Robbe-Grillet, Alain

(born Aug. 18, 1922, Brest, France—died Feb. 18, 2008, Caen) French writer.

Trained as a statistician and agronomist, he became a writer and leading theoretician of the nouveau roman (“new novel”), the French antinovel that emerged in the 1950s. His narratives lack conventional elements such as chronological plot and are composed largely of recurring images and repeated fragments of dialogue. Among his works are fiction, including The Erasers (1953), Jealousy (1957), Djinn (1981), and Repetition (2001); the essay “Towards a New Novel” (1963); and the memoir Ghosts in the Mirror (1984). He was also a screenwriter and film director; his best-known screenplay is that for Last Year at Marienbad (1961).