French Studies, October 2006

 

French Studies is published on behalf of the Society for French Studies. The journal publishes articles and reviews spanning all areas of the subject, including language and linguistics (historical and contemporary), all periods and aspects of literature in France and the French-speaking world, thought and the history of ideas, cultural studies, film, and critical theory.

The journal's review section is unmatched in its breadth and its quality, providing prompt coverage of work published in French, English, German and Italian.

 

VOLUME 60, NUMBER 4, OCTOBER 2006

 

Articles :

 

- John Campbell :  ROUND UP THE USUAL SUSPECTS: THE SEARCH FOR AN IDEOLOGY IN LA PRINCESSE DE CLÈVES

Abstract : This article considers various attempts to identify a clearstructure of ideas, and their philosophical antecedents, inLa Princesse de Clèves. These attempts arise naturallyfrom the wide variations in interpretation that result fromthis novel's ambiguities. Many critics have made sense of theheroine's rejection of the man she loves by placing it in areligious framework, with roots in Augustinian/Jansenist thought,and thus in Neoplatonism. The influence of neo-Stoicism is alsoevident, for example in the mother's teaching and in her daughter'sresistance to passion. However, these two currents of thoughtoffer irreconcilable perspectives on free will. The situationis further complicated by the existence of an Epicurean dimension,in the value placed on prudence and on the retreat from emotionalstrife. Another element is Pyrrhonism, with its emphasis onthe fragile basis of opinions and convictions. None of theseideologies offer an entirely persuasive explanation, yet theycoexist uneasily. The difficulty of picking out totally convincingcandidates from this identity parade necessarily leaves criticsof this novel with questions as to the identity of our own hermeneuticendeavour.

 

- Luc Bonenfant : NOM PROPRE, POÉSIE ET GÉNÉRICITÉ: BERTRAND, RIMBAUD, VERHAEREN

Abstract: Cet article s'intéresse au fonctionnement génériquedu nom propre dans la poésie d'Aloysius Bertrand, ArthurRimbaud et Émile Verhaeren. La première parties'attache à la distinction éventuelle entre lefonctionnement narratif et le fonctionnement poétiquedu Nom propre à partir d'exemples fournis par la poésieen prose bertrandienne, poésie dont les étatspremiers ressortent des genres narratifs brefs. Suivant cela,la seconde partie de l'article envisage le fonctionnement dunom propre chez Rimbaud et Verhaeren, montrant bien que la poésie,pourtant un genre à faible densité onomastique,exacerbe la fonction sémantique du Nom plutôt quesa traditionnelle fonction narrative. Chez les trois poètesétudiés, la motivation sémantique du Nomne se transforme pas en succession narrative, penchant plutôtvers cet espace absolu de ‘totalisation’ dont JeanCohen a fait un critère de distinction poétique. 

 

- Margaret Topping  : ARTISTS AND ALCHEMISTS IN PROUST'S A LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU 

Abstract : This article explores the significance of a network of imagesdrawn from the world of alchemy that is present as a persistentundercurrent in Marcel Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu.It is argued that alchemical images — of transmutation,crucibles and gold itself — provide emblematic markers,within the diegesis of the novel, for the narrator-protagonist'sevolution to creation. These images encompass the full hierarchyof aspirations of the alchemist, from financial gain to thespiritual transcendence sought by the true initiate. Indeed,A la recherche charts a metaphorical progression from materialto spiritual ideals. In tracing out the narrator-initiate'spath, alchemical images draw in such key themes as art, societyand desire, and encompass a very Proustian range of tones andeffects, from the celebratory to the satirical. The articlealso aligns Proust as novelistic creator with the alchemistof style and perception who transmutes the base matter of observationand experience into gold. In this respect, Proust is situatedin relation to a broader nineteenth-century artistic emphasison transfiguration rather than imitation.

 

- Hector Kollias : JEAN GENET'S QUEER ORIGINS: A READING OF QUERELLE DE BREST 

Abstract : This article engages with debates in queer theory by attemptingto look beyond the dominant trend of constructionism and interrogatingthe possibility of queer origins in the work of Jean Genet.In a reading of his novel Querelle de Brest, I seek to demonstratethat queer is located less in the self-assumption of subjectivityand more in the act of queer sex bestowing its agents with aseries of metonymically substitutable role positions. Utilizingresources from psychoanalysis, I argue that Genet's novel isnot a homophobic fantasy but rather an empowering narrativewhose focus on betrayal can be aligned with the psychoanalyticnotion of perversion as disavowal, allowing both Genet to berecognized as a salutary queer writer, and psychoanalysis tobe wrested from the hostility with which it is received in queer-theoreticalcircles.

 

- Anne-Louise Milne : FROM THIRD-WORLDISM TO FOURTH-WORLD FLÂNERIE? FRANÇOIS MASPERO'S RECENT JOURNEYS

Abstract : This article explores the transformation of 1960s internationalisminto a preoccupation with urban relations in the increasinglyinternational city of Paris as it is reflected in the work ofFrançois Maspero. It considers whether peripheral communitiescontinue to be identified with the potential for social andpolitical renewal, and charts the way in which Maspero structureshis interaction with the suburban Other. It compares this interactionwith the well-known pose of the flâneur, which is bothintimately associated with Paris and more generally perceivedas emblematic of a self-consciously modern way of negotiatingthe city. In so doing it assesses the political ambitions ofMaspero's recent works and considers to what extent they continuea mode of militant intellectual action generally perceived tohave ended in the wake of May 1968. 

