Whether a work transposes or transforms empirical data, displaces or conceals it, goes beyond or transfigures it, it is worthy of study in relation to its tangible conditions of possibility. Claude Simon's novels are studied here in the light of literary history, cultural history and the sociology of literature.

The aim of the volume is to take a fresh look at this all too clear split between knowledge and dreams, and to attempt to identify to what extent and in which areas the scientific approach has been able to exist in harmony or, conversely, in disharmony with the "Oriental dream".