Alain Robbe-Grillet (; 18 August 1922 – 18 February 2008) was a French writer and filmmaker. He was one of the figures most associated with the ''

Nouveau Roman The Nouveau Roman (, "new novel") is a type of French novel in the 1950s and 60s that diverged from traditional literary genres. Émile Henriot coined the term in an article in the popular French newspaper ''Le Monde'' on May 22, 1957 to describ ...

'' () trend of the 1960s, along with

Nathalie Sarraute Nathalie Sarraute (; born Natalia Ilinichna Tcherniak (); – 19 October 1999) was a French writer and lawyer. She was nominated in 1969 for the Nobel Prize in Literature by Nobel Committee member Lars Gyllensten. Personal life Sarraute wa ...

Michel Butor Michel Butor (; 14 September 1926 – 24 August 2016) was a French poet, novelist, teacher, essayist, art critic and translator. Life and work Michel Marie François Butor was born in Mons-en-Barœul, a suburb of Lille, the third of seven chil ...

and

Claude Simon Claude Eugène Henri Simon (; 10 October 1913 – 6 July 2005) was a French novelist and recipient of the 1985 Nobel Prize in Literature. Biography Claude Simon was born in Tananarive on the isle of Madagascar. His parents were French, an ...

. Robbe-Grillet was elected a member of the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

on 25 March 2004, succeeding Maurice Rheims at seat No. 32. He married Catherine Robbe-Grillet ( Rstakian).

Biography

Alain Robbe-Grillet was born in Brest (

Finistère Finistère (, ; ) is a Departments of France, department of France in the extreme west of Brittany. Its prefecture is Quimper and its largest city is Brest, France, Brest. In 2019, it had a population of 915,090.agricultural engineer. During the years 1943 and 1944, he participated in compulsory labor in Nuremberg, where he worked as 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. Plaque pour Alain Robbe-Grillet

In 1945, he completed his diploma at the National Institute of Agronomy. Later, his work as an agronomist took him to

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

, Guadeloupe, and

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. In 1960, he was a signatory to the

Manifesto of the 121 The Manifesto of the 121 (), was an open letter signed by 121 intellectuals and published on 6 September 1960 in the magazine ''Vérité-Liberté''. It called on the French government, then headed by the Gaullist Michel Debré, and public opi ...

in support of the Algerian struggle for independence. He died in 2008 in

Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...

after succumbing to heart problems.

Work

Robbe-Grillet's first published novel was ''

The Erasers ''The Erasers'' () is a novel by French writer Alain Robbe-Grillet, published in 1953 and earning him the Fénéon Prize the next year. Plot Introduction In an unnamed city, someone attempts to assassinate a man, Daniel Dupont, in his home. Th ...

'' (''Les Gommes''), which was issued by

Les Éditions de Minuit Les Éditions de Minuit (, ''Midnight Press'') is a French publishing house. It was founded in 1941, during the French Resistance of World War II, and is still publishing books today. History Les Éditions de Minuit was founded by writer and ...

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 Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 25 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popu ...

and

Maurice Blanchot Maurice Blanchot ( ; ; 22 September 1907 – 20 February 2003) was a French writer, philosopher and literary theorist. His work, exploring a philosophy of death alongside poetic theories of meaning and sense, bore significant influence on pos ...

. Around 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''), 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 The (French language, French, ; lit. Free University of Brussels; abbreviated ULB) is a French-speaking research university in Brussels, Belgium. It has three campuses: the ''Solbosch'' campus (in the City of Brussels and Ixelles), the ''Plain ...

from 1980 to 1988. From 1971 to 1995, Robbe-Grillet was a professor at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, lecturing on his own novels. Although Robbe-Grillet was elected to the

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 the Académie's famous green tails (''habit vert'') and sabre, which he considered outdated.

Style

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 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 PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...

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 a cubist painting. Yet his work is ultimately characterized by its ability to mean many things to many different people.

Novels

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 a detective novel, but it contains within it a deeper structure based on the tale of

Oedipus Oedipus (, ; "swollen foot") was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. A tragic hero in Greek mythology, Oedipus fulfilled a prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby bringing disaster to his city and family. ...

. 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 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 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'' 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 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 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 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).

Films

Robbe-Grillet's career as 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 The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award (also known as an Oscar) for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best ...

and won the

Golden Lion The Golden Lion () is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguished prizes. In 1970, a ...

when it came out in 1961. In the credits it 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 The Louis Delluc Prize ( ) is a French film award presented annually since 1937. The award is bestowed to the Best Film and Best First Film of the year on the second week of each December. The jury is composed of 20 members, consisting of a group ...

