Transforming space into space-time in "La Route des Flandres" (1960) by Claude Simon

Abstract

The subversion of traditional narrative techniques is one of the main facets of the New Roman. Claude Simon, one of the leading novelists of this literary movement, inscribes his creations in this movement. La Route des Flandres (1960) is in this respect a fertile ground for the transgression of classical spatial aesthetics. In this novel, space is subverted by the way it confuses the reader who seems, like the characters, to be trapped in a labyrinthine road where terror and death reign. Lost in cosmic opacity, the characters are disoriented and desperately search for landmarks. This partly explains the importance of space-time, which appears to be an alternative for the protagonists of the novel to free themselves from the concrete limits of the ruined battlefield, to find themselves in the dream, the power of attorney, the remembrance and reminiscences. Thus, through portraits, letters, newspapers and pictorial paintings, the characters travel here and now, through the thought generated from these objects, in space-time.