Raymond Queneau: a study of technique in fiction

Abstract

This study examines technique in the novels of Raymond Queneau, The first section, 'In defence of the novel', seeks to demonstrate Queneau's particular technical awareness. At the same time, it places his work in the context of changing attitudes to fiction in France since the early 1920's and also connects it with international developments in the theory of fiction, with particular reference to those of Joycean origin. The second section, 'The relation of theme, to technique', examines significant features of Queneau's fiction as they recur throughout his work and relates these to the theoretical aspects considered in Part One. The concluding section, 'Surface and the underlying truth', relates Queneau's approach to fiction and the themes he discovers to a consideration of the role of the novelist in terms of literature and reality. The transcript of two interviews with Raymond Queneau are included in an appendix, as is a complete bibliography of Queneau's writing and also of those critical books and articles concerned with his work.