French literature of the XXe century

the French literature of the 20th century falls under one century tumultuous marked by two World wars, the experiment of totalitarianisms Fascistes and Communistes and by a difficult Décolonisation. The literature will see also its statute evolving/moving under the effect of the transformation technological like the appearance and the development of the editions of pocket or the competition of other leisures like the cinema, television or the data-processing practice. One will parallel to assist a progressive dilution of the esthetic currents and intellectuals after the time of the Surréalisme, the Existentialisme and the Nouveau Novel.

Context

The 20th century starts in a spirit of freedom which the atmosphere of the Années 1900 evokes: the innovative artists are numerous in the field of the painting with the Fauvisme and the Cubisme which opens the way with the abstraction or in the field of the music with, in France, Erik Satie (1866 - 1925), Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937) and later Pierre Boulez, born in 1925. It is also the moment when the art of the Cinéma with Méliès settles (which will become speaking only as from 1927) and where modernity also is essential in the literary field. The French literature of the 20th century obviously will be crossed by the blows and by-effects of the History which we will point out rapidly.

National antagonisms in Europe lead quickly to the bleeding of the Guerre of 14-18 from which will leave the Soviet Communisme with Lénine then Stalin and the Fascisme S mussolinien then Nazi. The post-war period is indeed a time of international and social tensions with serious economic crises (1929) and determining policy options, thus the Popular front in France is perceived like a victory over the conservative right and its social progresses (paid vacations…) are greeted by the popular classes. Very quickly, the second world war is preceded with the Guerre of Spain (1936 - 1939), where the parties progressists and the the USSR fight against the coup d'etat reactionary of Franco and the supports which bring to him Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. The defeat of the Spanish Republicans seems the prolog of the defeat of France in 1940 vis-a-vis the Nazi Germany which, having conquered Europe, undertakes soon a racial extermination of the " submen " , and in the highest degree, of the Jews. The Shoah remains as the absolute mark of the abomination Nazi and reveals at the same time all compromisings and all collaborations of the individuals and the capacities in Europe like illustrates it the petainism in France. But the German Occupation gives birth to from the movements of Résistance which have also the ambition to transform France, which undertakes the government of the Général De Gaulle with the Libération with economic nationalizations and an industrial relations policy (Social security…). The English, American allies and Russians carried it on Hitler and its Japanese ally at the end of a conflict terrifying by destruction and its deaths (more than 50 million), but very quickly the victorious great powers, launched in the race with the Atomic armaments, enter a " Cold war " where clash the USSR which controls the states of Eastern Europe and the United States which invests role of defender of the Occident and freedom. This confrontation will find its term in the last decade of the century which will see the fall of the Communism whose totalitarian face and the economic failure had become obvious.

Second half of the century is also marked by the Décolonisation and France after the Guerres of Indo-China or Algérie seeks a redefinition of its future in a Europe in construction. However the world diffusion of the French language led to a blossoming of literary works out of the national territory, in Africa in particular, which one names commonly " French-speaking Literature ".

In addition, the 20th century also shows a fast acceleration of the scientific and technological projections which will take part in the richness of the Western countries where extends the American influence. The diffusion of printed works became very important (delivers pocket - phenomenon of the " best-sellers ") with a Feminization of the assistantship which a feminization accompanies by the world of the writers. In addition, the book enters more and more in competition with the Cinéma, the radio and the Disque then the Télévision and the Cartoon, and today the leisures Informatiques: the technological revolutions of the 20th century modify mentalities of the whole world that some see to be standardized with planetary successes like those of Harry Potter and of the Da Vinci Code . France is it also in this world of increasingly accentuated economic competition and " americanized " where one dreams of company of Jeunesse, leisures and consumption while wondering about its or his identity (S), by evoking the youthful rebellion of 1968.

The combat Féministe with Simone de Beauvoircomme figurehead also took part in the transformation of mentalities just like engagement for the " causes; humanitarians " who replace partially the political causes, the individualization of the company being another mark of time with in parallel a weakening of the concept of school artistic and literary movement.

Panorama of the French literature of the XXe century

The 20th century is marked by a handing-over in progressive question of the literary Genres: if the narration becomes the kind more and more dominating with a Romance polymorphic, the borders with the Autobiographie are disturbed with the fashion of " the Autofiction " years 1980-2000, just like the Poésie tends to merge with the Chanson at the same time as the work of Théâtre is replaced by settings in scene starting from nonspecific texts where the director overrides the dramatic author.

