| The Sunday of Fiction: The Modern French Eccentric | ||||||||||
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Peter Schulman | |||||||||
| In a world of increasing conformity, the modern eccentric
can be seen as a contemporary hero and guardian of individualism. With
this notion of the eccentric in mind, Peter Schulman's The Sunday of
Fiction defines the modern eccentric in twentieth-century French literature
and compares the notions of the eccentric in nineteenth- and twentieth-century
French literature by tracing the eccentric's relationship to time, space,
and society. While previous studies have focused on the notion of eccentricity
in purely formal terms, The Sunday of Fiction delineates the eccentric
as a fully fictional character. This work completes prior criticism by
including twentieth-century authors such as Raymond Queneau, Jean Echenoz,
Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Georges Perec, and filmmakers such as Jacques
Tati and Pierre Etaix. Since the nineteenth century, notions of eccentricity have shifted from foppish, outlandish representations of aristocratic eccentrics toward a popular, discreet figure who is uniquely in tune with vanishing spaces of daily life: amusement parks, cafés, and grand movie palaces. While the modern world is obsessed with speed and technology, modern French eccentrics view daily life as a sort of holiday. In this way, The Sunday of Fiction details the various means modern eccentrics employ to successfully transform the humdrum into the marvelous, work time into free time, or rather Mondays into Sundays.
Peter Schulman, Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, is the co-author of Le dernier livre du siècle with Mischa Zabotin, a series of interviews on the notion of fin de siècle with over seventy prominent French personalities. He has written articles on nineteenth- and twentieth-century French literature and is the co-editor of Rhine Crossings: France and Germany in Love and War and The Marketing of Eros: Performance, Sexuality, and Consumer Culture, both volumes of essays. 1-55753-251-6 |
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| Last Updated: August 11, 2009 | ||||||||||
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