Allusion: A Literary Graft by Allan H. Pasco

Abstract

Book Reviews In Chapter Three, “The Eclipse of Difference,” Gasche addresses whether deconstruc­ tion has emancipated difference from identity. It turns out that there can only be a partial liberation of difference from identity, a “ relative liberation,” since to liberate difference entirely would be to abolish the difference between difference and identity. “ By abolishing the difference between difference and identity, philosophy would slip back into the nonphilosophical , in short, into a kind of empiricism, in which the power of the manifold and spurious infinity prevail, and where the difference that thinking makes—the thought of identity—has not yet emerged” (85). The chapter also develops a very helpful reading of Heidegger’s understanding of difference. Chapter Four, “ Answering for Reason,” discusses the “ Other of reason” in the context of its difference from enlightenment reason as understood by figures such as Jürgen Haber­ mas. Chapter Five, “ Structural Infinity,” concerns Derrida’s handling of the mise en abyme in Dissemination and focuses on the alterity of finitude without falling into a simple distinction between the finite and the infinite. Chapter Six, a companion piece, discusses the implications for thinking about God. Chapters Seven and Eight are relevant for those interested in a meticulous exploration of Derrida’s relationships with Hegelian thought, and Chapter Nine focuses on responsibility in Jacques Derrida’s writing on James Joyce. While there are many places where one may be motivated to debate Gasche, Inventions o f Difference is a brilliant book that deserves sustained analysis and reflection. H e r m a n R a p a p o r t Wayne State University Allan H. Pasco. A l l u s i o n : A L i t e r a r y G r a f t . Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994. Pp. 247. $55. Of great personal and intellectual interest alike, this book consummates 25 years of Pro­ fessor Pasco’s reflections on intertextuality. It remains strongly coherent, despite his vast erudition. Treating French authors, he ranges from Stendhal to Sartre and Robbe-Grillet. His generic foci are the realistic novel, the short story, and theater. Pasco’s favorite author here is Zola; the sources he most often invokes are the New Testament, the figure of Christ, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Thus he helps restore our fading awareness of the Classical and Christian traditions that nurtured all educated West­ ern writers until World War II, whatever their personal beliefs. He defines “ intertextual­ ity” as “ any textual exploitation of another text” (5). He subdivides it into imitation, opposition, and allusion. (These modes are respectively equivalent to the tropes of interpretatio , antithesis, and metaphor.) “ Allusion is the metaphorical relationship created when an alluding text evokes and uses another, independent text’’ (12). Pasco will choose to examine supersegmental examples in seven chapters, ranging from simple allusion through complex to conflictual forms. Pasco’s categories seem universally applicable in Western literature. What do they yield in detail? Chapter 2, “ Ironic Interference and Allusion: ‘Un cœur simple,’ ” asks “ What does the parrot mean?” Pasco explains that we can trust neither the discrepancy between Flaubert’s and Félicité’s faiths, nor Flaubert’s claim that he intended the story to be “ not at all ironic, as you suppose, but on the contrary very serious and very sad” (23). Pasco argues against the premature closure of a hasty ironic reading, pointing to the pervasive intertext of sainthood in all “ Trois Contes.” With the aid of Félicité, Flaubert situates sainthood in the present. Chapter 6, “ Oppositional Allusion: Electre, La Symphonie pastorale, Eugénie Grandet, ’’ offers a particularly rich reading of Gide. We knew the pastor was hypocritical, Vol. XXXV, No. 3 93 L ’E sprit C réateur but no one before Pasco had shown so compellingly how the pastor unconsciously uses the misprision and omission of Biblical passages to justify his own desires. His wife and son protest, while themselves faithfully following New Testament precepts. Chapter 7, “ Allusive Permutations: La Nausée, Les Gommes,” shows convincingly how Sartre’s move from parody to allusion reflects the triumph of Roquentin’s self-deception in making art a supreme value. I would also single out Pasco’s treatments...