In addition second half of the century is particularly marked by the experiments of " literature of laboratory " and intellectual play (New novel - potential Literature), but also by the weight of a commercial literature in strong competition with the translations of American (sentimental collections - detective novels - science-fiction novels - songs…) what retains the literary history little.

Let us recall moreover that the lack of retreat makes obviously difficult categorizations and the scales of value for the contemporary creators. It is of more illusory to seek exhaustiveness and of the choices were made for the benefit greater notoriety of the authors.

The Poetry of the XXe century

The French poetry of the 20th century is at the same time heiress and innovative in her topics as in its form with a clear predilection for the free Verse, but it seems declining at least or moved in the more dubious field of the song.

The beginning of the century shows a great diversity with the heritages of the previous century, which it is about the continuity of the movement Symboliste and decadentist with Sully Prudhomme, Saint-Pol.-Russet-red, Anna de Noailles and certain aspects of Apollinaire, of the line of mental ability and formal work mallarméen with Paul Valéry ( Charmes , 1929), or of the release of the new topics like the humility of the daily newspaper with Francis James ( Géorgiques Christian women , 1912) or Paul Fort ( French Ballades , 1922-1951) and the opening to the modern world with Emile Verhaeren ( sprawling towns , 1895 - All the Flanders , 1904-1911).

In the same years, singular voices are made hear with those which one called " poets of God " like Charles Péguy with his patriotic and religious inspiration and the force of a simple poetry ( Jeanne d' Arc , 1897 - Tapestry of Eve , 1913), or Paul Claudel with its spiritual search expressed through the width of the Verse ( Five Great Odes , 1904 - 1908 - 1910).

It is also the time of the " discoverers " like Blaise Cendrars ( Easter in New York , 1912 - the Prose of Trans-Siberian the , 1913), Guillaume Apollinaire ( Alcohols , 1913 - Calligrammes , 1918), Victor Segalen ( Steles , 1912), max Jacob ( the dice cup , 1917), Persian Saint-John ( Praises , 1911 - Anabase , 1924, with a work prolonged in the duration for example Bitter in 1957) or Pierre Reverdy ( Majority of time , 1945, regrouping of the poems of 1915-1922) which explores " the new Spirit " by seeking the presence of modernity and the daily newspaper (the street, the voyage, technique) and the bursting of the form (disappearance of the rhyme, the punctuation, the worms measured and audacities stylistics exploiting the expressivity of the images, the resources of the rate/rhythm and sonorities…). They precede the research more systematized like that of the Dadaïsme of Tristan Tzara and after him of the Surréalisme which entrusts to poetry exploration Inconscient by using disordered states rimbaldiens and by hustling the " sat ". The major poets of this surrealist mobility are André Breton, the theorist of the movement with the Manifeste of Surrealism in 1924, Paul Éluard ( Capitale of the pain , 1926), Louis Aragon ( Perpetual motion , 1925), Robert Desnos ( Corps and goods , 1930), Philippe Soupault ( the magnetic fields , 1920, in collaboration with André Breton) or Benjamin Péret ( the big game , 1928), with which one can associate painters like Dali, Ernst, Magritte or Miro.

Dissidences appear rather quickly in the group in particular in connection with adhesion with the Communisme, and violences of the History as the Occupation of France will lead many poets to renew their inspiration while taking part in the Résistance and to publish committed texts clandestinely. It is the case of Louis Aragon ( the Eyes of Elsa , 1942 - the French Diane , 1944), of Paul Éluard ( Poésie and truth , 1942 - With go German , 1944), of Rene Char ( Feuillets of Hypnos , 1946) or of Rene-Guy Cadou ( Pleine Chest , 1946). The poets will not be saved by the extermination Nazi: Robert Desnos will die in a German camp and max Jacob in the Camp of Drancy.

However, of individualities works will produce which will reveal different approaches with the onirism touches with very Jean Cocteau ( Plain-Chant , 1923), the searchs for expressivity of Henri Michaux ( Ailleurs , 1948), the verbal play taken again by Jacques Prévert, poet of the daily newspaper and oppressed ( Paroles , 1946-1949) or by Francis Ponge ( bias of the things , 1942) in the search of a poetry in descriptive prose. All translate emotions and feelings in the celebration of the world with Jules Supervielle ( Oublieuse report , 1948) or Yves Bonnefoy ( Pierre written , 1965), celebration renewed by voices come besides like that from Aimé Césaire, the West-Indian ( Cahier of a return to the native land , 1939 - 1960), of Léopold Sédar Senghor ( Chants of shade , 1945) or of Birago Diop ( Leurres and gleams , 1960) which sings Africa.

