He modernized French literature. Disturbed by its radicalism. Shocked by his sexually explicit works. Writer, filmmaker, provocateur, Alain Robbe-Grillet would have been 100 years old this year. And yet, this anniversary is largely passed over in silence, as if we wanted to erase the memory of this extraordinary character, who died in 2008.
Benoît Peeters redresses the injustice by signing the very first biography devoted to this figurehead of the “New Roman”, a literary movement that appeared in the mid-1950s. The style, simple and effective, has nothing to do with opacity novels by Robbe-Grillet, deemed difficult to read. We understand the author’s career, his disruptive approach, his influence within Éditions de Minuit (an avant-garde publishing house of which he was for a long time the literary director), his place in the nebula of the New Roman ( which also included Nathalie Sarraute, Claude Simon, even Marguerite Duras), his impact on the intellectual circles of the time (he had attracted the attention of Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault), his attraction for the cinema (Last year in Marienbad, La belle captive) and his sadomasochistic inclinations, which he made no secret of.
One wonders if his sometimes perverse work would be entirely admissible in this post-#metoo era. The main interested party would undoubtedly plead for fantasy and the freedom to shock. But the biography of Benoît Peeters certainly piques curiosity. And makes you want to know more about the particular universe of the one who gave us Djinn, The voyeur, Jealousy and For a new novel.
Robbe-Grillet – The adventure of the New Novel
Benoit Peeters
flammarion
415 pages