Alain Robbe-Grillet

This week Alain Robbe-Grillet left us at the age of 86 years old, productive since his debute as an author in the 1950s. I met with him in Göteborg in 2003 at a seminar around his book "La Reprise". Many authors write to tell their story, while as Robbe-Grillet wrote to discover the world. One of his main characteristics was the optic; detailed descriptions of what could be perceived. Not surprisingly, one of the early titles was "Le voyeur" (1955). According to Robbe-Grillet it was old-fashioned to focus on plot, action, narrative, ideas, and character. Instead, he put forward a theory of the novel as focused on objects: the ideal nouveau roman would be an individual version and vision of things, subordinating plot and character to the details of the world rather than enlisting the world in their service. Robbe-Grillet was one of the main characters in the movement of the French new novel and published in 1963 the essay "Pour un nouveau roman". Other important figures were Nathalie Sarraute, Claude Simon and Michel Butor. I treated Michel Butor's "L'Emploi du temps" in my thesis in comparative literature and enjoy the complex construction that permits to get a new, deeper or just different, understanding even at the third and fourth re-reading.