Watteau in Venice

by Philippe Sollers

The narrator, a corrupt French intellectual, awaits orders for the disposal of a stolen painting by Watteau

Genres: Fiction, France

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Philippe Sollers (born Philippe Joyaux) is a French writer and critic. In 1960 he founded the avant garde journal Tel Quel (along with the writer and art critic Marcelin Pleynet), published by Seuil, which ran until 1982. In 1982 Sollers then created the journal L'Infini published by Denoel which was later published under the same title by Gallimard for whom Sollers also directs the series.

Sollers was at the heart of the intense period of intellectual unrest in the Paris of the 1960s and 1970s. Among others, he was a friend of Jacques Lacan, Louis Althusser and Roland Barthes. These three characters are described in his novel, Femmes (1983) alongside a number of other figures of the French intellectual movement before and after May 1968. From A Strange Solitude, The Park and Event, through "Logiques", Lois and Paradis, down to Watteau in Venice, Une vie divine and "La Guerre du goût", the writings of Sollers have often provided contestation, provocation and challenging.

In his book Writer Sollers, Roland Barthes discusses the work of Phillippe Sollers and the meaning of language.

Sollers married Julia Kristeva in 1967.

Reviews

[Radioread · Rating 4 out of 5]

P.S. Herkes için değil.

[Andrew]

After hearing so much about Sollers' '60s avant-garde works, I decided to check him out, but this '90s offering was his sole contribution to the Seattle Public Library. It uses a lot of the kaleidoscopic imagery common to the nouveau-roman movement, which I dig, but found myself ultimately bogged down by the tedious musings on the world art market. Maybe I'm just uncouth swine, but yeah, I totally wound up not giving a fuck about the book's content, quality writing style aside.

[Yelda Cingöz]

Zihin akışıyla yazılmış kitapları okumak çok zor

[Burak · Rating 1 out of 5]

Böyle bir kitap yazılabilir, yazar aklından geçen her şeyi düzensiz bir bilinçakışı biçimiyle aktarabilir, bunu bastırabilir de. Ama o kadar anti okuyucu dostu bir metin ki, bir okuyucu olarak notum zayıf. Kitabın ismi Venedik Karnavalı olmasa ben dahil Türkiye'de pek kimsenin de bu kitabı alıp okumayı düşüneceğini sanmam.