Robbe-Grillet, Alain (1922-2008), a French writer, literary critic, and film director, laid the groundwork for the New Novelists in French literature.
In his essays, he argued for a nouveau roman (new novel), also called the antinovel. Robbe-Grillet opposed writing that rested on preordained ideas (ideas decided in advance) and on orderly plots, defined characters, and authors’ explanations of events. In contrast, the new novels mix time, place, and points of view. They often describe things in great detail. They blur differences between the subjective (what a person might think) and the objective (what actually exists).
Such approaches, rooted in uncertainty, can confuse the reader and obscure understanding. Critics point out, however, that reality in life is often unclear and confusing. The new novel forces readers to create their own response to events depicted.
Robbe-Grillet’s first two novels deal with murder. They are Les gommes (The Erasers, 1953) and Le voyeur (The Voyeur, 1955). His other novels include La jalousie (Jealousy, 1957), Dans le labyrinthe (In the Labyrinth, 1959), La maison de rendez-vous (The House of Assignation, 1965), Projet pour une révolution à New York (Project for a Revolution in New York, 1970), Souvenirs du triangle d’or (Recollections of the Golden Triangle, 1978), Djinn (1981), and Le reprise (Repetition, 2001).
Robbe-Grillet gained international fame for his screenplay for the controversial motion picture Last Year at Marienbad (1961). He also wrote and directed such films as L’Immortelle (1962), Trans-Europe-Express (1966), and The Blue Villa (1994). His short stories were collected in Instantanes (Snapshots, 1962). A selection of his essays was published in Pour un nouveau roman (Towards a New Novel, 1963). He also wrote a memoir, Le miroir qui revient (Ghosts in the Mirror, 1985).
Robbe-Grillet was born on Aug. 18, 1922, in Brest, France. He studied agriculture at the National Institute of Agronomy, graduating in 1944. From 1945 to 1950, he was a statistician at the National Institute of Statistics. In 1954, he became the literary adviser for the Paris publisher Editions de Minuit. In 2004, Robbe-Grillet was elected to the French Academy, an organization of France’s leading writers and other intellectuals (see French Academy). Robbe-Grillet died on Feb. 18, 2008.
