Le Nouveau Roman: une césure dans l'histoire du récit by Francine Dugast-Portes (review)

The first edition of this wide-ranging and insightful survey appeared already in 2001. The re-edition became necessary, as Dugast-Portes explains, when she took stock of the continuing debates, commentary, and colloquia on the topic of the New Novel and its legacy over the past few years. Thus, the author finds that the time had come to reassess the movement and to revisit what she terms "un moment glorieux de la littérature" (122). It is also a unique and somewhat puzzling moment, and to refer to it as "une césure dans l'histoire du récit" is to underline the ambiguous meaning implicit in the notion of a caesura, as Dugast-Portes specifies: "entendons-la comme coupure, pause, suspens, qui implique des disparitions, des reprises, des articulations" (22). In terms of its own cultural context, this episode is marked by a paradox that serves as a guiding principle for the author's approach to the history of the movement because she sees it as "un phénomène à la fois subversif et intégré par la sphère culturelle" (347). In the first section of the book, entitled "Éléments d'histoire: une césure très médiatisée," Dugast-Portes stresses the mediating role played by universities—in France and abroad—by publishing houses, colloquia, the media, literary prizes, that effectively advanced the process of cultural integration. The section "Subversions" covers the whole range of methods, approaches, tactics and devices employed by the authors of a movement that makes itself known "par sa radicalité formelle, par une subversion de tous les paramètres" (342). What is questioned during this "Ère du soupçon," as Nathalie Sarraute famously put it, is the validity of all the established intellectual and aesthetic norms that constituted what could be termed "un certain type d'humanisme traditionnel" (207). In the final account and in a general sense, all of this subverting is to be seen as "Le questionnement obstiné du sens"—the title of the third section. In this regard, as Dugast-Portes points out, it becomes necessary to account for the complexity of the contemporary context informing the emergence of the New Novel and to appreciate "l'arrière-plan culturel dans lequel furent formés, au sens scolaire, les nouveaux romanciers" (214). This background included the recent experience of death camps, Hiroshima, the emergence of "La Nouvelle Critique," the influence of psychoanalysis, of scientific developments such as relativity, quantum theory, computers, and, in a general way, of "l'incertitude liée aux limites de la compréhension humaine, l'importance de la complexité, du paradoxe, de l'entropie" (273). The section "Dans le mouvement des esthétiques" brings up the connections and rapport with other arts, in particular with music, painting, and film. It also brings out the importance of humor, of the ironic and ludic dimensions in the writings of the New Novelists, aspects that serve to underline the critical self-awareness of the authors. And while Dugast-Portes admits at the end that her interpretations probably produced meanings never intended by these authors, her highly informed syntheses make this critical study a most valuable resource in the field.