From Selection to Resistance: A View of French Twentieth-Century Literary History

Author: Liu Mingjiu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: France is a nation that cherishes individual freedom, and French literature adheres to the highest principle of pursuing the freedom of creative individuality. As a result, most new schools of thought and artistic styles in the world often originate from there. The field of French literature has always been a free and diverse landscape of various styles, especially in the 20th century, which was more conducive to individual development. Therefore, in 20th-century French literature, extraordinary and independent geniuses are abundant. For literary history, while there is always a need to categorize and generalize, many writers in 21st-century French literature are difficult to classify. The tenth part of this book focuses on some writers who are hard to fit into fixed categories. The reason they are difficult to classify lies in the uniqueness and bold expression of their creative individuality. Ironically, this very boldness has become their common trait. Especially, they all boldly elevate their self-individuality, self-spirit, and self-state into literature, a distinctive feature. From Rilke, Sartre, Colette, and Camus, to Jean Genet, Marguerite Duras, and Fran?oise Sagan, none of their works lack a highly emphasized, capitalized "I." This allows us to tentatively group them all under the term "self-expressive geniuses."