Natalie Sarraute

A seminal French novelist, playwright, and literary critic, and leading figure of the Nouveau Roman movement.  In her fiction, she radically departed from traditional narrative forms, and used "tropisms" as building blocks. Sarraute meticulously dissected these subtle shifts in emotion, perception, and power dynamics that occur beneath the surface of conversation, often eschewing conventional plot, character development, and linear time. Sarraute's challenging yet insightful prose profoundly influenced subsequent generations of writers, pushing the boundaries of what the novel could achieve in revealing the complexities of inner life.