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IN THE TEMPLE OF DREAMS - The Writer on the Screen: Proceedings of the 1996 Oxford University Robbe-Grillet Conference
This volume presents the Proceedings of the Oxford University Robbe-Grillet Conference 1996. Robbe-Grillet explores themes in his work with the key World Authorities on his novels and feature films. This is the 100% English Edition. The Talks by Alain Robbe-Grillet and Pierre Van Den Heuvel have been translated from French to English by Edouard d'Araille.
"Je regarde, donc je dérobe" ['I watch, therefore I unveil'] Alain Robbe-Grillet
SUMMARY: Alain Robbe-Grillet (literary "terrorist" and film-maker extra-ordinare), alongside a panoply of international authorities on his work, discusses the course of his career and the relationship between novels and films, the conscious world we normally inhabit and the realm of the subconscious and dreams. Equal focus is placed on his literary and cinematic work, both by Robbe-Grillet himself and by those who speak about his work. The text is an unabridged transcription of the Oxford University Robbe-Grillet Conference 1996, giving an up-close encounter with the author and the contemporary appreciators of his creative output. A 'must' for readers and students of modern literature and cinema theory.
CONTRIBUTIONS: 0. In the Temple of Dreams – Editor's Foreword (Edouard d'Araille) / 1. Alain Robbe-Grillet - Opening Words (Prof. Ian Christie) / 2. Au Temple des Rêves : L'Ecrivain à l'Ecran - Alain Robbe-Grillet (Main Talk of the Day) / 3. Question-Time: A Brief Dialogue with Alain Robbe-Grillet / 4. Magritte, Robbe-Grillet and La Belle Captive - Prof. Ben Stoltzfus / 5. A Sojourn in the Maison de Rendez-Vous - Prof. Roch Smith / 6. Text, Film et Code: Dysnarration et Cohérence - Prof. Van den Heuvel / 7. The Blue Villa: Within the Temple of Dreams - Prof. Anthony Fragola / 8. Sado-Erotic Surfaces - Prof. Raylene Ramsay / 9. The Mirror of Meta-Fiction - Prof. Royal S. Brown / 10. Open Discussion - hosted by Dr. Ann Jefferson
EXTRAS: A Bibliography and a Filmography of all Alain Robbe- Grillet's major works up to the time of the conference (1996).
AN EXTRACT: 'Opening Words' by Ian Christie: "Certainly, for someone of my generation, the work of Alain Robbe-Grillet is absolutely central to the possibility that cinema might acquire some of the complexity and modernity of literature. I still vividly remember queuing until two in the morning to see Last Year at Marienbad as an undergraduate in 1963 in Belfast. The film was so notorious and popular that screenings were held around the clock in a cinema near the university, and I believe people were still queuing at four o'clock in the morning. It is difficult, perhaps, to imagine people queuing today, to see a film as remarkable and experimental as Last Year at Marienbad. But it did happen, I was there, and I remember also the impact made by The Immortal One and The Man Who Lies when those were also shown in Britain.
Sadly, it has been increasingly difficult to see the film works of Alain Robbe-Grillet in Britain; and it says something about our draconian cinema censorship system, which has prevented some of Robbe-Grillet's work being circulated. Britain is the only country in the world which has statutory legal censorship for video, which keeps a lot of challenging and controversial work out of circulation. Unfortunately, therefore, some of his more recent work has not been seen, except in private screenings, which I think is a pity, because Robbe-Grillet has continued to make films and to push forward the boundaries of what is possible on the screen, in parallel with his literary work.
So this is a double career; that of a writer who works on the screen and on the page, and who has continued to do so for an extraordinary span of time.
"Je regarde, donc je dérobe" ['I watch, therefore I unveil'] Alain Robbe-Grillet
SUMMARY: Alain Robbe-Grillet (literary "terrorist" and film-maker extra-ordinare), alongside a panoply of international authorities on his work, discusses the course of his career and the relationship between novels and films, the conscious world we normally inhabit and the realm of the subconscious and dreams. Equal focus is placed on his literary and cinematic work, both by Robbe-Grillet himself and by those who speak about his work. The text is an unabridged transcription of the Oxford University Robbe-Grillet Conference 1996, giving an up-close encounter with the author and the contemporary appreciators of his creative output. A 'must' for readers and students of modern literature and cinema theory.