The increasingly massive diffusion of the discs strongly will take part in a new kind, the poetry Chanson which illustrate in the years 1950-70 Boris Vian, Léo Ferré, Georges Brassens or Jacques Brel. The importance of their successors is quite delicate to establish so much they are numerous, with very variable audiences and effects of modes like the folk song, the Rap or the Slam…

The Theater of the XXe century

The kind of the theater shows locatable evolutions even if the distinctions tend to be scrambled and if one attends the accentuated preeminence of the directors (Louis Jouvet, Jean Vilar, Roger Planchon, Patrice Chéreau…) who partly puts in crisis the text of theater at the end of the century.

The persistence of the Light comedies, popular, amusing and satirical is ensured by Jules Romains ( Knock , 1928), Marcel Pagnol ( Marius , 1929 - Topaze , 1933) then by Sacha Guitry ( Désiré , 1927 - Quadrille , 1937), Marcel Achard ( Jean of the Moon , 1929) - Patate , 1954), André Roussin ( Eggs of the ostrich , 1948) and others, until Agnès Jaoui/Jean-Pierre Bacri ( Cuisine and dependences , 1989) or Yasmina Reza ( Art , 1994) today.

A particular mention must be made for Jean Anouilh which looks further into in an abundant and varied work an approach " moralist " of humanity with subjects smiling and squeaking at the same time (pink Parts) like the traveller without luggage (1937), the Invitation with the castle (1947), Dear Antoine (1969), or of the historical, serious and tragic subjects, (black parts) like Antigone (1944), the Lark (1952) or Becket or honor of God (1959).

First half of the 20th century is at the same time a moment of renewal of the literary theater with the adding up and plentiful dramaturgic compositions Paul Claudel marked by the Christian faith, lyricism and the historical evocation ( the satin Shoe, written in 1929 but assembled in 1943, one five hours duration). A little later, it is by the resumption of the ancient Mythes that will express the tragedy of the man and the history perceived with acuity in the rise of the dangers of the Inter-war period and that illustrate Jean Cocteau ( Orphée , 1926 - the Explosive device , 1934), Jean Giraudoux ( the Trojan War will not take place , 1935 - Electra - 1937), Albert Camus ( Caligula , written in 1939 but created in 1945) and Jean-Paul Sartre ( the Flies , 1943). One can associate with this approach certain parts of Henry de Montherlant like the dead Queen (1942) or the Master of Santiago (1947), nourished of a meditation on the History.

This interrogation on the walk of the world and the influence of Brecht and Pirandello will lead to parts politically more committed and nourishing reflection philosophical on the action, the revolution and the individual responsibility or social. In works testify to Albert Camus ( the state of siege , 1948, Right the , 1949), to Jean-Paul Sartre ( the hands Sales , 1948) or to Jean Genet ( Good the , 1947). The Existentialisme sartrien is also expressed with the theater as with Door - closed , in 1945.

The backward flow of the communist ideology and the complexity of modernity will find their echoes in what one called the " Theater of the absurd " who, in the Fifties, reflects the loss of the reference marks and the distrust with respect to the language manipulator. The playwrights, quite various however from/to each other and autonomous, represent the vacuum, waiting and, influenced by Antonin Artaud ( the Theater and its double , 1938), the vacuity of the language through ridiculous characters, with the absurdity existence and the empty exchanges. This mixture of the metaphysical tragedy and humor in the derision and the destructuration of the language and the theatrical form (not of very long scenes, acts, didascalies abundant) is found at Eugene Ionesco ( the professional singer bald person , 1950 - the Chairs - the Lesson - 1951) and more still at Samuel Beckett ( While waiting for Godot , 1953 - Fin of part, 1957).

Let us add some names of today which show that the text of theater remains alive beside the dramaturgic experiments of the current directors: Jean-Claude Grumberg ( the Workshop - 1979), Bernard-Marie Koltès ( Roberto Zucco , 1988), Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt ( the Night of Valognes , 1991) or Jean-Claude Brisville ( the supper , 1989).

Novels of the XXe century

This very broad kind sees the continuation of the traditional novel but also of the innovations and the questionings like those of the statute of the narrator, the concept of character or the intrigue, often burst and sometimes rejected. Presentation rapidly of the novel of the 20th century (which it would perhaps be necessary to call " récit") is obviously a challenge but one can define some tension fields while following the projection of the century.

