French Novels Research Articles

Two Solitudes

Abstract Contemporary French novelists Michel Houellebecq and Yannick Haenel may seem to have little in common, but in fact both are given to making pronouncements about the state of Western civilization, and each has been described as prophetic in this regard. Houellebecq’s Sérotonine (2019) and Haenel’s Tiens ferme ta couronne (2017) are both stories whose protagonists isolate in their apartments, and—from that remove—proceed to, ostensibly, see the world for what it really is. Looming in both novels is a twenty-four-hour-news-cycle culture that serves as the ultimate prophet of doom. Haenel’s hero finds in solitude the critical distance from that culture needed to formulate an alternative vision of the world and exorcise the horror just enough to find hope. In Houellebecq’s novel, that distance is impossible, as his hero, a self-proclaimed “telemancer,” remains obsessed with cable news and as, on a deeper level, Houellebecq’s style merges seamlessly with the news cycle’s fearmongering logic.

‘Doing a Houellebecq’ in the Age of Screens: Trolling, Selfies and Textual Bricolage

ABSTRACT Contrasting with readings of his work that strive to shackle the author to the traditional French nineteenth-century literary canon, this article argues that Michel Houellebecq can be understood as a novelist of the Facebook generation. To put it another way, this article considers what happens when a novelist who began his literary career stressing the insufficiency of literature (in Extension du domaine de la lutte, 1994) keeps on writing. Not only does he persist, but he does so against the background of an ever-accelerating evolution in the technologies, channels and modes of reading towards a post-literate age. This article thus considers the cultural logics of the digital moment—including re/appropriation, information overload, online trolling and the curation of online identities—and how they illuminate the themes, texture and politics of Houellebecq’s work. This argument is illustrated through examples drawn from Houellebecq’s Sérotonine (2019) and also briefly considers how the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm might prove a helpful frame through which to view the work of the French novelist. Sérotonine, I argue, is far from the novelist’s most accomplished novel, but demonstrates an acute sensitivity to the forms and structures of contemporary online experience.

Kamel Daoud's Meursault, contre-enquête (2013) and Camus's L’Étranger (1942): from Postcolonial Remake to De-Narration

In his debut novel, Kamel Daoud retells the story of French novelist and philosopher Albert Camus’s 1942 novel L’Étranger. Told from the vantage point of Harun, the brother of the nameless Arab killed in L’Étranger, Daoud’s Meursault, contre-enquête (2013) is a complex tribute to the Nobel prize-winning author. This essay argues that Daoud’s creative reworking of Albert Camus’s classic lies in the way it reframes the question of postcolonial rewriting in terms of literary affiliation – a question of choice – rather than of filiation – a question of lineage and hierarchy. It then offers to reread the ‘postcolonial remake’ as an act of ‘de-narration’ – a creative act of revision – that enables Kamel Daoud to evade the stereotypical postcolonial readings of his novel. What is most ingenious in the narration of Meursault, contre-enquête is its constant reference to the performance of rewriting Camus’s text not as a form of cultural reappropriation but as a metanarrative exposing its own story to the same critical scrutiny as he does Camus’s. Even when literary and political problematics converge in Daoud’s novel, they do not suggest the postcolonial tale of retribution. Rather, they elicit a new model of literary and social bond.

Wizerunek pisarza w dramacie Jarosława Iwaszkiewicza "Wesela pana Balzaka"

The subject of the article is the role of Honorius Balzac in the drama by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz The Wedding of Mr. Balzac. Dialogues of various characters of the drama were analysed referring to the French novelist and the statements of Honorius himself Balzac. These studies showed by what means and how the author of the drama creates a multifaceted and psychologically deep portrait of the great artist.

La folie féminine dans l’univers capitaliste mauriacien

The French novels of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century are marked by a close relationship between writing and context, generally based on determinism and the psychology of the characters. François Mauriac is no exception to such a conception of romantic aesthetics, as evidenced by the novels, which retrace the life cycle of the heroine Therese Desqueyroux and revolve around the family nucleus, the forest economy, painting provincial customs, etc. In such a universe, the individual, in general, and the woman, in particular, unnecessarily go to war against the constraints of the environment. The dizzying decline of the rebellious character reveals all the beauty and greatness of his rejection. The objective of this article is therefore to show that the course of this character obeys certain poetics of feminine madness that can be identified with the help of criteria, in addition to those already mentioned by critics. These aspects of Mauritian writing already herald the impact of the impossible fitting of fragmentary soul shards in modern romantic aesthetics.

