From surrealism to less-exquisite cadavers : Léo Malet and the evolution of the French Roman Noir

197 Pages·2006·1.185 MB·English

by  Malet, Léo, Malet, Léo, Emanuel, Michelle

From Surrealism to
Less-Exquisite Cadavers
Léo Malet and the Evolution
of the French Roman Noir
FAUX TITRE
288
Etudes de langue et littérature françaises
publiées sous la direction de
Keith Busby, M.J. Freeman,
Sjef Houppermans et Paul Pelckmans
From Surrealism to
Less-Exquisite Cadavers
Léo Malet and the Evolution
of the French Roman Noir
Michelle Emanuel
With a foreword by Peter Schulman
AMSTERDAM - NEW YORK, NY 2006
Cover illustration: © Marc Gantier/TCS.
Cover design: Pier Post
The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of
‘ISO 9706: 1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents -
Requirements for permanence’.
Le papier sur lequel le présent ouvrage est imprimé remplit les prescriptions
de ‘ISO 9706: 1994, Information et documentation - Papier pour documents
- Prescriptions pour la permanence’.
ISBN-10: 90-420-2080-6
ISBN-13: 978-90-420-2080-1
© Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2006
Printed in The Netherlands
Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 7
Foreword: Léo Malet’s Post-War Paris by Peter Schulman 9
Introduction 17
Chapter One: Expanding Boundaries 31
(cid:2) Shaking Up the Status Quo 34
(cid:2) Slang: un micmac pour le ciboulot 44
(cid:2) Slippage 50
Chapter Two: Surrealist Traces 55
(cid:2) Dream Sequences 59
(cid:2) Altered States 65
(cid:2) Ordinary Objects and le merveilleux 73
Chapter Three: Nestor Burma, comme tu voudras 81
(cid:2) The Anarchist Seeking Order 84
(cid:2) The Likeable Xenophobe 89
(cid:2) The Literary Detective 95
Chapter Four: Supporting Players 101
(cid:2) Informative Symbiosis 103
(cid:2) Surrogate Family 112
(cid:2) Narrative Balance 116
Chapter Five: Paris est Paris, voyez-vous 123
(cid:2) Parisian Curiosities as Cultural Literacy 127
(cid:2) “À battre les pavés de Paris, on s’instruit.” 131
(cid:2) Paris Under Renovation 135
Chapter Six: The Apparent Heirs 141
(cid:2) Jean Amila, La lune d’Omaha 142
(cid:2) Jean-Patrick Manchette, Le petit bleu de la côte ouest 152
(cid:2) Didier Daeninckx, Meutres pour mémoire 163
Conclusion 175
Appendix A: map of Parisian arrondissements with 179
corresponding mysteries from Malet’s series
Appendix B: frequently used slang from Malet’s series 181
Bibliography 185
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Acknowledgements

The realization of this manuscript would not have been possible
without the support of my family, friends and various colleagues. A
complete list would be longer than the manuscript itself, but I would
be remiss without acknowledging a few people:

Dr. Peter Schulman, who encouraged me to revise my dissertation for
publication, even before it had been defended. I have been grateful for
his guidance and editorial advice, and I look forward to working with
him on future projects.

Alain Regnault at the Bibliothèque des Littératures Policières
(BiLiPo) in Paris, who pointed me in the right direction when my
research was leading me astray.

The Fulbright Commission, which facilitated my research in Paris by
sending me to France as an assistante d’anglais in the région
parisienne (1997-98), and the University of Mississippi Office of
Research and Sponsored Programs, which provided funding for
conducting additional research at the BiLiPo in 2004.

Dr. Deborah Hamilton, who led me to discover Léo Malet after
reading his obituary online.

Drs. Lauren Doyle-McCombs and Claudia Nadine, who read many
early versions of the manuscript, and my professors at the University
of Alabama.
Christa Stevens, the editorial board at Faux Titre, and others at
Rodopi, for their assistance during the preparation of the manuscript
for publication.

My colleagues at the University of Mississippi Libraries, whose
patience and indulgence during the completion of this project have
been appreciated.

My mother, for always listening, and for giving the advice I need to
hear.

Michelle Emanuel, University of Mississippi
Oxford, Mississippi, 2005
Foreword

Léo Malet’s Post-War Paris

“There are many ways to take a walk through Paris,” Georges
Perec wrote in Perec/rinations, his whimsical visite guidée of Paris in
twenty-one crossword puzzles, “one can have fixed goals for oneself
or go off on ones’own; one can want to systematically explore each
neighborhood, with a guide in hand, or get on the first bus that passes
by and take it to the end of its line.”1 Although Léo Malet never got to
the “end of the line” of his epic series of novels, Les Nouveaux
mystères de Paris, in which he set out to write one mystery for each of
the twenty-one arrondissements of Paris, he did quite well for himself,
managing to get through an astonishing fifteen of them.2 One can only
imagine what atmospheric delights would have been in store for
readers had Nestor Burma, his tough gumshoe alter-ego, been able to
also explore the rest of the arrondissements such as the seventh, the
eighteenth, or the twentieth . . . perhaps he left that job for another
generation of writers such as Daniel Pennac, who so lovingly sets his
mysteries in the Belleville section of Paris, or Alain Demouzon who
infuses the Parisian banlieues with the existential weight of his
detective hero, Melchior.3 As François Rivière recounts, the idea of
making a new type of Mystères de Paris, by updating Eugène Sue to

1 Georges Perec, Perec/rinations (Paris: Zulma, 1997) 8 (my translation).
2 Because of the many printings of his novels by different publishers, all references to
Léo Malet’s text in this book will come from the five-volume Oeuvres complètes,
edited by Francis Lacassin, (Paris: Laffont, 1985-89). Volumes 1 and 2, Les enquêtes
de Nestor Burma et les nouveaux mystères de Paris, are heavily cited in the format:
(Enquêtes, volume: pages).
3 Malet, in fact, wrote the preface to one of Alain Demouzon’s earlier novels,
Château-des-rentiers (Paris: Flammarion, 1982).