Récit de vie, récit de soi: Cendrars, Djian, Houellebecq, Rachid O., Abdellah Taïa et alii éd. par Christophe Ippolito

Abstract

Reviewed by: Récit de vie, récit de soi: Cendrars, Djian, Houellebecq, Rachid O., Abdellah Taïa et alii éd. par Christophe Ippolito Karlis Racevskis Ippolito, Christophe, éd. Récit de vie, récit de soi: Cendrars, Djian, Houellebecq, Rachid O., Abdellah Taïa et alii. Passage(s), 2018. ISBN 979-10-94898-42-0. Pp. 309 To what extent, under what circumstances, and in what different ways does writing about one's life also involve a reflection on the self of the writer? The essays in this collection are attempts at an answer to such questions. Implicit in these attempts is the recognition that notions of life-writing and life narrative encompass an ever-growing domain of activity that goes beyond the literary: "[L]'écriture de vie et en son sein le récit de vie sont aussi des notions extralittéraires et interdisciplinaires" (10). Similarly, to speak of a "récit de soi" will inevitably bring out "le rôle essentiel des dimensions réflexive et analytique de cette notion" (11). That is, attempts to narrate the self have to be critical—specifically in the sense provided by Max Horkheimer's critical theory. For Horkheimer, the self or the subject is to be seen as necessarily historical, as inextricably immersed in his or her society and not as the self-sufficient rational agent of the Cartesian Cogito. This places the subject in a necessary relationship with others, which results in a "lien entre récit de soi et mémoire collective" (13). This inescapable connection between the self and otherness, between self and others, provides the organizing principle for this collection of fifteen insightful essays, divided in three sections and seven modules. Part one, "Fonctions du récit de soi," deals with critiques and representations of the self. In her survey of autobiographies by women in France, Adeline Caute finds that traditional autobiography, as defined by Philippe Lejeune, for example, is marked by an implicit masculine bias denying the validity of women's voices. Examining the writings of Rachid O. and Abdellah Taïa, Christa C. Jones notes their singular ability to narrate "leur expérience de vie, notamment l'évolution du vécu de leur homosexualité entre le Maroc […] et la France" (72). Part two deals with "Le récit de vie face à l'urgence de la mort" and brings out the importance of trauma as a motivating factor in narratives of the history and experience of the Holocaust in particular. In her analysis of the work of Jorge Semprún, Julie Racine notes that "l'expérience de la littérature au seuil même du camp devient une réaffirmation de l'identité préalablement broyée" (112). The third part takes us "Au-delà du récit de soi" by asking "Comment raconter la vie?" The poetry of Blaise Cendrars illustrates, for Ivan Radeljkovič, a "conception de vie comme écriture" (181). As a result, "les limites entre narration et expérience sont ainsi abolies" (184). Christophe Ippolito [End Page 235] notes in his introduction that the essays frequently demonstrate how "le présent de l'écriture échappe à la tyrannie du rétrospectif, ou lui résiste" (17), thus recognizing the ever-present reconstitution of the self in the act of transcribing a life. The book concludes with a reflection by Adina Balint and Patrick Imbert on the role of literature and its potential for making us perceive "la subtilité de nos singularités et de nouveaux rapports aux expériences de l'altérité et du monde" (264). Karlis Racevskis Ohio State University, emeritus Copyright © 2021 American Association of Teachers of French