alcools d'apollinaire essai d'analyse des formes poétiques by jean-claude chevalier

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  • 8/8/2019 Alcools d'Apollinaire essai d'analyse des formes potiques by Jean-Claude Chevalier

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    University of Oklahoma

    Review: [untitled]Author(s): Herbert S. GershmanSource: Books Abroad, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Winter, 1972), pp. 69-70Published by: University of OklahomaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40125884

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    FrenchPierreBarberis.Balzac et le maldu siecle.Contribution une physiologiedu mondemoderne. : 1799-1829.UneexperiencedeVabsurde: lienationset prises de consci-ence. II: 1830-1833. Une experiencedeVabsurde: e la prisede consciencea V x-pression. Paris. Gallimard. 1970. 1,990pages, numberedcontinuously.55, 75 F.If PierreBarberishas not written the defini-tive work on Balzac, it is not for want oftrying. His 2,000-pageopus entitled Balzacet le mal du siecle is far more extensiveinscopethan its title would imply. "Lemal dusiecle . . . c'est l'insatisfaction ternelle."Be-ginning with this broadest of definitions,Barberisenlargesthe conceptof "le mal dusiecle" to embraceevery aspect of life inwhich the realityfails to match the dream;he includes not only the changing literaryscene, but the entire historical,social, eco-nomic, and political backgroundof Franceduring Balzac's ifetime. Consistentwith hisown pro-Marxistpproach, e sees "le mal dusiecle"as a void, a culturalimpoverishmentand moral regressioninseparable rom theascendancyof bourgeoispower and a con-comitantof thecapitalist ystem n its infancy.ProteanBalzac,who assumesas many formsas thereare criticsto interprethim, becomesfor Barberis an anti-bourgeois pro-revolu-tionary whose active conceptionof libertyand belief in the possibilityof constructingmore just and equitablesocietylead him tocastigate and condemn middle-classvalues.This is not a bookfor the casualreaderofBalzac; t will be appreciated y only a smallcoterieof fanaticalBalzacians.The specialistwill not mind hacking his way throughan

    all but impenetrablehicketof factsand foot-notes,to arriveat a treasureof new informa-tion and insight.Among his rewards or per-severancewill be a fascinating nquiry intothe genesisandsignificance f Balzac'syouth-ful novels,with a perceptiveunscrambling fthemes that were subsequently o be devel-oped in the Comediehumaine.Barberis' c-cess to unpublished etters and manuscriptsand his scrupulous omparisonbetweenearlyand later stagesof the same text provideavaluableclue to Balzac'schangingconceptionof his oeuvre.Thorough in its attention to detail, im-peccable n its documentation,oncernednot

    merely with fact but constantlysearchingout underlyingmotivesand significance,Bar-beris' work is an overwhelmingambitiousundertakingand a massiveachievement, ev-enteenyearsin the accomplishment.Despiteits voluminous ontent, his two-volume tudycoversonly the years1799-1829and 1830-33,respectively, nd constitutes he initial panelsof a "quadriptyque,"which will eventuallyinclude two works now in preparation:"Lemonde de Balzac"and "Mythesbalzaciens."Givenfortitudeand staminaenough,we canlook forwardto the appearancen its entire-ty of PierreBarberis'mammothcontributionto Balzacianscholarship.GretchenR. BesserLehmanCollege,CUNY

    Jean-ClaudeChevalier. Alcools d'Apolli-naire: essai d'analyse des formes poeti-ques. Paris. Lettres Modernes.1970. 280pages.Apollinaireis neither the best known northe most obscurepoet of the twentiethcen-tury, yet with the exceptionof Valeryhe hasprobablyput throughthe mouli-grindermorethan any of his predecessors, he best ofwhich are very honorablymentioned andput to use Decaudin and Durry amongothers.A word of caution s perhapsn order,especially given the somewhat ambiguoustitle: this is not an explicationof all thepoemsof Alcools,but ratheran attempt o seea structurewhere others have on occasionbeen contentto see a collection.What makesthis specificwork so valuable is its experi-mental nature. Chevalier s convinced,as isthe reviewer, hat certain nsightsof modernlinguistics can be used to elucidate textswhich might otherwiseremain obscure.Thisis not to deny nor does he the importanceof otherdata,biographical nd statistical, orexample,but the primaryconcernhere is thetext, the poetic "messages," he unity anddiversityof Alcools.The only problemwithsuch an approach s that sufficient inguisticinformations unfortunately ot yet availableto permit a thoroughanalysisbasedon themethods proposed. Chevalier must knowthis, though he prudently refrains fromstressing t. So what we have here is a care-fullyreasoned ommentary n oneof the most

