The Sunday of Fiction: The Modern French Eccentric

by Peter Schulman

In a world of increasing conformity, the modern eccentric can be seen as a contemporary hero and guardian of individualism. This study 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 also completes prior criticism by exploring twentieth-century fictional eccentrics in works by authors such as Raymond Queneau, Jean-Echenoz, Jean-Philippe Toussaint, and Georges Perec, and by filmmakers such as Jacques Tati and Pierre Etaix. Notions of eccentricity since the nineteenth century shift from rather foppish, outlandish representations of aristocratic eccentrics towards a more popular, discreet figure who is uniquely in tune with vanishing spaces of daily amusement parks, cafes, grand movie palaces. While the modern world around them is obsessed with speed, technology, and innovation, modern French eccentrics view daily life as a sort of holiday to be savored. In this way, The Sunday of Fiction details the various means modern eccentrics employ to successfully transform the humdrum into the marvelous, or rather Mondays into Sundays.

196 pages, Hardcover

First published October 17, 2002

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very mixed feelings about this book. Schulman's interpretations of examples ranging from Verne and Huysman to Echenoz, Tati, and Queaneau were convincing and often enlightening, particular his argument that whereas earlier eccentrics (ie, 19th century) were marked by their willful, resistant lack of control, modern eccentrics—like Toussaint's character Monsieur, or Tati's M. Hulot—are marked by their insistence on taking control of time and space rather than being overrun by them. On the other hand, the argument is made so ahistorically that it the longer it went on the more its interpretative bubble felt artificial. There's no engagement of culture, politics, economics, etc. beyond the pages or frames of his examples, not even to consider the relationships between these characters and archetypal figures like the flaneur, or between these stories and the derivée, or the politics of 1968, and so on.

This was particularly frustrating in terms of gender, a factor Schulman acknowledges ignoring completely but excuses because he's adhering to 19th century definitions of the eccentric and asking how they've persisted or adapted a century later, and those 19th century definitions were only ever about men. Which may be true, but repeating that earlier omission only exacerbates the problem rather than avoiding it. So I was left distracted by wondering if these types of eccentricity are even available to female characters, as the character of the flaneur wasn't available a century earlier, which led me to wonder about any number of other omissions acknowledged and otherwise. Which is not to say any book is responsible for covering everything a reader might ask for, but in this case the admitted avoidance of significant complications undercut the whole project a bit, at least for me.

[Susan Y, · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was great fun to read and edit. The books reviewed contain hilarious protagonists whose attempts to navigate their lives are very funny. I loved it.