Proust et le fait littéraire by Mireille Naturel

Abstract

telle diversité dans les textes liminaires d’André Breton qu’ils finissent par dépasser les catégories de Genette. Chez Jean Giono, l’ego prend le dessus et ce qui devait être, par exemple, une présentation des plus beaux passages de Virgile se transforme en ode à Giono par Giono. En ce qui concerne Henri Michaux, son désir d’établir un lien avec les lecteurs dans ses préfaces s’oppose à sa phobie de la médiatisation des œuvres et de leurs auteurs. D’autres travaux examinent les préfaces écrites par Yves Bonnefoy et par les oulipiens Georges Perec et Paul Fournel. Les genettiens ne manqueront pas de lire cet ouvrage; ils ne seront pas les seuls. University of Arizona Alain-Philippe Durand NATUREL, MIREILLE. Proust et le fait littéraire. Genève: Slatkine, 2010. ISBN 978-2-74531981 -4. Pp. 283. 71,75 FS. Naturel’s book is a complex, meandering map of Proust’s immersion in the literary world. She describes the various forms of Proust’s literary influence as “multiples rhizomes” (269). This metaphor works well for her analysis of the “fait littéraire.” Much like a subterranean rhizomatous system supports clusters of plants above the ground, an expansive bundle of interconnected and usually unseen processes, strategies, and influences undergird a novel and connect it to other works. The first three parts concern elements that shaped the publication of À la recherche du temps perdu: the influence of newspapers, particularly as a venue for prepublications as Proust moved from the fragment to the whole work; exchanges and friendships that shaped Proust’s and other authors’ works; anxiety about publishing; intertexts by Flaubert, Bourget, Loti, and Farrère; intrigues around literary prizes; reactions of contemporary readers and critics; and negotiations with publishers and editors. The last parts (4 and 5) explore ongoing processes that influence the reader’s experience of the novel, including Proust’s impact on contemporary novels, the ‘lieux de mémoire,’ such as Tante Léonie’s house in Illiers-Combray and memoirs recounting first meetings with Proust, and the collecting and selling of manuscripts, rare editions, and letters. Naturel deploys wide-ranging approaches to flesh out La recherche’s genesis and reception, deftly combining genetic criticism, biography, a usually broadly thematic but at times close literary analysis, and detective work (tracking down certain editions, manuscripts, and letters). Her method returns critical attention to the author, but much differently from what Sainte-Beuve prescribed and Proust criticized. Rather than presenting a static vision of the relation between author, work, and milieu, Naturel focuses on the dynamic, reciprocal processes that produce literature. Proust’s novel emerged under certain influences and conditions . At the same time, he diligently shaped the reception and publication of his book, thereby influencing its very milieu. La recherche reflects this two-way dynamic, portraying an author’s work on some of the processes surrounding literary production. The narrator’s article in Le Figaro is a mise en abyme of Proust’s efforts at moving from prepublication to novel. Furthermore, like Proust, who worked on some of the concrete details of his books’ publications, the narrator is concerned with the material qualities of books as a “support du sens” (8), from his sensitivity to the signifier to the appearance of book jackets. Naturel portrays not an artistic mystic but an author who shrewdly used his social and literary 190 FRENCH REVIEW 86.1 relations, controlled his public image, and was involved in the practical facets of publishing. Retracing the origin of the work and exploring its continued reverberations in contemporary literature, the argument and its transitions seem at times whimsical , even somewhat arbitrary. But this meandering is, to a large extent, a reflection of the complex task of following the many proliferations of ‘le fait littéraire.’ While a totality is neither the goal nor a possibility, Naturel pays little attention to current literary phenomena, such as Proust’s presence on the Internet or in popular culture. Another loose end in the argument: Naturel suggests that Proust was a precursor in his engagement with the complex social processes surrounding literature. A comparison with other writers of the time or an explanation...