ABSTRACT
In the novels of Claude Simon the word at war is a still more disruptive and disturbing element. Like Butor, Simon is preoccupied by the issues of memory and of the boundaries of fiction and personal lived experience. Simon illustrates the impossibility of gleaning a final version from literature by repeating with differences, whether these be contextual or verbal, various scenes throughout the text. It is typical of Simon, who cherished ambitions to be a painter, that he should focus on artistic detail within his narrative. The nihilism with which Simon invests the reception of Virgil has already been anticipated to some extent by Broch. It seems somewhat paradoxical to speak of Virgil's work receiving new life within such a world as Simon's. And yet Les Georgiques revitalizes Virgil's work by perpetuating its reception and encouraging new angles of interpretation.
