Defective Inspectors
Crime Fiction Pastiche in Late-Twentieth-Century French Literature

Simon Kemp

Legenda (General Series)

Legenda

5 September 2006  •  176pp

ISBN: 978-1-904350-51-4 (hardback)  •  RRP £80, $110, €95

ISBN: 978-1-315095-05-9 (Taylor & Francis ebook)

ContemporaryFrenchFiction


Crime fiction is a popular target for literary pastiche in France. From the nouveau roman and the OULIPO group to the current avant-garde, writers have seized on the genre to exploit it for their own ends, toying with its traditional plots and characters, and exploring its preoccupations with perception, reason and truth. In the first full-length study of the phenomenon, Simon Kemp's investigation centres on four major writers of the twentieth century, Alain Robbe-Grillet (b. 1922), Michel Butor (b. 1926), Georges Perec (1936-82) and Jean Echenoz (b. 1947). Out of their varied encounters with the genre, from deconstruction of the classic detective story to homage to the roman noir, Kemp elucidates the complex relationship between the pasticheur and his target, which demands an entirely new assessment of pastiche as a literary form.

Simon Kemp is a University Lecturer in French at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of St John's College.

Reviews:

  • ‘A detailed and compelling analysis... This is a lucidly executed, perceptive and celebratory exploration of postmodern pastiche that clearly demonstrates the wealth of interest for narrative analysis that lies implicit within its comic absurdities, and Kemp assembles his own readings with the kind of rigour and conviction (and occasionally, humour) of which any great master detective could be proud.’ — Victoria Best, French Studies 505-06

Bibliography entry:

Kemp, Simon, Defective Inspectors: Crime Fiction Pastiche in Late-Twentieth-Century French Literature (Legenda, 2006)

First footnote reference: 35 Simon Kemp, Defective Inspectors: Crime Fiction Pastiche in Late-Twentieth-Century French Literature (Legenda, 2006), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Kemp, p. 47.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Bibliography entry:

Kemp, Simon. 2006. Defective Inspectors: Crime Fiction Pastiche in Late-Twentieth-Century French Literature (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Kemp 2006: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 Kemp 2006: 21.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)


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