Self-Conscious Art
Subtitle: Patrick Modiano's Postmodern Fictions (Liverpool University Press - Modern French Writers)
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Published: February 1, 2001
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 176
ISBN-13: 9780853235262
Subjects: Novels, other prose & writers: from c 1900 -; Postmodernism; Literary Criticism; European - French; Literature - Classics / Criticism; French; Postmodernism (Literature); LIT; LIT004150; Literary Criticism & Collections / French; Modiano, Patrick; Criticism and interpretation; 1945-; 20th century; French fiction; History and criticism; Modiano, Patrick,
Description: 'A Self-Conscious Art' deals with the formal complexities of Modiano's work, by reading 'against the grain' of his self-professed ingenuousness. A detailed examination of his narratives shows the deeply postmodern nature of his writing. Parodying precursors such as Proust or the nouveau romanciers, his narratives are built around a profound lack of faith in the ability of writing to retrieve the past through memory, and this failure is acknowledged in the discreet playfulness that characterises his novels.