Georges Perec and Anne Garréta: Oulipo, Constraint and Crime Fiction

Abstract

This article examines two novels written by members of the Oulipo group, exploring the ways in which Georges Perec's La Disparition (1969) and Anne F. Garréta's La Décomposition (1999) both use Oulipian constraints within a narrative infrastructure drawn from subgenres of crime fiction: La Disparition is a whodunnit, and La Décomposition a first-person noir narrative. I argue that Perec and Garréta use the alliance of constraint and crime fiction in order to articulate a probing account of their protagonists’ impossible quests for metaphysical certainty in the face of death and loss. The genre-constraint alliance is also the means by which Perec and Garréta express their dissatisfaction with aspects of contemporary literary culture and reception. The article examines why the tropes of crime fiction are of particular use to these Oulipian authors in their investigation of the purposes and potential of literature.