'' of 1962. This was followed by his most commercially successful film after ''Last Year at Marienbad'': '' Trans-Europ-Express'' (1966) starring

Jean-Louis Trintignant Jean-Louis Xavier Trintignant (; 11 December 1930 – 17 June 2022) was a French actor. He made his theatrical debut in 1951, and went on to be regarded as one of the best French dramatic actors of the post-World War II, war era. He starred in m ...

, 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 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). Robbe-Grillet 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.

Bibliography

Fiction

*'' Un Régicide'' (1949) *'' Les Gommes'' (1953) – Fénéon Prize *'' Le Voyeur'' (1955) *'' La Jalousie'' (1957) *'' Dans le labyrinthe'' (1959) *'' La Maison de rendez-vous'' (1965) *'' Projet pour une révolution à New York'' (1970) *'' La Belle Captive'' (1975) *'' Topologie d'une cité fantôme'' (1976) *'' Souvenirs du Triangle d'Or'' (1978) *''

Djinn Jinn or djinn (), alternatively genies, are supernatural beings in pre-Islamic Arabian religion and Islam. Their existence is generally defined as parallel to humans, as they have free will, are accountable for their deeds, and can be either ...

'' (1981) *'' La Reprise'' (2001; published in English in 2003 as ''Repetition'') *'' Un Roman sentimental'' (2007)

Short story collection

*'' Instantanés'' (1962)

"Romanesques"

*'' Le Miroir qui revient'' (1985) *'' Angélique ou l'enchantement'' (1988) *'' Les derniers jours de Corinthe'' (1994)

Essays

*'' Pour un Nouveau Roman'' (1963) *'' Le voyageur, essais et entretiens'' (2001) *'' Préface à Une Vie d'Écrivain'' (2005)

Filmworks available as ciné-novels

*1960: '' L'Année dernière à Marienbad'' Les Éditions de Minuit ASIN: B005MP60NO *1963: '' L'Immortelle'' Les Éditions de Minuit ASIN: B0014Q17Z6 *1974: '' Glissements progressifs du plaisir'' Les Éditions de Minuit ASIN:B0048IY7OK *2002: '' C'est Gradiva qui vous appelle'' Les Éditions de Minuit

Other works

In 1975, Robbe-Grillet and

René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgium, Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature ...

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, 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'' 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.

Collaborations

*''Temple aux miroirs'', with Irina Ionesco (1977)

Filmography

*'' L'immortelle'' (1963) *'' Trans-Europ-Express'' (1966) *'' L'homme qui ment / Muž, ktorý luže'' (1968) *'' L'Eden et après / Eden a potom'' (1970) *'' N. a pris les dés...'' (1971) *'' Glissements progressifs du plaisir'' (1974), starring Anicée Alvina, Olga Georges-Picot, Michel Lonsdale, Jean Martin; editor Bob Wade; producer Roger Boublil *''Le jeu avec le feu'' / '' Playing with Fire'' (1975) *'' La belle captive'' (1983), starring: Daniel Mesguich, Gabrielle Lazure, Cyrielle Claire,

Daniel Emilfork Daniel Emilfork (7 April 1924 – 17 October 2006) was a Chilean stage and film actor who made his career in France. Biography Emilfork was born in San Felipe, Chile after his Jewish socialist parents from Kiev fled a pogrom in Odessa. At ...

, , François Chaumette *'' The Blue Villa'' (1995), starring: Fred Ward, Arielle Dombasle *'' C'est Gradiva qui vous appelle'' (2006), starring:

James Wilby James Jonathon Wilby (born 20 February 1958) is an English actor. Early life and education Wilby was born in Rangoon, Burma to a corporate executive father. He was educated at Terrington Hall and Sedbergh School, studied for a degree in M ...

, Arielle Dombasle, Dany Verissimo

References

External links

* *
Alain Robbe-Grillet
– Dossier �
DBCult Film Institute
*

*

in

Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...

Alain Robbe-Grillet Obituary
by Douglas Johnson in

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

, 19 February 2008.
Alain Robbe-Grillet Obituary
in ''

International Herald Tribune The ''International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') was a daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, France, for international English-speaking readers. It published under the name ''International Herald Tribune'' starting in 1967, but its ...

'', 18 February 2008.
A tribute to Alain Robbe-Grillet
i
Art Forum
* Alexander Victorovich Fedorov
Analysis of Art House Media Texts Use during Media Studies in the Student Audience (Alain Robbe-Grillet Movies Case Study)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robbe-Grillet, Alain 1922 births 2008 deaths Film people from Brest, France French literary critics French film directors Counterculture of the 1960s Members of the Académie Française Officers of the Legion of Honour Lycée Buffon alumni Lycée Saint-Louis alumni Agricultural engineers French male novelists 20th-century French novelists Prix Fénéon winners BDSM writers 20th-century French male writers French male non-fiction writers French World War II forced labourers