The Review of Contemporary Fiction

Small Worlds: Minimalism in Contemporary French Literature by Warren Motte
Irving Malin

Warren Motte. Small Worlds: Minimalism in Contemporary French Literature. Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1999. 224 pp. $45.00.

Motte is the author of Playtexts, Oulipo, and Questioning Edmond Jabès. Although he concentrates upon contemporary French literature, he often includes discussions of such writers as Nabokov, Beckett, Rikki Ducornet, and Peter Handke. He is an adventurous critic; he ranges widely. Thus I am pleased to read this new book because it tries valiantly to define “minimalism”— a definition we surely need before we can discuss such American writers as Hempel, Carver, Lish, Nicholson Baker, and Beattie.

Motte offers a wonderful first chapter on the concept of minimalism. This chapter is perhaps the most thorough exploration I have read on the subject. Motte writes that “small” is “a slipperly, uncertain word, always relative and heavily dependent on context.” One principle of “minimalism” is “the idea of simplicity.” But, as Motte demonstrates, most “minimalist” works are an attempt to get at the “essential,” “to clear away conventional rhetoric.” Less is more. But this paradoxical statement itself is, as Motte explains, a “rhetorical gesture.”

Motte is a brilliant art critic. He relates the work of Donald Judd and Carl Andre—whose “fathers” are Malevich and Duchamp—to the literature I have mentioned.

Motte is, in effect, groping toward a notion of reality the “size of thought” (Baker’s phrase). And although his first chapter is less than thirty pages, it says more about “lessness” than any literary study I have read. [Irving Malin]


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The Review of Contemporary Fiction Small Worlds: Minimalism in Contemporary French Literature by Warren Motte Irving Malin Warren Motte. Small Worlds: Minimalism in Contemporary French Literature. Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1999. 224 pp. $45.00. Motte is the author of Playtexts, Oulipo, and Questioning Edmond Jabès. Although he concentrates upon contemporary French literature, he often includes discussions of such writers as Nabokov, Beckett, Rikki Ducornet, and Peter Handke. He is an adventurous critic; he ranges widely. Thus I am pleased to read this new book because it tries valiantly to define “minimalism”— a definition we surely need before we can discuss such American writers as Hempel, Carver, Lish, Nicholson Baker, and Beattie. Motte offers a wonderful first chapter on the concept of minimalism. This chapter is perhaps the most thorough exploration I have read on the subject. Motte writes that “small” is “a slipperly, uncertain word, always relative and heavily dependent on context.” One principle of “minimalism” is “the idea of simplicity.” But, as Motte demonstrates, most “minimalist” works are an attempt to get at the “essential,” “to clear away conventional rhetoric.” Less is more. But this paradoxical statement itself is, as Motte explains, a “rhetorical gesture.” Motte is a brilliant art critic. He relates the work of Donald Judd and Carl Andre—whose “fathers” are Malevich and Duchamp—to the literature I have mentioned. Motte is, in effect, groping toward a notion of reality the “size of thought” (Baker’s phrase). And although his first chapter is less than thirty pages, it says more about “lessness” than any literary study I have read. [Irving Malin]

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