SOURCE: "Journey to the End of Art: The Evolution of the Novels of Louis-Ferdinand Céline," in PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. 87, No. 1, January, 1972, pp. 80-9.

In the following essay, Nettelbeck examines the evolution of ethical and aesthetic concerns in Céline's oeuvre. "Despite his reputation as a hate-filled iconoclast," writes Nettelbeck, "the central thrust of Céline's literary works … is, on the contrary, toward affirmation."

During the last fifteen years of his life, Céline reflected a great deal about his art. In his correspondence (particularly the 1947 letters to Milton Hindus), in the several interviews which he gave after his return from exile in 1951, and in his satirical self-interview Entretiens avec le Professeur Y (1955), there are many signs of a highly conscious esthetic theory. Yet these statements are limited in that they take no account of the development of the author's code...