Chercheurs d’absolu: Mauriac et de Gaulle. Chroniques et discours 1945–1948 by Malcolm Scott (review)

Abstract

MLRy 99.3, 2004 787 application ofher thesis with interesting speculations on the transmitting ofthe visible world in terms of painting, involving comparisons with Elstir, Turner, and Ruskin. University of Glasgow W. L. Hodson Giraudoux: 'La guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu'. By Victoria B. Korzeniowska. London: Grant and Cutler. 2003. 71pp. ?7.95. ISBN 0-7293-0434-5. The question to be asked of student guides is simply, 'Do they do the job?' In this case my answer is a mitigated yes. The student will find detailed information here about the major themes of the play, which are placed in the context of Giraudoux's other work, and related in some detail to contemporary political and social issues. Victoria Korzeniowska is clearly also aware of the comedy and subtle characteriza? tion in this work, but her book is organized in such a way as to place the emphasis squarely on the themes, with a chapter each on mythology, pacifism, and feminism, the last being given the most space. The bibliography also reflectsthis emphasis, with a range of background texts on war and feminism but only one on theatre. The two previous guides to this play were both published in 1971, so there is clearly room for an update. Korzeniowska argues against one of these, Roy Lewis's Giraudoux: 'La guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu', Studies in French Literature, 19 (London: Arnold, 1971), claiming that his view of the play as an ageless work on war contributes to 'a pervasive myth that Giraudoux is a writer who produces complex works which are totally disconnected from contemporary events' (p. 23). She stresses the contempo? rary allusions which have been seen as referringto either the German or the ltalian threat in 1935 (pp. 22, 23). The other guide, by Etienne Frois ('La guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu', Profil d'une oeuvre, 17 (Paris: Hatier, 1971)), does not appear in her bibliography, but could well be recommended as a supplement to hers, since Frois does have separate sections on dramatic technique and production. In her firstchapter she argues that the play is 'a prophetic warning about the imminence of the Second World War' (p. 18), referringto Giraudoux's long-standing inter? est in Franco-German relations, at its clearest in Siegfried, and to his political essays. She gives a clear account of Giraudoux's views on war in the early fictions,particularly in Lectures pour une ombre, before tracing his complex and ambiguous treatment of the subject in the play. Similarly, she approaches the question of feminism by review? ing the author's treatment of the topic in his works generally, and the development of feminisms during the inter-war years, before discussing the focus on female characters as peace-makers in the play, which she sees as a 'powerful indictment of patriarchal society'(p. 63). Her conclusion focuses on the author's opinions, and discusses the 'message of hope' the play might convey (p. 67). My reservation is that, whatever the message, Giraudoux's delight in language and in playing with theatrical formis surely crucial to the play's survival today, and these topics are not sufficientlytreated here. University of Leeds John Rothenberg Chercheurs d'absolu: Mauriac et de Gaulle. Chroniques et discours 1945-1948. By Malcolm Scott. Paris: L'Esprit du temps. 2002. 344 pp. ?23. ISBN 284795 -000-1. This volume follows on from Malcolm Scott's earlier work Mauriac et de Gaulle (Paris: L'Esprit du temps, 1999), which analysed the mutual influences operating 788 Reviews between de Gaulle's speeches and the development of Mauriac's political writings, writings which in their turn influenced de Gaulle's writing and thought. The logical outcome of and complement to this study was forthe author a parallel edited volume of the texts which demonstrate these reciprocal influences. Chercheurs d'absolu, as Scott points out in his introduction, is a form of correspondence, though not in the epistolary sense. The documents involved are not letters which the two men explicitly addressed to each other, but are rather written and oral texts,produced independently, but which highlight the parallels between the two men's ideas. De Gaulle's...