Itinéraires du XIXe siècle ed. by Roland Le Huenen, Stéphane Vachon (review)

Abstract

780 Reviews abiding difficultyof making a generic classification of Emile is a recurrent theme here, and the difficultyitself, rather than any radical attempt to resolve it, shapes Mall's work. Thus, the tension between treatise and novel forms is apparent each time that Emile is used as an example. That is one aspect of the use of examples, but Mall will examine at length the question of exemplarity in the work, disentangling its many functions, some of which are linked loosely if at all to the distinction between novel and treatise. Emile, who is in any case not the only example invoked, must be unique, in order to demonstrate the truth of the new method, yet capable of generalization in order to prove its utility. He is regularly an ideal hypothesis but occasionally gives a bad example, so briefly representing a banal social norm rather than the alternative vision in which he generally has his place. Mall is excellent on everything relating to enunciation, clearly one of the most difficultissues for the reader of Emile. Mall shows how the authorial je disqualifies itself, rejecting any basis in experience for the foundation of a new order of education, making the Governor a necessary figure, although one who is nevertheless identified with the author by more or less ambigu? ous means. In her last chapter she takes up the issues of enunciation raised by the Profession de foi du vicaire savoyard, developing the notion of 'vicariance' generally, and ofthe substitution of one voice foranother in particular. In her meticulous sifting ofthe text, she also reminds us that the discourse ofthe vicaire is situated in relation to religious institutions, whereas the rest of the educational process described is cut offfrom institutions. That is typical of her ability to formulate general observations and judgements on the solid base provided by her detailed analyses. If Mall rejects the easy assurance of those who see only a treatise on education in Emile, she never fails into an excessive literalism that would block all global readings of the text. Her conclusion regarding the double allegiance of the work is this: 'La fiction d'Emile ne developpe pas, n'illustre pas une theorie anterieure ou separee qui serait, elle, non fictive : la theorie est l'autre face de la fiction, son autre figure' (p. 318). Quoted thus, the judgement may seem unsurprising, but the reader who follows the thread of this rich study,difficultto describe adequately in a short review because so much of its richness lies in the subtlety of the detailed readings, will know that the author has illuminated the text to an extent that has rarely been accomplished previously. This is a book to change our ways of thinking about Emile and to stimulate reflection on issues of enunciation and multiple voices throughout Rousseau's work. It is essential reading. Universite Lyon II Lumiere Michael O'Dea Itinerairesdu XIXe siecle, vol. ii. Ed. by Roland Le Huenen and Stephane Vachon. (A la recherche du xixe siecle, 6) Toronto: Centre d'etudes du xixe siecle Joseph Sable. 2001. 199 pp. ?IQ05; $28.49. ISBN 0-7727-8909-6. Drawing attention to the writings ofVictor Jacquemont, who leftrecords ofhis scien? tificexpedition to northern India in the 1830s, Yannick Resch argues that the young man's letters home are of particular interest. When Sonia Sapienza explores Charles Nodier's account of his trip from Dieppe to the Scottish Highlands, she too concen? trates more on literary than topographical aspects, and she points up the influence of Sterne's Sentimental Journey. Travellers' tales are not, however, the subject of most of the dozen papers by specialists from the French Departments of the Universities of Toronto and Montreal that are presented here. As the editors explain, readers should not be taken in by ia couleur proustienne du titre de cette collection' (p. 3); the focus is rather on the ceaseless transformations that they see as the essence of French cultural life in the nineteenth century. With its essays on major writers of the period, the volume as a whole lends support to that assertion. It hardly seems worth MLR, 99.3, 2004 781 debating, however, the rhetorical question whether or...