Henri Bosco et le romantisme nocturne: actes du colloque international de Strasbourg (25-26 octobre 2002)

Abstract

Bosco studies have come a long way since the first conference held in Nice in 1975, thanks in large part to several of the contributors to this volume, six of whom belong to the research group based at the University of Strasbourg II. The two editors have done an excellent job in ensuring the intellectual coherence of the conference papers proper and developing some of the themes in longer articles. Many of the distinctive features of Bosco's work emerge with a new freshness when studied from the chosen perspective of ‘le romantisme nocturne’. The luminosity of his Provençal landscapes, the immediacy of the natural world, the frequency of reference to Classical myth and the Classical languages, represent only one side of a rich sensibility whose deep springs of inspiration turn out to be nocturnal. Bosco may not have had an intimate knowledge of the German Romantics, but as Claude Girault demonstrates, he certainly used Albert Béguin's L'Âme romantique et le rêve (1939), and echoes of Novalis (studied here by Gérard Valin) may have come to him via Béguin or via Bachelard, who was both an inspiration for Bosco and an admirer of his. Among the French Romantics, whom Bosco and others, like Giraudoux, regarded mostly as frauds (they saw themselves as launching an authentic Romanticism), Nerval was the major exception, and Éric Wessler shows how he serves as a link between Bosco and Dante. As with both Dante and Nerval, the night for Bosco is not primarily a décor or a theme (though it is those too), but rather it represents the ‘autre versant’ of psychological and spiritual life. Night is a lived experience, even a ‘personnage prodigieux’ (Bosco, quoted by Christian Morzewski, p. 220). Many of Bosco's novels take the form of a quest or initiation, often in the company of a double (see articles by Alain Tassel and Michel Guiomar: the double can also be understood in structural terms), in the course of which the potentially destructive forces (telluric, erotic, and so on) are finely balanced against the positive ones of mysticism and humanism (Morzewski on the Balesta trilogy). The struggle may resemble an exorcism (Sandra Beckett), but it also recalls the Orphic task of naming and so disempowering the forces of evil (Danièle Henky), often by means of fragments of diaries and other written material. Jean-Pierre Richard shows how the collection and classification of wild flowers enable the narrator of Le Mas Théotime to incorporate the sauvagerie of existence into his personal world. Luc Fraisse's exemplary reading of Un rameau de la nuit, one key episode of which is also studied by Raluca Riquet in terms of myth and symbol, shows how this novel represents ‘un travail toujours recommencé sur un texte initial et caché’ (p. 207). Benoît Neiss provides a welcome overview of the great range of myths used at different levels by Bosco, drawn from the three main strands of Classical, modern (medieval and later) and popular mythology. Luc Fraisse's helpful summary of the findings of the volume also points to some fresh pistes that have been opened up, including Bosco's ongoing dialogue with his sources, his relationship to the visual arts, and further possibilities for narratological/stylistic analysis. This is an informative and stimulating book.