Jacques Henric on Leiris, Robbe-Grillet, and the Nature of Literature

In a 2004 feuilleton for artpress, Jacques Henric revisits a debate sparked by Alain Robbe-Grillet's dismissal of Catherine Millet's "La Vie sexuelle de Catherine M." as "not literature." Henric questions Robbe-Grillet's criteria, noting that Millet never claimed to write literature, and argues that the judgment implies only fictional narrative qualifies as literature, excluding diaries, autobiographies, and essays. He cites Montaigne, Casanova, Chateaubriand, Stendhal, Sartre, and others as counterexamples. The reflection is prompted by the publication of Michel Leiris's "La Règle du Jeu" in the Pléiade collection. Henric traces Leiris's evolution from a romantic seeking authentic selfhood to a "baroque moderne" who recognized the theatricality of the self and embraced literature as a game with the "je" (I). Leiris's initial distrust of fiction, rooted in his passion for bullfighting where real risk is taken, gave way to the understanding that autobiographical truth is an illusion. Henric also notes the simultaneous reissue of Pierre Guyotat's "Vivre" (1972-1983) in Folio, praising its language and urging readers of Guyotat's "Progénitures" to explore it.