Capitalism and Schizophrenia in the Later Novels of Louis-Ferdinand Celine: D'un . . . L'Autre

Re-examining the works of France’s most controversial of literary figures, this book contends that Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s pronouncements on the importance of style must be taken seriously if an understanding of those works is to be reached. Capitalism and Schizophrenia in the Later Novels of Louis-Ferdinand Céline provides a major reconsideration of the greater part of the œuvre of this too-often neglected author. Leaving behind the symbolic capital that the name Céline accrued during the Second World War, this study looks at the works written around and after this period in order to understand the importance of their revolutionary aesthetic not only for their genesis, but also for their very content. The approach taken is unashamedly theoretical which allows this study to provide insights not only into the works of Céline, but also into those of the French thinkers Deleuze and Guattari whose thought, it is argued here, can only be apprehended through application.