The Politics of
the Crime Novel
Jean-Bernard Pouy
Véronique Rohrbach
Lausanne, Archipel, Essais
Volume 13, juillet 2007, 144 pages
Etienne Borgers
Translated by Jeffrey Tabberner
It
was her dissertation for a Master's on French literature at the
University of Lausanne which led Véronique Rohrbach to write
her work Politique du polar (The Politics
of the Crime Novel). It starts from the recognition of the existence
of an element of social criticism within detective fiction since
its origins in the US, and more particularly in the French néo-polars that
appeared in the 1970s as a literary continuation of the protests
of May 1968. Véronique Rohrbach examines the factors which
bring together the authors belonging to this political tendency,
and certain political constants to be found within their novels.
These works can often be seen as extensions of their political activism,
whether real or sympathetic, sharing a certain vision of modern French
society and highlighting its problems and contradictions.
The author's overview of the evolution of
the crime novel, from its beginnings, traceable to a number of sources,
and her examination of the sub-species deriving from it are more
than welcome for the general reader, who is thus able to understand
and engage with the field under analysis, the modern detective novel.
Particularly noteworthy is her attempt to give a definition of the
hard boiled crime novel, its limitations and its particularities.
This approach to reaching a definition is also quite successful.
It is as pertinent as it is necessary, since numerous analysts and
essayists, even recent ones, often evade the problem of defining
the realm of the noir novel,
that is defining the terms which characterise it. In addition, they
use the term ‘noir' in a variety of contexts, thereby adding to the
confusion. And I won't even discuss the extremely vague meaning that
the word ‘polar' has taken on recently in France. Fortunately,
this is not the case with this essay.
What is made equally clear is the desire
of French authors involved with the néo-polar and
its derivatives, to exploit the whodunnit (a genre belonging to popular
literature, and looked down on by officially-accepted writers) by
seizing its most promising sub-genre (the freest in literary terms,
and the most socially innovative), the roman noir. Via this
sub-genre, young contemporary French authors (Daeninckx, Vautrin,
Fajardie, Pouy, Raynal and others) maintained their political commitment
and activities, in spite of the disappointments of the post-1968
period. They did this without using it to produce propagandist works,
or ‘committed' (engagé)
in the Sartrian sense, (nor ascribing to these terms the importance
they were given at that time). At the same time they wished to be
seen as ‘literary rebels' in their rejection of the limited ambitions
of current officially-accepted literature, and of its individualistic
ethic.
Moreover, Véronique Rohrbach
justifiably underlines the ambiguity of the position held by these
French neo-polar authors,
who, on the one hand, challenge the aims of current traditional,
officially respected literature (with their cream covers), in order
to better define themselves and strengthen their anti-establishment
position being linked to a despised literary form, whilst on the
other hand in part buying into the methods and formal literary research
of the opposing camp. This enables them to raise the literary quality
of the novels they produce, the writing quality of which has improved
compared with mainstream French literature of the nineteen-fifties.
The second part of the essay analyses,
in 45 pages, the committed position adopted by Jean-Bernard Pouy – in
the real sense of that term, that is to say in claiming himself
uniquely responsible for the sphere of influence of the roman
noir, to the exclusion
of membership of any other body (Pouy going so far as to reject the
title of author, preferring to call himself a writer of roman
noirs). And of course, his real political commitment springs
from the small left-wing groups of the nineteen-sixties – ironic
traces of which one often finds in his novels. This irony is directed
against petty quarrels amongst various coteries, and the authoritarian
ideologies which can result from them. However, as the essay shows,
Pouy is an author who never denies his social background, or his
left-wing anarchist analyses of present-day society. He stands up
as an aggressive and effective defender of popular literature against
traditionally valued literature. This all takes place within the
examination of a few of Pouy's novels, some interviews, and texts
by other interpreters elsewhere.
In spite of the strong constraints
of university regulations, Véronique
Rohrbach's text is easy to read, and certainly of value. Like many
recent essays written under the aegis of university language departments, The
Politics of the Crime Novel is an analysis which avails itself
of current sociological attitudes, in seeing literature strictly
as an area of social debate. This it certainly is, but it is other
things too. Moreover, given the subject chosen, which calls up notions
of challenging authority and social and political criticism, it is
clear that this sort of attitude can bring to bear an interesting
light on the hard-boiled whodunnit in France, through its motivations,
its aims, its areas of concern, and a sociological profile of its
principal authors. All these are aspects in which Véronique
Rohrbach's essay is more than satisfying.
Moreover, as I mentioned earlier, the fact that she examines the
field of the roman noir , and looks at its character as
well as its unique qualities compared with other genres of crime
fiction, will encourage all true lovers of polars noirs to
ask themselves serious questions whilst expanding their thinking,
if only when faced with the bitter and irrational criticism directed
against it by those upset by her desire to research human and social
truths – and even ethics.
Note:
A general comment in conclusion. It would
be interesting for literary analysts of the modern persuasion to
link literary analysis with research into the literary origins and
the values of a genre, its evolution and above all of the value of
the writers concerned. This would permit the identification of the
flow of influences within a common sub-genre, thus going beyond a
simple historical account. When speaking of genre literature we talk
of literature; why, therefore, this increasing reticence in analysing
its literary value as well, whilst claiming to do so using certain
criteria limited to the genre under examination?
Ideally, we await a series of serious studies, which in examining
the crime novel, use history, sociology and literary analysis (with
value judgements), the whole presented in a cohesive manner, and
no longer separated by the methods employed, or with exercises undertaken
by single-field specialists.
As a second step, we should extend research and comparisons to include
the foreign noir literature (which has experienced a renaissance
since the nineties, being subject to many influences and criss-crossing
national sub-fields of noir literature), and their social
and literary characteristics. The richness of the genre deserves
such treatment.
