University of Oregon

Alain Robbe-Grillet and the New French Novel by Ben F. Stoltzfus

Review by: J. H. Matthews
Comparative Literature, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Winter, 1965), pp. 92-93
Published by: Duke University Press on behalf of the University of Oregon
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1769750 .
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COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
ALAIN ROBBE-GRILLET AND THE NEW FRENCH NOVEL. By Ben F. Stoltzfus.
Carbondale: Southern Illinois
University Press,
1964. 166
p.
Although
Ben F. Stoltzfus'
study
links Alain Robbe-Grillet's work with that
of other novelists who achieved
prominence
in the
1950s, only
in the first
chapter
("New
Forms for
Old")
and in the conclusion does it
really
raise their names
for discussion. Even
then,
their attitudes are considered almost
entirely
in rela-
tion to Robbe-Grillet's ambitions. This
appears
to be
why
Nathalie
Sarraute,
for
example,
a
major
novelist who merits close
examination,
is
relatively neglected;
her work
possesses
too few similarities to Robbe-Grillet's for Stoltzfus to discuss
it more than
cursorily
in the
perspective
from which he views matters. In the
event,
Robbe-Grillet's work is here
profitably placed against
the
background
of
that of his
predecessors
more
systematically
than
against
that of his contem-
poraries.
The author
gives
most attention to Sartre and to
Camus, establishing
Robbe-Grillet's
point
of
departure
and
estimating
the distance he has traveled so
far.
Following
Laurent
LeSage
and Renato
Barilli,l
Stoltzfus stresses Robbe-
Grillet's debt to
Sartre,
and
argues persuasively
that in Robbe-Grillet's novels
"the essence of Sartre's existential
theory
has been assimilated into an indistin-
guishable
blend of form and content"
(p.
34). Even more
interesting, however,
is
the same thesis
presented
in a
commentary upon
the
relationship
Robbe-Grillet's
writings
bear to those of Camus. Here Stoltzfus'
interpretation impresses
one as
most
original. Indeed,
the essential theme of his book
develops
from the elabora-
tion of an
hypothesis
tested in turn
against
each of Robbe-Grillet's
published
texts
up
to
L'Annie dernicre a Marienbad.
One
sympathizes
with
any
critic who aims to make a
positive
contribution to
serious
study
in an area in which he is
evidently
well
read,
while at the same
time
obliged
to offer the
general
reader
elementary guidance. Despite
the fact
that he
produces
creditable
results,
and finds in the
preface
written for his book
by Harry
T. Moore a discreet
array
of
plot
summaries for the
uninitiated,
occa-
sionally
we sense his concern. He is
certainly
right in
affirming (p. 99)
"As
everyone knows, Theseus,
with Ariadne's
help,
slew the Minotaur and delivered
Athens."
Perhaps, too,
it is in order to assert that
"everyone
knows that freedom
for Sartre
depends
on choice"
(p. 29).
But is Stoltzfus entitled to
write,
"Critics
have
consistently misinterpreted
Robbe-Grillet's theoretical
writings
and his
novelistic
technique which,
as
everyone knows,
consists of minute and detailed
visual
descriptions
of
objects
and
things, virtually
ad nauseam"
(p. 37)
?
One is
inclined to wonder whether he does not risk disturbing certain of his
readers,
incidentally, by phrases
like the
last,
which run counter to the
image
of Robbe-
Grillet as a remarkable creative artist the author's
analysis
seeks to
present.
This volume
incorporates
some material
previously published
in article
form,
and would have benefited from closer revision. One does not
escape
an
impres-
sion of
repetitiveness,
not
altogether
excusable on the
grounds
that the author's
examination is so thorough. What is
more,
even the most attentive reader
may
find himself at some
stages
confused
by
Stoltzfus' manner of
footnoting.
The
1
Laurent
LeSage
discusses Sartre's
relationship
to the nouveau roman in his
The French
Neze Novel,
4An Introduction and a
Sampler (University Park,
1962).
Renato Barilli contributes an article to Sartre and Robbe-Grillet in the
special
issue of La Revue des Lettres Modernes devoted to the nouveau roman
(1964).
Stoltzfus had no
opportunity
to see this text before his book went to
press.
92
BOOK REVIEWS BOOK REVIEWS
avoidance of direct quotation makes for a more fluent
text,
it is true. But it does
at moments leave one
wondering
at what
point
the author has ceased to
para-
phrase
his sources and has
begun
to formulate his own ideas.
Nevertheless,
these
are minor criticisms. In the
main,
Stoltzfus'
presentation
is
cogent
and convinc-
ing.
Although
he does not admit Robbe-Grillet to the status of moralist-or even
suggest
that Robbe-Grillet would wish to be
regarded
as one---Stoltzfus'
analysis
of his
writings proposes
to demonstrate that the "distance" of which Robbe-
Grillet
speaks
is "the
philosophical
basis of his novels"
(p. 35).
Stoltzfus is thus
led to consider in detail the role reserved in these novels for
"tragic complicity,"
which Robbe-Grillet has so
sharply
attacked in Camus. Seen from this
point
of
view,
the fascination of each of Robbe-Grillet's
novels,
and even of his first
cine-roman,
consists in the combination of "Editorial Omniscience
(the
author's
point
of
view)"
with "Selective Omniscience
(what
the character
sees)."
The
analysis
undertaken in this book
may
strike
some-especially
those for
whom Freud is a rude word-as less consistent than the author would
hope.
Yet,
even when
inviting challenge,
Stoltzfus' dialectic is
stimulating,
and makes
the
reading
of Alain Robbe-Grillet and the New French Novel a
pleasurable
and
rewarding experience.
J.
