Shaping the Novel: Receptions of the Essais

The dialogue between form and message is intrinsic to the novel as genre. Yet the strength of that discourse has been shaken in the twentieth century by an increasing doubt about affirmations of any kind and a growing awareness of the relativity of knowledge and perception. The novel reflects this intellectual current by turning its glance inward to mediate on the creative act as a form of self-contained assertion of its own particular significance. The three writers on whom this study focuses, all major twentieth century authors, were chosen because they can be considered as important representatives of this novelistic self-consciousness. Building on André Malraux's vision of the colloquium as an open-ended verbal interchange, this study calls upon the voices of Anne Hérbert and Patrick Modiano to enter into a dialogue on novelistic form.

Constantina Thalia Mitchell is Professor of French at Gallauder University (Washington D.C.). She holds a Ph.D. in French literature from McGill University and a licence ès lettres from the Sorbonne. Her publications include works on Paul Verlaine, Anne Hérbert, Yves Beauchemin, and nineteenth- and twentieth century deaf history of Québec. She has served on the executive and editiorial boards of the American Council for Québec Studies, as well as the Galluader University Press editorial board.

Paul Raymond Côté is Associate Professor of French at The American University (Washington D.C.) and received his Ph.D. in French literature from McGill University. The author of Les Techniques picturales chez les romains de Malraux: interrogation et métamorphose (1984), he has also written on other contemporary French authors and has published a number of articles dealing with the literature of Québec. He has served as managing editor of The André Malraux Review and as as member of the Québec Studies editorial board.