Australian Journal of French Studies

Abstract

This article proposes that the early novels of Alain Robbe-Grillet produce philosophical concepts which resemble those found in the work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. In taking as its primary source Deleuze and Guattari's Mille Plateaux (1980), it responds to the call for an open exchange of concepts between disciplines issued not only by these philosophers, but also by Robbe-Grillet himself. A close reading of Robbe-Grillet's fourth novel, Dans le labyrinthe (1959), is undertaken, focusing on the notions of space and movement and connecting them with Deleuze and Guattari's concepts of the rhizome, smooth space and nomadology. The novel is seen to break down any distinction between interior and exterior spaces, and so creates an open, indefinite space akin to the rhizome. The figure of the soldier negotiates the redefined coordinates of this space like the nomad, treating points as lines of flight and connecting spaces unexpectedly.