alain robbe-grillet (1922 - 2008)

Alain Robbe-Grillet, the French writer who pioneered the so-called "new novel" genre in the 1950s, died Monday at the age of 85, the Academie Francaise (French Academy) said...He had been admitted to hospital in the Normandy city of Caen over the weekend after suffering a heart ailment.

In a series of essays published in 1963 Robbe-Grillet developed the theory of the "new novel" which sought to overturn conventional ideas on fiction-writing...His theory was that traditional notions such as plot and character should be subordinated to impersonal descriptions of physical things...His first published book -- "Les Gommes" [The Erasers] -- established him as a leader of a new generation of writers that also included Samuel Beckett, Claude Simon and Natalie Serrault... Robbe-Grillet said the term 'new novel' was aimed at "all those seeking new forms for the novel ... and all those who have determined to invent the novel, in other words to invent man."