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Praised for his independence, curiosity, intimate knowledge of French literature, and sharp reader’s eye, John Taylor is a writer-critic who is naturally skeptical of literary fashions, overnight reputations, and readymade academic categories. Here he examines various genres of politically committed literature (such as Jean Hatzfeld’s "narratives" about Rwanda or Tchicaya U Tam’si’s verse), some overlooked fiction, and several provocative experiments with literary form (ranging from the poetry of Jean-Paul Michel and Marie Étienne to the "three-line novels" of Félix Fénéon).
Taylor continues to reveal the remarkable resourcefulness of French writing. Besides drawing attention to authors (like Dai Sijie or Albert Cossery) who have come to French from other languages, he has added younger novelists to his critical panorama.
Challenging persistent clichés and recovering deserving voices from unjust neglect, Taylor’s vision of French literature conjures up the image of a vital nexus. Poetry crisscrosses with prose, writers from one generation meet up with those from the next or the previous one, while the philosophical ideas underlying French writing are scrutinized. This is an essential guide to the realities of French culture today.
John Taylor is the author of Paths to Contemporary French Literature (Volumes 1-3) and Into the Heart of European Poetry. He has written numerous books of stories, short prose, and poetry, including The Apocalypse Tapestries. He writes the “Poetry Today” column in the Antioch Review and has long been a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement. He has lived in France since 1977. In 2010, he received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for his project to translate Georges Perros’s Papiers collés.
Introduction vii
Part 1 What Is, and What Might Be
Path, Light, Space Pierre-Albert Jourdan 3
Strolling out from the Self Jean Follain Henri Thomas Philippe Jaccottet Jacques Réda Paul de Roux Guy Goffette Gilles Ortlieb 14
Rare Confident Moments Philippe Jaccottet 20
In Search of the "Absurd Evidence" René Daumal 23
Experience and Solitude Paul Gadenne 26
A Modern Psalmist Jean Grosjean 28
The Angel's Shoulder Alexandre Romanès 31
Open-Eyed Drifting Richard Rognet 32
The Music of What Is Jean-Paul Michel 33
Part 2 Of Amorous Captivity
The Language of Attachment Laurence Werner David 37
Longing for the Ultimate Polestar Jean Genet 45
From Sicilian Defenses to Tango Dancing Brina Svit 47
Exalting Exitless Exits Marcel Moreau 51
The Perils of Absolute Love Marie-Claude Vincent 53
Narratives of Mood and Movement Anne Serre 55
Crucial Quests Cécile Wajsbrot 59
Meditations on the Real and the Imaginary Emmanuel Hocquard 63
Styling Melancholy Irène Schavelzon 66
Resonating beyond Elegy Claude Vigée 68
Part 3 Forms of Commitment
René Maran's Pioneering Batouala 11
For a Reissue of Yambo Ouologuem's Le Devoir de violence 80
A New Kind of French Engagé Writing Jean Hatzfeld 84
Bookish Passions Yannick Haenel 87
Two Hesitations about the Recent Fiction of J. M. G. Le Clézio 90
The Flickering Flames Jean-Pierre Rosnay 96
Moving, Misguided, Melodious Lines Louis Aragon 99
Rereading Tchicaya U Tam'si 104
Three Chinese Francophones François Cheng Dai Sijie Gao Xingjian 110
Drooping Eyelids, a Farcical World Albert Cossery 118
Part 4 Narrative Arithmetic
The Arithmetic of Being in the World Marie Étienne 125
Robert Pinget's Ear 128
Three-Line Novels Félix Fénéon 134
The Languages of Alta Ifland 138
Unities and Disunities of Raymond Queneau 146
Two Instructive Fabulists Pierre Bettencourt Jean-Marie Le Sidaner 150
A Defrocked Ethnologist Jacques Meunier 152
A French Modernist à la chinoise Victor Segalen 156
Part 5 Hommes De Lettres in the Mirror
An Aloof Modesty Georges Henein 165
Myth and Mythomania André Malraux 168
Ghosts in the Mirror Alain Robbe-Grillet 173
The Worm of Insubordination Georges Belmont 175
The Gossamer Threads of a Life Julien Green 177
Facing Edmond Jabès 182
The Moods of a Man of Letters Valery Larbaud 184
Notes 187
Bibliography 197
Index 219
Overview
Praised for his independence, curiosity, intimate knowledge of French literature, and sharp reader’s eye, John Taylor is a writer-critic who is naturally skeptical of literary fashions, overnight reputations, and readymade academic categories. Here he examines various genres of politically committed literature (such as Jean Hatzfeld’s "narratives" about Rwanda or Tchicaya U Tam’si’s verse), some overlooked fiction, and several provocative experiments with literary form (ranging from the poetry of Jean-Paul Michel...