Accompanying the traditional form and the ideas progressists by Anatole France ( the island of the penguins , 1908), novelists write romantic major cycle constituting of the Fresques social and historical mark the time, that it is the Thibaut (1922-1929) of Roger Martin of Gard, the Men of Good will (1932-1946) of Jules Romains, the Chronique of Pasquier (1933-1945) of Georges Duhamel or of more complex works like the Ways of freedom of Jean-Paul Sartre (1945) or the Communists (1949-1951)of Louis Aragon.

In parallel the novel will nourish various experiments of the life from each one put some at the day of the singular routes, that it are through the war with Henri Barbusse ( fire , 1916) or Roland Dorgelès (wood crosses, 1919), adolescence with Alain-Baker ( Large Meaulnes , 1913), Romain Roland ( Jean-Christophe , 1903-1912) or Raymond Radiguet ( devil with the body , 1923), the female condition with Colette and the series of the Claudine or the She-cat (1933), nature and regionalism with Louis Pergaud ( the war of the buttons , 1912), Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz ( great fear in the mountain , 1926), Jean Giono ( Hill , 1928 - Renewal , 1930), Henri Bosco ( the Ass Breeches , 1937) or the moral and metaphysical interrogation with Georges Bernanos ( Under the sun of Satan , 1926) or François Mauriac ( Therese Desqueyroux , 1927)).

The psychological novel of deepening initiated by Maurice Bars or Paul Le Bourget, will find two Masters with Marcel Proust and its work founder on the function of the novel and the play of the memory ( With the Research of time lost , 1913-1927), and André Gide, also poet ( terrestrial Foods , 1895) and autobiographer ( If the grain does not die , 1920-1924) who puts in scene the free act ( cellars of the Vatican , 1914) and which transforms the narrative structure in the Counterfeiters (1925). This psychological questioning will lead the following generation to the feeling of the absurdity with the character of Meursault in Abroad (1942) of Albert Camus or Roquentin of Nausea (1938) existentialist of Jean-Paul Sartre. Less prestigious authors can be to them associated as Valéry Larbaud ( Fermina Marquez , 1911) or Paul Morand ( the man in a hurry , 1940).

The weight of the historical events also will direct certain novelists towards engagement into exciting the political and warlike heroes like André Malraux in the Human condition (1933) or the Hope (1937), Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (which is also the author of a pretty universally famous tale the Small Prince , published in 1943) in Night flight (1931) or Ground of the men (1939) or Albert Camus in the Plague (1947). On the other hand appears the type of the anti-hero to the manner of Bardamu of Louis-Ferdinand Céline ballotté by the events and confronted with the nonsense of the world oppressor of weak on all the continents in Voyage at the end of the night (1932).

These orientations particular sets of themes are accompanied by a certain formal revival: Marcel Proust renews romantic prose with its sentence-rosette and cultivates ambiguity as for the author/narrator, Louis-Ferdinand Céline invents a language oralisante, André Malraux applies cinematographic cutting, André Breton ( Nadja , 1928 - insane Love , 1937) and after him Raymond Queneau ( Pierrot my friend , 1942 - Zazie in the subway , 1959), Boris Vian ( the scum of the days, 1947 - the red grass , 1950) and Julien Gracq ( the shore of Syrtes , 1951) introduce a surrealist poetizing, Albert Camus plays, under the influence of the American novel, with the stream of consciousness and the rejection of omniscient focusing in the Foreigner (1942), Jean Giono gives a powerful breath to its creative metaphors in Regain (1930) or in the Song of the world (1934), Francis Carco ( the man tracked , 1922) and Marcel Aymé ( the green mare , 1933) or later Albert Simonin ( Touchez not with the grisbi! 1953) will exploit the greenness of the popular speeches… Formal research becomes systematic with the current which one called " the New novel " the Fifties with the Editions of Midnight: these " novelists of laboratory " with the disappearance of the narrator, of the character, intrigue, chronology for the benefit of subjectivity and disorder of the life work, rough presence of the things with especially Alain Robbe-Grillet ( the Gums , 1953), Michel Butor ( the modification , 1957), Claude Simon ( the road of Flandres , 1960) and Nathalie Sarraute ( the Planetarium , 1959) which is different then clearly from the traditional novelists like Francoise Sagan ( Hello sadness , 1954), Herve Bazin ( Vipère with the fist , 1948), Henri Troyat ( the light of right the , 1959/1963) or Robert Sabatier ( the Safety matches , 1969) or François Nourissier ( German , 1973).

