Dire le social dans le roman francophone contemporain ed. by Justin K. Bisanswa, Kasereka Kavwahirehi

Abstract

The essays are divided into three groups. The first group, titled “La bombe Dada,” contains six essays, which consider well-known and some lesser-known aspects of Dadaism. The movement is seen within the avant-garde’s historical continuity—its connection with Futurism is discussed in the first essay, “Tristan Tzara, fourrier du futurisme”—and within the cultural context of its time—by raising the issue of the ambivalent relationship between Dadaism and psychoanalysis in “Dada est un microbe vierge.” The political and the international dimensions of the movement, both modeled on anarchism, have a central position in Béhar’s consideration of Dadaism. In the second section, “Lames de fonds spectaculaires,” Béhar examines specific instances of the avant-garde spectacle, paying particular attention to the theater of and around surrealism. Essays on the Théâtre Alfred Jarry, Antonin Artaud, director and actor Sylvain Itkine, and the films of Roger Vitrac are framed by two more general discussions of surrealist and Dada theater, its influences and goals. The last and probably most interesting section of the book showcases Béhar’s full command of Surrealism’s history, encounters, and behind-the-scenes exchanges . With the exception of two essays—one devoted to Jean Paulhan and his friendship with André Breton, the other addressing Dali’s scatological imagery and obsessions—this section approaches Surrealism’s various implications and endeavors as a movement. The limits of the movement are explored, either as the sometimes porous demarcation lines between Surrealism and groups like “Le Grand Jeu,” or with respect to its geographical frontiers, as in a fascinating discussion of Surrealism in the Canary Islands. Again, the politics of the avant-garde come to the foreground, both in general considerations of what it means for an artistic movement to be political, and through an assessment of Surrealism’s attitude during the Algerian War and the preparation of the “Déclaration sur le droit à l’insoumission dans la guerre d’Algérie.” Finally, the literary credentials and preoccupations of Surrealism are pieced together in a discussion of the literary criticism in surrealist publications, and through consideration of Surrealism’s representational strategies with regard to the literary topos of the landscape. Avoiding wide theoretical claims and relying almost exclusively on French critical studies, this book reads as a fragmented fresco of the French avant-garde, mimicking by its structure the avant-garde itself, and reminding us thereby how a discontinuous project managed nonetheless to be “d’un seul tenant.” Princeton University (NJ) Effie Rentzou BISANSWA, JUSTIN K., et KASEREKA KAVWAHIREHI, éd. Dire le social dans le roman francophone contemporain. Paris: Champion, 2011. ISBN 978-2-74532031 -5. Pp. 601. 115 a. A weighty volume in all senses, Dire le social offers a preface by Jean Bessière, co-editors’ introduction, and index, in addition to thirty-two substantive essays often to thirty pages each by authors from three continents, many of them wellknown to Francophone scholars. A special bonus is the postface by Bernard Mouralis, who retraces his own intellectual trajectory as he documents the often difficult evolution of Francophone studies in France. While it does not cut a wide swath through Francophone studies (two-thirds of the essays are devoted to sub-Saharan African literature, whereas five treat the Maghreb and two the Reviews 563 Caribbean, with one each for Tahiti and Egypt), the volume promises a rare treat for Africanists especially insofar as many essays examine authors emerging in the past decade (Alain Mabanckou, Leonora Miano, and Fatou Diome), along with lesser-studied writers in the African canon (Georges Ngal, Alioum Fantouré, Werewere Liking, Aminata Sow Fall, and Ken Bugul), and more standard fare (Ahmadou Kourouma, Mongo Beti, Henri Lopes, and V.I. Mudimbe). In mapping out in their introduction the parameters of what “saying the social” means and what creative forms it can take, Bisanswa and Kavwahirehi seek to extricate the Francophone novel from its imprisonment in imitative models of classic realism and to distance their project from equally reductive forms of sociological criticism that are derived from, and limited by, sociological methodologies. They exhort readers to conceptualize a new realism that responds to the urgent need for a parole publique to...