
Contents
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
The Precarity of Characters after the New Novel The Precarity of Characters after the New Novel
-
Medium-Light Balzac Medium-Light Balzac
-
Supermarket Milieus Supermarket Milieus
-
From the Bildungsroman to the Picaresque Novel From the Bildungsroman to the Picaresque Novel
-
-
-
-
7 From Rastignac to Subutex: The Immobilization of the Fictional Character
Get access-
Published:January 2024
Cite
Abstract
Moving away from autobiography, this chapter documents how twenty-first-century novels are no longer places of upward mobility but of social immobility and downgrading. Robbe-Grillet and Sarraute did not kill but demoted the Balzacian character in their manifestos. As a result, if formalist writers today want to both adhere to the New Novel legacy and address social issues, they are condemned to craft precarious characters. The discussion then turns to Houellebecq and his portrayal of the middle class. However successful, his characters of parvenus, managers, and billionaires—who often compare themselves to Balzac’s social climbers—always end up stuck in the middle of the ascent or struggle to renounce their middle-class mentality. Despentes, too, explicitly emulates Balzac. But she makes the novel form transition from bildungsroman to picaresque. The character of her best-selling trilogy is a broke and homeless version of Rastignac who goes places without making it anywhere, who lives on a hillock but refuses to climb the ladder. He stands as the literary emblem of social mobility brought to a standstill at the turn of the twenty-first century. Additionally, this chapter peruses supermarkets in the works of Houllebecq and Ernaux to compare the relationship between class and consumerism.
Sign in
Personal account
- Sign in with email/username & password
- Get email alerts
- Save searches
- Purchase content
- Activate your purchase/trial code
- Add your ORCID iD
Purchase
Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.
Purchasing informationMonth: | Total Views: |
---|---|
May 2024 | 2 |
August 2024 | 2 |
Get help with access
Institutional access
Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:
IP based access
Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.
Sign in through your institution
Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.
If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.
Sign in with a library card
Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.
Society Members
Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:
Sign in through society site
Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:
If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.
Sign in using a personal account
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.
Personal account
A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.
Viewing your signed in accounts
Click the account icon in the top right to:
Signed in but can't access content
Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.
Institutional account management
For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.