Fuzzy Fiction examines the phenomenon of "fuzziness," both figurative and structural, in the contemporary French novel. Fuzziness, as originally conceived by Bertrand Russell a century ago, eventually led to the fuzzy set theory of mathematics, on which Jean-Louis Hippolyte bases his theory of literary criticism. In literature the use of fuzziness as a critical lens reveals how semantic ambiguity translates into ontological uncertainty, and why we should look past singularity and toward multiplicity. The paradoxical coincidence of order and disorder, the seemingly infinite exploration of narrative options, and the principle of undifferentiated identity all contribute to a general poetics of vagueness. It is this capital notion of vagueness that Hippolyte identifies as integral to contemporary French fiction and contemporary literature in general.

In Fuzzy Fiction Hippolyte examines a set of avant-garde French writers-Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Marie Redonnet, Eric Chevillard, Francois Bon, and Antoine Volodine-whose aesthetic differences, he argues, exemplify the current uses of vagueness in contemporary French literature. Far from forsaking avant-gardism or pandering to the reactionary values of commercial publications, fuzzy fiction, Hippolyte suggestively argues, exceeds and subverts traditional boundaries between the avant-garde and mainstream fiction. A bold innovation in the domain of the contemporary novel, fuzzy fiction inaugurates a richly diverse discourse for the twenty-first century.

An evaluation of the work of contemporary French authors through the lens of the fuzzy set theory of mathematics

About the Author
Jean-Louis Hippolyte is an assistant professor of French at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

Reviews
"Providing fascinating insights, this persuasive, thought-provoking book explains how authors have adapted to an ever-changing environment."-CHOICE



Book Information
ISBN 9780803224889
Author Jean-Louis Hippolyte
Format Paperback
Page Count 277
Imprint University of Nebraska Press
Publisher University of Nebraska Press
Weight(grams) 494g