Unfettering constraint : deconstruction and the question of interpretation in the work of Georges Perec

Abstract

The prolific body of work which Georges Perec produced in a remarkably short period of time is notoriously heterogeneous (from 1965, the date of publication of his first novel, Les Choses, until his death in 1982, his published work includes some nine novels, two plays, two collections of poetry as well as many unclassifiable prose works of greater and lesser length). Apart from any perceived 'difficulty' (and Perec was one of the most readable of the 'serious' writers of the period) it would seem that it was this stubborn versatility - or wilful unpredictability - which was responsible for his lack of public success during his writing life. It is true that Les Choses was a surprise best-seller, winning the Prix Renaudot in 1965. It is also true, however, that he effectively annulled this success by following the sombre sociological - to limit ourselves to surface descriptions - Les Choses with the frivolous Queneauesque Quel petit vélo a guidon chromé an fond de la cour?-, and that this was in turn followed by the oppressive Kafkaesque Un homme qui dort, and that this was followed by the eccentric detective-style novel La Disparition; and so on, until a bewildered public could once again recognise something of Perec's 'style' in the apparently more classically realist La Vie mode d'emploi, his career being bookended with success when this latter won the Prix Médicis in 1978.