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    70 BOOKS ABROADinfluential works of poetry of this century,using stylistic insights borrowed from Chom-sky, Barthes, and even R.-L. Wagner; allthis is combined with analytical techniquesand data drawn from the world of literarycriticism. Scherer is quoted on Mallarme,Borges is not forgotten, nor the recently pub-lished anagrams of de Saussure. The authorbeing extremely well read and the approachhighly eclectic, the readings are regularly newand interesting, less often completely per-suasive. My major objection is that the veryeclecticism serves to disorient; Barthes is notDurry who is surely not Breunig or Guiraud.And the occasional reference to A.-J. Greimasand Co. is at best distracting. Many stylisticstudies are ponderous in style and frivolous inresult. Chevalier suggests he is going to tryto break the pattern, but somewhere alongthe line he realized, given the state of theprofession, that a compromise among theseveral approaches would be preferable. Itis. The end result, while not always easy read-ing, is sufficiently valuable to merit the at-tention of all serious scholars.

    Herbert S. GershmanWashington University

    Michel Contat, Michel Rybalka. Les ecritsde Sartre. Chronologie, bibliographie com-mentee. Paris. Gallimard. 1970. 788 pages.All students or dartre at whatever level willbe deeply indebted to this monumental pieceof research.To be given a virtually exhaustivelist of Sartre's writings and their various edi-tions up to the end of 1969 is alone a matterfor gratitude; to have it associated with whatamounts to an engrossing intellectual biog-raphy is a matter for rejoicing. Almost everyreference is perceptively and economicallysituated not only in Sartre'sown development,but often in the context of contemporary in-tellectual and political history. For instance,where a particular work gave rise to contro-versy, references, sometimes with quotations,are given to the pronouncements of Sartre'sadversaries.The entry for La nausee suggests the rangeof commentary involved. Apart from thepurely bibliographicaldata, it includes Sartre'spriere d'inserer for the first edition, shortaccounts of the novel's genesis (with refer-ences enabling one to follow up this docu-mentation), of the circumstances of its pub-lication, and (again with quotations) of itsearly critical reception. There follows a briefbut suggestive attempt, with supporting refer-

    ences to Sartre's later views, to place the novelin his intellectual evolution; the commentarycloses with a number of cross-references toother relevant listed works.Relatively minor works are often givenequally comprehensive treatment; indeed, anumber of brief and fairly inaccessible onesare reproduced in full at the appropriatechronological point. Even more valuable,however, is a long appendix reproducingmuch more substantial and elusive works.One notes particularly the entire text of theearly play "Bariona," and a fragment of Sar-tre's war diary (largely lost, alas,) whichgives valuable insight into the composition ofparts of Les chemins de la liberte (see BA21:2, p. 180). This dynamic and readable

    bibliography, this "true portrait," as Sartrecalls it in his Lettre-Preface, must be uniquein its genre. Rhiannon GoldthorpeOxfordSamuel Beckett. Le depeupleur. Paris.Minuit. 1970. 55 pages.Depeupleur, Assomoir, Inferno, you name it!Beckett's brief prose piece depicts a world atonce primitive and hypermodern. The peoplewho dwell there live cramped in niches inlarge cylinders connected by corridors,bidingtime on the ground or on ladders while theyseek places to lie down or sit. The wholeplace is like an immense erector set and theniche-dwellers seem to be in "durance" in akind of cyclotron atmosphere. The beingsthemselves are dehumanized in this environ-ment and move about without apparent emo-tion or sex differentiation. Throughout myreading of Beckett's book I was reminded ofAbner Dean's wonderful drawings of nakedpeople moving compulsively but aimlesslythrough drawingroom or landscape. That weare dealing with a definition of Hell is evident

    by the very nature of the place and the senseof eternal sameness and repetition, by thesimilarity to such existential hells as that inSartre'sHuis-dos, and by the fact that Beck-ett mentions by name the author of our liter-ary proto-Inferno:Ce sont paradoxalement ces sedentaires quitroublent le plus par leurs violences le calme ducylindre. Quatriemementceux qui ne cherchentpas ou non-chercheurs ssispour la plupartcontrele mur dans l'attitudequi arrachaa Dante un deses rarespales sourires.Within this Hell, second cousin to the

    geodesic dome, people have different defini-tions of the exit they have heard tell of but