Reflections on Language in Queneau's Novels

Abstract

The works of Raymond Queneau offer many examples of the characteristically ironic reflexivity of much of modem art. Queneau continually reminds us, by various means, that creations are specifically aesthetic enterprises. The individual words and phrases may be emphasized by unorthodox but revealing orthography (the obvious example is the famous first sentence of Zazie dans le metro:1 Doukipudonktan?), or the verbality of the texts may be accentuated by burlesques of various styles (Queneau's virtuoso Exercises de style [1947] brought him notoriety in the matter of style). In novels and poems he often gently mocks the literary conventions he himself necessarily employs. Structurally, works often double back on themselves. Thus, first novel, Le Chiendent (1933), ends in a reprise of its first sentences, as the characters themselves realize they are characters, recorded in a book, and as they accept the closure of their imaginary world which this truth entails. In most recent novel, Le Vol d'lcare (1968), the Pirandellian reflexivity of the fiction is more extreme: it has to do with the escape of a character from the novel which author is writing and attempt to maintain an autonomous existence. Queneau's novel ends as the novelist closes the book on his adventurous offspring.