The Dramatic Model of the 19th Century French Novel

The dramatic model is associated with the entire generation at the end of the 19th century, a time of “generalized staging” with a predisposition for the spectacular. The city is perceived as a scenic place. A true phantasmagorical space, the urban space dramatizes the inhabitants who are transformed, in turn, into actors. Paris, in the 19th century, was not only the place of famous world exhibitions, it became itself an object of exhibition, thus spreading its influence over people and things. All the French novelists of the 19th century experienced theatrical training, having launched certain dramatic projects (Balzac, Baudelaire, Flaubert, Zola, Daudet, Flaubert, and Goncourt). The novel of the studied period has a visible organization, dramatic pattern, and vision associated with a time that presupposes a generalized dramatization of society. The theatrical metaphor appears frequently in the 19th century novel to denounce the hypocrisy of society which hides dubious things under honest appearances. This is the leitmotif of the realist/naturalist novel, which aims at revealing and develop realities in profusion. Social relations, places, behaviors are placed under the sign of appearance, of the mask. The itinerary of the characters consists in learning the scenic regularities behind the scenes of the sets, as well as the techniques, which precede the performance. The success of the hero is largely based on his skills to play the role. The drama of the novel speaks of the fragile boundary between genres in the 19th century and characterizes the new poetics of the novel.

Contexts and Spaces of Intersectionality: The Black Feminism and Internationalism of Lydie Dooh-Bunya, 1970–1990

Abstract: This article retraces the local and transnational ideas and activism of Lydie Dooh-Bunya, a French novelist, journalist, and activist from Cameroon. Its objective is to understand how Dooh-Bunya’s life experiences as well as the sociopolitical, intellectual, and activist contexts to which she had access contributed to the articulation and practice of a specific form of feminism at the intersection of colonialism, patriarchy, and racism, and how it evolved through her interactions both local and global. Through the tools offered by biographic and transnational approaches, this research contributes to the historiography of Black women’s and people’s agency and internationalism, and historicizes an intersectionality resulting from intellectual thought and lived experiences.

THE HISTORY OF THE GAULT & MILLAU FRENCH GASTRONOMY GUIDE

The article presents the development of the famous French gastronomic guide Gault & Millau based on the analysis of the most relevant works of foreign scientists. Using genealogical sites, where information can be entered only by verified users, biographical information about its founders Henri Gault and Christian Millau has been presented. The attention has been paid to the reasons which led to the beginning of the New cuisine (Nouvelle cuisine), its distinctive features, as well as to its importance for French gastronomy. The purpose of the article is to highlight the history of the Gault & Millau gastronomic guide. During the studies, such research methods as historical, descriptive, comparative, systematization and generalization have been used. It has been established that in fact guides, in particular Michelin and Gault & Millau, which represent French gastronomy, are the most famous in the world and play an important role in the development of modern tourism industry. One of the leading French novelists and gastronomic critics, Maurice Edmond Sailland (Curnonsky), said that a gourmet should travel, with regard to satisfy his / her gourmet needs.
 The history of the Gault & Millau guide begins in the 1960s, when its founders, Henri Gault and Christian Millau, traveled much around France to find restaurants that they considered worthy of their interest. They discovered what was soon known as New cuisine (Nouvelle cuisine). It was originated from forgotten tastes, simplicity and lightness. In 1969, Henri Gault and Christian Millau with some friends of theirs, started the publication of the monthly magazine «Le Nouveau Guide permanent», which was titled «Le Nouveau Guide Gault-Millau» since May, 1970. In 1970 they published «Le Guide Gourmand de la France». Finally, in 1972, the first Gault & Millau guide to France («Le Guide Gault-Millau de la France») was published. They ranked all the restaurants they considered fit to be recommended to the public. The main criteria for them were not the richness of the establishment, the food or the cleanliness, the values supported by Michelin, but the taste, presentation and imagination of the chef. Points in the Gault & Millau guides were given for the quality of the food, with comments on service, price and general atmosphere.
 The term «New French Cuisine» («Nouvelle Cuisine Française») was used for the first time in the 54th issue of the magazine «Le Nouveau Guide Gault-Millau» (1973). The new cuisine was characterized by a return to the fundamental / basic taste of food, offering ten guidelines for it. At the same time, their article «Vive la nouvelle cuisine française» was published. In response to the conservative Michelin guide, which valued quality and tradition, Henri Gault and Christian Millau launched Nouvelle Cuisine as a movement with a strong emphasis on innovation. The presented evaluation and expert opinions had a significant impact on the rating and success of the establishment. Henri Gault also offered the aforementioned guidelines, a clear and comprehensible decalogue that summed up their passion for modern and innovative cuisine. The instructions concerned, in particular, the reduction of cooking time, the use of fresh and high-quality products from the market that exclude the sauce base prepared the day before, and the reduction of menu choices.
 The Gault & Millau guide changed the tourism and culinary image of France. Its founders emphasized the principles of dietetics and the creativity of chefs. Christian Millau also came up with the idea of gathering food columnists around the wine theme to single out French wines. The first special issue on wines appeared in September 1978. In September 1984, the wine guide «Le guide des vins de France. Le 1er pratique guide: 1500 vins en direct sélectionnées pour leur excellent rapport qualité / prix» was published. Thanks to the international success of the Gault & Millau guide, in February 1980, Henri Gault and Christian Millau appeared on the cover of the American weekly «Time», where the article about them was published. However, Henri Gault and Christian Millau stopped their mutual professional activities in 1986.
 The obtained practical results will make it possible to expand specialized training courses in higher education institutions of Ukraine, where personnel for tourism, hotel and restaurant industry are trained.
 Key words: Gault & Millau Guide, History, Nouvelle Cuisine, Gastro-Tourism.

