468
tack against bourgeois society–
then everything has changed. We
are indeed far from the era ()f
Rimbaud, of Gide and Claudel,
and even of the Surrealists. The
avant-garde public is now the
readers of the advice-to-the-love–
lorn columns; and the avant-gar–
de films fail in the little cinemas
but have great success in the neigh–
borhood houses.
But, as I said at the outset, there
is competition among the van–
guards. This is particularly true
in the literary field, where Sagan's
empire is recognized, after all, on–
ly by those who have never had
anything to do with literature. For
there does exist, happily for us, a
group of young writers who show
the normal avant-garde character–
istics. This is to say that they are
not read by a large public, but
that part of the large public knows
their names; that they write with
the conviction that they are bring–
ing something truly revolutionary
to their art; and that, in order
to do this, they obey intransigent
rules of their own making, rules
which they affirm as ineluctable
and universal. I am referring to
the little group composed, notably,
of Alain Robbe-Grillet, Roland
Barthes, Nathalie Sarraute. Michel
Butor
is
usually added to the list
-his novel
La Modification
re–
cently won one of the principal
literary prizes of the season-but
it seems to me that he has noth–
ing in common with this group.
Two very different publications
have recently echoed some of the
preoccupations of these novelists:
the
Figaro Litteraire
and the re–
view
Arguments.
Each did this in
its characteristic way.
Arguments,
which is a serious little review,
opened its pages to one of the
group's theoreticians, Bernard Pin–
gaud, then to several others, cri–
tics and writers, partisans or ad–
versaries of the new school. As
for the
Figaro Litteraire,
it organ–
ized a round table discussion and
gathered around Alain Robbe–
Grillet several critics as well as a
number of authors chosen in such
a way that there could be no com–
mon language among them.
Here then, according to Bernard
Pingaud and Robbe-Grillet, is the
present situation of the French
novel as seen by those who think
of themselves as the pathfinders
of the new literary movement.
The novel, in its finished form,
dates from the nineteenth century.
What was called the "novel" in
the seventeenth century has noth–
ing in common with it except the
name. The novel of the nineteenth
century is built essentially on two
elements: character and story, in
the sense of plot or anecdote. But
character and plot could be the
basic elements of the novel only
because they were related to a "co–
herent social order," that is, to
bourgeois society. "We are stillliv–
ing in this society," says Bernard
Pingaud, "but we no longer be–
lieve in it." Consequently, the col–
lapse of society entails that of one
