roman à clef
1
9.9
- noun
- /roʊˈmɑːn ə kleɪ/
- Literature
:
novela con clave
- "Primary Colors," (1998) based on a roman à clef about Hillary and Bill.
Examples
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The book is a fascinating roman à clef that reveals hidden truths about famous politicians.
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The author cleverly disguised actual events in her latest roman à clef, making it a compelling read.
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The novel is what you would call a roman à clef.
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I'm going to call it a novel, but in actual fact it's a roman à clef.
Blog text (27) -
This questioning may take the form of a claim that the characters are real-world individuals, as if the work were a roman à clef.
Academic text (1992) -
A New Life, in fact, is an often mocking roman à clef about his faculty associates.
Academic text (2012) -
Autobiographical art history is, Krauss states, a roman à clef—the genre is understood to be inferior—with models as principal characters (10).
Academic text (1992) -
"La Côte Basque 1965," the first installment of Truman Capote's planned roman à clef,
Blog text (27) -
Many readers were surprised to find that the characters in the roman à clef resembled real-life celebrities.
Surface Forms
Morphology
roman + à + clef
The literal components translate to 'novel' + 'with' + 'key' so a learner who knows the constituents could infer a novel that includes a 'key' or clue; however, the specific literary sense (a fictional work disguising real people whose identities can be 'keyed' by readers) is a cultural/genre-specific extension not fully predictable from the parts alone. Because the meaning is partially inferable but requires knowledge of 'key' as a metaphorical device or familiarity with the genre, this is best classed as semi-transparent.
Etymology
Roman à clef comes from French and literally combines roman meaning 'novel' and clef meaning 'key' to say 'novel with a key'. Authors hide real people by giving them fake names, and the 'key' is a secret list that shows who is who, so the phrase means a novel that hides real people behind fictional names.