H08 The Crimson Chronicles of acne rosacea: a fascinating tale of medicine and culture

Abstract Acne rosacea is a common skin condition that affects people with Fitzpatrick skin types I–III and is characterized by flushing, erythema, telangiectasia, pustules, papules and phyma (Jansen T. Clinical presentations and classification of rosacea. Ann Dermatol Venereol 2011; 138:3). This condition has been around for centuries and is referred to in literature and art throughout history. The earliest reference to acne rosacea can be traced back to the third century Bc, where it was mentioned in the writings of Greek poet Theocritus. It has also been referred to in various forms of literature, including the character of Summoner in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Bardolf in Shakespeare’s Henry VI (Cribier B. Histoires de visages rouges. Ann Dermatol Venereol 2011; 138:2). In art, the condition is famously depicted in Italian Renaissance painter Domenico Ghirlandaio’s ‘The Old Man and His Grandson’, now housed in the Louvre. The colour red, a prominent characteristic of acne rosacea, has had a significant role in literature, symbolizing everything from love and passion to anger and violence. French novelists Balzac and Proust used it as a motif in ‘The Red Face’ or ‘Le Visage Rouge’ to denote violence and as a marker of the working classes. In the 14th century, French surgeon Guy de Chauliac was the first to document clinically the condition, referring to it as goutterose or ‘pink droplet’. It was in the 18th and 19th centuries that significant strides were made in understanding the nature of acne rosacea. Dr Jean Astruc, known as the father of venereal diseases, characterized the condition as ‘erythematous, varicose and scaly’. In 1812, the official term ‘acne rosacea’ first appeared in a medical text by English dermatologist Dr Thomas Bateman. Further references to the condition can be found in the 1817 publication On Cutaneous Diseases by dermatology pioneer Dr Robert Willan. In 1834, physician Robert Macnish explicitly linked acne rosacea to alcohol consumption in his book Anatomy of Drunkenness. The differentiation between acne vulgaris and acne rosacea was firmly established following the work of Austrian dermatologist Hebra and French dermatologist Darier. In the past, treatments for acne rosacea included salves containing mercury, sulfur, bull’s blood, blood-letting and leeches. Today, topical and oral antibiotics are the standard treatments, a far cry from the remedies of yesteryear. In conclusion, the history of acne rosacea, which is so much more than just le visage rouge, is a captivating journey that spans centuries, from its earliest references in literature and art to the contemporary understanding and treatment of the condition.

Rhetoric, Affect, and "A Whole Lot of French Novels": A Marxian Response

This essay offers a response to the special issue of Cultural Critique on the theme of "Communication, Biopolitics, and Social Reproduction." Drawing on the record of Marx's personal library compiled by Roland Daniels in 1849, it begins by arguing that, given his expansive intellectual and cultural interests, Marx would have had little trouble recognizing himself in all of the papers collected together here. The essay goes on to argue that his work can be understood not only as a historical phenomenon but also as a contribution to contemporary discussions of rhetoric, affect, biopower, and the so-called new materialism. It concludes with a brief consideration of what a Marxian history of rhetoric might entail.

Matrice bisexuelle dans les Bildungsromane français contemporains

I analyze the way in which the Bildungsroman seizes on bisexuality in two contemporary French novels: Saccage (2006) by Éric Jourdan and A Boy Like Another (2012) by Joël Breurec. A novelistic genre representing the entry into adulthood of a young protagonist and his identity construction, the Bildungsroman proves here to be an adequate analytical tool for understanding the construction of bisexual identity through literary strategies aimed at represent it.

