Maurice Roche: Crâne, Carne

Abstract

Maurice Roche has distinguished himself from the more traditional nouveau roman through the role he accords to language and through the phenomenon of intertextuality in his three novels, Compact, Circus, and Codex. His approach to both phenomena is well illustrated by the pun "carne/crâne" to which he constantly returns in Circus. The crâne, suggesting death, and the carne, suggesting sexuality, may be seen as the traditional polarities of the eros/thanatos axis, and substantiate an anagrammatic reading of Circus’ title: cri, or death, and cu(l)s, or sex. The pun, as the intersection of two or more signs, becomes for Roche the intersection of two or more sign systems: the spoken word, the written word, and the layout of the printed page. It is in his refusal to accept the linearity of a novelistic text that Roche is the most avant-garde.