CONTRIBUTIONS: 0. In the Temple of Dreams – Editor's Foreword (Edouard d'Araille) / 1. Alain Robbe-Grillet - Opening Words (Prof. Ian Christie) / 2. Au Temple des Rêves : L'Ecrivain à l'Ecran - Alain Robbe-Grillet (Main Talk of the Day) / 3. Question-Time: A Brief Dialogue with Alain Robbe-Grillet / 4. Magritte, Robbe-Grillet and La Belle Captive - Prof. Ben Stoltzfus / 5. A Sojourn in the Maison de Rendez-Vous - Prof. Roch Smith / 6. Text, Film et Code: Dysnarration et Cohérence - Prof. Van den Heuvel / 7. The Blue Villa: Within the Temple of Dreams - Prof. Anthony Fragola / 8. Sado-Erotic Surfaces - Prof. Raylene Ramsay / 9. The Mirror of Meta-Fiction - Prof. Royal S. Brown / 10. Open Discussion - hosted by Dr. Ann Jefferson
EXTRAS: A Bibliography and a Filmography of all Alain Robbe- Grillet's major works up to the time of the conference (1996).
AN EXTRACT: 'Opening Words' by Ian Christie: "Certainly, for someone of my generation, the work of Alain Robbe-Grillet is absolutely central to the possibility that cinema might acquire some of the complexity and modernity of literature. I still vividly remember queuing until two in the morning to see Last Year at Marienbad as an undergraduate in 1963 in Belfast. The film was so notorious and popular that screenings were held around the clock in a cinema near the university, and I believe people were still queuing at four o'clock in the morning. It is difficult, perhaps, to imagine people queuing today, to see a film as remarkable and experimental as Last Year at Marienbad. But it did happen, I was there, and I remember also the impact made by The Immortal One and The Man Who Lies when those were also shown in Britain.
Sadly, it has been increasingly difficult to see the film works of Alain Robbe-Grillet in Britain; and it says something about our draconian cinema censorship system, which has prevented some of Robbe-Grillet's work being circulated. Britain is the only country in the world which has statutory legal censorship for video, which keeps a lot of challenging and controversial work out of circulation. Unfortunately, therefore, some of his more recent work has not been seen, except in private screenings, which I think is a pity, because Robbe-Grillet has continued to make films and to push forward the boundaries of what is possible on the screen, in parallel with his literary work.
So this is a double career; that of a writer who works on the screen and on the page, and who has continued to do so for an extraordinary span of time.
170 pages, Paperback
Published March 22, 2000
5 people want to read
About the author
Alain Robbe-Grillet
102 books427 followersScreenplays and novels, such as
The Erasers
(1953), of French writer Alain Robbe-Grillet, affiliated with the New Wave movement in cinema, subordinate plot to the treatment of space and time; directors, such as Jean Luc Godard and François Truffaut, led this movement, which in the 1960s abandoned traditional narrative techniques in favor of greater use of symbolism and abstraction and dealt with themes of social alienation, psychopathology, and sexual love.
Alain Robbe-Grillet was a French writer and filmmaker. He was along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and Claude Simon one of the figures most associated with the trend of the Nouveau Roman. Robbe-Grillet was elected a member of the Académie française on March 25, 2004, succeeding Maurice Rheims at seat #32.
He was married to Catherine Robbe-Grillet (née Rstakian) .
Alain Robbe-Grillet was born in Brest (Finistère, France) into a family of engineers and scientists. He was trained as an agricultural engineer. In the years 1943-44 Robbe-Grillet participated in service du travail obligatoire in Nuremberg where he worked as a machinist. The initial few months were seen by Robbe-Grillet as something of a holiday, since in between the very rudimentary training he was given to operate the machinery he had free time to go to the theatre and the opera. In 1945, Robbe-Grillet completed his diploma at the National Institute of Agronomy. Later, his work as an agronomist took him to Martinique, French Guinea,Guadeloupe and Morocco.