Kroppens mening

“Embodied Meaning. Materiality, Representation and Money in La Peau de Chagrin, À rebours and Le Jardin des supplices” This article presents readings of three French novels from the nineteenth century, namely Balzac's La Peau de chagrin, Huysmans' À rebours and Octave Mirbeau's Le Jardin des supplices. It examines issues of representation and meaning in relation to debt narratives and the use of bodies as a motif in relation to debt, and it argues that, in these novels, literary language and monetary representation displays parallel developments, exemplified through the shift from realist aesthetics to decadent literary style. The article ends by connecting a shifting representative function and related issues of meaning, to modern tendencies in literature, and the function of the human body in these narratives.

Dirty Windows and Troublesome Things: The Problem of Object-Orientation in Alain Robbe-Grillet’s La Jalousie

This article investigates the representation of objects in La Jalousie (1957), a novel in the nouveau roman tradition written by French novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet. If the ‘new novel’ sought to render the material world with objective clarity, and positioned itself against traditional fiction, with its reliance on metaphor, allegory, and other ‘projections,’ this article argues that such an aesthetic program is undercut by its own assumptions about the power of description and the primacy of the visual. In an analysis which hybridizes three separate strands of criticism—object-oriented ontology, Heideggerian phenomenology, and the models of ‘resonation’ proposed by Brian Massumi—I will argue that such a treatment of objects, with its exclusive reliance on visual description, measurement, and enumeration, ends up depriving objects of the vitality and dynamism that would justify such a fictional project in the first place. However, traces of this dynamism do survive the flattening sweep of Robbe-Grillet’s narration, and indeed offer from the cracks and fissures of the novel’s otherwise smoothly controlled style the possibility of an alternate ‘object-orientation’—one, I will argue, which suspends its cool optical detachment to allow, however briefly, the eruption of a messy, entangling register of touch.

Hacking stylometry with multiple voices: Imaginary writers can override authorial signal in Delta

Abstract It is a basic assumption of stylometry that texts written by the same person show greater stylometric similarity even if published under multiple pennames. Statistical authorship attribution strongly relies on the ability of Burrows’s Delta and its variants to cluster one author together regardless of pseudonyms. At the same time, the very first computational discoveries by the founder of modern stylometry showed that a single author is capable of producing multiple voices (Burrows, 1987, Computation into Criticism: A Study of Jane Austen’s Novels and an Experiment in Method. Clarendon Press). We investigate two authors whose stylistically autonomous pennames seem to deceive Delta and override authorial signals: a Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa and a French novelist Romain Gary. Pessoa managed to create at least three pennames (the author himself used the term ‘heteronym’) who exhibit all traits of individual human beings from the stylometric point of view. Gary’s alter ego Emile Ajar, who was an intentional literary mystification, also demonstrates traits of stylometric autonomy. At the same time, other pseudonyms used by Gary lack that autonomy completely. Our investigation shows that there appears to be a continuum between a purely formal use of a penname, which brings almost no distinction from the real name of an author, and a strong literary sub-personality such as those created by Pessoa.

Challenges of translating food in multiparallel corpus: Beverages and mealtimes in Balzac’s human comedy (La Comédie Humaine)

French novels of the 19th century recall the aspects of food culture in different ways through their reflections on the golden age for both gastronomy and the pleasures of the table. La Comédie Humaine is a milestone in highlighting the keystones of French food and gastronomy. In this study, we propose a multistage analysis of 21 novels of La Comédie Humaine by examining the food terms and their translations into English and Turkish. Our main contribution is the qualitative and quantitative analysis of food in the Balzacian context. We have performed food data visualization from original and translated texts and thus revealed how the terms for beverages and mealtimes are interconnected in the Comédie Humaine and how food translations might differ in English and Turkish, especially the names of wine, coffee terms and mealtime names. We provide a contextualized food approach to Balzac’s novels through the lens of Turkish and English culture revealing their openness, or not, to French food culture, linked to the rules of prestige and the habitus of the target culture. We started our analysis by localizing food patterns in the source language. Then we analyzed them in distant reading – analysis of quantitative data – and close reading focused on the qualitative analysis. This mixed methodology gives a new layer of insight and could be extrapolated to other texts and languages in the domain of food and literature.

La musique dans les romans du dix-huitième siècle : théories et enjeux

Comment comprendre, au niveau théorique, la présence de la musique dans les romans du dix-huitième siècle ? Il s’agit ici de répondre à cette question en confrontant un choix de romans français du dix-huitième siècle aux acquis principaux des théories actuelles sur la musique et la narration en prose. En identifiant des divergences majeures, cet article tente de proposer un autre cadre théorique.

