Claude Simon

Alastair Duncan (University of Stirling)

Ed. by Siobhán McIlvanney, King's College London
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.07: French Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Averis (University of Western Australia), Hugo Azerad (University of Cambridge), Patrick ffrench (King's College London), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Akane Kawakami (Birkbeck, University of London), Siobhán McIlvanney (King's College London), Sinan Richards (King's College London), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Dates

Born 10 Oct 1913
Died 6 Jul 2005
Activity 1945-2005

Places

Born in Madagascar
Active in France

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Resources

Simon's Works

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The French novelist Claude Simon was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1985. His novels span the second half of the twentieth century from

Le Tricheur

[

The Cheat

] published in 1945 to

Le Tramway

[translated as

The Trolley

] in 2001. Taken together, Simon’s novels can be seen as a vast autobiographical fiction, returning again and again to the same motifs and themes from his own and his family’s life: war, memory, and loss. They are shot through with his keen attachment to the life of the senses, especially sight; enlivened by irony and humour; remarkable for their constantly changing forms.

Simon’s early life was marked by the great events of twentieth-century European history. He was born on 10 October 1913 in Tananarive, Madagascar, where his father was stationed as an officer in a

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3175 words

Citation: Duncan, Alastair. "Claude Simon". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 May 2023 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12879, accessed 31 October 2024.]