The General Line

The General Line Synopsis

In these essays, Perec forges a new critical discourse faithful to radical imperatives, while remaining independent of the French Communist Party, and at some remove from Jean-Paul Sartre, who had dominated the Left's understanding of literature's relation to politics since the Liberation. These bold essays traverse topics as diverse as Alain Robbe-Grillet's "New Novel" and Sartre's pursuit of a "committed literature" to Alban Berg's Wozzeck, Free Jazz, Science Fiction, and more.

Set against a background of domestic division and geopolitical instability in France, Perec provides an exciting pathway to imagine new worlds and methods of collective organising and action. In this edition, editor Rob Halpern provides a key historical context for understanding Perec as both a political actor and cultural mover. Taking its name from the Sergei Eisenstein film, the essays in the collection highlight an early, politically motivated Perec.

They reveal not only a hidden side of the endlessly fascinating writer, but also the wider cultural imperative of the twentieth century Left. This is Perec as we've never seen him before, effortlessly expanding beyond aesthetics to the sphere of political action.