Queneau, Raymond (Vol. 2) - Queneau, Raymond 1903–
Queneau, Raymond 1903–
French novelist, critic, and poet.
Inspired by the example of "the first important book in which the use of spoken French is not limited to the dialogue" [Céline's Voyage au bout de la nuit], Queneau proceeded to develop a theory of linguistics that must have astounded Céline. According to Queneau, the gap between written French, as this was established in the seventeenth century, and contemporary spoken French has now become as wide as the gap between classical Latin and the Romance languages; modern literature, if it is to survive as a living language, must therefore imitate the spoken rather than the written form….
Queneau's language, both dialogue and narrative, is sometimes a phonetic reproduction of ungrammatical or slangy spoken French; sometimes it rises to the heights of epic poetry; sometimes it lies between the two. But at all times, and whether vulgar or sublime, it follows a fairly unified...
[The entire page is 1093 words long]
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