Chapter 6, Celine: Neither Actor Nor Martyr Summary and Analysis

Though the works of Celine were written long before the development of the modern forms of modernist and postmodernist literature, there is a certain poignancy to his expression which has not been replicated even by the foremost modern authors, like Proust. Celine is able to capture the feeling of the abject, and all of the horror that comes with it, through the spirit of his writing. Celine is not exceptional in the content of his novels nor even in the style, but rather it is the mood that the writing conveys to the reader that draws the reader outside, even if momentarily, of the comforts of his existence in the world of language—that is, in the world that he can understand through his language—and get a glimpse...