ABSTRACT
The modernist conception of the novel is grounded in philosophical and sociological considerations on modern history seen as secularization, by Auguste Comte, Max Weber or Georg Simmel. Modern novelists are trying to recreate a hidden totality of life, which is not at all sustained by any kind of god. On the contrary, behaviorism in the modernist novel – Claude-Edmonde Magny wrote on that topic very early on – could be understood as a reaction to the religious/idealistic categories of mind. The novel is clearly related to the secularization of our world. That idea seems to be simple: the gods retire, as the world is becoming secular, and the novel appears to be the only form – dissonant and ironic – that could fit to comprehend a disjuncted world. The character of the novel is strictly invisible, unlike the character on the stage or the one in a painting; it is a whole person inaccessible to view in his physical appearance.