Concurrently to these novels " experimental " or of these works rather not very outstanding, years 1960-80 offer authors of great reputation with marked literary personalities and original and strong works. For example Marguerite Yourcenar ( Memories of Hadrian , 1951 - Work with the black , 1968), Marguerite Duras, sometimes attached to the mobility of the new novel, ( Moderato cantabile , 1958 - the lover , 1989), Albert Cohen ( Beautiful of the lord , 1968), Michel Tournier ( Friday or the limbs of the Pacific , 1967 - the King of the alders , 1970) or JMG Clézio ( the official report , 1963 - Deserted , 1980) or Pascal Quignard ( All mornings of the world , 1991)…

The century is also rich profusion of the popular forms resulting from the 19th century like the Detective novel influenced little by little by the Roman American black with Georges Simenon, ( the yellow dog , 1932), Boileau-Narcejac ( That which was not any more , 1952),), Léo Malet ( Nestor Burma and the monster , 1946), Jean Vautrin ( Canicule , 1982), Didier Daeninckx ( death does not forget anybody , 1989), Philippe Djian ( Bleu like the hell , 1983), Jean-Christophe Grangé ( the Rivers crimson S, 1998)… the Historical novel multiplies with Maurice Druon ( the cursed Kings , 1955-1977), Gilles Lapouge ( the battle of Wagram , 1987), Robert Merle ( Fortune of France , 1977) or Francoise Chandernagor ( the Room , 2002). Abound also the accounts of voyage and adventure (Henry de Monfreid - secrecies of the Red Sea , 1932) and the exoticism and action-packed novels with Jean Lartéguy ( the centurions , 1963), Jean Hougron ( the Indochinese night , 1950/1958) or Louis Gardel (Fort-Saganne , 1980). The Science fiction and the Fantastique also produce a very significant number of works with Rene Barjavel ( Mists of time , 1968), Michel Jeury ( dubious Time , 1973), Bernard Werber ( the Ants , 1991)…, which however have a certain difficulty in compete with work translated.

The vein egocentric person is, it also, very productive with forms more or less innovating of Autobiographie with Marcel Pagnol ( the Glory of my father , 1957), Simone de Beauvoir ( Mémoires of an arranged young girl , 1958), Jean-Paul Sartre ( the words , 1964), Julien Green ( remote Ground , 1966), Nathalie Sarraute ( Enfance , 1983), Georges Perec ( W or the memory of childhood , 1975), Marguerite Yourcenar (“Files of North , 1977) or Herve Guibert ( With the friend which did not save me the life , 1990) and the writing of oneself joins the novel in the rather vague kind of " the Autofiction " with Patrick Modiano ( Street of the obscure shops , 1978), Annie Ernaux ( the Place , 1983), Jean Rouaud ( fields of honor , 1990), Christine Angot ( Prone Angot , 1998), Michel Houellebecq ( the Possibility of an island , 2005)…

Let us finish this overflight of the French novel of the 20th century by noting the contribution, in a certain way refondator, inspiration of elsewhere with some names of the recent period like Réjean Ducharme ( the Winter of force , 1973), Tahar Ben Jelloun ( the crowned Night , 1987), Ahmadou Kourouma ( Allah is not obliged , 2000) or Nancy Huston ( Fault lines , 2006)…

Conclusion

The French literature of the 20th century present of the many facets and great writers who were often crowned by the Nobel Prize of Literature (1901 Sully Prudhomme, 1904 Frederic Mistral, 1915 Romain Roland, 1921 Anatole France, 1927 Henri Bergson, 1937 Roger Martin of Gard, 1947 Andre Gide, 1952 François Mauriac, 1957 Albert Camus, 1960 Saint-John Perse, 1964 Jean-Paul Sartre, 1969, Samuel Beckett - Irishman but its work is written essentially in French, 1985 Claude Simon); but their number rarefies (only one in the thirty last years). The international weight of the French literature is reduced and the translations in foreign languages seem also marked the step, for example 2% of French books translated in Pays_Bas against 23% for the English texts - source and thirty times less French translations in Japan today than thirty years ago - source.

All is not black however (see, in spite of the annoying spelling error), and in addition is done day little by little, in many novelists in any case, a calling into question of a literature nombrilist " without another object that it-même" : they invite their wishes (see a " literature-world " , what can vivify the contribution of the foreign authors using the French language and which symbolizes Jonathan Littell and its novel Benevolent the , crowned in 2006, and for which one announces a world diffusion.

Sources

French literature of the 20th century, Patrick Brunel (editions Armand Colin, 2002)
History of the French literature - Routes (Hatier editions, 1991)
Lists of writers: French-speaking Writers
XXe siècle#Écrivains

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