Xerox Univereity Microfilms 300 North Zoob Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 RODRIGUEZ, Fernando, 1933- IHE ART of CLAUDE SIMON: a DUAL PERSPECTIVE
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Xerox Univereity Microfilms 300 North Zoob Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 RODRIGUEZ, Fernando, 1933- IHE ART OF CLAUDE SIMON: A DUAL PERSPECTIVE. [Portions o£ Text in French] The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1973 Language and Literature, modem | University Microfilms, A \ERO\Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan © Copyright by Fernando Rodriguez 1973 THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIV ED. THE ART OF CLAUDE SIMON: A DUAL PERSPECTIVE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio Stare University By Fernando Rodriguez, U.S., M #A The Ohio State University 1973 Approved by Advisor Department of Romance Languages FOR MY MOTHER TABLE OP CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................... ii VITA.................................... ill INTRODUCTION ........................ ......... 1 Chapter I. THE MAN AND HIS WORK................ ..... 7 II. HISTORY, TIME AND MEMORY................ 62 III, THE THEMATIC UNITY OP LE PALACE......... 99 • IV. SEXUALITY AND THE ETERNAL RETURN....... 157 V. THE CUBIST PERSPECTIVE: "UN GIGANTESQUE COLLAGE" ;............ 183 VI. LES CORPS CONDUCTEURS: WAITING FOR THE PALL............ 21^ CONCLUSION.......................................... 2^3 BIBLIOGRAPHY................................... 252 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am indebted to Professor Ana Llorens and the members of the OSU library staff for their gracious help* I wish to thank Professor Pierre Astier for pointing out the numerous inadequacies in thi3 study during its composition. My most sincere thanks and gratitude are extended to my colleagues and friends in the Division of Compar ative Literature— in particular Harry Rogers, Wayne Lawson and Lowanne Callander— for their encouragement and support. Thanks also to James Brooks and Yvonne Winthrop for carrying me across the finish line. I also appreciate the critical reading and sympathetic support offered by Professor Charles Babcock and wish to express ray appreciation to Dean Arthur Adams for his support in making my interview with Claude Simon possible. Finally, my most sincere appreciation to Monsieur Claude Simon who gave so generously of his time to make this effort a fruitful one for me. VITA March 10, 1933 • • • Born - New York, New York 1950-1952 ........ Active Duty - Armed Forces 1958 • • • • * • • • B.S., School of General Studies, Columbia University 1963 .............. M.A., New York University 1963-1966 • •• • , Instructor, Department of Romance Languages, Ohio Wesleyan University Delaware, Ohio 1966-1968 ........ Instructor, Romance Languages, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1968-1973 ........ Instructor, Comparative Literature, Ohio State University FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Romance Languages Old French Literature. Professor Eleanor Bulatkin Old French Language. Professor Stanley Aston 19th Century French Literature. Professor Charles Carlut 20th Century French Literature. Professor Don. L, Demorest INTRODUCTION Claude Simon*s literary career spans tv/o generations of writers. Chronologically his contemporaries are Beck ett, Sartre, Camus and Malraux; literarily, he is a mem ber of the "Midnight Novelists": a label given to those writers published in the Editions de Minuit among whom-- are included Alain Robbe-orillet, Michel Butor and Robert Pinget. His work dates back as far as 1944-, and there has been a definite progression toward an individuality in style and theme which marks Simon as one of the most intellectually profound masters of the language in the literary scene today. There are the very clear influ ences of Proust, Joyce and Faulkner in the novels; so clear in fact, that certain critics relegated him to the level of secondary writer in the Hew Novelists hierarchy. While this criticism appeared after the publication of two novels in the 1950's, the stigma of pasticheur has remained in spite of very distinct changes in Simon's literary style and structure. The critical lag* in Simon studies will be discussed in Chapter One. In addition to the potential readers who are put off by 2 the idea of reading an " imitator # 11 there is another seg ment of potential readers intimidated by the degree of . difficulty attributed to the works of the New Novelists, and especially to the novels of Simon* The purpose of this disseration is to propose two ways of approaching Simon's novels which.are not unfami liar to the serious reader* This dual approach will consist of two perspectives which represent the'double nature of Simon's work: the temporal and the Cubist perspectives* The first perspective is immediately apparent as the familiar ground of the Joycean and Faulknerian stream-of-consciousness, and the Proustian regard en arrifere. But as we move quickly to that eso teric level of Simon's temporal world which becomes the atemporal conjunction of the heraclitean flux and Eleatic Zeno's paradoxes of motion, his novels reflect the tension of the conflict between mechanical clock time and time perceived through the intellect as con tiguous time periods in a present without duration* The Cubist perspective represents Simon's early training in painting under the tutelage of the famous academician of the Cubists, Andr6 Lhote* As Simon's literary production increases, he incorporates more and more of his artistic vision into his work thus creating 3 a unique literary creation rooted in the tradition of the literary masters of his generation: Proust, Joyce, Faulkner, and inspired by the daring innovations of the Cubist painters, Picasso, Braque, and Gris. To Simon's credit he has continued to grow in both directions rather than standing pat and regressing into a literary anachronism. Although he is the second oldest among the Nev/ Novelists, Simon remains intellectually-young and vigorous; while not forsaking his literary and artistic masters, Simon forges ahead in search of the new tradition which speaks to the new generations of readers and artists. He Joins the other literary explorers, Robbe-Grillet, Butor, et al.. who, indepen dent of each other, labor for constant growth and re newal of their works; and to this endeavor Simon adds the benefit of the painter's eye sharpened by his con tinual study of the other avant-garde masters: Magritte, Francis Bacon, Robert Rauschenberg. Simon has been intimately associated with the Tel Quel group and the influence on his work from this experience will be examined in Chapters Five and Six. It will become immediately apparent, however, that Simon's oeuvre defies categorization under any one exclusive rubric. Anyone who has read two or more Simon novels will soon note that temporal or biographical lacunae in one novel will be filled in by another, so that a patient reader will find that the more novels he reads, the more complete the picture he will have of the whole structure. But before we refer to this phenomenon simply as a puzzle, we would do well to note that the pieces— characters, particular events— do not always merge into physically perfect joints. Rather, one piece may suggest several possibilities or associa tions— more like a collage than a puzzle. This same construction can be seen on the level of language where the writer unfolds his work word by word, association upon association, in a process which the structuralists call fecrlture. It becomes obvious that the structuralist view point cannot be excluded from this study. Therefore, I propose an accomodation which takes into account both sides of the critical spectrum: a conventional approach to an unconventional oeuvre. Chapter One will examine the author and his