Traveling Theory: France and the United States by Ieme van der Poel , Sophie Bertho (review)

Abstract

Revaews 844 cantend toeclipse thecomplexities ofmonolithic notions of'French' culture and identity. Thisvolume refuses categorically tofall into that trap. Christopher Whyte's consideration ofCorbiere andGoodsir Smith underlines, for instance, theBreton aspectsof theformer's work;MicheleDuclos'sdiscussion ofKenneth White similarly stresses theCeltic dimension ofthepoet'sengagement with francophone culture; andfinally, DavidKinloch, inhisfascinating discussion ofMichel Tremblay inScots translation, describes howtheMontreal-Edinburgh axisofthis transfer reconfigures cultural relations byshort-circuiting Paris andLondon. In Kinloch's version, the'New Alliance'is no longer bi-polar butsubject potentially toa series ofpostcolonial exchanges. Hisarticle concludes with a poetic vision ofcontemporary Scottish culture, dynamic andopentoavariety ofreciprocal relationships: 'pareille a lafleche deZenon, quifile dela source a la cible, presente a tout moment etpourtant toujours enmouvement, transformee parchacun des instants desonvolvers l'Autre, instants qu'elletransforme enretour' (p.240).This is verydiffierent from thestatic, introverted tartan exoticism whichis often propagated outwith Scotland, andunderlines therealinterest oftheessays inthis volume for those working onissues oftranslation andinter-cultural contact. The concluding bibliographical essay byPaulBarnaby issobering, however, for itreveals thatJanice Galloway, JeSTorrington, andIainCrichton Smith areyet toappear in French translation andthat only onenovel byeachof James Kelman andAlasdair Gray isavailable toFrench readers. A useful companion volume would reverse the subjectof thisvolumeby considering theCaledonianinfluence on modern Francophone literature. UNIVERSITY OFGLASGOW CHARLES FORSDICK Eraveling <17zeoy: France and the United States. Ed.byIEME VAN DERPOEL andSOPHIE BERTHO. Madison, Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; London: AssociatedUniversityPresses- I999. I77pp £28 The interrelationship between travel and theory continues to attract sustained attention ina variety offields. CarenKaplan,for example, hasrecently explored thecomplex debtofcontemporary critical theory to figures ofmobility and displacement (inQuestion ofEravel, Durham, NC, andLondon:DukeUniversity Press, I996),whereas James Clifford, focusing on etymology, hassuggested that theorizing isalways a 'practice oftravel andobservation' ('NotesonTheory and Travel', Inscriptions, 5(I989),I77-88(p. I77)).ItisEdward Said,however, whohas developed themost coherent ideaoftravelling theory, exploring theways inwhich theories aretransformed asthey shift between places andhistorical moments. Said's work hasnotonly inspired thetitle ofthis volume; hiscontribution, that ofa selfconfessed 'participant observer', alsoconcludes this collection ofeight essays (based onpapers delivered ata conference inI994),whose authors track theregeneration and reconfiguration ofAmerican academicculture in thesecondhalfofthe twentieth century in response to thetransatlantic crossings ofFrench critical thought. In thefiveyearsbetween theconference and thisvolume's publication, the subject oftheory anditsimplications for academic practice wereemphasized as a result oftheso-called 'Sokalaiair' andthepublication ofImpostures intellectuelles (Paris: OdileJacob,I997). Said'sessay inparticular isa cautious andconsidered contribution to theserecent debates;qualifying criticism as performance not prescription, he warnsagainst theinstrumentalization, decontextualization and depoliticization oftheory. IemevanderPoel'suseful introduction alludes more MLR,96.3,200I 845 directly toSokal andBricmont, but undermines their claims tonovelty ororiginality. Sheoffiers a more attenuated, comparative account oftheemergence ofcontemporary theory inFrance andtheUSA,whilst focusing oninstitutional andcultural divergences between thetwocountries. The individual essays which follow are deliberately discrete, exploring issues oftransit andcultural specificity from avariety ofperspectives. Thereisno consensus onthenature oftheory's intercontinental travel, with contributors variously describing theFranco-American relationship as 'dialogue', 'appropriation', 'modification', 'enhancement', 'influence', 'importation ',or a morecomplex form of'continental drift', thisfinalnotionsubtly illustrated byChristine vanBoheemen-Saaf, for whom deconstruction 'eventually imported asradically other haditsroots inaspects ofanAnglo-American tradition' (p.56). The essays tendtofocus on thethinkers initially involved intheI966Johns Hopkins conference onstructuralism, with several alsodevoted toLacanianand feminist theorists. French postmodernists (for example,Jean Baudrillard andPaul Virilio) andFrancophone postcolonialists (for example, Frantz Fanon andEdouard Glissant) freighted totheUnited States viaParis arenotreferred to,although Said makes itclear that the volume's subject is'extremely close andessentially unfinished' (P. I34),andhence inneedoffurther elucidation. Thiscollection ofessays offiers, nevertheless, aninvaluable source for future, more comprehensive studies ofFrench theory's transatlantic travels and theimplications of theseforcontemporary intellectual history. UNIVERSITY OFGLASGOW CHARLES FORSDICK Heterographies. Sexual Diffierence inFrench Autobiography. ByALEX HUGHES. Oxford and NewYork: Berg.I999.Vii + I86PP. £42.99. Alex Hughes's new monograph incorporates some ofher previously published work, butalsoprovides fresh insights intoa genre thatinrecent years hasenjoyed a renaissance ofcritical attention: writing oftheself. I deliberately eschew theword 'autobiography! since, despite itspresence inthetitle ofHughes's excellent study, herfocus exceeds thetype ofcontractually veridical text, famously typologized by Philippe Lejeune's LePacte autobiographique (Paris: Seuil,I975),inwhich author and narrator/protagonist cohere unproblematically, andinwhich a pactismadebythe author truthfully totell the story ofhis/her life. ForHughes alsoexamines examples of'autofiction', a term coined bySergeDoubrovsky todenote 'a narrative mode that flags itself upas fictional whilst featuring a first-person narrator/protagonist possessed ofa nameandstock oflife-experiences identical tothose oftheauthor' (Hughes, pp.III-I2). GivenHughes's admirable meticulousness, I am slightly puzzled bythelackofreference to'Le pacteautobiographique (bis)'(Poetique, 56 (I983),4I6-34), wherein Lejeune, whilst notrevoking hisoriginal definition of autobiography, didsignificantly concede that 'isolee desoncontexte, citee comme une "autorite", elle pouvaitparaltre sectaire et dogmatique, lit de Procuste derisoire' (p.4I7). However, this isa minor objection, almost entirely eclipsed bytheadmirable erudition, subtlety, andcritico-theoretical range ofHughes's disquisition intothe roleplayed bygender, sexuality anddiXerence inthelife-writings ofSimone de Beauvoir, MarieCardinal, Serge Doubrovsky, Marguerite Duras,HerveGuibert, Violette Leduc,andJean-Paul Sartre. A distinctive structural and ideological feature ofHughes's monograph isitsdivision intochapters which self-consciously andilluminatingly yoke writers ofboth genders, teasing outthe obvious divergences ...