novel, Mathias unfolds a newspaper clipping about the details of a young girl's murder and the discovery of her body among the seaside rocks. Mathias' relationship with a dead girl, possibly that hinted at in

920-439: The story, is obliquely revealed in the course of the novel so that we are never actually sure if Mathias is a killer or simply a person who fantasizes about killing. Importantly, the "actual murder," if such a thing exists, is absent from the text. The narration contains little dialogue, and an ambiguous timeline of events. Indeed, the novel's opening line is indicative of the novel's tone: "It was as if no one had heard." The Voyeur

960-425: The time of his second novel, he became a literary advisor for Les Éditions de Minuit and occupied this position from 1955 until 1985. After publishing four novels, in 1961, he worked with Alain Resnais , writing the script for Last Year at Marienbad ( L'Année dernière à Marienbad ), and he subsequently wrote and directed his own films. In 1963, Robbe-Grillet published For a New Novel ( Pour un Nouveau Roman ),

1000-499: The traditional use of chronology, plot and character in fiction, as well as the omniscient narrator . The Nouveau Roman authors were open to influences from writers such as William Faulkner and the cinema. Both Robbe-Grillet and Marguerite Duras , whose 1958 novel Moderato cantabile was in the style of the Nouveau roman , also contributed to the French New Wave style of filmmaking. Alain Robbe-Grillet became an elected member of

1040-526: The verandah) is extremely suspicious that A... is having an affair with Franck. Throughout the novel, the absent narrator continually replays his observations and suspicions (that is, created scenarios about A... and Franck) so much so that it becomes impossible to distinguish between 'observed' moments or 'suspicious' moments. 'Jalousie' is also translatable as Persian blinds, the horizontal shutters common in France that are usually made of wood or sometimes metal. Over

1080-432: Was a professor at New York University , lecturing on his own novels. Although Robbe-Grillet was elected to the Académie française in 2004, in his eighties, he was never formally received by the Académie because of disputes regarding the Académie's reception procedures. Robbe-Grillet both refused to prepare and submit a welcome speech in advance, preferring to improvise his speech, as well as refusing to purchase and wear

1120-609: Was a signatory to the Manifesto of the 121 in support of the Algerian struggle for independence. He died in 2008 in Caen after succumbing to heart problems. Robbe-Grillet's first published novel was The Erasers ( Les Gommes ), which was issued by Les Éditions de Minuit in 1953. After that, he dedicated himself full-time to his new occupation. His early work was praised by eminent critics, such as Roland Barthes and Maurice Blanchot . Around

1160-633: Was a translation of Plainsong (1993), but Huston demonstrated that it was an adaptation and kept the prize. A subsequent novel, La virevolte (1994), won the Prix "L" and the Prix Louis-Hémon. It was published in English in 1996 as Slow Emergencies . Huston's novel, Instruments des ténèbres , has been her most successful novel yet, being shortlisted for the Prix Femina, and the Governor General's Award. It

1200-565: Was almost a decade before the appearance of his next feature film, La belle captive ( The Beautiful Captive ) (1983), where Robbe-Grillet enlisted the services of Henri Alekan as cinematographer. Subsequently, more than a decade passed before Robbe-Grillet got behind the lens again, this time filming a mystery thriller on a small Greek island with Fred Ward starring as the confused Frank in Un bruit qui rend fou ( A Maddening Noise , aka: The Blue Villa ) (1995). Before his death in 2008 Robbe-Grillet

1240-557: Was awarded the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens , as well as both the Prix des lectrices (Elle Québec) and the Prix du livre Inter in 1997. In 1998, she was nominated for a Governor General's Award for her novel L'Empreinte de l'ange . The next year she was nominated for a Governor General's Award for translating the work into English as The Mark of the Angel . In 1999, she appeared in the film Set Me Free (Emporte-moi) , also collaborating on

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1280-452: Was awarded the Prix des Critiques . Next, he wrote La Jalousie in 1957, one of his few novels to be set in a non-urban location, in this instance a banana plantation. In the first year of publication only 746 copies were sold, despite the popularity of The Voyeur. Over time, it became a great literary success and was translated into English by Richard Howard. Robbe-Grillet himself argued that

1320-654: Was born in Calgary , Alberta , Canada, the city in which she lived until age fifteen, at which time her family moved to Wilton , New Hampshire , where she attended High Mowing School . She studied at Sarah Lawrence College in New York City , where she was given the opportunity to spend a year of her studies in Paris . Arriving in Paris in 1973, Huston obtained a master's degree from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales , writing

1360-520: Was elected a member of the Académie française on 25 March 2004, succeeding Maurice Rheims at seat No. 32. He married Catherine Robbe-Grillet ( née Rstakian). Alain Robbe-Grillet was born in Brest ( Finistère , France) to a family of engineers and scientists. He was trained as an agricultural engineer . During the years 1943 and 1944, he participated in compulsory labor in Nuremberg, where he worked as

1400-496: Was followed by his most commercially successful film after Last Year at Marienbad : Trans-Europ-Express (1966) starring Jean-Louis Trintignant , who worked with Robbe-Grillet on his next four films, his French-Slovak film L'homme qui ment/Muž, ktorý luže ( The Man Who Lies ) (1968), L'Eden et après/Eden a potom ( Eden and After ) (1970), Glissements progressifs du plaisir ( Progressive Slidings towards Pleasure ) (1974) and Le jeu avec le feu ( Playing with Fire ) (1975). It

1440-429: Was presented as a film equally co-authored by Robbe-Grillet and Resnais. Robbe-Grillet launched a career as a writer-director of a series of cerebral and often sexually provocative feature films that explored similar themes to those in his literary work (e.g. Voyeurism, The Body as Text, The 'Double'). He commenced with L'Immortelle ( The Immortal One ) (1962) which won the coveted Louis Delluc Prize of 1962. This

1480-521: Was released in 1983. In 1981, Robbe-Grillet and Yvone Lenard published Le Rendez-vous (The Meeting) in the United States as a textbook for intermediary French courses that included an original novel and grammar exercises. As Trinity College professor Sara Kippur explains, "As a language-learning tool, Le rendez-vous advanced a systematic approach that introduced students to increasing complex verb tenses and grammatical constructions." Le Rendez-vous

1520-458: Was released in the United States a month before Djinn was released in France. The text of Djinn was identical to that of Le Rendez-vous absent the grammar exercise and with the addition of the prologue and epilogue. Nancy Huston Nancy Louise Huston , OC (born September 16, 1953) is a Canadian novelist and essayist , a longtime resident of France, who writes primarily in French and translates her own works into English. Huston

1560-494: Was to direct one more film, Gradiva ( C'est Gradiva qui vous appelle ) (2006) which brought once more to the fore his preoccupation with sadism and bondage in his fiction. In 1975, Robbe-Grillet and René Magritte published a book entitled La Belle Captive . The book is referred to as a "roman" (novel) and is illustrated with 77 paintings by Magritte interspersed with discourse written by Robbe-Grillet. The eponymous film La Belle captive , written and directed by Robbe-Grillet,

1600-806: Was written first in English and then self-translated to French as Cantique des plaines (1993) – it was, however, the French version which first found a publisher. She has 25 fiction publications, of which 13 are original fiction and 11 are self-translations . In her fiction, only Trois fois septembre (1989), Visages de l'aube (2001) and Infrarouge (2010), as well as her three children's books, have not been published in English. She has also published two plays but has not yet translated either. She has 14 non-fiction publications, of which 12 are original publications and two are self-translations. The other ten non-fiction publications have not yet been self-translated. While Huston's often controversial works of non-fiction have been well-received, her fiction has earned her

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