Poésies des francophonies: état des lieux (1960–2020). Sous la direction de Florian Alix, Évelyne Lloze et Romuald Fonkoua

Abstract

This ambitious and successful volume brings together twenty chapters with a clear Introduction by the editors. The first of five sections offers theoretical and historical discussions of Francophonie. Giovanni Dotoli, for instance, proposes a definition of poetry based on a ‘langue en partage’ (p. 17), while Maxime Del Fiol explains that most francophone poets speak or write more than one language, leading to ‘hétérolinguisme’ and a ‘plurivocité tensionnelle’ in France as well as in other francophone countries (pp. 71, 73). Swiss poetry, Antonio Rodriguez argues, offers a way of understanding globalization, in a process moving from poetry that reproduces the national model of France (1960–80), to a culture of exchange and diversity (1980–2010), and finally, since 2010, sees progression to new global, digital distribution networks. Chapters in the second and third parts present individual writers through the lens of the poetic subject, as it relates to different places and to others respectively. Part Four examines varieties of the genre of poetry while the final part discusses examples of poetry’s interaction with other genres. Collectively, the chapters span a wide, though necessarily non-exhaustive, range of geographical areas. Poets from Quebec are most heavily represented, but the volume also includes discussion of writers from Martinique, Haiti, Senegal, Republic of the Congo, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, Madagascar, Belgium, and Switzerland, as well as poets who adopted the French language (including Lorand Gaspar, presented by Emma Curty), or those living in France such as rappers who reclaim ‘Afropéanité’ (discussed by Magali Nachtergael, p. 171). Poets’ reflections on place and language are shown frequently to be accompanied by a splitting of the self, and a sense of exile. But texts do not always display a conflicted relationship to France or the French language. Indeed, one of the strengths of the volume is that the poets’ concerns are considered on their own terms and not via their relationship to a ‘norm’ of France or the variety of French spoken there (Del Fiol, p. 65). The chapters consider well-known figures such as Gaston Miron (Delphine Rumeau), Édouard Glissant (Samia Kassab-Charfi), or Vénus Khoury-Ghata (Béatrice Bonhomme), alongside others who have less recognition. For instance, although Youcef Sebti’s work was included in an anthology of Algerian poets edited by Jean Sénac in 1971 (Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie algérienne (Paris: Librairie Saint-Germain-des-Prés)), those poets were not included in French lists after 1962, nor were they published in post-war Algeria (Laure Michel). Similarly, in her discussion of the Congolese Phratrie, a group in which older male poets supported younger writers, Céline Gahungu explains that the former were rarely able to help the latter publish their work, and certainly not internationally. Essays including Bernard De Meyer’s contribution on slam remind us of the breadth of contemporary poetic forms, and many of the chapters display a welcome attention to the detail of poetic texts; one example among those valuable essays is Emna Kharmachi’s analysis of work by Amina Saïd. Although more male poets are studied here, there is nevertheless serious consideration of some work by women: as well as Khoury-Ghata and Saïd, essays examine Marie Uguay (Pierre-Yves Soucy) and Anne Hébert, Louise Dupré, and Hélène Dorion (Michael Brophy). Overall, the volume makes a valuable contribution to expanding readers’ knowledge and understanding of the rich variety of poetic writing in French across the world.