Mediterranean Narrative: Beyond France and the Maghreb by Claudia Esposito

Abstract

Reviews 219 Benda in the first half of the century through the evolution of Sartre after the war, perhaps influenced by his reading of the journals of André Gide. A study of the role played by Jean Paulhan in the postwar period precedes chapters on Georges Perec, Michel Foucault, and Pierre Guyotat, whose thought shapes the second half of the century. The collection is lucidly presented in a preface by Hamel, who, as announced by his title, sets various theories of literary engagement in the broader context of twentieth-century cultural history. Dartmouth College Mary Jean Green Esposito,Claudia. Mediterranean Narrative: Beyond France and the Maghreb.Lanham: Lexington, 2014. ISBN 978-0-7391-6821-9. Pp. 183. $80. This thought-provoking essay belongs to a growing but still under-represented trend within (and on the margins of) postcolonial studies.With persuasive efficiency, Esposito elaborates her reflections through a tripartite critical stance. One of those dimensions asks to reassess the concept of postcoloniality by using “a transnational rather than dichotomous interpretive frame [...] where France is the dominant point of reference”(xii).A second aspect of her approach defines the Mediterranean beyond center-periphery interpretive practices as“a space of contestation and infinite translation ,” beyond a facile universalism, as Adbelkébir Khatibi puts it. The third element of Esposito’s reflection represents a tribute to literature. Borrowing from Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts, the author considers the Mediterranean as a “smooth space,” i.e., “open to intensities and affects,” as opposed to striated spaces that both “confine and restrict”(xx).As a smooth space, free of the tyrannies of identitarianism and historical determinism, the Mediterranean shares qualities with literature, which, inasmuch as it partakes both in subjectivity and universalism, stands as a privileged medium for apprehending the world. Esposito’s case for literature translates into engaging closereadings that she articulates elegantly with a pertinent theoretical apparatus. The book is structured in three parts, each composed of two chapters. The first part,“Humanism and History,” proposes a chapter on Camus’s “Humanism of the Sun,” which aptly recalls the writer’s concern for measure by replacing him between Nature and Politics, and one on Amin Maalouf’s and Fawzi Mellah’s “Alternative Histories.” The second part expands “Beyond the Binary” by exploring gender issues in the works of Nina Bouraoui, and by delving into Tahar Ben Jelloun’s cosmopolitanism through his “Neapolitan Baroque.”Finally,“Crossing the Strait and Moving the Center”completes Esposito’s move toward unlocking the discourse on the Mediterranean in a doubly daring finale. After looking at questions of migrations in Ben Jelloun and the toooverlooked Moroccan writer Mahi Binebine, the author finishes with a brilliant chapter on Francophone North African writers who live in Italy and write in Italian: Abdelmalek Smari, Mohsen Melliti, and Amara Lakhous. Arguably the most original of the book, this chapter provides an appropriate coda to an essay that endeavors to challenge the status quo and redefine the Mediterranean ethos. To be sure, the book does not pretend to be exhaustive in its reach. It does not, for instance, address some key intercultural relations, such as those experienced by Jews in the Mediterranean. In its effort to question the notions of limits and frontiers, one may also wish it had invoked thinkers like Étienne Balibar. But, Esposito’s book remains an engaging piece of scholarship of most urgent relevance. Princeton University André Benhaïm Francès, Cyril. Casanova: la mémoire du désir. Paris: Garnier, 2014. ISBN 978-28124 -2139-6. Pp. 681. 59 a. Casanova represents one of the most intriguing figures of the eighteenth century. His reputation as the archetypal seducer has endured in numerous literary, artistic, and popular forms, as recently evidenced by Albert Serra’s film Story of My Death. The macabre, ironic title alludes to Casanova’s posthumously published memoir, Story of My Life. Francès, too, has of late issued a lengthy interpretation of Casanova’s Histoire de ma vie, which he based on his doctoral dissertation. The resulting work comes across as an obtuse text of dry literary analysis which purports to view the infamous lover’s work as a reflection of such Enlightenment concerns as sensibility...