H. MATTHEWS
University of
Minnesota
CONCEPTOS FUNDAMENTALES DE LITERATURA COMPARADA. INICIACION DE LA POESIA
MODERNIST A.
By
Bernardo Gicovate. San
Juan
de Puerto Rico: Ediciones
Asomante,
1962. 151
p.
This is a rather
pretentious
little volume. Its author offers a
theory
of com-
parative
literature which
pushes
source
hunting
to an
extreme,
handles
concepts
which
comparatists
would call
"Urerlebnis," "Bildungserlebnis,"
and "Genera-
tionsproblem"
in his own
poorly
informed
way,
and
applies
them to a material
too
unimportant
for
illustration, namely
to the three Latin-American
pre-mo-
dernistas, Marti, Casal,
and Silva.
When I
say poorly informed,
I mean that a
Hispanist approaching
such
an
enterprise
as
disentangling
in
life, literatures,
and cultures the sources
respon-
sible for the final
complexity
of a
literary
construct
certainly ought
to start
from earlier
attempts
like Amado Alonso's three classical
essays
which have
covered
practically
all the
problems
at issue here:
(1)
El modernismo en La
gloria
de Don Ramiro
(Buenos-Aires, 1942); (2)
"Vida
y
creaci6n en la lirica
de
Lope,"
Materia
y forma
en
poesia (Madrid, 1955), pp. 133-163; (3)
"Estilistica
de las fuentes literarias. Rub6n Dario
y Miguel Angel," ibid., pp.
381-397. Further-
more,
before
making
a
quick decision as to whether the
generation
of 1898 is a
hoax or a
literary reality,
one has to
study
not Henri
Peyre
but Hans
Jeschke,
La
generacion
de 1898 ein
Espafia (Ensayo
de una determinaci6n de su
esencia)
(Santiago
de
Chile, 1946); and,
before one minimizes the
importance
of the
generation problem
for
literary history
in
general,
one must know the funda-
mental work on the
problem,
Wilhelm Pinder's Das Problem der Generation
(Berlin, 1926).
I
admire, however,
Gicovate's frankness
concerning
the limitations of com-
parative
"results" and the fact that he does not insist on the
validity
of his own
avoidance of direct quotation makes for a more fluent
text,
it is true. But it does
at moments leave one
wondering
at what
point
the author has ceased to
para-
phrase
his sources and has
begun
to formulate his own ideas.
Nevertheless,
these
are minor criticisms. In the
main,
Stoltzfus'
presentation
is
cogent
and convinc-
ing.
Although
he does not admit Robbe-Grillet to the status of moralist-or even
suggest
that Robbe-Grillet would wish to be
regarded
as one---Stoltzfus'
analysis
of his
writings proposes
to demonstrate that the "distance" of which Robbe-
Grillet
speaks
is "the
philosophical
basis of his novels"
(p. 35).
Stoltzfus is thus
led to consider in detail the role reserved in these novels for
"tragic complicity,"
which Robbe-Grillet has so
sharply
attacked in Camus. Seen from this
point
of
view,
the fascination of each of Robbe-Grillet's
novels,
and even of his first
cine-roman,
consists in the combination of "Editorial Omniscience
(the
author's
point
of
view)"
with "Selective Omniscience
(what
the character
sees)."
The
analysis
undertaken in this book
may
strike
some-especially
those for
whom Freud is a rude word-as less consistent than the author would
hope.
Yet,
even when
inviting challenge,
Stoltzfus' dialectic is
stimulating,
and makes
the
reading
of Alain Robbe-Grillet and the New French Novel a
pleasurable
and
rewarding experience.
J.
H. MATTHEWS
University of
Minnesota
CONCEPTOS FUNDAMENTALES DE LITERATURA COMPARADA. INICIACION DE LA POESIA
MODERNIST A.
By
Bernardo Gicovate. San
Juan
de Puerto Rico: Ediciones
Asomante,
1962. 151
p.
This is a rather
pretentious
little volume. Its author offers a
theory
of com-
parative
literature which
pushes
source
hunting
to an
extreme,
handles
concepts
which
comparatists
would call
"Urerlebnis," "Bildungserlebnis,"
and "Genera-
tionsproblem"
in his own
poorly
informed
way,
and
applies
them to a material
too
unimportant
for
illustration, namely
to the three Latin-American
pre-mo-
dernistas, Marti, Casal,
and Silva.
When I
say poorly informed,
I mean that a
Hispanist approaching
such
an
enterprise
as
disentangling
in
life, literatures,
and cultures the sources
respon-
sible for the final
complexity
of a
literary
construct
certainly ought
to start
from earlier
attempts
like Amado Alonso's three classical
essays
which have
covered
practically
all the
problems
at issue here:
(1)
El modernismo en La
gloria
de Don Ramiro
(Buenos-Aires, 1942); (2)
"Vida
y
creaci6n en la lirica
de
Lope,"
Materia
y forma
en
poesia (Madrid, 1955), pp. 133-163; (3)
"Estilistica
de las fuentes literarias. Rub6n Dario
y Miguel Angel," ibid., pp.
381-397. Further-
more,
before
making
a
quick decision as to whether the
generation
of 1898 is a
hoax or a
literary reality,
one has to
study
not Henri
Peyre
but Hans
Jeschke,
La
generacion
de 1898 ein
Espafia (Ensayo
de una determinaci6n de su
esencia)
(Santiago
de
Chile, 1946); and,
before one minimizes the
importance
of the
generation problem
for
literary history
in
general,
one must know the funda-
mental work on the
problem,
Wilhelm Pinder's Das Problem der Generation
(Berlin, 1926).
I
admire, however,
Gicovate's frankness
concerning
the limitations of com-
parative
"results" and the fact that he does not insist on the
validity
of his own
93 93