Blanche et Noir by Louise Faure-Favier, Roger Little, Laurent de Freitas

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MLR, I02.3, 2007 857 Denis Labouret's article on 'Les apories de la temporalite' in the novel finds the nub of theproblematic of joy in thecontradiction inherent in its title.Citing Ricceur's three temporal aporiai, he shows how Bobi's attempts to combat these founder on their own contradictions. Joycannot be of themoment and planned for (cannot be 'ma' and 'la'). Bobi confuses the two.Narrative militates against poetry, as Bobi is torn fromhis utopia/uchronia by temporality (theCommunist farmer 'vient rappeler le sens du temps 'a Bobi' (p. I33)) and by alterity (principally Josephine). The last two articles are themost searching, evincing the extraordinary modernity of thenovel's multiform self-referentiality,as itattempts-and, as any text,ultimately fails-to create a symbolic counter-world over against the reality of the 'devorante bouche du monde' (pp. 142 ff.) of natural metamorphoses. Jacques Le Gall takes the loom installed in the farmhouse as themise en abyme best indicating this tex tual precariousness. Fourcaut's closing essay extends Le Gall's thesis, envisaging the Gremone plateau as the blank page, and Bobi's project as symbolic of that of the writer Giono was at this time, tragically aware that towrite is a desertion. Fourcaut superbly analyses the novel's teeming descriptive passages as the attempt to cure, 'naturaliser' (p. i85 and passim), the text. But man is never more sundered from natural reality thanwhen trying tocapture it. After one further,evenmore equivocal attempt, inBatailles dans lamontagne, Giono would stop trying to reconcile writing and realworld, for 'il a tout eprouve et compris du texte,desmecanismes ultimes du texte,avant tout lemonde' (p. 229); a claim this timely collection cogently enforces. UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD JEREMY BULL Blanche etNoir. By LOUISE FAURE-FAVIER. Ed. by ROGER LITTLE and LAURENT DE FREITAS. (Collection Autrement Memes) Paris: L'Harmattan. 2006. xxxv+ I59 pp. EI7.5o. ISBN 978-2-296-0IO92-5. This re-edition ofLouise Faure-Favier's I928 novel is a valuable scholarly contribu tion tocolonial literature. In a gentle and engaging style,Faure-Favier presents France at a crucial moment of social and technological transition, heralded by the arrival of electricity, the railway,and aeroplanes. Flying isa leitmotif,symbolizing the literaland metaphorical exploration of new horizons: theprotagonist, Jeanne, becomes a pilot. Jeanne's relationshipwith her absent black uncle Francois is foregrounded, this 'oncle negre' being her grandmother's child by her Senegalese second husband, whom she met at the 'zoo humain' of the I889 Exposition Universelle. Francois reveals himself in the finalpart of the book, a highly educated French subject who fought in the FirstWorld War, representing Faure-Favier's idealized vision of a harmonious union between France and Senegal. Sociological changes inFrance are contrasted with the changes colonization produced inSenegal, suggesting thatbothcountries are entering a new,more civilized era through the emergence of a class of educated people: the bourgeois. While thispro-colonial view restson the supposition thatblack people are civilized through theirassimilation intowhite culture,which Fanon would latercon demn inPeau noire,masques blancs (I 952), Faure-Favier's novel broke the taboos of its own time by discussing and seeking to legitimizemixed relationships, as her novel's title suggests; the thirdpart of thenovel, 'Chez les noirs', becomes a theoretical dis course on race relations and nation. The rapidly changing role ofwomen in society is documented and it is suggested thatwomen may overcome the racial prejudices pro pagated bymen. By taking 'l'oncle negre' (amixed-race child) as itscolonial subject, thenovel's optimistic hypothesis of racial integration hinges on a narrow, elite group and fails to consider the plight of themajority and exploitation at the hands of the French. Roger Little's excellent analysis (in French) provides important contextual 858 Reviews information, contrasting the novel with thework of Lucie Cousturier and drawing parallels with JeanGenet's Les Negres aswell as including a thoughtful discussion of Faure-Favier's 'optimisme naif' (p. xxvii) and a full bibliography of her work. The collaboration of Laurent de Freitas, the novelist's great-grandson, provides detailed biographical information and the cover image of the author as an aviator. The novel remains a remarkable text,which dares, albeit from a pro-colonial perspective, to champion...