Baudelaire: At the Limits and beyond by Nicolae Babuts (review)

Abstract

Revzews 834 Wrois contes ouplus.BYMARIE THERESE JACQUET. (Cultura Staniera, 91)Fasano: Schena; Paris: Didier. I999.229PP.28,ooo lire. Few short stories have attracted asmuch critical attention asFlaubert's 7Frois Contes, andMarieTherese Jacquet's newmonograph aimed atnarratologists and/or literary geneticists adds tothis growing corpus ofscholarly commentary. Divided into five sections, Jacquet's study explores the tales inthe order of their composition, with twochapters dedicated toboth Saint ulien andUnCueur simple anda final chapter onHerodias. Jacquet argues thatTrois Contes, though autonomous and readable as discrete texts, constitutes a homogeneous artefact in itslexical elaboration (the migration andrepetition of textual detailing from conte toconte) and initsdevelopment ofa thematics ofsolitude, saintliness anddeath; the tales are really a novel masquerading as three short stories. Theapproach adopted to expound the thesis issomewhat eccentric, with Chapter I charting the plight ofa hapless Julien within a determinist context andthe demonic sangnoir which stains him from first tolast. Chapter 2,incontrast, proXers a reading ofthe same conte as anexample offairytale literature, highlighting a largely unconvincing array of poncifs (monster, dwarf, transformation) germane tothe fairytale form. This chapter iseXectively a study ofFlaubert's synthetic approach toartandthe premium he placed onthe figural perspective asthe talegestates through its numerous drafts. Theambit iswidened inthe following two chapters asvoice andperspective as metonymies ofeachother areexplored with close reference tothe avant-texte ofUn Coeur simple. Evidently, Flaubert isconcerned increasingly with figural representation (free indirect style, limited/collective point ofview) asthedrafts arere-worked. Complex forms of speech representation imply undecidability andthe final chapter treats Herodias, the most opaque ofthe tales. Jacquet overeggs the pudding here, contending that Flaubert's tinkering with historical realities tosuit his aesthetic ends disrupts the narrative transaction, effiectively undermining the author/reader pact, thereby leaving thelatter ina state ofchronic malaise.Overall, thestudy does convincingly systematize the ludic strategies deployed byFlaubert toproblematize andtoobfuscate. Sadly, a measure ofthe substance ofthis study hasalready been rehearsed. Pierre-Marc DeBiasi's Demon del'indecidable (Paris: CNRS,I986)springs tomind, asdoesAlanRaitt's excellent I99I study (London: Grant andCutler) which answers several ofthe questions posed inJacquet's third andfourth sections. Thechapter exploring Julien's homosocialization from a psycho-critical stance makes noallusion toBerg's Sairzt aNdipus (Ithaca, NYand London: Cornell Univesity Press, I982), a study ofwhich, curiously, nomention ismade inwhat isotherwise anextremely useful andcompendious bibliography. UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER PAUL ANDREW TIPPER Baudelaire: Atthe Limits andBeyond. BYNICOLAE BABUTS. Newark: University of Delaware Press; London: Associated University Presses. I997.I82PP.£28. Nicolae Babuts's book presents itself as'anattempt todefine the coherence that is characteristic of[Baudelaire's] texts' (p.I3)byadopting a cognitive approach to literature, that focuses onthe texts andtheir interpretation andmoves away from 'ideologically driven' approaches. Babuts gives adetailed and complex presentation ofthecognitive approach in hisintroduction, emphasizing in particular the importance ofthe interpreter ofthe text inthe 'equation ofmeaning' (p.I3),and outlining the importance ofdynamic patterns inthe functioning oftext andthe creation oftextual coherence. Intertextual echoes aretherefore underlined as MLR,96.3,200 I 835 central to thecreation of meaning. Once thistheoretical groundhas been established, thebooksets outtodemonstrate theunity ofBaudelaire's works. The first stepis an exploration ofthenature oftheBaudelairean selfand,more speciScally, thecombination ofunity andfragmentation as 'twointerdependent forces opposing eachother' (p.35)intherelationship between theartist andthe world, theSelf andtheOther. Babuts then emphasizes theimportance ofthe prose poems inthe development ofthe interaction between self andother (and,therefore, their centrality toanystudy ofidentity), before examining thetension created by thedoubleallegiance to God and Satanand underlining thecentrality ofthe mnemonic potential ofthenarrator in hisinterpretative strategies. Chapter 3 concentrates on theSabatier poems,drawing on de Maistreand Gautieras important intertexts inthevariation onthelovelyric, while Chapter 4 establishes linksbetween 'Une Mortheroique', T. S. Eliot'sMurder in theCathedral, and Anouilh's Beckett, andseestheprose poemas a 'demonstration ofthedynamics of the cognitive relation between subject andobject andofthe limitation ofthe process ofcognition itself' (p.86).Babuts next turns toCLe Cygne', analysing Baudelaire's creation ofthemyth ofexileinorder totranscend it,andto'Le Voyage' which he relates totheepictradition ofHomer, Dante,Tennyson andothers. Thisleadsto ananalysis ofthe theory ofcorrespondences anda conclusion exploring the question ofidentity, central tocognitive analysis, as revealed through thetransformative dimension ofartandthe interaction between biography andpoetry. Babuts's cognitive approach proves tobe most relevant tothecloseanalysis of Baudelaire's texts. Itsheds a newlight ontheintertextual readings andinterpretations which form a large partofthebookandgivefresh, useful, interdisciplinary readings ofsome ofBaudelaire's key texts...