La littérature à l’éprouvette by Jean-François Chassay

Abstract

medieval characters modeled on Mordred who mimic his deeds. In his stand-out essay anchored on Robert de Boron’s Merlin, Griffith reveals a treasure trove of rich representations and reinterpretations of Merlin: that shapeshifting prophet-magician, conceived by demonic rape (or adultery), who acts as a morally ambiguous independent agent, straddling the sacred and the sinful, at times threatening to usurp even authorial power. Kamath’s essay analyzes the allegorical Livre du Cuer d’Amours Espris wherein the author René d’Anjou casts himself as the hero Heart who fails in service to Love, bested by the anti-hero Refusal. Although the essay fits less naturally into the volume, it opens a welcome window into the emotional life of the late-medieval aristocratic male and adds a dimension of introspection lacking in other medieval narratives. The chapters dedicated to character-types present thought-provoking material (“Crusaders,” “Saracens,”and most fascinatingly“Ungallant Knights”where James Wade considers the codicological context of stories in household miscellanies), but devote little attention to French literature—excepting “Son of Devils” wherein Cartlidge examines the offspring of demonic unions (Marie de France’s Yonec, Robert de Boron’s Merlin, Robert le Diable) and probes such important issues of medieval identity as the trauma of recognizing one’s own sinfulness. Cartlidge provides a useful, if brief, introduction, but to appreciate the thematic threads that bind the essays, one must read the book. There is no comprehensive bibliography and the skeletal index inexplicably includes“kitchen implements, as weapons”but overlooks key common concepts such as“incest,”“rape,” or “adultery.” That the book leaves us thirsting for more—for other (anti)heroes and certainly for (anti)heroines who appear only tangentially here—proves its value. New York University Marilyn Lawrence Chassay, Jean-François. La littérature à l’éprouvette. Montréal: Boréal, 2011. ISBN 978-2-7646-2131-8. Pp. 140. $19,95 Can. Chassay’s major interest is the interaction between science and literary culture. This book provides a fine example of his knowledge in both areas. His essential argument in the five essays which constitute this collection is that the dichotomy often proclaimed between literary and scientific cultures reflects a major, albeit wide-spread simplification, and that scientific inquiry shares many elements with literary undertakings . According to Chassay,it was a combination of the Cold War and“la découverte de l’ADN” (128) that gave impetus to this split, and that rather than the two being opposed,“la fiction investit la science”(123). Although Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) is not mentioned, Kuhn’s ideas pervade Chassay’s thinking. He conceives of scientific research as permeated by acts of the imagination and notes how much scientific explanation develops by means of metaphors. His essays all loosely follow the same structure. He begins with a discussion of a scientific concept or creation (the computer, for example), explains its history and potential, 258 FRENCH REVIEW 87.3 Reviews 259 and then entertains some academic hand-wringing about how this scientific advance threatens humanistic culture. The bulk of what follows will then demonstrate how artists, contemporary and from earlier eras, have already imagined or used this aspect of science in their literary works. In terms of artistic sources, Chassay is not limited to the Francophone world; he draws his examples from the literature of Europe (East and West), and the Americas. For those already open to a healthy interchange between the sciences and the arts, the arguments made may not seem terribly new, but what provides them with a renewed vitality,is Chassay’s relaxed,often ironic style.He is something of a provocateur, but one who knows what he is talking about. Thus a sentence like “au Moyen Âge, les populations avaient une mémoire beaucoup plus importante que la nôtre” (114) might initially raise some eyebrows, but, as a variety of scholars have demonstrated, it is quite true. Throughout this collection Chassay confronts complacent lieux communs with facts and this is nowhere more evident than in his rebuttal of the regularly announced death of literature. Chassay scoffs at this notion and suggests instead that if literature suffers, it is from...