His first novel The Erasers (Les Gommes) was published in 1953, after which he dedicated himself full-time to his new occupation. His early work was praised by eminent critics such as Roland Barthes and Maurice Blanchot. Around the time of his second novel he became a literary advisor for Les Editions de Minuit and occupied this position from 1955 until 1985. After publishing four novels, in 1961 he worked with Alain Renais, writing the script for Last Year at Marienbad (L'Année Dernière à Marienbad), and subsequently wrote and directed his own films. In 1963, Robbe-Grillet published For a New Novel (Pour un Nouveau Roman), a collection of previous published theoretical writings concerning the novel. From 1966 to 1968 he was a member of the High Committee for the Defense and Expansion of French (Haut comité pour la défense et l´expansion de la langue française). In addition Robbe-Grillet also led the Centre for Sociology of Literature (Centre de sociologie de la littérature) at the university of Bruxelles from 1980 to 1988. From 1971 to 1995 Robbe-Grillet was a professor at New York University, lecturing on his own novels.
In 2004 Robbe-Grillet was elected to the Académie française, but was never actually formally received by the Académie because of disputes regarding the Académie's reception procedures. Robbe-Grillet both refused to prepare and submit a welcome speech in advance, preferring to improvise his speech, as well as refusing to purchase and wear the Académie's famous green tails (habit vert) and sabre, which he considered as out-dated.
He died in Caen after succumbing to heart problems
Style
His writing style has been described as "realist" or "phenomenological" (in the Heideggerian sense) or "a theory of pure surface." Methodical, geometric, and often repetitive descriptions of objects replace the psychology and interiority of the character. Instead, one slowly pieces together the story and the emotional experience of jealousy in the repetition of descriptions, the attention to odd details, and the breaks in repetitions. Ironically, this method resembles the experience of psychoanalysis in which the deeper unconscious meanings are contained in the flow and disruptions of free associations. Timelines and plots are fractured and the resulting novel resembles the literary
Alain Robbe-Grillet was a French writer and filmmaker. He was along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and Claude Simon one of the figures most associated with the trend of the Nouveau Roman. Robbe-Grillet was elected a member of the Académie française on March 25, 2004, succeeding Maurice Rheims at seat #32.
He was married to Catherine Robbe-Grillet (née Rstakian) .
Alain Robbe-Grillet was born in Brest (Finistère, France) into a family of engineers and scientists. He was trained as an agricultural engineer. In the years 1943-44 Robbe-Grillet participated in service du travail obligatoire in Nuremberg where he worked as a machinist. The initial few months were seen by Robbe-Grillet as something of a holiday, since in between the very rudimentary training he was given to operate the machinery he had free time to go to the theatre and the opera. In 1945, Robbe-Grillet completed his diploma at the National Institute of Agronomy. Later, his work as an agronomist took him to Martinique, French Guinea,Guadeloupe and Morocco.
His first novel The Erasers (Les Gommes) was published in 1953, after which he dedicated himself full-time to his new occupation. His early work was praised by eminent critics such as Roland Barthes and Maurice Blanchot. Around the time of his second novel he became a literary advisor for Les Editions de Minuit and occupied this position from 1955 until 1985. After publishing four novels, in 1961 he worked with Alain Renais, writing the script for Last Year at Marienbad (L'Année Dernière à Marienbad), and subsequently wrote and directed his own films. In 1963, Robbe-Grillet published For a New Novel (Pour un Nouveau Roman), a collection of previous published theoretical writings concerning the novel. From 1966 to 1968 he was a member of the High Committee for the Defense and Expansion of French (Haut comité pour la défense et l´expansion de la langue française). In addition Robbe-Grillet also led the Centre for Sociology of Literature (Centre de sociologie de la littérature) at the university of Bruxelles from 1980 to 1988. From 1971 to 1995 Robbe-Grillet was a professor at New York University, lecturing on his own novels.
In 2004 Robbe-Grillet was elected to the Académie française, but was never actually formally received by the Académie because of disputes regarding the Académie's reception procedures. Robbe-Grillet both refused to prepare and submit a welcome speech in advance, preferring to improvise his speech, as well as refusing to purchase and wear the Académie's famous green tails (habit vert) and sabre, which he considered as out-dated.
He died in Caen after succumbing to heart problems
Style
His writing style has been described as "realist" or "phenomenological" (in the Heideggerian sense) or "a theory of pure surface." Methodical, geometric, and often repetitive descriptions of objects replace the psychology and interiority of the character. Instead, one slowly pieces together the story and the emotional experience of jealousy in the repetition of descriptions, the attention to odd details, and the breaks in repetitions. Ironically, this method resembles the experience of psychoanalysis in which the deeper unconscious meanings are contained in the flow and disruptions of free associations. Timelines and plots are fractured and the resulting novel resembles the literary
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