 

 

 Reviews :

 

Françoise Le Saux - La Troisième Continuation du Conte du Graal    Peter Noble - La Conquête de Constantinople: édition bilingue   Virginie Greene - La Mort le roi Artu   Keith Busby - La vengeance Raguidel   Richard Trachsler - Le Roman de Gliglois: récit arthurien du XIIIe siècle   Peter Noble - Melion and Biclarel: Two Old French Werewolf Lays   Jelle Koopmans - Les Mystères de la procession de Lille   John Parkin - Les Songes drolatiques de Pantagruel   Madeleine Lazard - Lettres de femmes: textes inédits et oubliés du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle   Jan Clarke - Théâtre et musique: dramaturgie de l'insertion musicale dans le théâtre français (1550–1680)   Keith Cameron - Commentaires sur la Guerre civile de France: de la surprise de Meaux à la bataille de Saint-Denis (1567), avec un plan d'André Thevet.    Paul White  - La Néphélococugie; ou, La Nuée des cocus — Première adaptation des ‘Oiseaux’ d'Aristophane en français     David McCallam - Sexing ‘La Mode’: Gender, Fashion and Commercial Culture in Old Regime France     Michael Hawcroft - Dramaturgie de la tragédie en musique: 1673–1764   Ioana Galleron - Les Traductions de l'italien en français au XVIIIe siècle   Robin Howells - Correspondance. Tome IX. 11 mars 1748–25 avril 1749. Lettres 1217–1390   Roger Little - Interpreting Colonialism   Michael Harrigan - Voyage en Sibérie   Nathalie Vuillemin  - Raynal ou le devoir de vérité   Richard A. Francis - Le Grand Concours: ‘Dissertation sur les causes de l'universalité de la langue française et la durée vraisemblable de son empire’   Helen Abbott  - Versailles dans la littérature: mémoire et imaginaire aux XIXe et XXe siecles   Mary Orr - Monomania: the Flight from Everyday Life in Literature and Art.   Ceri Crossley  - Correspondance d'Alphonse de Lamartine, Deuxième série. 1807–1829. Tome 3: 1820–1823   Lisa Downing - Method in Madness: Control Mechanisms in the French Fantastic   Jacinta Wright  - Lectures de ‘Consuelo, La Comtesse de Rudoltstadt’ de George Sand   David Evans - Lettres à José-Maria de Heredia   Catherine Dousteyssier-Khoze  - Poétiques de la discontinuité de 1870 à nos jours   Kate Griffiths - Le Grand Transit Moderne: Mobility, Modernity and French Naturalist Fiction   Sarah Capitanio - Naturalism Redressed: Identity and Clothing in the Novels of Émile Zola   Floriane Place-Verghnes - A Further Selection of the ‘Chroniques’ of Guy de Maupassant   Michael R. Finn - Monsieur Vénus: roman matérialiste • Monsieur Vénus: A Materialist Novel   Michael G. Kelly - Marcel Schwob: conteur de l'imaginaire.   Paul Cooke - The Tragic Tale of Claire Ferchaud and the Great War   Victoria B. Korzeniowska - Jean Giraudoux   Christopher Lloyd - Rebatet   Christopher Prendergast  - Everyday Life: Theories and Practices from Surrealism to the Present   Mary Bryden - Maria Jolas, Woman of Action: a Memoir and Other Writings   Robert Pickering  - Vercors   Ursula Tidd  - ‘Le Deuxième Sexe’ de Simone de Beauvoir   Alex Hughes - Writing Against Death: The Autobiographies of Simone de Beauvoir   Mark Orme - Noces pour femme seule: le féminin et le sacré dans l'uvre d'Albert Camus   Tom Conley  - The Roman noir in Post-War French Culture.   Edmund J. Smyth  - Le Nouveau Roman en questions, 3: Le Créateur et la Cité • Le Nouveau Roman en questions, 4: Situation diachronique  Ann Miller - Masters of the Ninth Art: Bandes Dessinées and Franco-Belgian Identity   David Bradby - Maximilian Kolbe   Andrew Rothwell - The Poetry of Louise Herlin: Modern French Poet   David Teh - Jean Baudrillard   Paul Hegarty  - Jacques Derrida: Critical Thought   Mairéad Hanrahan - Hélène Cixous.   Sarah Cooper - Julia Kristeva.   Susan Harrow - Palimpsests of the Real in Recent French Poetry   Marja Warehime - Present Pasts: Patrick Modiano's (Auto)Biographical Fictions.   Ralph Sarkonak - Renaud Camus érographe     Paul Cooke - Trois études sur le roman de l'extrême contemporain: Marie NDiaye, Sylvie Germain, Michel Chaillou   Jean-Pierre Boulé - Lire le sida: témoignages au féminin   Emer O'Beirne - Michel Houellebecq    Kathryn Robson - Holocaust Monuments and National Memory-Cultures in France and Germany since 1989: The Origins and Political Function of the Vél d'Hiv in Paris and the Holocaust Monument in Berlin    Will McMorran - Le Dire de l'hospitalité   Thomas Wynn - Le Drame: du XVIe siècle à nos jours   Peter Hawkins - Jazz Adventures in French Culture   Catherine O'Brien - Modern French Literary Studies in the Classroom: Pedagogical Strategies   Sophie Marnette - Temporalité et attitude: structuration du discours et expression de la modalité   P. M. Sewell - Précis de conjugaison   Chantal Gagnon  - Versus: la version réfléchie