The General Line

The General Line brings together a series of essays that reimagine Marxist aesthetic practice through the sharp lens of Georg Lukács' critique of contemporary realism. In these writings, Georges Perec constructs a bold new critical discourse-one that remains faithful to leftist imperatives such as history, class consciousness, and revolution-while maintaining his independence from the French Communist Party and keeping a critical distance from Jean-Paul Sartre, whose vision had long dominated the Left's understanding of literature and politics in postwar France.

Perec's essays traverse a wide cultural terrain, from Alain Robbe-Grillet's New Novel and Sartre's theory of "committed literature" to the music of Alban Berg's Wozzeck, the radical experimentation of Free Jazz, the speculative landscapes of Science Fiction, and beyond. Together, they reveal a restless intellect and an enduring love for the divergent cultural materials that would go on to shape Perec's own literary work.

Written against a backdrop of political unrest, domestic division, and global uncertainty, The General Line offers a window into a critical mind grappling with the contradictions of its time. Rob Halpern's incisive introduction situates these early political essays within both the turbulent historical moment and the evolving trajectory of Perec's extraordinary body of work.