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Xsrox University Microfilms 300 NorthZaab Rood Ann Arbor, Michigan 40106 76-10,023 PENROD, Lynn Kettler, 1946- THE RULES OF THE GAME: THE NOVELS OF J.M.G. LE CLEZIO (1963-1973). The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1975 Literature, modern Xerox University MicrofilmsAnn , Arbor, Michigan 46106 © Copyright by Lynn Kettler Penrod 1975 / THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. THE RULES OF THE GAME: THE NOVELS OF J.M.G. LE CL^ZIO (1963-1973) DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Lynn Kettler Penrod, B.A., M.A.T. ***** The Ohio State University 1975 Reading Committee: Approved By Pierre Astier Eleanor Webster Bulatkin Charles G. S. Williams Advisor Department of Romance Languages and Literatures For My Parents / i i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writing of a dissertation is not an easy task and would become, 1 think, an impossible one were it not for the help and encouragement received by the writer from colleagues, friends, and family. I should like, therefore, to express my apprecia­ tion to Professor Pierre Astier, my dissertation director, for his patience and good humored criticisms of my work and for his willingness to see me safely through this project. I should also like to express my thanks to Professor Sanford S. Ames, who first introduced me to the writing of J.M.G. Le Clezio, and to all the members of the French faculty at Ohio State who have encouraged me in my work. My deepest thanks, too, go to my friends on the fourth floor of Dieter Cunz Hall, who have shared the ups and downs of the past three years with me. To Eleanor Webster Bulatkin, who gave me a "room of my own” at 167 West Winter in Delaware, Ohio, during the winter of 1975, I should like to express my special appreciation for her many kindnesses to me during the writing of this dissertation. Finally I should like to thank Professor Hugh M. Davidson of the University of Virginia and Professor i i i Georges C. May of Yale University# who encouraged me to continue in the field of Romance Languages. They are out­ standing examples of both literary scholarship and univer­ sity teaching# and my debt to them is great. I can only hope that this dissertation and my work to follow will prove worthy of their belief in me. / i v VITA July 25, 1946 ............. Born— Piqua, Ohio 1967......................... B.A., summa cum laude, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1968* *■**■••**** M.A.T., Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut NDEA Fellow 1968-69 .................... Instructor, Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School, Dayton, Ohio 1969-70 .................... Fulbright grant Assistante d'anglais, Lyc€e Mixte d'Etat Dumont d'Urville, Toulon, France University of Aix-Marseille Aix-en-Provence, France 1970-72 .................... Instructor, Oakwood High School, Dayton, Ohio Adjunct Instructor, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio 1972-75 .................... Teaching Associate and University Fellow, The Ohio State University, Department of Romance Languages, Columbus, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: French Language and Literature Studies in Twentieth-Century French Literature. Professor Pierre Astier. v (VITA CONT'D) Studies in Medieval French Literature. Eleanor Webster Bulatkin. Minor Field: Italian Language and Literature. Professor Albert N, Mancini. v i LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1 . Roger Caillois' Typology of Gaines........... 2 . Roger Caillois' Typology of Gaines in Relation to Society . .............. / vii The folloving is a list of Le Clezio's major works and the abbreviations by which we shall refer to these titles in the text: Le Proces-verbal................ PV La F i e v r e ...................... F L'Extase materielle ........... EM Le D e l u g e ...................... D Terra amata * .................. TA Le Livre des fuites ............. LF La G u e r r e ...................... G H a i ............................. H Les Grants...................... GS Mydriase. ............. M v i i i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................... iii VITA..................................................... V LIST OF TA B L E S .......................................... vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .................................. viii INTRODUCTION............................................ 1 Chapter I. Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio: The Man, the Works, the Critics .................. 11 II. Game, Play, and Literature: An Introduction ................................. 45 III. Leclezian Game and Play: The Psychological Dimension ...................... 83 IV. Leclezian Game and Play: The Ontological Dimension ........................ 125 V. Leclezian Game and Play: The Socio-Cultural Dimension........................ 159 VI. Leclezian Game and Play: The Aesthetic Dimension ........................... 200 CONCLUSION.................................................235 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................. 248 INTRODUCTION La force de I'art, c'est de nous forcer S regarder les m£mes choses ensemble. J.M.G. Le Clezio At the age of 35, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio is already the author of six novels (Le^ Procfes-verbal, 1963; Le Deluge, 1966; Terra amata, 1967; Le_ Livre des fuites, 1969; La Guerre, 1970; and Les Geants, 1973), a collec­ tion of short stories (La^ Fievre, 196 5), a volume of crit­ ical essays (L *Extase mat^rielle, 1966) , and numerous articles of literary criticism published in various French and European periodicals. He is also the author of Hai (1972), one volume in the Skira art collection series, "Les Sentiers de la Creation." His latest work, Mydriase, which appeared in 1973, ten years after the resounding suc­ cess of his first novel, Le Proces-verbal (Prix Renaudot), is a surrealistic creation, neither novel nor short story J but truly texte.1 During the ten-year period from 1963 to 1973 with which we will be concerned in this study, Le Clezio has worked steadily, producing his writing at regular intervals. His works have been received fairly well by both critics and the general reading public, and translations of his major works are readily available in English, German, Spanish, Italian, and Flemish- Far from being a meteoric talent whose light quickly burns low or is extinguished altogether by too much attention too soon, Le Clezio dur­ ing his first decade as a writer has managed both to mature as an artist and yet retain the rather magical and fresh quality of youthful innocence and playfulness which is characteristic of all his work. But while critical attention of a popular journal­ istic nature (as evidenced by numerous articles and inter­ views in L 1Express and Le Figaro Litteraire) has not been lacking in Le Clezio's career, serious critical studies have not appeared about his work in the way they have about novelists like Michel Butor, Alain Robbe-Grillct, Nathalie Sarraute, or Claude Simon. Critical interest in the so-called nouveau roman has seemed to lead more scholars to study the works of these authors (sometimes called the "Midnight Novelists" since they are published by Les Editions de Minuit) and to discuss, too, the formalistic challenge to the novel presented by the writers of the Tel Quel entourage including Roland Barthes, Philippe Sollers, Julia Kristeva, Jean-Pierre Faye, and others. Critics interested in the perennial crise du roman in French literature have limited their attention to Le Clezio to the usual book reviews of each of his publications as they appear and to several analyses of article length (such as Jacques Bersani's "Le Clezio sismographe"

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