The French Review 57.3 (1984): 439-441.
VERCIER, BRUNO, AND JACQUES LECARME. La Littérature en France depuis 1968. Paris: Bordas, 1982. Pp.320.
[Reprinted with the permission of The French Review]
A significant step forward in French literary studies, this
latest anthology will be particularly welcomed by readers of the
authors' previous efforts with Jacques Bersani and Michel Autrand:
in successive editions of La littérature en France depuis
1945 (Paris: Bordas, 1970, 1974, and 1980), the four authors
presented a massive overview of post-World War II French literature.
But, as Vercier and Lecarme explain in the preface of this latest
work, the initial project, by its very nature, was 'open' and
continually had to be updated. They therefore chose to "close"
that project by publishing La littérature en France
de 1945 à 1968 and simultaneously undertake a new,
"open" edition whose survey begins in the year of upheaval,
1968.
The format throughout Depuis 1968 is the same as in its
parent edition: first, a general discussion of the works of a
particular author, then, excerpts interspersed within this discussion,
with contextual and explicatory notes in the margins and several
terse stylistic remarks after each excerpt. Given this uniform
format, of greater interest are the overall divisions and their
subdivisions whose roots may be found in the 1980 Depuis 1945
supplemental chapter: Depuis 1968 is divided according
to three perspectives, "Auteurs," "Formes,"
and "Actualités." In "Auteurs," Vercier
and Lecarme first seek to "dresse[r] le bilan de grandes
oeuvres déjà reconnues, ou enfin reconnues, qui
s'achèvent, s'accroissent ou s'affirment" (p. 5).
Thus, the subdivision "Figures du siècle" presents
four "grands" in a contemporary light: Paul Morand (omitted
entirely from the first two editions of Depuis 1945), André
Malraux, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Louis Aragon. Then, the authors
canonize a second group as "nouveaux classiques": Jean
Giono, Marguerite Yourcenar, and Jacques Prévert, all of
whom had attained 'classic' status in Depuis 1945, and
Julien Gracq (formerly categorized in the wake of Surrealism and
in the forefront of a certain type of "nouveau roman")
and Michel Tournier (moving from the Depuis 1945 crowd
of new traditionalists to emerge as "un classique immédiat,"
p. 69). Finally, Vercier and Lecarme develop more fully the 1980
supplement's outline of "L'avènement des inventeurs,"
not only including the poetry of Queneau and the prose of Michaux
and Leiris, but also the recent theater of Beckett and the emergence
of Genet's works.
The second division reflects the great difficulty that the authors
encounter in delimiting particular forms in the ever-expanding
literary domain. Their consideration of the "récit"
is divided into two subdivisions: first, "Renouvellements"
as a catchall for prose, the "nouvelle," various subgenres
of "romans," autobiographies, "indécidables
ou autofictions," and two "monstres sacrés,'
Albert Cohen and Romain Gary/Emile Ajar; second, "Expérimentations"
or the giants of the "Nouveau Roman," followed by an
"Après le Nouveau Roman" (Sollers, Bruckner,
Pividal). In a chapter on poetry, Vercier and Lecarme consider
"quatre oeuvres" (Saint-John Perse, René Char,
Pierre Emmanuel, and L. S. Senghor), with a complementary selection
of "poésie actuelle." The final forms examined
are "l'essai" (with examples from Marthe Robert and
Michel Foucault) and "la critique," from Todorov to
Kristeva in nine pages.
In the third section, "Actualités," the authors
attempt to deal with contemporary traditions and renewal: in "Ecritures
féminines," they present examples of an ever-renewing
tradition of women's writing; in "La paralittérature,"
they include the traditional "roman policier" and science
fiction, renewed through the penetration of these subgenres into
the works of "serious" writers (Butor, Ollier, Le Clézio)
and debutants (Volkoff); in "L'écriture fragmentaire,"
they consider the renewed aphoristic style of Blanchot, Cioran,
and Perros. In the final subdivisions, Vercier and Lecarme return
to individual authors whose works represent either significant
"parcours" (Roland Barthes and Marguerite Duras) or
a "littérature inquiète et différente,
une littérature qui se cherche" (the works of Patrick
Modiano, J. M. G. Le Clézio, Georges Perec).
Clearly, Vercier and Lecarme have a gargantuan and thankless task,
to attempt to create a certain "order" from the diverse,
often contradictory, currents in French literary life. Thus, their
enterprise frequently risks arbitrariness and omissions: why are
Gracq and Tournier any more "classic' than the "Nouveaux
Romanciers," or for that matter, Duras and Le Clézio?
How do we distinguish the classic "inventeurs" (section
one) from the numerous examples of inventive writers in the following
sections? And why not consider a category of "métalittérature,"
examining the penetration of philosophy and the human sciences
by literature (Derrida, Deleuze, Serres, Girard)? While these
and other questions will continue to linger, readers can take
heart in the "open" nature of this anthological project,
since we can expect several updated revisions of Depuis 1968
probably until the next arbitrary date of "closure,"
the year 2000.
Charles J. Stivale
Wayne State University