Subversions of Verisimilitude: Reading Narrative from Balzac to Sartre

Subversions of Verisimilitude focuses on the ways in which a number of French literary narratives written in the realist tradition show a dynamic balance between the desire of the author/narrator to present a verisimilar world and the need for aesthetic balance. While the works studied-narratives by Balzac, Flaubert, Zola, Colette, Proust, and Sartre-range over the course of a century, from 1835 to 1938, they share a perspective on the relations between and the need to engage questions of realist verisimilitude and narrative interest and aesthetics. The book discusses some of the subversive paths taken in realism and, specifically, in canonical narratives solidly anchored in the tradition. The goal here is to analyze these realist texts, regardless of the narrative mode chosen, in order to see the deviations and detours from realism, mostly for aesthetic ends.The book contributes to our understanding of nineteenth- and twentieth-century narrative and furthers our knowledge of the ways in which critical theory illuminates such canonical works.

About the Author :
Lawrence R. Schehr is Professor of French at the University of Illinois. His most recent books are Figures of Alterity: French Narrative and Its Others, French Gay Modernism, and a translation of The Third Sex.

Review :
Focusing on realism's deviations from itself, Subversions of Verisimilitude illuminates major authors like Balzac, Flaubert, Colette, Proust and major works like Germinal and La Nausée. It is a splendid performance and a major contribution to the study of realist representation.---—Gerald Prince, University of Pennsylvania Schehr's close analysis of the 'perverse paths' taken by writers from 1830–1939 makes this readable study insightful and fascinating. Highly recommended. (—Choice) In this lucid and intelligent book, Schehr shows how the literariness of realist narrative undercuts its mimetic claims. Schehr's neo-formalist approach allows us to see realism as a profoundly subversive mode of representation, suspicious of its own textual proprieties. A major work by a major critic, Subversions of Verisimilitude will prove of interest both to specialists and to students looking for an introduction to the modern French literary tradition.---—Maurice Samuels, Yale University At once playful and serious--and wonderfully witty--Subversions of Verisimilitude is a must-read for all fans and detractors of canonical realism and the world it has helped to construct. Schehr gives his reader a cutaway view of two centuries of surface verisimilitude and its deep-structure deconstructions. Here is realism splayed on the page in all its polymorphously perverted states.---—Janet Beizer, Harvard University "Schehr situates the originality of his perspective within the richness of his critical tradition. He does this deftly and intelligently, creating a fascinating perspective on realism and its history." ---—David Bell, Duke University