French Novel: The 20th Century

(4 Credits)

The major French novelists of the 20th century have moved the novel away from the traditional 19th-century concept. Proust and Gide developed a first-person-singular narrative in which the reader is participant. Breton uses the novel for a surrealist exploration. With Celine and Malraux, the novel of violent action becomes a mirror of man's situation in a chaotic time and leads to the work of Sartre and Camus, encompassing the existentialist viewpoint. Covers Beckett's sparse, complex narratives and Robbe-Grillet's "new" novels. Novels are studied with respect to structure, technique, themes, language, and significant passages.