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Journey to the End of Art: The Evolution of the Novels of Louis-Ferdinand Céline

1972; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 87; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/460788

1938-1530

Colin Nettelbeck,

Diaspora, migration, transnational identity

Contrary to its negative reputation, Céline's literary opus, with the exception of Voyage au bout de la nuit , evolves toward a spirit of regeneration. Although in Voyage Céline shows the image of death as a paralyzing force to derive from man's egoism, his own artistic vision remains too self-centered to allow him to follow his intuition of the beauty of life. Mort à crédit, Casse-pipe, and Guignol's Band, as novels of initiation, are an attempt to eradicate this egoism, and the presence of death is now counterbalanced both by a structure that permits of catharsis and by the creation of archetypal figures representing the superior value of life. The pamphlets, despite their treatment of the Jews, emphasize and elucidate this shift towards affirmation. The novels of maturity, Féerie pour une autre fois, D'un château l'autre, and Nord, through their structure and symbolism, make explicit that Céline's basic artistic intention has become not only to transcend the disintegration of Western civilization but to provide the mechanism for a similar transcendence in his reader. In Rigodon, he reaches a level of contemplation from which even the collapse of a civilization can be seen as promising new life.