Jean H. Duffy

This is the first extended analysis of Simon’s novels, examining the relationship between the work of the French Nobel prize-winning novelist Claude Simon and that of a number of visual artists whose work he has used as stimuli in the production of his novels.

Claude Simon and the Visual Arts

Reading Between the Lines

Butor, La Modification

Blé en Herbe

Alastair Duncan

This collection of essays celebrates the work of the French Nobel prize-winning novelist Claude Simon. Scholars from France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom reconsider the fifty years of Simon's fiction in the light of his large-scale autobiographical novel "Le Jardin des Plantes" (1997). From a variety of perspectives postmodernist, psychoanalytic, aesthetic contributors reflect on the central paradox of Simon's work: his writing and rewriting of an experience of war so disruptive and traumatic that words can never be adequate to communicate it. The layers of artifice in Le Jardin des Plantes and the nature of Simon's aesthetic are analysed in essays which explore intertextual resonances between Simon and Proust, Flaubert, Borges and Poussin. A complementary view of Simon's Photographies 1937-1970 shows that it too can be seen as form of indirect autobiography.

A Retrospective

Claude Simon

Examines the relationship between the writings of the French Nobel Prize-winning novelist and the work of several visual artists. Duffy (French, U. of Sheffield) looks at references made to the artists in Simon's interviews, public statements, and the novels themselves, and then studies the themes suggested by the interactions between the writer and the artists. Simon's own ambitions and accomplishments in visual arts are also covered, including his direction of a short film and the publication of two volumes of photographs and collages. Contains about 15 bandw reproductions of artworks. Distributed by ISBS. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Elizabeth A. Kaye specializes in communications as part of her coaching and consulting practice. She has edited Requirements for Certification since the 2000-01 edition.

Art and Architecture in the Work of Michel Butor

Signs and Designs

Alastair B. Duncan

This collection of essays celebrates the work of the French Nobel prize-winning novelist Claude Simon. Scholars reconsider the fifty years of Simon's fiction in the light of his large-scale autobiographical novel, 'Le Jardin des Plantes' (1997). From a variety of perspectives - postmodernist, psychoanalytic, aesthetic - chapters reflect on the central paradox of Simon's work: his writing and rewriting of an experience of war so disruptive and traumatic that words can never be adequate to communicate it.

This textbook provides a comprehensive and structured vocabulary for all levels of undergraduate French courses, including relevant higher and further education courses. It offers a broad coverage of concrete and abstract vocabulary relating to the physical, cultural, social, commercial and political environment, as well as exposure to commonly encountered technical terminology. Within each section, words and phrases have been grouped into manageable, assimilable units and broadly 'graded' according to likely usefulness and difficulty. The accompanying exercises for private study and classroom use are designed to reinforce the work done on lists, to develop good dictionary use, to encourage independent and collaborative learning, to promote precision and awareness of nuance and register, and to offer the opportunity for the development of cognate transferable skills, such as communicative competence, teamwork and problem-solving. The division of the book into twenty thematic sections allows it to be easily integrated into a modular course structure.

Using French Vocabulary

Providing a structured vocabulary for all levels of undergraduate French courses, this text offers coverage of concrete and abstract vocabulary relating to the physical, cultural, social, commercial and political environment, as well as exposure to commonly encountered technical terminology.

Despite a number of broad surveys of contemporary French fiction that have appeared in the last decade or so, the question of the nouveau roman's literary legacy remains an under-researched field. Thresholds of Meaning offers evidence not only of a reworking of certain traditional themes, but also of a reinstatement of meaning at the center of literary inquiry. Drawing on the fields of sociology, anthropology, and psychology, Jean Duffy argues that this preoccupation with meaning concerns not only the processes of its production within a work, but also the processes by which it is produced in the real world, including the various linguistic and gestural codes by which a community communicates, the customs a community assumes, and the rituals that it observes.

Passage, Ritual and Liminality in Contemporary French Narrative

Thresholds of Meaning

In the course of a writing career spanning half a century, Michel Butor has produced a remarkable range and volume of publications, including fiction, travel works, poetry, critical essays and various types of mixed-genre works which resist ready categorization. Much of this very diverse oeuvre is marked by his life-long passion for the visual arts. This study is the first full-length analysis of the role played by the references to the visual, plastic and architectural arts in Butor’s work. It addresses a wide range of issues including the role of the artwork, building or monument as narrative generator; the reflexive functions of the visual and architectural references; the interaction between visual/architectural references and intertextual citation; the role of collaboration in Butor’s oeuvre; the relationship between cultural baggage and the workings of the unconscious; the tension between Butor’s fascination for non-European artistic traditions and his continuing dialogue with the Western tradition.

Jean H. Duffy

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