Tienke Kingma-Eijgendaal , Paul J. Smith (review)

Abstract

512 Reviews 1946 to 1948, the year of his death. As Vidieu-Larrere notes, too often critics have shied away from Artaud's difficultlate works?have even, in some cases, dismissed them as incoherent and unreadable. Through a careful, attentive, and convincing re-examination of his late texts (mainly, his Cahiers from Rodez and his return to Paris), Vidieu-Larrere demonstrates that a deeper coherence resonates throughout these works, in spite of the superficially chaotic language that they display. The interrelatedness forArtaud of the body, pain, language/textuality, and personal identity forms the basis ofVidieu-Larrere's reading ofhis late works. She asserts that, in these writings, 'le corps torture, depece, envahit le texte; gigantesque aberration il regente tout et rien de lui ne nous est cele' (p. 7). Alongside this preoccupation with extreme bodily experience, Artaud pursues a project of 'inventer un langage qui ne soit pas celui de tous', Vidieu-Larrere states, 'qui ne soit pas sali par un abusif galvaudage ' (p. 8). Although Artaud's relationship to language was, from the beginning (for example, in his famous Correspondance avec Jacques Riviere), agonizingly difficult and conflictual, paradoxically he was able to win his battle with language in these late Cahiers. As Vidieu-Larrere argues, 'la reclusion forcee semble avoir ete liberatrice [. . .] Des lors, le langage devient prolixe' (p. 8). Vidieu-Larrere divides her study into three distinct sections, reflecting Artaud's evolving relationship to identity, the body, and language. Part 1 is entitled 'La lutte contre le double et les puissances malignes'; Part 11,'Les forces d'envahissement et le morcellement du corps'; and Part m, 'La reconstitution et l'acheminement vers l'unite'. Vidieu-Larrere's interpretations of Artaud's late writings and drawings are con? sistently sensitive, thoughtful, and illuminating. At times, however, she makes excessive ?and unjustified?claims for the originality of her reading of his works: 'Entreprendre une telle lecture ecarte tout ce qui a pu s'ecrire auparavant sur l'ceuvre d'Artaud [sie], puisqu'il est vrai qu'elle veut suivre des voies jusque-la ignorees' (p. 18). Furthermore, although I applaud her choice not to exploit Artaud's writings by (mis)using them as a mere testing-ground for any particular theory, I do think that insights from certain areas of contemporary theory (psychoanalysis, especially) might have been useful to her for her speculations on the cultural meanings of the texts that she discusses. Despite these minor objections, I find that Vidieu-Larrere's book is a vital contri? bution to the study of Artaud's writings. It will surely influence future scholarship on his work. McMaster University John C. Stout Francis Ponge: lectures et methodes. By Tienke Kingma-Eijgendaal and Paul J. Smith. (Collection Monographique Rodopi en Litterature Francaise Contemporaine , 39) Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi. 2004. 121 pp. ?30; $39. ISBN 90-420-1178-5. The virtue of this methodologically eclectic collection of essays lies in its provision of micro-readings of entire texts. The authors trace the multiple threads of Ponge's semantically dense writing and demonstrate their intricate play in Pas de corvee, Le Papillon, La Grenouille, Les Poeles, La Mousse, Eclaircie en hiver, L'Ardoise, and Le Pre. In their introduction they brieflychart Ponge's symbiotic relationship through? out his career with trends in critical theory and note his most recent adoption by ge? netic criticism. They then put to work a variety of critical frameworks through which to approach his poetic world. Each chapter pursues a special focus: paradox and the paradoxon (Chapter 2); polysemy and isotopy (3); metaphor (4); surdetermination(5); MLR, 100.2, 2005 513 and Peircean iconicity (6). Assembling these diverse essays as a monograph raises two problems: that of coherence within a compilation book which has been written over a decade and a quatre mains (much of the material has already been published as single-authored articles), and that of renewal in essays which often apply well-worn critical apparatus from the 1970s and 1980s and which focus on Ponge's earlier texts. The book's overarching framework is satisfactory. The authors point to develop? ments across their essays and make useful contrasts between them; Ponge's progres? sion frombibelotsthroughproemes to...