A Cabinet of Curiosities: Bad Godots and Lucky’s Brain Science

Samuel Beckett was something of an accidental dramatist, or at least his earliest completed plays were written as something of a sideline, a diversion, a respite from the long narrative flights he was developing in something of a white heat in the aftermath of the Second World War, the grouping of French novels now loosely called The Trilogy.

To do-lists and to-be lists: identities as inventories in Bouvard et Pécuchet and À rebours

This essay analyzes the inventory as a literary strategy in the nineteenth-century French novels Bouvard et Pécuchet by Flaubert (1881) and À rebours by Huysmans (1884). We argue that the authors adopt the inventory process to determine the main characters’ identities in the lack of a proper plot line. For the petty-bourgeois Bouvard-Pécuchet couple, life is a plotless repetition of something ever new to do; for the sophisticated aesthete des Esseintes, it is a plotless repetition of what he wants to go on being. In comparing the two texts, we establish a reversal symmetry between depth and surface. Des Esseintes’ inventories (flowers, perfumes, books, gemstones) are presented as solid and deeply meditated, their narrative status relating to categories like mastering, intimacy, and distillation. In contrast, Bouvard and Pécuchet’s inventories sound precarious and spontaneous, relating to categories like naivety, extraneity, and cluttering. The same reversal symmetry is also found when comparing the ending of the two novels when their protagonists’ fates are decided. Taking inventories as a critical part of the social negative of the era, the two novels represent the pathological poles of the same generational malaise.

REBELLION AND REVOLUTIONARY CONSCIOUSNESS: A CRITICAL READING OF SELECTED FRANCOPHONE AFRICAN NOVELS

Neo-liberalism, democracy, or whatever paradigm you call it, the post-colonial experience in Africa has shown that the quest for a balanced system that includes social justice and an equitable distribution of resources (the wealth of the nation) remains a mirage. Hence, the citizenry, having been predisposed to their fundamental human rights, continues to demand good governance and accountability from the authorities that be. Based on the theory of Marxism and psycho-cultural conflict theories, selected African novels in French: Oyono’s Le vieux nègre et la médaille, Ousmane’s Les bouts de bois de Dieu, Sow Fall’s La grève des bàttu, Bâ’s Une si longue lettre, Ilboudo’s Les vertiges du trône, and Keta’s Rebelle are critically reviewed to harvest the information needed for this study. Marxism focuses on class struggle and condemns social imbalances caused by capitalism on economic and political fronts. The psycho-cultural conflict theory regards the role of cultural beliefs in conflicts as fundamental and critical to possible conflict resolution solutions. Findings suggest that both collective and individual revolts can bring about the desired social change in human societies. The study concludes that in a genuine search for enduring development, therefore, political leaders, particularly in underdeveloped countries, should step up their political will and be more responsible as well as accountable to the common men who elected them to power.

REFLECŢII ORTODOXE DESPRE MUNCĂ

It is particularly well-acknowledged that working is a means of relating to the world and our neighbours. Daily activity, carried out over several hours for several years, serves to organise in a very specific way our understanding of the world and our neighbours. The fact is that “within us are impressed the manners of comprehending the world and how we relate to our fellow men, as they are shaped through thousands of hours of labour, such that, to a great extent, our vision of the world and life bears the print of the labour we exert all throughout our lives”, as noted by Adrian Sorin Mihalache. On the other hand, today’s technology has considerably permeated most occupations, the tendency being that robots, computers, automation systems, automata and intelligent machines are replacing people in labour to a greater and greater extent. Therefore, the ever-increasing scope of gadgets and tech services “reveal the signs and signals of a profound metamorphosis of labour” (idem), with the overuse of technology leading to the atrophy of man’s powers and ability to open himself to the world. In this sense, we find great relevance in the ideas developed by the French novelist and philosopher Michel Henry: “Since the dawn of the industrial era and as a simple consequence of the progressive replacement of «the working force» with natural energies, it was possible to foreshadow the diminishment of the activities of workers to that of mere supervision, which is tantamount to the atrophy of nearly all the subjective potentialities of the living individual and, thus, to rising disquietude and discontent”. Our intention with the present study is to attempt a modest exposition of the teaching of Eastern Orthodox Christianity on labour and to highlight landmarks that may, on the one hand, shed light on the way to a more profound understanding of the consequences of the deep metamorphosis of labour we are currently witnessing, and, on the other hand, to offer clues on the developing position of Christians to these dynamics.